Category: “Christmess” series

Looking Forward as We Look Back at the Mess

adbLeave a comment

(Psalm 96)

Newer models may be replacing it with a rear-facing video camera and screen on the dashboard, but the rearview mirror is always going to be a necessary part of driving a vehicle. Whether you’re looking into an actual mirror or at a screen, you need to know what is behind you to drive safely. That would be most obvious when backing up, but it’s necessary other times, too. It allows you to see if someone is driving too closely behind you, or if a car is speeding or swerving behind you. Or, if you are heading somewhere with another driver who doesn’t know where you’re heading and needs to follow you, you can make sure they’re still behind you. A rearview mirror isn’t an optional feature on a car; it’s a necessary one.

At the same time, if you only drove looking into the rear view mirror the whole time well, let’s just say you wouldn’t be driving too long. It wouldn’t take long at all for you to hit something or someone in front of you if you were only focused on what was behind you. So while a rear view mirror is necessary, remember that its purpose is to assist you in getting safely to wherever you are going. When we use it for that purpose, it is helpful, but if we used it the whole time we were driving the car, it would actually put us at risk. It would do more harm than good.

So it is with life. There is great value in looking back. Some of us don’t do it enough. We make one mistake after another in life and when we never look back to review or assess how it could have gone differently, we wonder why we seem to be plagued by all the same mistakes. We never look back to grow from them. On the other hand, some are so accustomed to looking back that the present and the future will never live up to their expectations because the good ole’ days are behind us and life will never be that great again. 

As we are in that limbo time of the year after Christmas and rolling into the new year, let’s take a balanced approach. As we close out this series, let’s do so Looking Forward as We Look Back at the Mess. To guide us in that process, we’ll focus on the words of Psalm 96, which you might recognize as the psalm for Christmas Eve each year. 

Notice that long before Buddy the Elf pointed to singing loud for all to hear as the best way to spread Christmas cheer, the writer of this psalm gave the same encouragement. “Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the earth. Sing to the Lord, praise his name” (v.1-2a). Three times he urges us to sing, starting with the encouragement to sing a “new” song. You get to sing a new song in the year ahead. No matter what mess this year leaves behind, you don’t have to sing the same song. Choose to sing a new song rather than the same old negative refrains that we’ve grown so tired of over the course of this year. A new year means a new song, and you get to choose what you’re going to sing.

What will you sing about? What milestones and memories would you like your song to be about in 2021? Will your current job or a new one bring you unprecedented happiness or success? Will you make the jump to the next level in your education? Will your song be a love song as a new relationship blossoms? 

Realize there is nothing wrong with any of those new songs, and they can certainly be good things to focus on. Just be aware that they also carry with them the possibility of more disappointment. I don’t say that to throw a wet blanket on any optimism for the year ahead. I am all for growth and progress and personal development and being excited about the possibilities a new year holds. But not all of us are able to handle the failure and disappointment that such efforts can bring. What am I trying to say then? I’m not saying those things can’t be a part of your new song for 2021, but I am confident in saying that they shouldn’t be the refrain. They shouldn’t be the main focus. There’s something better and far more fulfilling to serve that role, and the psalmist highlights it repeatedly for us: 

Make the Lord, rather than your own life, the focus of your new year. The added good news? Just because the song you sing is new doesn’t mean you have to come up with your own original content. The psalmist offers some very solid suggestions for the basis of the new song you’ll sing as you look forward to a new year. “Proclaim his salvation day after day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples” (v.2b-3). So as we look back, don’t just look back over the course of this past year; go further back. Go back about 2,000 years, to that day when salvation was born into the world, accompanied by the glory of the angels who themselves were spreading Christmas cheer by singing loud for all to hear. And what were they singing? Glory to God in the highest! 

Put into perspective. This entire psalm is a song of rejoicing over God’s authority and salvation, and it was written hundreds of years before salvation even came to earth in Christ. Then, on the day of Christmas, the angels – the beings who are themselves continually in the presence of God’s glory in heaven – belt out praises of glorious joy at the birth of a baby amidst earthly surroundings that are the farthest cry possible from the glory of heaven. And in strikingly stark contrast to both the psalmist and the angelic messengers… here we are, just two days removed from our Christmas celebration of salvation coming to earth, and already our song is muted. Our joy has been jettisoned. Any glory appears to be gone. 

The psalmist encourages us: “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; bring an offering and come into his courts. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness” (v.8-9a). But… could we possibly sound more depressed when we mumble through the psalm responsively? Could we muster any less gusto when singing our songs? Could we put any less energy into our worship so soon after Christmas, let alone at any point during the rest of the year? Is that ascribing the Lord the glory due him? Is that worshiping the Lord in the splendor of his holiness? No wonder it’s so natural for us to focus more on our life than the Lord year in and year out when we can hardly muster so much as an ounce or two of joy or excitement as we gather for worship to declare his praises and celebrate his salvation!

Is it possible we have forgotten what it means that he is “to be feared above all gods” (v.4), or to “tremble before him all the earth” (v.9b)? Is our tepid worship due to the fact that we so quickly forget that “he comes to judge the earth” and “will judge the world” (v.13)? Do we forget that the God who knows and sees all things is well aware of the ho-hum worship we offer up to him each week? Would he not be right to question if we really actually believe any of what the psalmist writes based solely on what he sees us trying to pass off as worship? For shame! Will there finally be fear and trembling when it sinks in that if his judgment is based even just on our worship, let alone anywhere else in our lives, that we are doomed?!? Yet this psalm is filled with so much singing and praise – how can this be? How can it be when our very singing and praise are themselves a dismal reflection of what is sorely lacking in our ability to meet God’s level of splendid holiness? 

The psalmist knew what we know by faith, what we cling to as the only source of our salvation. When he wrote that the Lord “will judge the world in righteousness and the peoples in his truth” (v.13), it was not our righteousness (or unrighteousness!), not our truth (or falsehood!) which will serve as the basis for his judgement, but rather his righteousness and his truth. Christmas matters not just because that baby would grow up to die in our place, but because that baby, Jesus Christ, also came to live in our place. Perfectly. Purely. His righteousness – not our lack of it – will serve as the basis of the Lord’s judgment. And, as popular as it is for people to speak of “your truth” or “my truth” or “their truth,” you can keep all of that silly talk to yourself; it is but nonsense. There are not multiple truths that are relative to each and every one of us. Thankfully, there is one truth, and it is Jesus, who alone even merits the title “Truth,” along with the Way and the Life. His truth is the only one that matters, and it says that he is the holiness we need for heaven. He is the Substitute we needed to avoid hell. He is our salvation.

What would your 2021 look like if you made your new song more and more about that? I really mean it. How many years in your life are you going to let slip by telling yourself “this is the year that I am going to seriously commit to growing in my faith,” only for nothing to change? Aren’t you tired of it? Aren’t you the least bit curious about what your 2021 could look like if it embodied Psalm 96? What difference would more consistent worship make? What changes in you might the Holy Spirit bring about through daily time in his Word? What untapped gifts and abilities might you discover about yourself be getting more plugged in and committed to your church? How could your generosity touch others as you plan to increase your giving in new ways? What could your congregation look like a year from now if its people dedicate themselves to singing a new song this year – one that is based less on our own lives and more on the Lord and his glorious salvation? Let’s leave the mess of 2020 behind and find out together. 

God with Us in the Mess

adbLeave a comment

(Isaiah 9:1-7)

What. A. Year. The word “darkness” in our Lesson from Isaiah sums it up pretty well.

Novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Pandemic. Historic job loss and unemployment records. Lockdowns. Stay at home orders. Mask mandates. Isolation. Darkness.

George Floyd. “I can’t breathe.” Almost 8,000 BLM demonstrations and protests over a three-month period. Rioting and looting. Businesses burned down and destroyed. Racism. White privilege. White power. Proud boys. Police brutality. “Defund the police.” Darkness. 

Politics. Election. Debate debacles. $13 billion spent – more than double what was spent in previous election. Conspiracy. Social media censoring. Fake news and voter fraud. Division. Darkness.

Record-breaking tropical storms and hurricanes along the Atlantic Coast. Major rain and flooding in the Midwest. Record-breaking stretches of heat in the Southwest. Raging wildfires in Colorado and California – the largest ever in each state. Hazardous air quality. Literally, darkness.

“Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress… The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned” (Is. 9:1-2). Light! A great light! No more gloom for those who were in distress! Light shines in the darkness! Hope! Goodness! Possibility! Rescue! Newness! Light bundles all of these together as it drowns out the darkness! The world is not trapped in never-ending night! Daylight has dawned! Bright has replaced night! 

And it has all already happened! What Isaiah was referring to has already taken place. Christ has been born. Our Savior has been born. The perfection needed for our assurance of a home in heaven has been earned. The price required as payment for our sin has been paid! He died the death we deserved and rose to give us a life that we never deserved! It all happened. It’s a done deal. The cry of “It is finished!” from the cross meant the little child born in Bethlehem had completed his mission. The One whose name means “Savior” lived up to his billing. He came. He saved. 

Ah, how promising it all sounds! But how quickly the words of Isaiah seem to be hushed. When I looked back on a Christmas sermon from a couple of years ago, guess what? With the exception of the virus, the same matters of racism, politics, and natural disasters were issues back then! So I ask you this: with all of our technology, our advancements, with all of our progress… is the world getting better? Is it really getting brighter? Or is it as dark as it’s ever been? Isaiah tells us a light a great light has dawned, so why does it still seem… so dark?

It seems so dark because, well, it is dark. And what’s more? It’s going to stay dark. But friends, don’t be discouraged, for the darkness also allows us to see the light! Think about the only purpose darkness serves: it’s dark when we’re sleeping. When we’re not functioning. When we’re not active. When we’re not living and moving and existing. But when we’re up and awake, when we’re living and active, darkness has no place in our lives. All it does is showcase the light. We turn on lights in a dark room for the purpose of making it light. And, even when we turn off the lights to make it dark, why do we do it – to better see some sort of light. The movie theater is dark to better highlight the light on the screen. We limit light pollution and want a it dark at night for what – to better see the light beaming from the stars in the galaxy light years away. So darkness always showcases the light – never the other way around. 

But we have to be aware, because when we allow the light to be dimmed, we can get too used to the darkness. Think of how your eyes need to adjust when you turn the lights off in the house at night to go to bed. Initially everything is pitch black, but after a few minutes your eyes adjust and you can start to make out shapes and see things with enough familiarity to avoid injuring yourself. You get by. You learn to adapt to the darkness.

Sadly, Christmas can be like that for many of us as Christians. The light shines. We go to church. We celebrate Jesus. But then the light dims after December 25th, and we go back to being in the dark. Our eyes adjust to it again. We get used to it. We even slip into worldly ways with such ease that we don’t even notice how dim it has gradually become again. We live like the rest of the world and rather than letting our light shine, we fit right in with the darkness. And then? Then we wonder why the world seems so dark. It’s because we’ve allowed ourselves to adjust to it once again, instead of letting the light of Christ shine brightly in our lives all year long. 

So what is our solution? We just avoid talking about the darkness altogether. Pretend it doesn’t exist (as if avoiding any problem EVER made it go away!). Or, we manufacture our own light. We focus on positive things. Send good vibes. Think good thoughts. Uplift others. But have you not figured out yet that those solutions don’t really cut it? We can avoid talking about the darkness I mentioned in the beginning. We can avoid talking about the darkness of our own sin, but doing so and thinking we can deal with the darkness by avoiding it doesn’t provide us with any light. And our manufactured light doesn’t do the trick, either. It it did, then all the “love and light” being sent all over the world should see depression and suicide decline, right? But the exact opposite is happening! Our fabricated lights don’t cut it. They aren’t a viable solution. Instead, we look to the ONLY light that shines in the darkness. We look to Jesus.

See him as Isaiah described: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (v.6). Do you still struggle to see the light? Ah, then it can only be because you have yet to embrace his place in your life. For you know that the titles Isaiah applies to Jesus are more than just a list of labels to fill the front of Christmas cards and seasonal art, right? These names reveal to us the qualities of the Savior we celebrate at Christmas! They tell us who he is and what he is capable of and why his birth brought brightness into this dark world!

But you will not likely see that light until you match the first part of verse 6 with all the titles in the second part. Isaiah says he was born “to us,” given “to us.” To you and me. That means he is your Wonderful Counselor, your Mighty God, your Everlasting Father, your Prince of Peace. If you really want his light in your life, then make everything that he is yours. 

See him as your Wonderful Counselor. There’s no shame in acknowledging that we can benefit from a counselor, but what do we gain when we have the best Counselor possible and don’t use him? I will say that hands down, you will not find better counsel and advice for your life than in here (Bible). But it’s of no use to you if you don’t know about it, learn it, and then apply it. And the other benefit of having a Counselor? You can talk to him. Anytime. He is always listening. You have emotional struggles? Need to sort through your thoughts? Take them to your Wonderful Counselor and see how his light brightens the darkness.

Don’t stop there. See him as your Mighty God. What impossible, insurmountable challenge are you facing in life right now? Have you tapped the strength of your Mighty God? He delights in making the impossible possible! In verse four Isaiah referred to the victorious rout God brought against Midian, a battle in which God whittled down his own army from tens of thousands of soldiers to several hundred and still brought about a decisive victory through such an impossibly small group of men! Oh, and there is the matter of making a virgin into a mother, and raising the dead to life, and the list goes on. Do you think this Mighty God may just be able to show his strength in your own life if you can set aside your pride that needs to fix everything yourself and in humility let him be the Mighty God he claims to be?

Don’t stop there. See him as your Everlasting Father. Not everyone has had the blessing of having a compassionate father in their lives, and for some the picture of a father brings up nothing but negative, painful emotions. But Christmas put flesh and blood on another Father, the One who is himself everlasting, and who will love you with an everlasting love. He is a Father who protects and provides and who will never leave us in the dark, assurances which no earthly father could ever give us. He is more than just a Father, more than the Father; he is your Everlasting Father.

Don’t stop there. See him also as your Prince of Peace. In fact, although it’s the last title listed, I would encourage you to start with this one. It’s everything, and it beautifully summarizes why Jesus Christ was born, and why Jesus Christ matters to you. He came to be your Prince of Peace. Let’s consider why this matters. What is the worst possible thing you could ever do at work? What is the most unforgivable wrong you could ever do to your spouse? What is the most devastating thing you could ever do to your kids? Now imagine you’ve done that. More than anything else in the world, what would you crave to hear from the one you have wronged? Would there be anything more impactful than to hear that person say, “It’s OK. I forgive you”? 

Now let’s step away from the hypotheticals into reality. That is exactly why Jesus Christ was born into this world – so that he, the Prince of Peace, could assure you that for every worst possible thing you’ve ever done, he says, “It’s OK. I forgive you.” This, friends, is not wishful thinking. This is not movie magic. This is not hypothetical. This is real – as real as the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s as real as the holy life he lived in your place and credits to you by faith. It’s as real as the death he came to die in your place to pay the price for every single sin. It’s as real as his resurrection from the dead to assure us that our own death isn’t permanent. This is real peace the world simply cannot give, but which the Prince of Peace gives freely to all who believe. He came into this dark mess to bring the radiant light of forgiveness for all. You are at peace. 

When everything that Jesus is becomes yours, you start to see the light shining. A little bit at first. Then more. Then brighter. Then it happens that the light beams so brightly in your life that you hardly notice the darkness anymore. Oh, it’s still there alright, and always will be until Jesus returns on the Last Day; but you notice it less because you see him more. May he fill your Christmas and your new year – no matter how dark – with his wonderful life-changing light! Take to heart the promise the Christ-child himself spoke later as an adult: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Merry Christmas!

Hope for When Others Want to Mess You Up

adbLeave a comment

(Matthew 2:1-18)

It is one thing for us to find hope in the mess of things that are messy just because that’s a part of living in a messed up world with messed up people and plans. But what about when messed up people and messed up plans collide together specifically to mess us up? How do we handle it when we’re no longer in the realm of dealing with messy generalities but intentional efforts to mess us up? What do we do when it feels like we’re stuck in the real-life version of Home Alone, trying to fend off one attack after another from the bad guys? How do we find hope when others deliberately and intentionally desire to make our lives difficult, miserable, and unmanageable?

In the verses from Matthew today, Herod managed to take “malicious” to new heights. Not only did he seek to manipulate the magi and their honorable intentions of worshiping Jesus, but in his malice Herod intended to murder the Messiah, giving his insidious executive order to “kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under” (v.16). That’s messed up! How twisted and insecure does someone have to be to go to those lengths to destroy other people’s families and lives? 

For Joseph and his young family though, God directly intervened to disrupt Herod’s plans to mess up the Messiah. “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod” (v.13-15). That’s certainly one way to do it – for God to miraculously intervene and thwart the plotting and scheming of others to do harm! And we’re especially grateful he did in this case, particularly because it allowed his own plan of salvation through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection to be carried out for our benefit!

But how realistic is it to expect God to do the same for us? What if our story doesn’t involve an angel visiting us in a dream to guide us to the right solution? When we’re waiting for some “sign” from God to help or direct us when others are plotting and scheming against us and God seems distant or disinterested, what then?

We will come back to this. Before we do, we need to address what is most often the biggest challenge when it comes to others having it out for us. If we can learn to deal with this challenge, we’ll find that the vast majority of cases where others want to mess us up will suddenly start to subside. It’s not easy to do, and in fact many, many people refuse to ever deal with it, but it has the potential to make the biggest impact on others having it out for us. Do you want to know what the biggest difference maker is?

It’s not what; it’s who. And that who… is you. You are the biggest problem when it comes to others having it out for you, because you allow a different story to be told in your head that doesn’t match up with reality. You have a whole drama played out in your head – an entire novel or movie script, sometimes! – of what you think is going on… and more often than not, there is little to no truth to it. You allow yourself to fill in the unknown details of the narrative with your own interpretation, and frankly, what you’re telling yourself in your own mind is just not the least bit true. There is no basis for it, other than that you have chosen to tell yourself this thing or that thing, and so you believe it to be true. 

The coworker didn’t do that because she’s trying to ruin your life. Your neighbor didn’t say that to mean it in the way you took it. Your family member may enjoy getting under your skin once in a while, but he actually has other priorities in his own life than making yours miserable. There is no hater hell-bent on destroying you. There is no “universe” conspiring against you. This can be a tough pill to swallow, but – precious few other people are thinking about you as much as you are thinking about you. Sorry. You’re just not that important.

Why do we so quickly presume others have it out for us? Because we are sinfully bent toward playing the victim. “My problems are someone else’s fault.” “I deserve to be happy.” “Other people owe me something.” The key to solving this problem is to start realizing you’re the one causing it. Some of you will start to be in a far better place just by realizing this. Why? Because you get to put an end to it. You can choose to stop making up the drama in your head that is not reality in anyone else’s world but your own. You can start to realize, as Paul did in our Second Lesson today, that you aren’t actually a victim; you’re a victor in Christ. He wrote: “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Think about it – this is actually much easier to fix than if someone else really does have it out for me because this I can control. How I handle it is up to me. I can play the victim, or I can realize that in Christ I am the victor.

So how do we know if we’re just guilty of playing the victim or if someone else really does want to mess us up? One way to keep this from happening is to review each word or action the other person took and see if there is any possible way we could reframe it, putting the best construction on it instead of the worst. When we do that we often end up coming to a rather rational explanation for the words or actions of others that didn’t actually have any ill intent at all! Or, simply talk to the other person about it. That, too, might clear up an awful lot. Or, share your concerns with a third person to provide an outside perspective if we’re misreading the situation. Any of these steps will likely reveal more often than not that someone else isn’t actually gunning for you at all.

But… what about when they legitimately are? I said we’d come back to it, so what about cases when someone legitimately wants to mess me up… like Herod in our text today? That was real devilish scheming! Purely evil intentions! How do we handle when the drama is real and not just imagined in our own minds? I’m going to give you three short-term first steps to take and three long-term steps that may take a little longer and be more of a challenge. 

Your first three short-term steps: 1) read, 2) pray, 3) share. Do you know what separates the good sports teams from the great ones on any level? It isn’t necessarily that they’ve got the best talent, although that certainly helps; it’s that they execute the basic fundamentals extremely well. Can we say that about theses three spiritual disciplines? Do we execute the fundamentals extremely well? Do we read the Word daily – are we dialed in to God devotionally as a non-negotiable every day? Or is it sporadic? Occasional? Sometimes? If I remember? Recall the bitter pill of realizing that no one else thinks about you as much as you do – that you’re just not that important? Well, there’s one exception: God. God thinks about you. Constantly. You are and always will be important to him. He lived and died for you to forgive you and claim you as his own. He rules everything for you. But if you’re not reading about his love and devotion for you daily in his Word, you forget about it, you doubt it, or you take it for granted. Read the Bible. Every day. 

And pray. When others are trying to mess you up, take it to God in prayer. In fact, combine these first two steps by praying through the Psalms – the psalm writers are rich with examples of others trying to mess them up and they then unload those burdens on God. Don’t just sing about taking everything to God in prayer; actually do it! Pour out your heart to him and confide in him. 

Then do the same with your brothers and sisters in Christ: share. When we enlist the help of our community of Christians, not only do we find more support to hold us up when attacked, but we can multiply the prayers being offered up on our behalf. We are reminded we aren’t alone. When we neglect to share with others it’s like choosing to take on Satan and his army alone instead of rallying our fellow soldiers to do battle with us. Share – with each other, with your elder, with me, so that we can be there for each other when others want to mess us up. 

In addition to these three short-term steps – read, pray, and share – here are three long-term steps that may take some more work: 1) run to God for rest and refuge, 2) love your enemy, 3) thank God for the good he’ll bring out of it.

Your ability to carry out this first one is going to be tied to the level of consistency in your devotional life. The more you read the Word, the better you get at resting in God. Give God the opportunity to be the rock and refuge he claims to be. When we are hard pressed and others are legitimately conspiring against us, aren’t those exactly the times it would make sense to find our refuge in the Lord? When else do we need refuge but from a threat or an attack? Seems like the perfect time to seek out the Lord’s promises of refuge, a refrain so common in the Psalms as if to almost be forgotten in its familiarity. When others are trying to mess us up, doesn’t God promise protection? Deliverance? So let us run to him first – not last. Not as a last resort only after we have exhausted every other possible solution we could imagine. Go to him first for refuge. He will put your problem in perspective. As he bends his ear to hear your worry and concern about others having it out for you, don’t be surprised when he reminds you of how harmless your enemy is compared to The Enemy, our adversary, Satan. When God then reminds you that he crushed Satan’s head by the death and resurrection of Jesus, wonder no more if he can also handle some temporary, earthly threat to your physical or emotional well-being. He has removed the greatest possible threat to you for time and eternity by his victory over the devil. Know then that there is not any human being who poses any sort of the same degree of threat in your life. Run to God for rest and refuge.

That will make the second step of loving your enemy easier to do. This one can be so easily overlooked. We get so focused on the one trying to mess us up that we forget he is the very person Jesus calls us to love. He is my enemy! God is actually giving me the opportunity to carry out what he calls me to do rather than what I want to do: fix it and put an end to it. Maybe what God wants instead is for you to grow in your ability to love your enemy, and that’s why he keeps allowing them in your life. In that way God wants to use you to bless your enemy – by loving him or her! How do you get better at this? Get better at the fundamentals – the first three steps – as well as the first step of resting in God, and you’ll find loving your enemy starts to come more easily. 

Finally, thank God on the front end for the good he’ll bring out on the back end of your trial. Recall Joseph’s – not the Joseph of our Lesson today, but Genesis Joseph – reflection upon being reunited with his brothers. He acknowledged their intent to harm him, to mess him up. But what carried more weight for him was that he knew God brought good out of it. He will for you, too. So don’t wait until it happens to thank him – start thanking him now, in the midst of the mess others are trying to make of your life. 

Read, pray, share, then as you are able, run to God for rest and refuge, love your enemy, and thank God for the good he’ll bring out of the trouble others try to cause in your life. May these steps help us to find a renewed joy this week as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, and how a gracious God either thwarted or used to his advantage every plot and scheme against his Son to allow him to save us from every mess, both now and for eternity.

Hope for Messed-up Plans

adbLeave a comment

(Matthew 1:18-24)

If we had to choose just one of the themes throughout this series as an appropriate caption for 2020, this morning’s might be it: the year of messed up plans. Back still near the beginning of the year in March, children had to adjust their plans to accommodate online learning from home while adults across the board learned to work from home. Remember being hit at Easter with the reality of not being able to worship in a sanctuary filled with lilies and flowers (maybe some with allergies didn’t miss it!)? High school and college graduation plans needed to be altered. Summer vacation plans changed. Back to school plans were up in the air until the last minute. Thanksgiving plans and Christmas plans, together with many time-honored traditions, have been tweaked or set aside. This is the year of messed-up plans!

Such messed-up plans can be like riding a rollercoaster. Some people love them, while others can’t stand them. Some of us may actually handle the unexpected ups and downs and roll with them quite capably, occasionally even finding them thrilling, appreciating the spice and spontaneity last-minute changes bring. But those same ups and downs make others nauseous and fill them with anxiety. Those who crave routine and structure and familiar schedules have really struggled with messed-up plans. But even this year has tested the limits of everyone, even those who typically handle messed-up plans effortlessly. 

Yet as hard as 2020 has been, we also have to acknowledge that sometimes messed-up plans are our own fault. Sometimes we fail to plan anything at all. We talk about what we hope will happen or what we want to happen but never set a single step toward completing any goals or plans. Other times our plans just flat-out stink. We plan poorly or don’t seek the counsel of others or of God. And sometimes we even go directly against God’s will when we know better, downplaying it as no big deal or justifying it in this case or that one. In these cases should we be shocked when a dumpster fire results? Of course not – the messed-up plans were our own fault!

But what about when plans were made – and made well! – and didn’t violate God’s will, and they still didn’t turn out the way we had hoped or expected? When this happens, we sometimes draw the wrong conclusion from it: that if it didn’t happen the way we thought it was supposed to, then it must not have been God’s will. We interpret a messed-up plan as a clear indicator that it somehow opposed God’s will. This or that didn’t happen, so we shake it off and tell ourselves and others that it wasn’t what God wanted, because otherwise, it would have worked out. Of course, we don’t draw the same conclusion when bad things happen to people, that God clearly must have wanted it to as part of his plan. But we have no problem applying that logic to when something good that we have planned doesn’t come to fruition – then God must not have wanted it to happen. 

Consider a current issue to help see how flawed it is to presume God’s will or plans on the basis of how ours play out. One Christian has been fervently praying for a vaccine to put an end to COVID, knowing that vaccines have been a blessing in many ways to help eradicate certain diseases in the past. Another Christian, however, who has researched the possible risks of vaccines, has been fervently praying for some solution that doesn’t require her to be vaccinated. Which one was correctly praying for God’s will? Do we wait until there is a clear-cut “winner” to determine which Christian was praying for the right plan of God and which one was praying for the wrong one? 

No – whether or not our plans play out as we had hoped is not the clear sign from God that a plan was or wasn’t aligned with his will. What we DO know about God’s will is clearly recorded for us in his Word; apart from his Word, though, it isn’t our place to try to determine his plans. One plan may work out and God may bless it accordingly; another plan may not work out and… he may still bless it accordingly! His plans are not dependent upon ours; rather, we’re much better off binding our plans to his. But what DO we know when it comes to plans? We know this: our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. The backstory of Jesus’ birth shows us that. 

How’s this for messed-up plans: planning to get married and finding out your bride-to-be is suddenly a mother-to-be as well, even though you know with 100% certainty (because you paid attention in biology class) there is no way you are the father? Welcome to Joseph’s world! Whatever plans he had for his dream life with Mary were suddenly out the door! And so, as messed-up plans require, Joseph adjusted his. “Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly” (v.19). He didn’t want to see Mary’s name dragged through the mud, but that didn’t mean he was going to be played for a fool and stay in that relationship, either. His plans were messed-up, so he made different ones. He may even have concluded that since Mary had gotten pregnant and he wasn’t the father, it must clearly have been God’s will for him not to follow through with his marriage plans.

But he would have been wrong. For just as soon as Joseph had in mind to change his messed-up plans, God had a way of changing Joseph’s mind. “But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (v.20-21). Suddenly it turned out plans weren’t as messed-up as he thought; rather, God had been involved in the planning process all along!

Stop there for a moment. Does that help us realize that when our plans go south, it doesn’t necessarily mean that God’s have? No, it could very well be that God’s plans involved your plans going south all along! Do you see that in the case of Joseph? Our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. How many times in your life has a plan fallen apart or something undesired and unexpected soured it like spoiled milk… only to see a greater good result from all of it in the end? Do you remember the stories around 9/11 of people missing flights or having to miss work that morning – wouldn’t those classify as messed-up plans? Yet, many of them are still alive today because of those messed-up plans! How many other stories like that, if even on a much smaller scale, have we experienced? Again, our failed plans don’t deter his faithful promises. 

When the disciples got wind of plans to put Jesus to death, they wanted none of it. What if they had succeeded in their plans? What if Peter’s mighty swing of his sword in Gethsemane the night before Jesus’ death had been enough to dissuade the enemies from capturing Jesus and later crucifying him? Thank goodness Peter’s plans were messed up – that allowed God’s plans not to be! His messed-up plans didn’t get in the way of God’s carefully measured-out plans.

In fact, God’s carefully measured-out plans have been taking place in the midst of our messed-up plans ever since the very first one! God didn’t need Adam & Eve to take a do-over and get it right the second time when they messed up in Eden. He revealed his plan right in the middle of the mess! When Abraham and Sarah hatched their Hagar plan to fast-track God’s promise, their mess of things didn’t derail God’s plan. Not even the nation of Israel’s waywardness and unbelief, resulting in their exile from the very birthplace where the Savior was to be born was enough to botch God’s plan from being carried out! He masterfully managed all the major players in foreign kingdoms to allow a remnant of Israelites to return to their land so that at just the right time, the Savior could be born. 

From Joseph’s perspective, everything was just a mess, but from God’s, it was just right. It was just right for God not only to direct his plans from behind the camera any longer, but to insert himself into the action as the drama unfolded. He ensured the plan could not fail by not only drawing it up and keeping it on track throughout history, but also by carrying it out personally, taking it on himself to complete his plan and cement our salvation. He used angel messengers, a trusting virgin, a devout husband, and himself to complete the plan. God himself played the key role, taking the plan from the manger to the cross, attaining the perfection we needed by his holy life, and paying the price for our sin by his undeserved death. And so he leaves us with hope in the mess, the reality of righteousness and the certainty of sins forgiven. 

God is right this very moment carrying out his plans in your life… even when your own plans are messed-up. He can work in a messed-up world, with messed-up people, lamenting messed-up plans. His plans don’t require our plans to work out; rather, we ought to rejoice that even when our plans don’t work out, his still do. And they will continue to until the final phase of his plan is carried out and Jesus returns. When that plan is finalized and followed through to its end, there will be no more mess. 

It’s going to be a different Christmas than anyone could have planned 12 months ago. But only in regard to our plans. Regarding God’s plans, his plans are still right on track. He delivered the goods on the first Christmas when Jesus arrived on the scene, and his plan is still being carried out as he works through his church – believers – to bring hope for everyone.

Hope for Messed-up People

adbLeave a comment

(Matthew 1:1-17)

One of the benefits of limited gatherings for Thanksgiving and in the weeks to come? You get out of inviting that awkward family member. Now I highly doubt any of you reading this fit that description of course, but we’ve all had the experience of squirming uncomfortably as the offensive uncle opens his mouth to say what everyone knew what was coming, but hoped wouldn’t. There’s the relative with no filter whose lack of social awareness astounds more and more every year. We’ve all had those experiences.

We can joke rather light-heartedly about those awkward family situations around the holidays, but for some of us, the messed up family dynamic goes much deeper than a few uncomfortable occasions at the dinner table. We come from broken homes, toxic relationships, shame-filled experiences, all of which have shaped who we are today and significantly impacted how we deal with our family. Abuse and alcoholism, desertion and death, neglect and narcotics, the list goes on. I’m talking about real trauma that still affects some of us today. These are not just movie subplots – this was childhood for some of us. There was no Leave it to Beaver romanticized, idyllic version of home & family growing up; dysfunction and disorder were the norm.

That can result in real shame and embarrassment regarding our families, and understandably so. There was no eagerness to bring home a date to meet mom or dad, but instead every effort to avoid any possible interaction at all. Being seen in public with certain family members was terrifying. Having to cover up or conceal the dysfunction from others brought stress and anxiety into many of the routine daily activities that other people just take for granted. Thoughts of family-time or being home for the holidays did not evoke warm, nostalgic feelings, but raised anxiety levels and involved thinking up plans to avoid any such occasions. Instead of the home and family being a place of safety and security, they were a source of shame and resentment.

This can all lead to two unfortunate extremes: one – I completely cut myself off from family. Anticipating the day you move out of the house and thinking about getting as far away from family as possible surely seems like a quick fix if family has equaled nothing but resentment and regret-filled relationships. Admittedly, there are occasions when that may even be the best option for a time, especially when abuse puts one at risk. Such a step may result in years or decades of having little to no contact with family. However, where real trauma or tragedy have taken place, it can be extremely challenging for the one who experienced it to process it in a healthy way without some sort of reconciliation or repentance from the offending party. So cutting our messed up families out of our lives may not be the best long-term solution.

A second extreme may be for the individual from a messed up family to start to identify the same way. “I come from a messed up family, which means I’m messed up, too.” When a person starts to identify in such ways, his or her own life can spiral into a tailspin of either self-destruction, or worse, perpetuating that same behavior onto others, including his or her own current family members. Then the cycle repeats itself. Sadly, this is a not at all uncommon result of broken homes. Hurt people hurt people, because their belief that they too are messed up is so strong that it validates any corresponding destructive behavior to self or others.

I acknowledge that this is not an easy topic to cover. It can be especially challenging because revisiting such messed up family history and trauma as some have experienced can run the risk of reopening those wounds all over again. But if the hope we speak of in Jesus is going to be more than just a seasonal buzz word or a theological concept, then we have to be very real about the hurts that hope can heal. That good news is wrapped up in today’s promise that Jesus brings hope for messed up people. That includes your messed-up family – past or present.

If you come from a messed up family, you’re in good company: so did Jesus. Matthew provides us with Jesus’ genealogy. Genealogies in Scripture raise a number of questions for us, and this is no different. There are questions about the significance of whose names were included and whose names were excluded, questions about why Matthew chose to divide the groupings up the way he did, and so on. But there is one rather obvious conclusion we can draw about Jesus’ family from this genealogy: his family was messed up! These were messed up people, including liars, deceivers, adulterers, idolaters, murderers, prostitutes, polygamists, and even flat-out unbelievers! So much for the sinless Son of God being able to claim a squeaky-clean lineage!

Tracing one’s lineage has become a very popular interest today. Many want to discover more about their family history and, thanks to DNA, we are able to trace back our ancestry and find out some pretty fascinating details about our families. While there is certainly satisfaction in just learning more about those details just for the sake of becoming more familiar with our roots and where we came from, don’t we also imagine how exhilarating it would be to find out we have some connection to royalty or fame somewhere in our past? Of course we would enjoy sharing those discoveries with others. But… what if instead you traced back your family history and discovered you came from a line of criminals and convicts and despicably awful people? How readily would you be broadcasting such a discovery to others? Yet such was the family line of Jesus!

So what does this say about the sinless Son of God?  What does this say about Jesus? He can relate. He came from messed-up people. Our real flesh-and-blood Savior descended from a real messed-up family. But there is a takeaway that matters far more than Jesus coming from messed up families; it’s that he came for messed up families. Had Jesus’ genealogy somehow been made up of perfectly righteous people (pretending of course, that such people could ever exist!), might we imagine those to be the types for whom he came? Might we question if he actually came into this world to have anything to do with the likes of my family or even me? But we can relate to a Savior who came from messed-up people to save messed-up people.

Because that means he came to save messed-up me. Paul embraced that in our Second Lesson today – his letter to Timothy. He didn’t have to hide who he was or pretend he was something he wasn’t. “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Paul makes a point that ought to resonate with each of us: I can own not only my messed-up family and a world filled with messed-up people, but even my own messed-up self, because then I fit the description of the exact types for whom Jesus came: sinners. If Jesus means hope for messed-up people, then count me in!

Since God doesn’t differentiate between the only slightly messed-up and the severely messed-up, I am included. You are included. We are all included. Though we can’t say with certainty why Matthew breaks down the genealogy listings the way he does, it appears to me there are three classes of people: family men (patriarchs), royalty, and no-names. What do they have in common? They’re all messed up! So if you’re expecting to find the model family headed by the model father-figure in Scripture, keep looking, because you won’t find it! You think you’ll have any better luck finding people who have it together because they’re royalty? You won’t find it among that list of kings! And the last list of those returning after the exile – who even recognizes those people? It’s a list of no-names! What do they all have in common?

Look at the name that matters more than all of them; the name listed at both the beginning as well as the end of the genealogical mess: the Messiah himself. If ever there was an appropriate time to say it, truly it is here: we put the “mess” in Messiah! Or rather, God placed the mess of our sin entirely on his Son, the one chosen to be the Sin-bearer of messed up people. Jesus didn’t run away from sinners during his life’s ministry but gravitated toward them with his gospel. Jesus didn’t run away from sinners in his death but died for them. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to get away from sinners, but to ensure their resurrection for an eternity with him. 

So see the messed-up people of this world and the messed-up members of your family differently, the way Jesus sees messed-up you. See in them the very types of people Jesus came to save. They are the ones who are looking for hope when there doesn’t seem to be any because they’ve made such a mess of things. They see lives unraveled and the collateral damage that resulted from their selfish decisions and shameful actions, and conclude their is no hope for people like them. The mess is too great. 

Could you be the conduit of hope they need? Could you be the one to resuscitate them with the news that Jesus didn’t come for the know-it-alls or the have-it-alls or the goody-two-shoes; he came to be the Messiah of messed up people? He came to bring the gentle touch of his forgiveness to heal hurting homes, to reconcile ruined relationships, to fix-up fractured families. 

It may not be easy. In fact, it may be even more difficult when the messed-up people are the very ones who hurt you the most. But friends, the pain they caused you in the past isn’t greater than the hope you have in Christ in the present and future. That hope frees us from holding onto hurts, from bearing grudges, from withholding forgiveness. That hope works so powerfully in messed-up people like us, that it longs to be extended to everyone else, too. Is there someone in your life who this Christmas is in need of the greatest gift you could possibly ever extend to them – both for their benefit and yours? Could you unwrap for them this gift: Jesus provides hope for messed-up people? 

Hope in a Messed-up World

adbLeave a comment

(Matthew 24:1-14)

Won’t it be nice when this is all over? What exactly is “this,” you ask? Let me turn it around and ask you – what is “this?” Isn’t it a sign of our times of how messy our world is when we need to clarify what “this” is? There are so many things going on in our world today that we don’t know where to begin. 

The mess is so, well, messy, that it’s getting harder and harder to imagine it ever being cleaned up. And this is all taking its toll on us, as a number of people have expressed to me in recent weeks. The mess has gotten to us. Here’s why it has been so taxing on us all: we are so sick and tired about hearing how awful this year has been in so many different ways, yet we cannot escape it, because it impacts us daily in one way or another! We find ourselves on a daily basis weighing this concern against that one, feeling at peace with one decision only to have something pop up that leads us to question ourselves. As a preacher, I would love to be able to get through just one sermon without making any reference to how challenging this year has been, but if we are to see how God’s Word applies to our lives, then it’s going to apply to the messiness, too. 

But that doesn’t mean our focus has to be on the mess. Rather, over the course of this “Christmess” series, we’ll give our attention to the hope we have in the midst of this mess: hope in a messed up world, hope for messed up people, hope for messed up plans, and hope when others want to make your life a mess. So as we anticipate a Christmas that has the potential to be more messy than merry, as much as ever, let’s hold onto our hope in Christ.

You might not think of the verses from Matthew 24 as being all that fitting as we are looking ahead to Christmas. But, the season of Advent which begins today, isn’t just a dry-run for Christmas; instead, it gives us opportunity to reflect on Jesus’ coming in every sense of the word – including his second coming, when he returns not in a meager manger, but amidst trumpets and triumph. When will that day be? Jesus provides us with the clues in our verses from Matthew 24. 

Do you think your world is turned upside down right now? Try to imagine how devastating Jesus’ first words to his disciples in our verses would have been as he dropped his bombshell on Tuesday of Holy Week. “Do you see all these things?” he asked. “Truly I tell you, not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down” (Mt. 24:2). Their lives centered around the Temple. It was everything in Jesus’ day. It was a breath-taking visual representation of the spiritual importance of God’s relationship with his people. Its stones were massive and magnificent. It had taken 46 years to rebuild. And to the disciples calling Jesus’ attention to it, he rocked their world by telling them the whole thing would crumble to pieces. Because Jesus’ disciples expected his rise to power to be an earthly one, and because they anticipate that event would happen simultaneously with the destruction of the temple, they asked for some indicators of when this all might happen.

What Jesus provided them with, however, are what the rest of the Bible makes clear to us are signs indicative of his Second Coming on the Last Day. And, assuming you have any familiarity with the Bible and these signs, it’s no spoiler alert to point out that they all have already taken place and continue to take place. The danger for us today is not questioning the signs, but perhaps becoming too used to them. We have seen and still see false prophets. We have seen and still see wars and the threats of war. We have seen and still see natural disasters. We have seen and still see Christians martyred. We have seen and still see – and perhaps are in the midst of – many falling away from the Christian faith. We have seen and still see wickedness on the rise while love is reduced. It’s all there and it’s all been there, so one danger for us is treating it like the boy who cried wolf and dismissing the signs, possibly to our peril. 

There is another danger, a trap we must guard against as well. Contrary to what we might think, Jesus doesn’t point out these warnings to provide us with a “honey-do” list. It isn’t so that we can try to figure out how to fix all the broken things he’s pointed out. Consider an example from marriage. There is a common communication break down in a marriage that reveals a struggle typically more common for husbands. We struggle with listening. That doesn’t mean we aren’t listening, but the problem arises when we want to do more than just listen. When our wives are sharing a particular frustration or a struggle, we’re listening… so that we can figure out a solution. We are listening to gather just enough information to allow us to determine how to fix the frustration. While that can at times be helpful, as often as not, wives aren’t looking for a fix as much as they are just looking to be heard. So she sees the conversation itself as an opportunity to connect, while he is presuming she’s sharing to find a solution so that he can fix the problem.

Let me state this very clearly: Jesus is not providing these signs so that we can identify what needs to be fixed before he returns. He wasn’t pointing out problems to his disciples so they could put their collective heads together to figure out a ten-step process to remedy all that was wrong. He didn’t record these signs in the Gospels so that we’d know which problems still need attention before he could return. 

No, these signs are not failures for us to fix; they are warnings for us to watch. If we confuse that simple point, we put ourselves at risk. We can have a very unhealthy attachment to this world, as if God’s purpose for placing us here was to solve the puzzle or crack the code. It is too easy for us to think that if we can just do that, then we can make things right and make this world livable and maybe even lovable. We just need to fix what’s wrong or make it more like the old days when things were better, as each and every generation has always arrogantly assumed. While this clearly shows that we know something is wrong with this world in general, we are in the wrong when we presume it is our place to fix it. 

Ask yourself this: are you too busy trying to work Jesus out of a job? Because at the end of the day, if we could hypothetically put an end to abortion, world hunger, social injustice, climate change, etc. we’d eventually fix up everything so that there’s nothing left for Jesus to redeem. We won’t need him. We’ll have fixed everything and he won’t need to bother to return to usher in a new heaven and earth – we’ll have already established it on our own! 

Is that what we’re hoping for? Is it possible that our lamenting over how broken this world is may indicate that our hearts are a little too attached to it? Jesus clearly told us all that we should expect in these end times, so why are we disappointed that his words are proving to be true? When we point out what’s wrong and how things aren’t as they should be, aren’t we actually taking issue with Jesus’ words in these verses? He said things would be messy – why are we so let down and surprised that they are!?!? Do we suppose we know better than he does where the world is and what it needs most?

Friends, this world is not some fixer-upper that we can turn around and flip for a profit. No, it is broken beyond our ability to repair it. And in fact, Jesus never asks us to; rather, he calls us to stand firmly in the mess until he returns. “The one who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come” (v.13-14). We need to stop trying to fix what’s broken in the world, and start standing firmly in the One who fixed what was broken in us. Instead of longing for a better world here and now, take comfort in knowing that Jesus is coming back into this broken world to claim those he has fixed. He already came once to rescue and repair us, not in the way his disciples had first imagined, but with something far superior: the ransom price needed to buy us back. In fact, by the end of the same week of the gloomy end times predictions, on Good Friday, Jesus’ blood would pour the very foundation on which we stand. On that we stand firm until the end. On that hope alone we will be saved.

The good news gets better. Jesus promised that hope would be proclaimed to the ends of the earth before he returned. We don’t have to worry about anyone on the planet missing out on the hope Jesus came to bring. All have had and still will have the opportunity to hear of and believe in the events that took place later that week on Good Friday and that Sunday when the Messiah cleaned up this world’s mess by his glorious resurrection. 

What is left? “Then the end will come” (v.14). And this will not be a bitter end, but a better one – like the end of birth pains when the child arrives. Like the end of a migraine when it all clears up and relief follows. It will be the best ending imaginable. Hope will be fully realized and the mess completely cleaned up. Brothers and sisters in Christ, Jesus doesn’t need us to fix what’s wrong in this world – just make sure we don’t cling to it. Cling to Christ alone. When we do that, we no longer need to ask the question, but can rather boldly declare to each other, “Won’t it be nice when this is all over!!!”