Above All Names - Week 1 - Wonderful Counselor
Introduction: Christmas Wonder
Remember what Christmas was like when you were a kid? I think for a lot of us, it was almost magical. My dad was a pastor and so we would spend the better part of our Christmas Eves at church. But I loved it. We would have a Christmas Eve service around 5 or 6 o’clock and then another one around 11:00 PM, ending just after midnight. We wouldn’t get home until close to 1 AM, and by that time I was worn out, but the adrenaline was flowing because I knew it wouldn’t be long before Santa was gonna show up and deliver the goods.
Someone once said that life consists of four stages.
· In the first stage we believe in Santa Claus.
· At the second stage we no longer believe in Santa Claus.
· The third stage is when we find out that we are Santa Claus.
· The fourth and final stage has arrived when we look like Santa Claus.
My brother, Dave and I shared a bedroom growing up – mostly to keep us from tormenting our younger sister, Debbie. We’d get to bed pretty quick once we got home from church, and then we would wait quietly in bed listening for any sound that would indicate that presents were being placed under the tree. The sound of plastic bags being opened, doors closing, lights being switched off, footsteps going up and down the stairs. We couldn’t wait to see what Santa was going to bring. Would it be an air hockey game, a ping pong table, or maybe Cuddly Dudely the dog – remember him? (He was actually kind of spooky, now that I think about it).
As soon as we were certain Mom and Dad were in bed, we would begin to quietly tip-toe down the stairs to see what “Santa” had left for us. The anticipation, the excitement, the wonder of it all was so much fun! Well, except for the year Santa left us boxing gloves and I ended up with a bloody nose on Christmas Eve. Who does that – give two grade school boys boxing gloves?
And I still really love this time of year! But as much as I love it, I have to admit I don’t have that same sense of wonder I had as a child. And I wonder - why not?
It’s like the first time you go to a place like Niagara Falls. How many have been there? I remember going there when I was a kid and I was blown away. The falls seemed so massive – larger than life. And the stories of people going over the falls in a barrel or walking across the falls on a tightrope – they completely captivated me. But I’ve been back a couple of times as an adult, and while the falls are still impressive, for some reason they just don’t provoke the same wonder they once did.
And so I wonder . . . why not?
· Could it be that disappointments in life move us away from wonder toward cynicism?
· Maybe our busy-ness causes us to neglect this aspect of life. We just don’t let ourselves get lost in wonder like we once did.
· Or maybe we dismiss wonder as sort of childish . . . something we grow out of.
And so I wonder, why don’t we wonder? It makes me think of something G K Chesterton once said, “The world will never lack for wonders, only for a lack of wonder.”
Our hope is that this Christmas, we can rediscover wonder…
Series Introduction
Pretty much everything about the Christmas story is a wonder. After all, we are celebrating the moment when the God of the universe broke through into time and space to become one of us. And how he came was so unpredictable. He came in the most helpless and unassuming way anyone could possibly imagine - a newborn baby, not born into royalty, but in poverty. His parents were homeless, immigrants, on the run from a cruel dictator. And yet this child was God! God coming into our world or as the Message translation reads: – he “moved into the neighborhood.”
Writing about 700 years before the birth of Jesus, the prophet Isaiah describes our coming King. We read about this in the ninth chapter. Let’s read verse 6 out loud together. Ready, here we go . . .
“For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the governmentwill be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor,Mighty God,
EverlastingFather,Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6)
In this passage Isaiah gives four descriptive names for Jesus - who moved into the neighborhood. He is our . . .
· Wonderful Counselor
· Mighty God
· Everlasting Father
· Prince of Peace
Each week during this series we will look at one of these names and what it tells us about who Jesus is and how that particular name for Jesus can bring tremendous significance even wonder to our lives. And not just during the Christmas season, but all year long.
Today we look at Jesus: “Wonderful Counselor”
“Wonder” Defined
Every time I have ever taught about this name of Jesus – “Wonderful Counselor” I always focused on the “Counselor” part. I would talk about how fortunate we are that we have the wisest, most knowledgeable and relationally savvy counselor in the universe at our beck and call – on our side. We have a counselor who makes Dr Phil seem like a lightweight. And while all that is true, today we’re going to focus more on the “Wonderful” part of this name “Wonderful Counselor.”
The Hebrew word translated “wonderful” in Isaiah 9 is the word pele’ and even though we read it like an adjective for counselor, it is actually in its noun form. And so the word is more about the concept or experience of “wonder” not just the adjective “wonderful.” This word (pele’) means extraordinary - hard to be understood, and astounding in such a way that it causes a feeling or attitude of intense amazement.
When I first discovered that the word “wonderful” in Hebrew is pele’ I thought of the great Brazilian Soccer player Pele, who’s real name was actually, Edson. I thought for sure he must have been given the nickname Pele’ because his soccer playing brought people a feeling of intense amazement and wonder. And while that was certainly true, I couldn’t find any evidence that he was given the nickname for that reason. But if it helps you remember the Hebrew word for Wonderful, just think about Pele’ and the magic he could perform on the soccer field.
So Isaiah isn’t merely saying the Messiah is wonderful, he is saying that the child who is born to us is a “wonder.”
In an article in Psychology Today, Dr. Neel Burton. defined wonder in the following way: “Wonder is a complex emotion involving elements of surprise, curiosity, contemplation, and joy. It is perhaps best defined as a heightened state of consciousness and emotion brought about by something singularly beautiful, rare, or unexpected . . .” (Docent, p.6)
Wonder is different than curiosity or surprise.
· Knowledge can extinguish curiosity.
· Familiarity quenches surprise.
· Wonder seems to grow and deepen the more we fully we seek to know and understand.
Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania are studying something that has become known as the “overview effect.” This is the feeling one gets as they look at something in its entirety, or from a high position to a low position such as an astronaut in space who gazes at Earth. What has often been attributed to a religious context or spiritual experience has been occurring in highly scientific environments. These researchers have identified positive psychological benefits of awe and wonder felt by those who experience the “overview effect” and so they plan to continue to study this fascinating phenomenon.
Who hear remembers the eclipse from on August 21? I was in New York dropping my daughter off to start school. I was so busy making all the arrangements for her move and ensuring she had everything she needed, that I was hardly even aware of the eclipse – something won’t be visible to us in Chicago until April 8, 2024.
Fortunately, early that afternoon I ran into another dad I knew from Chicago whose son was starting at the same school. He said, “You’ve got to see this. It’s incredible. And then he handed me some of those paper glasses people wore so that you can see the eclipse clearly. And he was so right. It was truly incredible – I didn’t want to walk away. And as I watched the moon’s shadow slowly cover the sun, I felt a growing sense of wonder and awe. Maybe it was what scientists would call the “overview effect.”
Author Margaret Feinberg wrote about the wonder she and others felt from the eclipse. She stated, “Temperature plummeted. Darkness descended. Jaws dropped. Yesterday we stood in holy awe of a heavenly display rapt by celestial power and beauty. A black fireball compelled strangers to erupt in wild applause at the airport.”
While much of the wonder was due to the eclipse itself, some was not. When a flight attendant commented she was annoyed with the “overhype” of the eclipse, Margaret’s husband loaned her his eclipse glasses to watch and shortly after, other people shared their glasses with others as well. At the airport when they landed, several people who did not know one another were sharing sunscreen, snacks, and conversing with one another. Wonder drew people together and encouraged unity. Margaret then asked, “what if you could continue the awe and wonder of the eclipse every day?”
Jesus, The Wonder
Wonder broke into our world and they called him “Jesus.” Unfortunately, I fear many of us have become inoculated to the wonderful truth about Jesus.
The truth is that everything about Jesus led people to wonder. Everything about him was unique and different. Wonderful.
Everywhere Jesus went…He dropped the mic and the crowds dropped their jaws…
This morning we hope to reignite a sense of wonder about Jesus… the incredible things he said, the astonishing things he did and the miracle of who He is, the incarnation.
His Words
In the book of Matthew chapters 5-7, we can find one of Jesus’s talks…It’s one of the longest continuous teachings of Jesus found in scripture and it is sometimes referred to as the greatest sermon ever preached…because it is J
In just a few short chapters Jesus flies over the human condition and takes the common understanding of how things ought to work and he completely flips them on their head and exposes the truth of who we were made to be and how we were meant to live…It’s absolutely incredible and unique.
He address anger, fidelity, marriage, forgiveness…He talks about loving our enemies, giving to those in need, prayer, worry, anxiety, judgment, wisdom and several other issues and we are told that as he spoke, the people were amazed at his words. (Matthew 7:28-29).
And here we are over 2000 years later and those who actually take the time to stop and listen to the words of Jesus are still amazed.
Jesus teachings have endured thousands of years of scrutiny; they’ve been translated into over 1,400 languages and have crossed almost every cultural and ethnic barrier.
How? Why? Well, The teachings of Jesus are utterly profound and they draw us into a sense of wonder.
His Actions
But it doesn't stop there! Jesus’ actions also led us to wonder…Almost anywhere you turn in the Gospels you will find Jesus doing something incredible and unexpected.
In the very last verse of John’s Gospel he says, “25Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.”
In Matthew’s Gospel he describes one of these scenes…
“Jesus returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat down.30A vast crowd brought to him people who were lame, blind, crippled, those who couldn’t speak, and many others. They laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all.31The crowd was amazed! Those who hadn’t been able to speak were talking, the crippled were made well, the lame were walking, and the blind could see again! And they praised the God of Israel.” (Matthew 15:29-31)
Can you imagine what it must have been like to be there on that hill with Jesus watching this crowd of people, the sick and the disabled, struggling to make their way to Jesus then watching them stand up from the mat they had spent their life laying on and leaping with joy? Can you imagine what it must have been like to watch as someone who has only seen darkness open their eyes for the first time to see the beauty of creation and to actually be able to see another person…Wow!
It’s hard to imagine isn’t it? Well, I want to show you a short video that some of you may have seen before but it is a video of a young deaf woman who hears for the first time because of a new medical implant…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsOo3jzkhYA (1:31 but could be edited down)
That video gets me every time! There is something so beautiful, so powerful, so emotional about seeing someone “healed” like this, isn’t it?
Now imagine again sitting on that hill next to Jesus and seeing this happen again, and again and again! Jesus came to make right all that has gone wrong in our world…it is an undoing that only he can ultimately accomplish. But when you read about what Jesus did and try to grasp what is happening…do you begin to feel that sense of wonder?…Just like we did when we watched that video.
So, Jesus’ words and his actions, his miracles, are meant to draw us into a sense of wonder and amazement…
His Birth
But perhaps the most wonderful thing about Jesus is the very thing we celebrate at Christmas time…His incarnation.
At Christmas time we celebrate the wonder of Jesus’ birth…The moment when God Himself comes to us, as one of us. God and humanity fully and perfectly united in a person. This is the dramatic moment when hope broke into our world.