25 July 2021
Steinbach
Mennonite Church
Last Sunday,
Michael Pahl introduced us to the section in the hymnal on God’s Story as it
draws from the Old Testament. Today, we continue with the New Testament. This
section in the hymnal is really big, covering everything from Advent to the
Reign of Christ. There are more than 200 entries included in this section.
I have chosen
two basic passages to encompass these varied themes. The first is found in the
beginning of Luke’s gospel and emphasises the simple historical nature of the
accounts we have in the New Testament. The second is found at the end of
Revelation and emphasises the cosmic nature of the story that we find ourselves
in. We look briefly at these two passages and then return to this remarkable
combination of daily life and cosmic significance.
Luke 1: 1-4,
2: 1-7
The first two
chapters of Luke’s gospel make two simple points besides telling the amazing
and wonderful story of Jesus’ birth. 1) Luke writes his gospel in order to
establish the simple historical truth of the life of Jesus. 2) He locates the
story of Jesus’ birth in sober matter-of-fact terms: when and where. God’s
story in the OT begins with the cosmos – “far beyond the starry skies”. In the
NT the story is anchored in history. God’s story is the story of God’s
intervention in human history. “God is here among us, let us all adore him.”
Luke 1: 1 to 4
states it clearly. Luke says that there are many stories circulating about
Jesus and that there are also many who actually knew Jesus and heard him teach.
Luke says, “I too decided, after investigating everything carefully from the
very first, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so
that you may know the truth concerning the things about which you have been
instructed.” Luke grounds the amazing story of Jesus in sober historical fact.
Luke 2: 1-7
demonstrates that grounding:
In those days a decree went out from
Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This
was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of
Syria. 3 All went to their own towns to be
registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of
Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he
was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He
went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a
child. 6 While they were there, the time came for
her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to
her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn.
Luke writes
with the kind of attention to detail that you might find in a good journalist,
one who takes care to verify everything and gets all the facts straight. This
careful attention to historical fact is a basic characteristic of the story of God.
Most religions are not grounded in history. They seek to show the cosmic story,
not the simpler human story. The way that the New Testament story begins with
attention to human history is important.
Why do you
think it is important? Other religions (like Hinduism and Buddhism and Islam)
do not ground themselves in history in this way. We do, but why? Because the
story of Jesus brings God directly into our lives. Jesus was a man like us. He
was a Palestinian Jew who lived in the first century. He was probably average
height for his time – about 5 ft 3 in, with short hair. The people around him
knew him and his family. The importance of all this simple historical detail is
to emphasize the reality of “God with us”.
Revelation
21 and 22
This emphasis
on the particular specific reality of Jesus brings us to the end of the story
in Revelation. The book of Revelation in general is anything but commonplace.
John does not make it easy for us to see his historical context. Instead, he
focusses on the cosmic reality of Christ. He brings the whole grand story of
God’s redemption of the world to a soaring climax in which Jesus, the man of
Galilee, is revealed as Christ, the ruler of the Universe.
We read part of
chapter 21 and part of chapter 22, but we could have read both together. The
end of chapter 21 describes Jesus this way: “I saw no temple in the city, for
its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need
of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp
is the Lamb.” In the New Heaven and New Earth, the sun is eclipsed by the glory
of “the Lamb”, that is, Jesus, the Son of God.
Chapter 22
repeats this description: “Nothing accursed will be found there anymore. But
the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship
him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there
will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will
be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
The descriptions
of the New Jerusalem include various ways of describing perfection. There is no
more sorrow. Tears are gone. Death is done away with. There is no more sea.
This last one is interesting: In the Old Testament, the Sea is the place that
evil rises from, and in the earlier chapters of Revelation the Beast comes from
the Sea. Now, not only is evil defeated, but the very place that agents of evil
have hidden themselves is destroyed. Everything is now right; perfection rules
forever!
Synthesis
Bring these two
pictures together. In the first picture, Jesus comes as a baby who grows into
adulthood and lives an ordinary life on earth. He gets caught up in the
intrigues and power plays of the day and loses his life to a Roman cross. In
the second picture, Jesus reveals God in all God’s glory, and the physical
weakness that we see in Jesus reveals the power and eternal glory of God, the
Creator.
In my seminary
studies, my world religions professor (Matt Zahniser) expressed this dual
dynamic in an interesting way. He observed that some religions view God as
ultimate and other than us. Typical are Judaism and Islam, in which God created
all that is. God is not present in this world physically; rather, God made this
world, and we live in it and do God’s will. God is ultimate. God is sovereign.
As Judaism puts it, God is “King of Eternity”, and as Islam puts it, God is the
only One, the absolute Other, the Creator of the universe.
Zahniser
continued with the opposite end of the spectrum: Some religions view God as
intimate and closer to us than our own skin. Hinduism is typical of this view.
Hindu teachers tell us that you and I are God. We are all one and the
differences that we see in this world are really only an illusion. If God is
not just within me, but actually is me, then God is more intimate
than we can possibly imagine.
Both of these
views have their attraction. If God is ultimate, God has the power to deal with
all of the problems of our world. Of course, if God is ultimate, God may not be
particularly interested in our problems. If God is intimate, God cares about us
intimately. Of course, if God is intimate, God may not have the power to deal
with our problems. We need a God of power and a God of intimate love. That is
what we find in Christian faith.
In Christian
faith we have a God who is ultimate. Just as in Judaism and Islam, God is the
creator of the universe. The passage Michael Pahl led us in last Sunday states
it clearly: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting
God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his
understanding is unsearchable.” (Isaiah 40:28)
We also have a
God who is intimate. Just as in Hinduism, God is closer to us than anything
else in the world. That is why one of the names of Jesus is Immanuel, “God with
us.” That is why Jesus was born as a baby into a human family. Indeed, you
could call Jesus “the Ultimate Intimate”.
The Ultimate
Intimate – that is the story of the New Testament. God who is ultimate, who
holds the moon and the stars in God’s hand, that ultimate omnipotent God came
into our lives as one of us. Or to put it the other way round, Jesus, the
intimate one, Jesus who walked with his disciples and ate and slept with them,
this closer than a brother Jesus is also the ultimate, the Creator of all that
is or ever can be. Jesus is the Ultimate Intimate.
Singing The
Story
We sing this
amazing NT story each Sunday to remind ourselves that this is the world that we
live in. Our world often appears to be a collection of random events with no
real hope for the future. We sing the story to remind ourselves that the one
who made our world lives and walks among us as one of us. We sing the story to
rediscover God’s presence in our hurt and fears.
These two
themes – God’s closeness and love for us on the one hand and God’s power to
save us on the other – intertwine to give us hope in a hopeless world. Here are
two new songs in this section of the hymnal that express this hope.
#303
O love, how deep, how broad, how high!/ It fills the heart
with ecstasy,
That God, the Son of God, should take/ our mortal form for
mortals’ sake.
For us he was baptized and bore/ his holy fast, and hungered
sore.
For us temptation sharp he knew,/ for us the tempter
overthrew.
For us he prayed, for us he taught,/ for us his daily works
he wrought,
By words and signs and actions thus/ still seeking not
himself but us.
For us to wicked hands betrayed,/ scourged, mocked, in purple
robe arrayed,
He bore the shameful cross and death, for us at length gave
up his breath.
Eternal glory to our God/ for love so deep, so high, so
broad;/
The Trinity whom we adore forever and forever more.
#412
My soul cries out with a joyful shout that the God of my
heart is great
And my spirit sings of the wondrous things that you bring to
the ones who wait
You fixed your sight on your
servant’s plight and my weakness you did not spurn
So from east to west shall my
name be blest/ Could the world be about to turn?
My heart shall sing of the day
you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn
draws near/ And the world is about to turn!
Though I am small, my God, my
all, you work great things in me
And your mercy will last from the
Depths of the past to the end of the age to be
Your very name puts the proud to
shame and to those who would for you yearn
You will show your might, put the
strong to flight/ For the world is about to turn
My heart shall sing of the day
you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn
draws near/ And the world is about to turn!
From the halls of power to the
fortress tower not a stone will be left on stone
Let the king beware for your justice
tears ev’ry tyrant from his throne
The hungry poor shall weep no
more for the food they can never earn
There are tables spread, ev’ry mouth
be fed/ For the world is about to turn
My heart shall sing of the day
you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn
draws near/ And the world is about to turn!
Though the nations rage from age
to age we remember Who holds us fast
God’s mercy must deliver us from
the conqueror’s crushing grasp
This saving word that out
forebears heard is the promise which holds us bound
’Til the spear and rod can be crushed
by God Who is turning the world around
My heart shall sing of the day
you bring/ Let the fires of your justice burn
Wipe away all tears/ For the dawn draws near/ And the world is about to turn!
Conclusion
I encourage you
to look through this wonderful section on the life, death, resurrection,
return, and reign of Jesus. There is power in this story – the power of the
Ultimate Almighty God. There is love and hope in this story – the love of the
Intimate God who loves us so much that God became one of us. The power of love
expressed in the Ultimate Intimate, God with us, our Immanuel.
Texts
Luke 1: 1-4: 2:
1-7
1) Luke writes his gospel in order to establish the simple
historical truth of the life of Jesus. 2) He locates the story of Jesus’ birth
in sober matter-of-fact terms: when and where. God’s story in the OT begins
with the cosmos – “far beyond the starry skies”. In the NT the story is anchored
in history. God’s story is the story of God’s intervention in human history.
“God is here among us, let us all adore him.”
Revelation 21:
1-4; 22: 1-6
God’s story in the NT begins in Bethlehem, but it ends in the
New Jerusalem. From sober history to something beyond human imagining,
“fantasy” of the highest order. The end of the story really is better than
anything we could possibly think of ourselves, and it is given to us!
Focus
Statement: God’s NT
story begins in our lives and ends in God. The OT sets the stage for us to
analyse the ills and troubles of this world; the NT brings hope into the
darkest places of our lives.
Think on it questions: What is the New Testament story for? Isn’t the
Old Testament enough? Why do we need “God’s Story, Part Two”?
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