What Matters

A Christmas Reflection

Christmas is when God came down the stairs of heaven with a baby in His arms. R. Eugene Sterner

Christmas - it’s a crazy time of year. Life cranks up to warp speed, only to slow down to the leisurely crawl of lazy summer days, cricket on the TV (what fun that is this year!) and leftover ham sandwiches. Unless of course you work in retail or the like, which unfortunately means warp speed is your life for a while yet. In all the lurking in shopping centre car parks desperate for a space, over-indulgent meals and slothful, sunburned days, it’s easy to forget that 2000 years ago time didn’t just slow down for a moment; in some ways it stood still.

At the heart of the Christian story is the conviction that at a very particular moment in time – just the right time in fact- God wrapped himself in frail and vulnerable human form as an expression of divine favour towards humanity.  That’s you and me – us.  Was this simply some cosmic Grand Gesture?  No.  The very familiarity of the Christmas Story can dull for us the meaning that’s at its heart, a meaning in many ways more unbelievable than the nativity miracles of virgin birth, heavenly choirs and wandering stars.

More than a Grand Gesture, Christmas is a Decisive Act; a Divine Intervention if you like.  Into a sin-stained, broken and radically imperfect world God expressed himself in the form of his radically perfect Son, one both fully human and fully divine. God chose willingly not to remain aloof from his creation, but to identity with our world through full and complete immersion in it.  But Christmas isn’t just about divine identification with us but, more importantly, divine salvation for us.

The two great Christian festivals of Christmas and Easter are inextricably linked.  The Bethlehem cradle makes no sense without the Golgotha cross. Through his perfect life AND sacrificial death, Jesus liberates us from sin and consequential death.  On the cross, Jesus absorbed into his perfection our imperfection. Ultimately our freedom is the gift of his perfection for our imperfection, a beautiful exchange possible only by grace, and made by faith.  And who the Son sets free, is free indeed. Four hundred years after the first Christmas, a church father succinctly summarised the real meaning of Christmas thus...

He became what we are that he might make us what he is. Saint Athanasius

Soul Singing

Christmas traditions are many and varied; trees strewn with decorations, lunch tables groaning with food and presents of course. Then there are the songs –carols - that we love to belt out, tunefully or not.  From early December onwards, carol events are held up and down the coast.  Even those of us with little or no faith love to sing time-honored, as well as cliché-ridden Christmas songs.  It makes sense; we shouldn’t be surprised when we recognize the first Christmas was narrated as much in song as it was with prose.

After receiving the startling news of her pregnancy, and with the affirmation of her relative Elizabeth ringing in her ears, Mary’s song vocalized the delight of her soul. ‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.’ (Luke 1:46-47)  Then, after nine months being struck mute, Zechariah sings prophetically of the vital role his son, John the Baptist, would play in preparing the way for the unveiling of Israel’s Messiah. ‘And you my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him.’ (Luke 1:76). Finally, on the night of Jesus birth, the sky lit up with the sight and sound of the heavenly host providing some awe-struck shepherds with a performance they would never forget. ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.’ (Luke 2:14)  Music permeated the atmosphere that first Christmas.  No wonder we’ve loved to sing every Christmas since.

So, what song will you be singing this Christmas?  I don’t mean with your lips so much as with your heart – your soul – your spirit. Will your soul join Mary’s in glorifying God, and your spirit in rejoicing in God your saviour?  Christmas becomes truly magical when it’s personal; when the story of a savior born in humble circumstances becomes the story of OUR saviour whose life, death and resurrection rescues us from sin and death.  When it’s that personal, well, our heart can’t help but sing.

Doubtful Expectation: Zechariah's Story

Zechariah entered the Most Holy Place to make the incense offering, not expecting to hear God speak or act. But God God was not limited by Zechariah's doubtful expectation, and neither his God limited by our.  Listen in: Download 081213_Stu_Cameron Or you can read it here: Download Zechariah Manuscript

A Prayer for South Africa

Last Sunday at Newlife-Robina one of our South African born members, Deanna Pienaar, led us in prayer for that wonderful nation. Deanna's prayer reflects the heart cry of many South Africans she spoke to last week, including some of the many who are a part of our church community.

Dear Heavenly Father, we praise you for this glorious Gold Coast morning. We praise you this morning for the privilege of being able to live in a city where we can feel safe; for the opportunity of being able to live in a country such as Australia where we have so much freedom and so many benefits.We confess, Father God, that there are many times that we take these privileges for granted. We can be keen to complain and find fault when, indeed, we are so blessed. And for this ingratitude, we are sorry.

We lift up to you this morning, Father, the country of South Africa. The beautiful country of South Africa whose heart is aching at the loss of their greatest son and earthly father figure, Nelson Mandela. Father, you know how much hope and love and other intense emotion the people of this unique nation have invested in the legend that Nelson Mandela has become for them and, indeed, for millions around the world. He has carried for so many decades the only hope for the citizens of a special country that is wracked with tension, violence, corruption, illness, high unemployment, segregation and huge anxiety. And this morning, Father, as they begin to celebrate and reflect on the life of this remarkable man, their anxiety also begins as they wait to see where the ship of South Africa will now be steered without its rudder of so many years.

We thank you, Heavenly Father, for the life of Nelson Mandela, for the difference his life, his sacrifice, his courage, his determination, his wisdom and integrity, his lack of bitterness and his amazing capacity to forgive have made to the lives of many. We praise you, Father, for your presence and for your hand on the peaceful transition that occurred in South Africa 20 years ago when Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk and other leaders called on you to guide the nation through what could have been a treacherous time.

Father God, we call on you again this morning, to have your hand firmly on South Africa and her people as they deal with their grief, their loss and their anxiety for the future. We ask, Father, that the legacy of Nelson Mandela will not be in vain. We ask that the future leaders of South Africa will perpetuate and cherish his legacy sufficiently to consider striving for freedom for all—freedom of speech, freedom to have a home, food, an education and to feel and be safe. We pray that the youth of the nation, who perhaps are not as sensitive or as appreciative of the sacrifice made by many such as Nelson Mandela, will remain calm, co-operative, collaborative and respectful in order that a peaceful, productive future for South Africa can be possible.

This morning, Father, we implore you to remain present in the lives and minds of all South Africans. Holy Spirit, move among the people of that nation, so that they become stirred to take up the baton that they have for so long left in the hands of their hero, their Madiba. As Mandela said at his retirement, “It is time for new hands to lift the burdens of the world” . We ask that you will equip and guide the nation with eager, honest hands to take up this call.

And, Father, at this time of Advent, we are mindful that the life and cause of Nelson Mandela has also brought with it pain for many families in South Africa; many of whom may be here this morning in this room and all over the world. Father, South Africa is such a complex, mystifyingly beautiful place, and we ask this morning that all who have been hurt by the struggle that may be associated with Nelson Mandela will find it in their heart to not only forgive him and others but that they may be blessed with a wisdom that allows them to understand and appreciate the sacrifice of many. We ask that the people of South Africa will remain calm, will continue to forgive in order that peace can prevail.

Prince of Peace, may this season of Advent fill the hearts of each one of us present here today and make us mindful of the need to forgive where forgiveness is required so that we can go into this season, celebrating your life, Father, with a pure heart.

We ask this all in the beautiful name of Jesus. Amen.

Advent Faith

One of the (many) things I love about the bible is that it’s full of such recognizable characters, each with their own human frailties and foibles.  The women and men in scripture are familiar in that in their stories I find echoes of my own; in their stories of encountering God’s grace I find hope for similar experiences. The story of Zechariah (Luke 1) is no exception.

Zechariah and Elizabeth lived anonymous, faithful lives marked by the aching disappointment of childlessness. Prayers had remained unanswered; God stubbornly silent. Or so it seemed. Their lives are turned upside down by an unexpected angelic visitation and divine pronouncement and with it an astonishing answer to their long-offered prayers.  Elizabeth greets the news with delight; Zechariah with doubt. 

While in the Holy Place of the Temple, Zechariah greets the angel Gabriel with questions that reveals his deeper questions and doubts.  It seems he has entered God’s presence with a prayer on his lips, but no expectation in his heart. Like Zechariah, too often I come to God with low expectations in a faithless attempt to guard my heart against disappointment. But in the Christmas story we are reminded that God delights in meeting, and even surpassing our seemingly unrealistic expectations.  Most in Israel longed for a Messiah that would deliver them from Roman tyranny.  They received a Messiah who delivered them from the tyranny of their own sin.  Many longed for a messiah who would restore the nation; they received a messiah who restores a broken world.

As we gather for worship, we enter into the presence of a God who is able to do abundantly more than what we ask for or imagine (Ephesians 5).  We enter the presence of a God who still addresses his people by the Holy Spirit and through the Word.  So let’s raise our expectation bar, not lower it!  We do so knowing that God will continue to surprise us with his grace, as he did Zechariah. 

Advent Expectation

Advent - the season leading up to Christmas - is a period of exhaustion and expectation. School, work and other commitments are reaching a crescendo. The pace of life picks up before, for most of us at least, it eases off into the joy of Christmas celebrations, long and lazy summers days and leftover ham sandwiches.  As we turn from one year to the next, we do so with the expectation and apprehension of an adventurer peering over the horizon wondering what will greet us. 

There is a deeper expectation that undergirds the advent season; the expectation that the Christ who came once will come again. In fact, for those of us whose lives are oriented around the Jesus story, our faith is meaningless without this expectation.  A cursory reading of the New Testament reveals that the fledgling Christian faith eagerly waited for, anticipated and prayed with urgency for Christ's return. Do we do the same? 

I can't help but think that the western church's relative silence about such matters in part reflects an unhealthy acceptance of the status quo, and comfort in the world we enjoy now.  It is no coincidence that across our globe now, and through history, those Christian communities that have anticipated Christ's return most eagerly have been those burdened with acute suffering and/or persecution. With his return, Jesus will fulfil his promise to wipe away every tear and dry every eye.  Suffering believers long for this day. 

Perhaps a gift we can ask God for this Christmas is a renewed longing for the second coming. In Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, the hobbit Frodo is unexpectedly reunited with his great friend, Gandalf the Wizard, who Frodo had thought was dead.  Seeing his friend alive, Frodo exclaims with joy, 'Does this mean that one day everything sad will become untrue?' Advent reminds us the Christ who came once, will come again and when he comes again, heaven and earth will be drawn together in perfect harmony and 'everything sad will become untrue'.  And so we cry, come Lord Jesus, come!