Friday, December 28, 2007

Horoscopes and wise men

Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence (Ephesians 3:2-12).

Have you noticed how many papers and magazines carry horoscopes? It amazes me that in a society where people are constantly being told to keep their religion to themselves, the religion of astrology is printed unchallenged even in TV Guide! And make no mistake, astrology is a religion. Anything that you rely on daily to make decisions as to how to live your life is a religion. That is why God forbids us to consult astrologers in Deuteronomy chapter 18: Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the LORD. God wants us to trust in Him to take care of us, not to rely on the stars for guidance in how to live our lives.

It is interesting, then, to consider who the very first Gentiles were who came to worship the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. In Matthew chapter 2 we hear them say: "Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him." Of all the Gentiles, of all those people who were not members of the Jewish religion, the first to seek Jesus out were astrologers! They had studied the stars for signs about the future, and by the grace of God they found in the heavens a message of great importance—a message that told them to stop looking to the stars for hope, but instead to seek out the one person in whom all hope resides, the King of the Jews.

These Gentiles from the east, these Magi or "wise men", came to Bethlehem to become truly wise. Their knowledge from the stars was imperfect; they showed up in Jerusalem instead of Bethlehem, asking for directions. In order to find the Son of God, they first had to ask Jewish men who knew God’s holy word.; only after consulting Scripture were the wise men able to find the Babe in Bethlehem. But they did show their wisdom in this: it was not the stars that they came to Bethlehem to worship, it was the newborn King. The Magi had faith that there in Mary’s arms was the Holy One of God.

If not for the grace of God, those Magi would never have found faith in Jesus; the star that lead them to the Savior was a miracle provided by the Lord. That is the essence of Epiphany; Epiphany is all about God revealing Himself to those who are ignorant of Him. Jesus said, When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness (John 12:44-46).

You and I are the beneficiaries of this gift of God. Odds are, you are a descendant of Gentiles like I am—people who were never members of Jewish society. Our ancestors were born outside of God’s covenant with the Israelites. And it was by the choice of our forefathers that this was so. Think back to the Great Flood—at that time, God eliminated from the earth every human being who lived apart from Him—the eight survivors of Noah’s ark were the only believers in God in the entire world! Our ancestors lived on the ark; our ancestors are descendents of one of Noah’s believing sons.

But something happened in the years following the Flood—many people chose to stop worshipping God. They stopped praying to Him, they stopped showing Him their thanks through offering sacrifices, they stopped valuing His wisdom and stopped living morally upright lives. They first became lazy in their faith, then they became selfish. Parents stopped giving God honor in their lives, and their children followed suit. Over time, the majority of people forgot who God was and began to look for help elsewhere—by offering sacrifices to the sun in the sky for life, praying to the clouds for rain, studying the stars for wisdom. By the time of Abraham, most people did not believe in the true God anymore. This is why God promised that the Savior to come would be a descendant of Abraham, not of someone else—because Abraham was a true believer who worshipped and trusted God. God set up a covenant relationship between Abraham’s descendants and Himself; He would be their God and they would be His people, so long as they remained faithful to Him. God would teach them how to offer acceptable sacrifices so that their sins could be forgiven, and one day He would send them a Savior that would settle the problem of sin forever. But God had not given up on the rest of the world, even though most people rejected Him; the Savior to come would be a Savior for the whole world. God told Abraham, through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

In today’s Epistle lesson, Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ. The mystery is simply this: when so many of Noah’s descendants had deliberately turned their backs on God, and taught their children to do the same, why would God offer these Gentiles, these ancestors of ours, another chance at salvation? Doesn’t God say in Deuteronomy 5:9 that I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me? When God threatens increasing wrath on those who reject Him in sinful imitation of their parents, why would He offer these people forgiveness? Paul tells us that we were by nature objects of wrath (Ephesians 2:3).

But the mystery of Christ is that God’s forgiving love is greater than His punishing wrath. This is a mystery to us, because such grace is beyond our human capacity to understand. When someone wrongs us, our first instinct is to hurt them back, not forgive them. Because of our sinful nature, true love and the complete forgiveness that goes with it are at times incomprehensible to us. It is a wonderful mystery to us how God could send His beloved Son to die for people who didn’t want His loving sacrifice!

You and I are the beneficiaries of that wonderful mystery. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, all human sin has been made forgivable—including yours and mine. Paul says this mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. We have been put on equal footing with the children of Abraham, the children who were offered a covenant relationship with God! It’s as if our ancestors never dismissed God as unnecessary in their lives, never walked away from Him. We are regarded by God as if our ancestors had remained faithful members of His chosen people throughout history. God said in Deuteronomy that His wrath would build on children who followed their parents in rejecting Him, but listen to the promise of grace that comes at the end of that verse: I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. This is the wonderful promise to us who are, by the mystery of Christ, co-heirs with the people whose families have never walked away from God.

Through Jesus, God has offered a New Covenant which supercedes the one made with Abraham and his children. Under the Old Covenant, we could only approach God with fear as we offered sacrifices for the forgiveness of our sins. But Paul explains that under the New Covenant, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. What a wonderful change! Under the Old Covenant, we could not approach God too closely because we are filled with sin, and His holiness would have destroyed us because of that sin. This is why Isaiah was terrified when God allowed him a glimpse of the heavenly throne room: "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (Isaiah 6:5).

Through the New Covenant brought about by Jesus, things are now different. Jesus is God made safe to look upon, safe to touch. Jesus is God dressed in the clothing of humanity, clothing that we can cling to with trembling fingers in our deepest need. Hebrews 1:3 tells us The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being; Jesus said I and the Father are one (John 10:30). Luke 6:19 tells us, the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all. Jesus is God made flesh; Jesus is God’s power made safe to touch; Jesus brings God’s healing of the disease of sin to all mankind.

Jesus brought about this change by means of one, final sacrifice. Under the Old Covenant, God accepted various sacrifices from the people to make up for their wrongdoings and to improve their relationship with Him. People offered God the first-born of their flocks and herds, the first fruits of their harvests, and a tenth of all that God had given them each year. These sacrifices were offered over and over because they never solved the problem of sin, and sin is a daily part of every human’s entire life. But Jesus offered His life on the cross as the final sacrifice—Hebrews 7:27 describes Him as our once-for-all High Priest: Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

Because Jesus made the ultimate sacrifice for sin, we are freed from the Old Covenant demand for repeated sacrifices—we all gain the benefit of Jesus’ final sacrifice through faith in Him. Paul says God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood (Romans 3:25). What a wonderful New Covenant! We are not only united with the family of God as full co-inheritors of the kingdom, we also are freed from the pressures of the old sacrificial system. We are free to approach God any time, anywhere, without the need to first make a sacrifice. We can gather freely to worship God, because Jesus promised where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them (Matthew 18:20). And when we give our donations to the Lord, we can treat it all as thank-offerings, none of it as an obligation. Under the New Covenant brought into effect by Christ, going to church is not a duty that we carry out to protect us from God’s anger, church is where we go to rejoice in God's blessings of forgiveness and love!

We experience church in a way that our ancestors did not. Those who worshipped the sun in the sky never heard that fiery ball say, "I forgive you." Those who prayed for rain never heard a cloud say, "You can trust me." Those who looked for wisdom in the stars never heard those stars say, "I love you." Such religions are foolish—they give no real hope, no security, no lasting comfort. Our ancestors rejected God for religions like these. God was under no obligation to offer them a return to the fellowship of the faithful; the fact that He continues to extend second and third and fourth opportunities to come back is a mystery of God’s incomprehensible love, a love shown to us exclusively through Jesus Christ.

This is the meaning of Epiphany for us, the descendants of Gentiles. Jesus came into the world to reconcile all people to God; Colossians chapter one says God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. The great mystery of Christ is that He died for you and for me; for your ancestors and mine; for your descendants and mine. May 2008 be a year of appreciation of this great gift, and may you always instill in your children an appreciation for this gift as well.

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