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The Prophet Isaiah begins a beautiful metaphor of the Glory of God being revealed, he says: “10I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my whole being shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. 11For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.”
Through Isaiah we hear of the Glory
of God being an external process of the Law for he continues in saying: “1For
Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest,
until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a
burning torch. 2The nations shall see your vindication, and all the
kings your glory; and you shall be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will give. 3You shall be
a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.”
The vindication of Israel is of
great external and opulent glory for all the world to turn their gaze to. It is a very worldly optimism of seeing
righteousness as restored by conquest through YHWH. Their efforts, however, will never be or
become what God is fully expecting for the Israelites to ponder and DO until
today’s Gospel introduces another episode of the infant Jesus and His growing
presence in the world. Jesus presence in
the world as this infant IS Grace itself—redemption and the true glory of God
something beyond what anyone would have ever expected!
You can’t blame the Israelites
though in Isaiah’s time; they suffered not only from oppression for many years
but also from an identity crisis. An
identity crisis that was shaped by the only days that saw them doing well—being
King David’s reign. The good old days long
gone make one want to “set things right again.”
Setting things right again however seen through obedience to the Law of
the Old Covenant and God’s vindication upon their enemies for God’s glory.
In many ways the wedding metaphor in
Isaiah reminded me of hearing those yearly statistics of how much some people
lavishly spend for their weddings. The
media as usual, paints the picture that most American young people will spend
an average minimum of ten grand to “tie the knot.” But then, the glory of the moment, the
showiness of it all wouldn’t mean “enough” to our worldly desires to just have
the exchange of vows and the rings…
In that same stream of thought, why
on earth would God choose to come to us, the Word enfleshed, as an infant? The
beauty of Grace coming into the world as Jesus defies our understanding, our
logic or vision of how God should’ve come into the world. The most important thing to note though is
that we wouldn’t have the gift of change—Transformation, if Christ did not come
down to redeem us! From vindication to
redemption, what a great leap! Basically
the leap from Law to Gospel, with a caveat of course that we will always need
to struggle faithfully to keep both at a balance—discipline in our lives to
truly and truthfully be and become the adopted sons and daughters of God!
The battle, pure and simple, for us
in the here and now as Christ Jesus’ disciples is living into that internal
process of illumination, liberation, restoration and most importantly
transformation to obediently be and become the sons and daughters of Grace to
the glory of God! Through the joy of Simeon’s encounter with the infant Jesus;
we are witness to the efforts of the Holy Spirit to light a flame upon Simeon’s
heart to recognize, realize that Jesus is the Messiah! He says to Mary: “This child is destined for
the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be
opposed 35so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a
sword will pierce your own soul too.”
With
and through Jesus, we realize how He ushers in a new understanding of life: the
Gospel and glory of Grace. The Gospel of
Grace and its glory writes a new law upon our hearts which we understand as
Love. Love received from the life, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ to defeat sin, death and the devil. A spiritual victory for humanity to fathom throughout
their lives lived in volition as a freely responsible servant of Christ.
We’re
in an age, however, and we can’t deny this, where we want to and do follow our
own rules. We justify our actions with showy intellectualism, worldly power,
conquest and financial gain. We’ve done everything except adjust to the Law and
Gospel of God’s guidance to live our lives truly and truthfully into Grace. If
anything, we are slowly allowing the Evil One to frankly have success or “glory”
in our fading away into godless, lawless paths…
This is a harsh perspective, but just like part of that one verse in
Isaiah we should consider hearing as helpful law, that we shouldn’t keep silent
and perhaps not rest as Christians on a whole new battlefield! A battlefield where the sword to pierce your
soul is either Christ Jesus’ Gospel or Satan’s temptations.
It has
been a sad aspect of the closing of this year to hear of so much turmoil and violence
in the world. As we know recently in the
news with the two New York policemen gunned down execution style as “vindication,”
for another wrongful death. Both men never knew what hit them yet alone the one
officer was engaged and leaves his bride, a widow… An eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth is
the human instinctual response to justify their “making right” the situation… Violence
begets violence, period! To whom is the
glory? Graceless behavior never sees
victory more than purely our destruction!
'Adjust
or Self-Destruct,' by Craig Massey is an excellent theological treatise on thinking about both
spiritual transformation as well as spiritual warfare. It’s title says our dilemma perfectly: Adjust
(be or become obedient, transform, be open…) or Self-Destruct (fade into
delusions of self-righteousness, idolatry, indifference and purposelessness).
So… we’ve
had 2,000 plus years of getting our act together inwardly (spiritually) and
outwardly (being the hands and feet of the Body in the world). Each and every year we come to this same
point, cycle in the journey of worldly days and hours of the church calendar. We’ve made our yearly trek into the story of
Grace coming into the world—Jesus. How
have we placed ourselves there in Simeon or Anna’s shoes? We have too many
distractions and obstacles we’ve conveniently placed in realizing our spiritual
formation at this time of year such as Santa Claus, gifts, booze and food… “Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
That’s an ironic lyric in a Dave Matthews’ song since it can go both ways.
Speaking
of food, my husband and I have been fairly blessed this Christmas with a lot of
donated food such as three turkeys, a ham and a multitude of other things. Christmas comes whether you like it or not OR
should I say when you least expect it, EXPECT IT! What one person may consider
insignificant or just a moment in time to another it could mean something
profound and priceless. Simeon and Anna
were guided by the Spirit as we all are and don’t realize it enough on our
daily journeys. Adoption as Sons and Daughters of the King of Grace is a
lifetime journey, nothing to take lightly or be a spectator of but to be lived.
We must
become more faithfully seek and be aware of “God with Us” while we carry on in
all that we do, say, be and become for the Glory of God, Our Father. GRACE is an amazing revelation it is a
blazing torch—a refining fire for the heart to not fear but embrace in order to
transform! Heart knowledge is the
beginning wisdom of living into Grace.
It is through the heart we have faith sewn. It is at the center of our
souls, Christ Jesus should have Lordship over.
Something greatly to rejoice as did Simeon and Anna in even seeing and
holding the infant Jesus. Head knowledge
is donning that armor of Law and Gospel to fight the Good and Righteous fight
of faith in a burgeoning graceless wilderness—Grace in action as our loving response
to the Lord of all life—Christ Jesus.
AMEN
December 28th, 2014; 1st
Sunday of Christmas; Year B; SOLA Lectionary; Nicole Collins
Psalm 111; Isaiah 61:10—62:3;
Galatians 4:4-7 & Luke 2:22-40
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