Sunday December 11, 2016 | Greg Boyd
This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.
In this third week of our Across the Universe series we are reminded that the counter-cultural beauty of the Christmas story is in the reality that the God who created the vast expanses of the universe became small and vulnerable. While it is often the case that we marvel at what is grand and big, the message at Christmas is that oftentimes the most profound experiences of God are in the seemingly mundane moments of life. Our call is to be a people who remember and remind others that the God of the universe does not only go half way for us, and so we should go all the way in love for others.
In this third week of our Across the Universe series, Greg Boyd begins with explaining some of his earliest experiences in more Pentecostal churches where the presence of God was most clearly seen in the external “wow” experiences of God. These were often marked by ecstatic and powerful manifestations of the presence of God. While these types of experiences are certainly a way that God expresses His presence, they are not the particular way we see God showing up in the Christmas story. Matthew 1:18-24 provide a glimpse into the coming of Jesus into the world and it is the story of the God of the universe coming to the world as an innocent and vulnerable child. Matthew tells us that this baby coming into the world will be called, “Immanuel” which means “God with us”. If Jesus is our window into the heart of God and the coming of Jesus looks rather insignificant from the world’s perspective, then those ecstatic “wow” experiences are probably not where we will find God most often.
The story of Christmas contrasts greatly with the history of religion. The historical picture of God within religion consists of a God who is vast, separate, angry, vengeful and to be feared. Humanities confusion over the character of God can be seen clearly even in the stories of Adam and Even (Genesis 2-3) and Cain (Genesis 4) where there was an assumption that God was both distant and holding out on the characters in the story. Christmas is all about God blowing apart the prism of our captivity to a false picture of God. The God who is over us became intimately with us. The God who created the vastness of the universe showed up as a baby. This is the most profoundly accurate picture of God. God couldn’t have gone any further for us and this paints a picture of the unsurpassable love that reflects the true glory of God. God reveals his power most perfectly by becoming weak.
Greg finishes his sermon with three suggestions for how you can position yourself to better experience this truth about the beauty of God we see in the Christmas story. First, we must accept that “God With Us” applies to you. You personally have unsurpassable worth because God paid an unsurpassable price. The more you can live in that narrative, the more you will be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Second, look for “God With Us” in the small and unexpected. Be on the lookout for God showing up in the insignificant cracks of your life. Try to wake up to the little things that normally would be missed when you are speeding through life. God is not afraid of our messes, but willingly gives into our messiness to clean us up from the inside-out. Third, remember, you are made in the image of this God. You are made in the image of a “go all the way” God. You are made in the image of an extremist God who never stops half way up the mountain on the journey. Go all the way with what God has called you to be.