Fourth Sunday in Advent (Cantata) – December 18, 2016
Cantata Meditations
Opening Meditation
It’s the most wonderful time of the year! That’s what they say, at least. But just because everyone says it doesn’t mean it’s true. Now, I’m not trying to be some sort of scrooge here this morning. Rather, I want us to take a moment to consider the many different reasons people say it’s the most wonderful time of the year!
If you’ve happened to watch television recently and stuck around to see some of the commercials, you know what businesses want you to think about this most wonderful time of the year. Advertisements that end with #givingisawesome or #givealittlemore seek to pull at your heartstrings in an effort to get you into the mindset that giving will fill you with joy and happiness.
If you listen to children they’ll probably tell you that this is the most wonderful time of the year because they get. They get to open the presents that have tantalized them as they sat under the Christmas tree! They get to play with brand new toys! They get a break from the grind of school!
What about adults? If you listen closely they talk about how wonderful this time of year is because it brings friends together. It gives opportunity to set aside the hustle and bustle of life and sit down with family.
Yes, some might even point to World War I as to why this is the most wonderful time of the year. For it was on and around Christmas Day 1914 that the sounds of rifles firing and shells exploding faded in a number of places along the Western Front in favor of holiday celebrations in the trenches and gestures of goodwill between enemies known as the Christmas truce.
But there is a problem, isn’t there, if these are the reasons that this is the most wonderful time of the year. That problem is that none of those last. After all, the day after the Christmas truce the soldiers were attempting again to kill those they had spent time with the day before. You will eventually have to go back to work – and friends and family will leave. The long dreary days of January will come and with them so will school. Toys will break. And we both know that those commercials and hashtags are nothing more than a ploy to get you to spend a bunch of money.
But that doesn’t mean this isn’t a wonderful time of year – we just need to make sure we focus on what truly makes it wonderful; and that’s what our chorus sings about this morning. What makes this time of year so great is it gives us opportunity to pause and contemplate the astonishing fact that God, the maker of heaven and earth, condescended to become one of us. He stooped down to take on the human flesh of a baby boy so that he might in every way become our substitute.
This time of year isn’t about us giving to each other. It’s about God giving to us. It isn’t about getting what is under the Christmas tree. It’s about getting what the Father gives to us in his Son. And what he gives to us is the one and only Savior who can with his life, death and resurrection remove the curse of our sin and give us perfection as a gift. Listen with that in mind to the reason that this is a Season of Rejoicing.
Closing Meditation
There is a saying, “Everyone grabs for the bench when it’s the piano that needs to be moved.” When faced with a heavy, unpleasant job, we sometimes try to avoid it by fastening on something lighter and more pleasant.
God isn’t at all like that. The biggest, heaviest, most repulsive problem is this: our sin. That’s the piano – so God grabbed the piano first.
You see, the gap between God and us could not have been any greater. With Adam and Eve’s sin their relationship to God dissolved; and with it - our relationship with God. We see the results immediately. It’s plain as day. Adam and Eve begin by blaming God. Cain, their son continues the hideous pattern by murdering his brother. So corrupt, so damaged is the heart of mankind that “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5).
It hasn’t changed today, has it? And we are part of the problem. We blame God when things don’t go right. We murder others with words and actions that flow from anger and hate. Our sin creates an uncrossable chasm between us and God. Unfortunately, that admission alone cannot reunite God’s heart with ours. In fact, no amount of insight or intelligence, tools or training could ever bridge the divide between God and man. The gap is too great; the distance too far; the separation too wide. It could only be bridged by God.
And Jesus, the one conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, is that bridge. He could be that bridge because as true man he could stand in our place and die. Yet as true God, his death would be holy and precious enough to make payment for our sins. So, he took our burden of sin on his own shoulders and carried it to the cross, where he got rid of it forever. Jesus’ blood is strong enough to scrub away any sinful stain. His grace sweeps every sin out the door. And when he says, “It is finished,” he means it.
Hold onto that truth in faith, dear brothers and sisters. Do not let the hustle and bustle of this time of year suck from you why this is the most wonderful time. And let your hearts be filled with joy and dancing as you ponder the gift given you, yes you, in that manger in Bethlehem.