HERO!

I saw Casino Royale the other day. Superman Bond! He comes through every conceivable disaster and contemplated destruction untouched, unscathed, intact, invincible. Neither the most shocking assaults on his person—poisonings, tortures, imprisonments, gunfire, knifings—nor the most devious and despicable schemes of a host of gangsters, malefactors, and other insalubrious opponents of the worthy Double-O-Seven can touch the guy. Superhero incarnate.

Nonetheless, unlike previous Bond movies, this one shows the MI6 agent more vulnerable, darker, and intense, even falling in love. Human! While Bruce Wayne pretends to be Batman, and Peter Parker pretends to be Spiderman, James Bond really is 007 … and human. And so Casino Royale, making our man more human than superhuman, succeeds in portraying an attractive protagonist—“like” one of us, yet beyond all of us.

How we yearn to see these knights accomplish their world-saving missions successfully. Whether it be James Bond, or one of your other favorite strongmen du jour, there is a hunger in mankind for these folk heroes and their fantastic fables that transcend reality as they combat the nefarious purposes of noxious predators. If only such a person were real, rescuing us from the evils and evildoers of the universe!

The Good News is that He is! Real. Skin and sinew. Bone and blood. Mortal flesh! But also King of kings and Lord of lords. Immortal God!

And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten
from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

[Jesus Christ] emptied Himself,
taking the form of a bond-servant,
and being made
in the likeness of men.
Philippians 2:7

And He became man in order to rid the universe of sin and Satan.

He appeared in order to take away sins.
1 John 3:4

[God sent] His own Son
in the likeness sinful flesh
and as an offering for sin ….
Romans 8:3

Like the fictions of some of our concocted heroes, this unparalleled True Story—the Greatest Story ever told—depicts a Savior who is fully human, grieving, rejoicing, eating, weeping, and undergoing the agonies of a crucifixion. For me. For you.

He Himself bore our sins
in His body on the cross,
so that we might die to sin
and live to righteousness;
for by His wounds
you were healed.
1 Peter 2:24

But God demonstrates
His own love toward us,
in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us.
Romans 5:8

And as with the ongoing sagas of Bond, Kent, Parker, Wayne, et al., as they capture viewers with a story unfinished, a finale yet to be finalized, so also His Story continues, as God beckons our participation, calling upon us to join our Hero, in the furtherance of His Kingdom, where He will reign forever and ever.

Indeed, the battle is as good as over, the victory as good as won. Our Superhero never loses. What a blessed assurance, as we step into a new year of our lives this week. No matter what might happen, no matter what unknowns we may encounter, we can rest assured in the knowledge that our Lord lives, our Savior loves, our King reigns. Our Hero has conquered!

For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize
with our weaknesses,
but One who has been
tempted in all things
as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore let us draw near
with confidence
to the throne of grace,
so that we may receive mercy
and find grace to help
in time of need.

Hebrews 4:15–16

RICH!

Christmas 2006 is in Scotland for me. Most of the previous ones I have spent with family, but this year all of them absconded, leaving me homeless! (They’re in India—hopefully thinking of me frozen stiff and subsisting on peanut butter, while they’re enjoying a piping 85° F and engorging upon delicious festal South Indian concoctions!)

But I’m all set. Out of the kindness of their good hearts, taking pity upon this nomadic waif, demonstrating bounteous mercy to this starving bachelor, a fellow postgrad and his wife have invited me to their home for Christmas dinner. (Thanks, David and Angela!)

When I mentioned this invitation to a friend in Dallas a few days ago, she was relieved: “I’m glad you don’t have to stay at home by yourself. Everybody should have somewhere else to go for Christmas—to family, to friends ….”

Most of those who celebrate Christmas will be where they are wanted, welcomed, warmed, and watered. Ironic, isn’t it, that the one for whom Christmas is named, had no such place to go to?

How should a King come?
On a star-filled night an unlikely pair
Trudge into town, God's Son to bear;
And the only sound in the cobble-stoned street
Was the shuffle and the ring of their donkey's feet
And the King lay there in the virgin's womb,
For the Ruler of heaven, in the inn no room.
No coaches of gold, no purple-clad horsemen,
Just a babe in a manger, a few cows, and some oxen.
(Original version by Jimmy and Carol Owens, 1980)

No post-natal care, no newborn baby check, no proper baby clothes, no diapers, no shelter appropriate for a mother and child, no sanitary environment, no fireplace, nothing. Just a feeding trough.

For you know the grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though He was rich,
yet for your sake
He became poor,
so that you
through His poverty
might become rich.
2 Corinthians 8:9

And indeed, we have so become. Rich, because of a God …

… who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing
in the heavenly places in Christ …
Ephesians 1:3

Rich, because of a God …

… who is able to do
far more abundantly
beyond all that we ask or think …
Ephesians 3:20

Rich, because of a God …

… who according to His great mercy
has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through
the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead,
to obtain an inheritance …
reserved in heaven for you.
1 Peter 1:3–4

Rich, indeed! And not just spiritually.

Now He who supplies
seed to the sower …
will supply and multiply
your seed for sowing and
increase the harvest …;
you will be enriched
in everything for all liberality.
2 Corinthians 9:10–11

God’s giving to us ungrudgingly and unsparingly is to enable us, in turn, to give to others. As did David and Angela. As did the Macedonian church that Paul applauds.

… in a great ordeal of affliction
their abundance of joy
and their deep poverty
overflowed in the wealth
of their liberality.
For I testify that
according to their ability,
and beyond their ability,
they gave of their own accord,
… but they first gave themselves
to the Lord and to us
by the will of God.
2 Corinthians 8:2–3, 5

Rich brothers and sisters in Christ, giving ourselves first to the Lord, dedicating our all for Him, let us also give liberally. And may we adopt it as a lifestyle, for Christmas, New Year, and beyond.

GLORY!

Our church had its Carol Services last Sunday evening—a service made up Scripture readings, songs of celebration, and a sermon. A wonderful time of meditating upon the significance of the season. (I hadn’t experienced many of these services since my days in India decades ago, so this was especially enjoyable, a Christmas tradition I was returning to!)

Up in the front of the church was a delightful nativity scene that caught my attention with the fascinating plays of brightness and shadow upon the silhouettes of those in the manger. Chiaroscuro, the scintillating artistic dialogue between contrasting light and darkness. And quite appropriate, I thought, for the Scriptures declared, almost seven centuries before Jesus Christ, …

Arise, shine,
for your light has come,
And the glory of the LORD
has risen upon you.
For behold,
darkness will cover the earth
And deep darkness the peoples;
But the LORD will rise upon you
And His glory
will appear upon you.
Isaiah 60:1–2

The plays of light and darkness. Only, in this case, the Light completely trumped darkness. It was the victory of the chiaro (brightness) over the oscuro (darkness). Glory overwhelmed evil.

I will make darkness into light ….
Isaiah 42:16

And it did happen. Two thousand years ago. God became man. Eternity intersected temporality. Immanuel. God with us. He has come! To us, the ones enshrouded in “deep darkness”, the ones enervated by the wickedness of the world, our own sinful flesh, and the wiles of Satan. He has come to the ones entrapped in sin, to the ones entombed in death.

The people who walk in darkness
Will see a great light;
Those who live in a dark land,
The light will shine on them.
Isaiah 9:2

The Light of the world. The glory of God has appeared in the form of the God-man Christ Jesus, He whose robe is the light.

And the Word became flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we saw His glory,
glory as of the only begotten
from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
John 1:14

On that silent night, that holy night, the Son of God, love’s pure light, indeed, became man. The glory of God shone as radiant beams from His holy face, and there dawned that day the new morn of redeeming grace. Christ the Savior is born. He has come. Light has been crowned!

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!
Hail the Sun of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King!”
Charles Wesley, 1739

No wonder the Nicene creed declared in 325 A.D. that Jesus Christ was the “Light of Light, very God of very God”, manifesting the fullness, essence, and glory of deity. Shadows dispelled. Glory triumphant!

“I am the Light of the world;
the one who follows Me
will not walk in the darkness,
but will have the Light of life.”
John 8:12

Rejoice! The glory of the LORD has been revealed in the incarnation. And soon it will be revealed in all its magnificence at the Second Advent of Christ.

… the glory of the LORD
will be revealed,
And all flesh will see it together;
For the mouth of the LORD
has spoken.
Isaiah 40:5

And on that day and thenceforth …

… you will have the LORD
for an everlasting light,
And your God for your glory.
… and the days of your mourning
will be over.
Isaiah 60:19–20

Rejoice! The end has begun!

RESCUE!

Last week, at quite short notice, my services were commandeered to preach Sunday evening at church. I decided to stick with the Christmas theme, but from a different angle. I preached on the five women in the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary. Several years ago, I had done each of these personages one sermon at a time—“Ladies-in-Waiting”. However, this time around, not having the luxury of five occasions to repeat this exercise, I collapsed the five sermons into one. Bold me!

The inclusion of these rather unlikely, uncongenial, unusual, and unflattering characters (and that’s putting it mildly) in the lineage of our Lord is, I believe, clear indication of the truth that God can use anybody … even you and me! God can use us, no matter who we are, what we are, and where we are; so let’s do something bold for Him this Christmas.

Do something bold for Christ. That was something I needed to hear. Especially in the arena of being a witness for the Lord. Do something bold for Christ. Go rescue some souls! The pathos of Fanny Crosby’s hymn hits hard. Let me quote it in full ….

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave;
Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen,
Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

Rescue the perishing, care for the dying,
Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save.

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting,
Waiting the penitent child to receive;
Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently;
He will forgive if they only believe.

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
Feelings lie buried that grace can restore;
Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,
Chords that were broken will vibrate once more.

Rescue the perishing, duty demands it;
Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide;
Back to the narrow way patiently win them;
Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died.
Fanny Crosby, 1869

Or as the Scriptures enjoin us …

And have mercy on some,
who are doubting;
save others,
snatching them out of the fire ….
Jude 22–23

Boldly engage the world. For the ministry of reconciliation has been entrusted to us …

… namely, that God was in Christ
reconciling the world to Himself,
… and He has committed to us
the word of reconciliation.
Therefore, we are
ambassadors for Christ,
as though God were making
an appeal through us:
“we beg you on behalf of Christ,
be reconciled to God.”
2 Corinthians 5:19–20

Boldly we must engage the world. Not that we accomplish anything on our own, of course.

For God, who said,
"Light shall shine
out of darkness,"
is the One who has shone
in our hearts to give
the Light of the knowledge
of the glory of God
in the face of Christ.
But we have this treasure
in earthen vessels,
so that the surpassing greatness
of the power will be of God
and not from ourselves.
2 Corinthians 4:6–7

May He take what we have to offer—our pitiful portions, our trembling testimonies, unpolished, unskilled, and unsound—and utilize them for the furtherance His Kingdom, for exaltation of His glory.

Boldly engage the world. And why not do so this Christmas?

P.S. That picture is not a recent one. Just looking at it warms me up in these dreary, dull, dark, damp days of winter.

TIME!

One fateful day in 1987, while negotiating for the release of Western hostages in Beirut on behalf of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite, the Anglican prelate’s representative, was himself taken hostage. He remained in captivity for 1,760 days, many of which were in solitary confinement. In the account of his ordeals, Taken On Trust, Waite wrote:

The thing I find most worrying
is not being able to measure
the passing of time.
If I am to keep myself together,
I must find some means of doing this.

Imagine navigating through life without access to a clock or calendar of any kind. Total disorientation! Chaos! Human functioning is utterly dependent on time-keeping. We have watches, clocks, calendars, schedulers, and all kinds of gizmos and gadgets to keep us on the track of time. So it is not odd, then, that Christians, too, through the centuries have considered spiritual time-keeping to be critical to their identity and activity in this world. But even more than that, believers have found it helpful—even essential—to keep track of time in special ways that bring to memory God’s activity among us, the intersection of the eternal with the temporal, God’s work in time. The spiritual clock that churches have followed has been the church calendar. Weekly, Christians gather to worship and remember the Lord’s resurrection. And through the year, believers remind themselves of God’s acts in their midst—Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Epiphany, Lent, Advent.

Unfortunately, churches seem to be more diligent about celebrating Mother’s Day and Father’s Day and Valentine’s Day than Advent or Pentecost or Lent. We need to rethink spiritual time-keeping to focus our otherwise scattered attention upon the confluence of the work of God and the world of mankind, forcing us to reckon with the acts of God on a time-line.

Today, of course, is the First Sunday of “Advent” (“coming” or “arrival”). Because it precedes Christmas, many have understood Advent to be exclusively a time to get ready to celebrate the coming of the Christ Child in Bethlehem. Actually, the focus of Advent is not only on the First Coming but also on the Second! It is also the celebration of the promise that Christ is coming and that this will bring an end to all that is contrary to the ways of God; the Great Reversal is at hand. Advent—He’s coming! Rejoice! We’re out of here!

Therefore be patient, brethren,
until the coming of the Lord.
The farmer waits
for the precious produce
of the soil,
being patient about it,
until it gets the early and late rains.
You too be patient;
strengthen your hearts, for
the coming of the Lord is near.
James 5:7–8

We are not aimlessly wandering in a wilderness, even though it often seems as we are. We are not meandering in this world lost, orphaned, and alone, though it might appear to be the case. Rather, history is headed somewhere, directed by God, orchestrated by Him, choreographed by Him, clocked by Him, and Advent is a signpost to that end—the central focus of the glorious purpose of God: the Great Reversal. The reign of God is coming. Prepare ye the way of the Lord! Soon, and very soon, we are going to see the King!

For the grace of God
has appeared,
bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us
to deny ungodliness
and worldly desires
and to live sensibly,
righteously and godly
in the present age,
looking for the blessed hope
and the appearing
of the glory
of our great God and Savior,
Christ Jesus.

Titus 2:11–13