November 27: Unamazed?
♫ Music:
WEEK ONE
November 27 - December 3
Promises of a Coming Messiah
Over a thousand years prior to Christ’s birth, the Old Testament prophets proclaimed His coming, the arrival of the Messiah or “Anointed One”, sent by God to redeem Israel and be the salvation of the world. Biblical scholar J. Barton Payne has identified 127 Messianic promises predicted in over 3,000 Old Testament verses. Theologian Walter Kaiser suggests, “The prophecies about the Messiah form a unified promise-plan of God, where each promise is interrelated and connected into a grand series comprising one continuous plan.” These intertwining promises do not separate Christ’s redemption of the human race from His eternal rule and reign over all. The King who came as a babe, fulfilled the hopes of Old Testament believers who were fortunate enough to recognize their Messiah. Likewise, Christians today wait with anticipation for Christ the Messiah’s second coming, and the establishment of His righteous kingdom as foretold in Old Testament prophecies.
Scripture: Psalm 2:6-8
As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree: The Lord said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.”
The Coming
by R.S. Thomas
And God held in his hand
A small globe. Look he said.
The son looked. Far off,
As through water, he saw
A scorched land of fierce
Color. The light burned
There; crusted buildings
Cast their shadows: a bright
Serpent, A river
Uncoiled itself, radiant
With slime.
On a bare
Hill a bare tree saddened
The sky. Many People
Held out their thin arms
To it, as though waiting
For a vanished April
To return to its crossed
Boughs. The son watched
Them. Let me go there, he said.
UNAMAZED?
I’m afraid that Advent is not as amazing to me as it should be. I’m scared that carols and cards have consumerized my conceptualization of Christmas, when the Savior’s birth is supposed to be completely beyond my comprehension.
See, it’s hard for me to understand the miracle of Jesus’ birth. Not just the miracle that a virgin birthed a child, but more that God allowed himself to be birthed. That God allowed himself to be bound by bone and blood and breath, that vocal chords contained the Word.
Jesus left his throne and found himself in a manger. The eyes that saw the past, present, and future now struggled with the sight of light. The hands that formed all creation now clutched the finger of a teenaged girl. He left the angels’ melodies of Holy, Holy, Holy for the virgin’s vulnerable lullabies. Jesus left a place we could only imagine for a place we wish we could forget.
But that’s not even the crazy part. The crazy part is that he knew what would happen after his birth. He knew that he was leaving a place without sickness for a world filled with it. Jesus came here knowing that he would have to deal with sores, headaches, price gouging, corrupt governments, racism, injustice. He knew that he would ultimately face a humiliating death – stripped, suffocated, and shamed. He knew that he would endure the disgrace of criminal death, and be separated from the Father for the first time on that cross.
Jesus left a place where tears don’t exist to endure human pain. What did he feel when he first cried that Christmas night? What did he feel when he last cried: My God, My God why have you forsaken me?
Why did he do it? We all know the answer: to save us. It’s so easy for us to say. It’s so familiar.
But couldn’t there have been another way? Couldn’t there have been an easier way? Did he really have to become human? Couldn’t he have just taken away the pain? Couldn’t he have reconnected us with God another way?
No. Jesus chose the path he did, knowing the consequences, knowing the rewards. He purposefully emptied himself and chose the road of sacrifice, humbly offering his righteousness for our brokenness. He showed us that it’s possible to thrive in our fractured world by living out Kingdom wholeness. So, he went from God to goat, from glory to guilt. And that’s how the first Advent started.
By the end of his life on earth, even the grave couldn’t contain his divinity. How, then, can we make his birth so routine each Advent? How, then, can we make it so familiar?
When the virgin held Jesus in her arms, could she understand the reality of it? When she laid him at her breast, did she realize she was nursing her Creator? Nourishing the one who sustains her? I don’t think she understood. I don’t think her mind could wrap itself around the miracle in her arms. I know mine can’t.
Allocate some time today to reflect on the Bible passage, video, music, and poem. Allow them to remind you that this birth we anticipate was the actual Son of God. Allow this miracle to recenter your expectations and hopes as you begin this Advent journey.
Prayer
Lord, as we begin this Advent journey, we pray for more wonder than familiarity, more hope than despair. May we not make the miracle of your birth so routine and unamazing. Teach us to see you for who you truly are this season.
Amen.
Mike Ahn
Director, Worship & Formation
Spiritual Development
Video: The First Coming
Dan Stevers
About the Video:
Dan Stevers is a multimedia designer and producer from San Diego, CA. After creating promotional and inspirational videos for his local church, Stevers began working as a media producer for a number of churches. Today, his videos serve as resources for Christian institutions around the globe. Stevers says, “First Coming represents a beautiful celebration of the humble, unexpected nature of the incarnation.” First Coming was written by Sh'maya, Design & Animation by Jason Watson, Music by Benjamin Gustafsson and Voice-Over by Rob Ricott.
www.danstevers.com
About the Music:
“The Son of God Came Down”
Lyrics:
The Son of God came down and laid aside His crown,
Born without great renown, this Sovereign One.
All holiness and might, all glory shining bright
Have come to earth this night in Mary’s son.
O come, let us adore.
Chorus:
O Christ the Lord, our hope and Savior,
Son of God yet made like us.
O Christ the Lord, our King adored,
Born a child, our Lord Jesus.
Messiah born so small, asleep in cattle stall,
Come to redeem our fall, nailed to a tree.
This tiny, helpless child through death would reconcile
The holy God and vile, His grace so free.
O come, let us adore.
About the Composer:
Doug Plank is a songwriter, vocalist and pastor at one of the Crossway Churches, Sovereign Grace Church, in Millersville, PA. He oversees worship and a group of musicians and songwriters called the Crossway Collective.
About the Performer:
The mission of Sovereign Grace Music for the past thirty years has been to provide Christ-exalting songs and training for churches. With a variety of genres, artist and styles, Sovereign Grace Music hopes to reach a broad and diverse audience with biblically informed, heartfelt and spirit-empowered music.
http://www.sovereigngracemusic.org/
About the Poet:
Recognized as one of the leading poets of modern Wales, R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) writes about the harshness of the Welsh countryside, the difficulties of rural existence, and the spirituality of man. The son of a sailor, Thomas spent much of his childhood in British port towns where he and his mother lived while his father was away at sea. In 1936, Thomas was ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church, becoming a priest a year later, at which point he began writing poetry. Thomas was nominated for the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.