Someone Greater is Here

An icon of Christmas in America is the holiday movie or TV special. And so many of them, both old and new, have a similar theme: The true meaning of Christmas. 

Take The Grinch Who Stole Christmas (the Jim Carey version) for example. Cindy Lou Who asks the Grinch (who is disguised as Santa), "What's Christmas really about?" 

"Vengeance!" The fake Santa blurted out without thinking. Then he caught himself and said, "I mean, presents, I suppose."

"I was afraid of that." Cindy Lou Who said sadly.

But of course, the "real meaning" of Christmas was finally discovered by the Grinch and all the residents of Whoville: Christmas is about being together! Here's how the original cartoon ends:

"Christmas Day is in our grasp,
    so long as we have hands to clasp.
Christmas Day will always be
    just as long as we have we.
Welcome Christmas while we stand,
    heart to heart, and hand in hand.."

Think of the favorite Christmas shows that answer the question: 

In the classic Christmas movie, It’s A Wonderful Life,
(that everyone should see, by the way) it's all about
how blessed we are to have friends.

In A Christmas Carol, it's all about having compassion 
and giving to others. You don't want to be a Scrooge!

In Elf it's about Christmas spirit (because that's what 
makes Santa's sleigh fly)!

In Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer, it's that everyone is 

special, even misfits!

In many (like A Christmas Vacation, A Christmas Story, and Home
Alone) Christmas is all about family. 

These are all good things, right? Of course. But a good answer isn't always the right one. Truth is, they’re all asking the right question, but they’re providing the wrong answers. That’s because they totally miss Jesus. 

I must say, there is one shining exception. It’s perhaps the most famous Christmas special: A Charlie Brown Christmas. You know the story: After Charlie Brown experiences aspects which don’t sit right with him about Christmas, he becomes more frustrated about the whole holiday itself. The climax of course is this: After everyone laughs at Charlie Brown for picking a terrible tree and as the obvious failure of his directorship of the play reveals itself, he has a meltdown, and in frustration shouts climactically, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” That’s when Linus, the security-blanket-carrying philosopher walks into the spotlight and quotes Luke 2:8-14 and then walks over and says, “That’s what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.” 

Linus got it right. Bottom line: if you miss Jesus, you miss Christmas. 

Here’s the tragedy: 

if you miss Jesus, you don’t just miss Christmas. 

You miss life. 

You miss God. 

You miss everything.

Luke 11:29-32 is not a Christmas passage. But it is in this sense: it's about people who miss Jesus. 

²⁹When the crowds were increasing, [Jesus] began to say, “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign..." 

Evidently all these people rushed to see Jesus because they wanted to see him do something amazing. "Sign" means miracle. They wanted to be able to tweet that they saw him do something paranormal…Facebook that they were there…take a selfie so that they could brag. They wanted an emotional... maybe even a spiritual experience. Hearing about him wasn’t good enough. Hearing him speak wasn’t either. They wanted to see something big. Jesus said this was evil! Why? Because their thirst for entertainment would never be quenched—it was from selfish motives. Others sat in judgment wanting to see if his miracles “passed the test” worthy of a prophet, much more a messiah. 

Let me ask you: are you seeking some sign? Are you wanting God to perform for you? Is he failing to meet your standard or pass your test?

Jesus continues, "...but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation."

What does that mean, "the sign of Jonah"? You remember Jonah, right? The guy who was swallowed by a fish for 3 days and lived to tell about it. 

In Matthew 12, Jesus says something similar:

³⁸Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” ³⁹But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. ⁴⁰For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 

That’s what Jesus meant: “Do you want a miracle? I got your miracle. I’m going to die and be buried for 3 days. Then I’m going to rise.” That’s really the greatest of all miracles. Others you might fake. Death, burial, and resurrection—quite tougher.

Back to Luke 11. Jesus continues:

"³¹The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. 

What’s he saying? He’s referencing 1Kings 10 & 2 Chronicles 9 when a well-known and wealthy Queen from today’s Yemen or Ethiopia came to see King Solomon for herself because she had heard about his wealth & wisdom. She recognized that what she’d heard was true! Then she confessed God and proclaimed him blessed! Jesus is saying, while she was able to recognize greatness, those in his day couldn't see it even when it was as clear as the nose on their faces!

"³²The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here."

Remember a little more about Jonah? He was the reluctant prophet during a time when Israel was threatened by Assyria (capital: Nineveh). He resented that God wanted him to go there because he hated Nineveh—so much so that he ran from God rather than prophesy to them. Nineveh was east, so he fled west, got on a boat and headed toward Spain across the Mediterranean! So God sent a violent storm. After all efforts were made to spare the ship, the sailors beckoned the passengers to pray to their gods. Jonah confessed his sin and suggested they throw him overboard. They reluctantly did, and the storm ceased...as Jonah sank to the bottom. But God sent a fish to swallow him. After three days inside it, God now had his attention. He was spit up on the beach and this time he went to Nineveh. I’m sure he was quite a sight—perhaps the first bleach-blonde middle-easterner ever seen—when he preached, “Repent!” Then he found a place outside the city to watch God burn the sinful city. But much to his chagrin, all the men of Nineveh, including it's king, repented. It was an amazing revival of an unlikely city! They knew nothing of God or the Bible. 

Jesus points them out and said that God will raise them up one day and that they will stand in judgment of those who DO know better. 

The imagery here is powerful. Jesus reminds us that there is a judgment day coming. God will be on the throne, and call forth witnesses. The Queen of the south and the Ninevites will shout: “Guilty! We outsiders believed! You insiders did not!”

And here we are in America. A nation founded by Bible-believing people, many who were deeply committed Christians. Here in the south, there are churches on every corner and Bibles in every home. What's more? Our single greatest national holiday is Christmas—nothing else comes close. WE, OF ALL PEOPLE MUST RECOGNIZE THAT SOMEONE GREATER THAN ANYONE ELSE HAS COME. Amazingly, the God of the universe came to us—as a baby. That’s it. The GOD-MAN has come!

Bottom line: This Christmas if we forget that it is first and foremost a celebration of God becoming flesh and entering the world he created that we marred by our rebellion and sin—in order that he might save us and bring us to himself, then we have missed EVERYTHING about Christmas. Everything. We have rendered our celebrations and traditions vacuous and even harmful. We, with those who missed him in Jesus' own generation will also be condemned by the queen of the South and the men of Nineveh for our great blindness and error. 

Do not miss Christmas! Do not miss what this is really all about! Not family & friends, not peace, not giving to others, not good will to men—as good as those things are! Christmas is about God enacting his rescue plan in the most amazing, unexpected way. Coming to us as a baby. So that even the least among us might be saved by grace through faith.

Don’t miss Jesus. Receive him. Confess Christ. Repent and turn to him. Do not be that one on judgement day who is condemned. Christ came for you, died in your place, and raised just as he said he would so that you might believe. IF you believe, you will not only see Christmas with new eyes and find infinitely more fulness in it, you will see life with new eyes. And you will have God. Forever.

Don’t let others miss him. Christian, tell about him this season when you get opportunities. Look for opportunities. You WILL have opportunities. Here are some ideas:

• When your unbelieving co-workers miss Christmas, don’t scornfully demand that everyone “keep Christ in Christmas,” SHOW them Christmas! Show them Christ and a Christ-centered, Christ-like Christian. Serve them! Love them. 

• When people’s patience wears thin in line at the store, be different. Show love & smile & overcome evil with good. Complement the shell-shocked lady at the customer-service desk. Tip your waitress well. Be different with contagious JOY & goodness. Maybe they’ll ask why, and you can say: “Because the REAL meaning of Christmas has changed my life.”

• When you gather with your crazy family, BE THE ONE who reminds everyone what Christmas is all about. Be a Linus.

• Look for ways to share Christ’s love SECRETLY. As a family, do Secret Santa with a purpose, or secretly give someone in need a gift from God.

• Do something uncomfortable and unexpected. Invite an outsider. Perhaps an  international person for a holiday meal. Trust me, they’re curious. They’ll love hearing the Christmas story with your family. Include a single person or a new couple in town in your family celebration. Ask God to show you someone to include.

• Of course, include someone in our church family on Christmas Eve. People are especially open to church on Christmas. Then have a worship service at home with your family and guests on Christmas Day.

These might help you and your family not only REMEMBER what Christmas is about, but TELL others in a powerful way.

The Miserable Ones (Les Miserables)

What a great Sunday! We got creative, covered Father's Day, AND grappled with Romans 5! I love our church so much. If you weren't able to come, you missed (as John called it) "movie day." I broke all the rules I learned in preaching class. I started by simply reading the passage (with a few clarifying comments):
Romans 5:6-11 ESV

⁶For while we were still weak (some trans: “powerless, without strength, helpless”), at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (the unworthy, undesirable, the miserable ones). ⁷For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— ⁸but God shows (or “God has demonstrated”) his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. ¹⁰For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.

¹¹More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

After some introductory remarks, I turned it over to John Barber who walked us through the old classic story and recent motion picture, Les Miserables. We saw how human art (vis. this story) reflects the ancient story of God's grace, and how this one encapsulates Romans 5.

I love our church.

Father's Day

I think I'm looking forward to Father's Day more than ever. Maybe it's because it's the last one before my kids start going to college. Maybe it's because it's the first one since learning my dad has terminal cancer. It could be because I'm really tired and I'm ready for a break (we usually go camping for a week after Father's Day)! While all those reasons certainly contribute, I actually think it's because I'm looking forward to church on Father's Day! I don't mean to shock, but this is unusual! Ask any pastor and if he's honest he'll tell you the secular holidays are some of the most difficult for which to prepare. In truth, most pastors dread preaching on those days--especially the ones that fall on a Sunday. Here are the choices: preach from the Bible and ignore what's on everyone's mind (in this case you'd better keep it short!), do the gratuitous special holiday thematic sermon (shmeh--they all seem to sound the same to me), or scrap everything conventional and do something totally creative and outside-the-box different.

I'm fired up about church on Father's Day this year because the sermon (hint: it's not really a sermon) is going to be all three!!

I'm telling you: this year is going to be one to remember. And it won't be the same if you try to catch it on MP3 later.

If you don't go to church, I invite you to Providence tomorrow (for times and directions, visit providencechurch.com). Bring your dad or a man you know. You (and he) will not be sorry!

THE Story

The Christmas story (not the movie, but the real account of Jesus’ birth) is quite a tale. Think about hearing it for the first time, as did the Herdman kids in The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Who could come up with such a story? But the nativity alone is incomplete. It is only a part (albeit an important part) of the greater narrative that starts before time itself.



History is going somewhere. Evidence for this abounds. Other stories lend evidence of this in the way they resemble “the grand original story” of God. Through the centuries many have recognized that human myths, literature, movies, and other expressions of narrative, both secular and religious, are mere reflections of God’s story. “Even Pagan stories,” J.R.R. Tolkien (famed writer of Lord of the Rings) said, “are God expressing Himself through the minds of poets, using such images as He found there, while Christianity is God expressing Himself through...real things" He believed that history truly is “His-story,” the literal Meta-narrative that God is telling. According to Tolkien, “We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God.”

If you want some resources to explore this idea further, let me offer a few:

Epic by John Eldridge. This little book is awesome. You can read it in an hour or two and you will not be sorry. In it you will see that you have a key role in this story God is writing.

The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones Don’t miss this opportunity to walk through the Bible with your kids in a way that shows God's master plan for all creation. The artwork is excellent, and the way God’s story is told is incredible. I wish this book would have been around when my kids were small!

Tolkien: Man or Myth by Joseph Pearce. This is for you who love all things Tolkien. Pearce unveils Tolkien’s core convictions and the world in which he lived in order to help us understand what ideas might really be behind his great stories.

Pick a good movie. So many...Robin Hood (2010 with Russell Crowe), Avatar, King Arthur, The Matrix, Gladiator, Harry Potter, Braveheart, The Lion King, Star Wars...et. al. This Christmas break, take a night or two, make some popcorn and watch a good movie (age appropriate) and then TALK to your kids about how it reflects THE Story. So many of these movies are our day’s “myths” that reflect ideas from THE Meta-narrative, THE Story God has written, and is still revealing around us as history unfolds.

And the whole thing hinges on a baby.