You Shall Call His Name Jesus--a few sermon notes

Matthew begins his Gospel with the genealogy of Jesus. As I said last week, a modern editor would have other ideas. We would affirm that Matthew, under the direction of that greatest of editors—the Holy Spirit—was right.


Still, this opening portion of the story of the life of Jesus is incredible.
Last week, I described it as a love triangle. A triangle is the typical pattern for a love story.
“Boy meets girl; they fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after” is convenient, but does not make for good stories, movies, and songs.
There has to be a third party, a foil to the plan, another person or issue that intervenes long enough to create a full story.
(In the case of Romeo and Juliet, the third party was the family feud.)

One of the great masters of the romance was Jane Austen.
She almost never gave any physical description of her characters.
She often wrote in a passive rather than an active voice.
Her humor, ever present, was so dry and subtle as to be lost to many readers.
Even though she lived during the times when England was at war with Napoleon, there are almost no references and certainly no actions relating to anything on or near a battlefield.
The only dangers in her stories seem to be rainstorms, which inevitably leaves some poor girl almost hopelessly sick. Or the danger of someone having to marry a merchant, that is, a person who actually works for a living.
The first impression of a book like Pride and Prejudice is “Why does it take her so long to get Elizabeth and Darcy married?”
A deeper reading suggests that Jane Austen very tightly compressed lots and lots of wisdom in a relatively short and simple tale.
If she is a master of subtlety, mystery, and the slow unveiling of truths, how much more so is the writer of this romance, this love story, the Gospel of Matthew?

Matthew’s Little Bible

This portion of God’s Word--Matthew 1:18-25-- is itself a little Bible. A systematic theology in 8 verses. A pattern for life. A compressed, compact, concentrated story that tells you everything you need to know about life.

What doctrines and applications are contained in Matthew 1:18-25?

There is a reminder of the creation. “The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.” Here again the Spirit is creating.
You have the Trinity—the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit.
The incarnation of the Son, that is, His becoming human flesh.
The two natures of Christ: Humanity and Deity.
The blending of the natural and the supernatural.
The physical world and the spiritual world, with the physical being the realm of men and the spiritual world inhabited by angels. Hence, the doctrine of angels.
You have natural revelation, Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant, and supernatural revelation. Things Joseph could not know apart from God.
The law and mercy: Joseph…a just man…not wanting to make her a public example
The story of the Davidic Covenant and Kingship—Son of David.
The Old Testament story is here as well as the New Testament story.
Faith: "Do not be afraid to take to you Mary as your wife."
Works: "Joseph, being aroused from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded."
Promise, Fulfillment.
Prophecy--Future: “He will save His people from their sins."
The Fall:  Sins
Atonement:  He will save, atone for, pay the price for...
A covenant people:  His people
The doctrines of grace: an elect people, irresistibly drawn and set apart.
Providence
Human responsibility
Serving Christ, suffering for Christ, living for Christ.
Marriage
Manhood
An eschatology of victory: A view toward the end of things where God triumphs.
The unexpected, the miraculous, and the life changing.

It is hard to think of a doctrine or aspect of life that is not found here in this little Bible—Matthew 1:18-25.

It is, as it were, like the Big Bang theory of the Universe. All matter compressed together that explodes and expands to form into everything we know.

And in the manner God enjoys so much: He gives us these truths in a story.
Robyn Miller said, “Story molds us. There’s hardly anything we change our minds about because we’re convinced by logical arguments. Story makes us who we are.”

Aristotle said, “The mind never thinks without a picture.” (Same source, page 87)

So here is the story. The story of this world. The story of your life. The story of promise.

The First Christmas Rush--4th Advent Sermon

Some of the roughness of the shepherds is conveyed in this painting.

 Sermon for Lessons and Carols—4th Sunday of Advent, December 18, 2011

“The First Christmas Rush—They Came With Haste”

Scripture Text: Luke 2:16 
"And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger."

If I have it once this season, I’ve heard it a thousand times. And 500 of those thousand times, I was the one saying it: "We are so busy! We have something going on every night. And we still don’t have something or other done."

The holiday season is a mad rush. It used to begin with Black Friday.  Now if you hit the stores at 4 am that morning, you are 4 to 8 to 12 hours late.
In my own family, we have been involved in four concerts, two play performances, class Christmas parties, the Christmas ball, along with all of life’s usual activities.

There might be a need for calling for a reform, a change of pace, a restructuring of Christmas celebrations, but 2 things:
1. I am too busy to think through how to reform the season.
2. If we cut something out, we usually come up with something else to fill in its place.

The whole Advent story is one filled with surprises, turn-of-events, and haste.
It starts with an elderly couple—Zecharias and Elizabeth suddenly having to cope with two new issues—Zecharias cannot speak and they need things for taking care of a baby.
We are told in Luke 1:39 that Mary arose and went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth.
How she conveyed the news of her situation is unclear, but no doubt difficult.
At least one person misunderstood—a vital person—her betrothed Joseph, her fiancé.
He found himself confronted with major dilemma, then an angel of the Lord reveals the story to him and now he had to move quickly to officially marry Mary.

The trip to Bethlehem, the problems finding an inn, the resort to a stable or cave—again all these matters—stated so briefly—are filled with stresses. (If they had arrived a day earlier, could they have found a room at the inn?)

My family never knows which is worse for us: When I get us a reservation while traveling or when I don’t. Twice we arrived in West Yellowstone in the summer with no place to stay. In some ways, they identify with the "no room at the inn" problem.

Probably most of the best places to stay were taken by Roman officials; most of the rest taken by vendors.
Along with the room shortage, there were other problems in this busy, chaotic world of this village under Roman rule: Crowds, confusion, government bureaucracy, shortages, tension, and, no doubt. sin and anger,

 And in the midst of all this: Mary gives birth to Jesus.

When and where did Mary and Joseph make the connection between Micah’s prophecy and what they experienced?
Did they even want visitors?
Joseph and Mary are not the only people of the house and linage of David. Every brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin was somewhere there in that town.
We are all too used to Joseph and Mary as porcelin figures.  They expressions are mild and godly; their faces ageless and untouched by events.
The real Mary would have been exhausted, and Joseph was likely quite busy and stressed over matters.

Now these shepherds arrive.
Shepherds:  Even when you are living in a cattle stall, having shepherds show up is a social step down.
They held the lowest job on the social, economic, and career scale.
What do you want to be when you grow up? No one would answer, "A shepherd."

Shepherds were not even allowed to give testimony in court. Probably lots of jokes:

How can you tell when a shepherd is lying? His lips are moving.

How can you tell the difference between a shepherd and a sheep? The sheep smells better.

This stuff is not in the text. But it was in the culture.

These shepherds receive one of the most amazing, powerful, earth shaking revelations in all of history:

 An angel proclaims the birth of Jesus Christ. In short, they hear the Gospel and the Christmas story as one (as it truly is). 
Some strict language students of the Bible warn us: The song may say, "'Hark the herald angels SING,’ but the Bible does not say they sang. It only says that 'they were praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.’”

Was it a recitation or a concert?
Whatever it was, it was the warm-up act. The opening band.
The real show was in the village of Bethlehem.

They came with haste.
Keep in mind, they were still on the clock.
You loose your job as a shepherd, and where do you go from there?
Being in proximity with the herd is 99 percent of what shepherds do.

Did some shepherds go and some stay?

Did an angel volunteer to watch the sheep while they were gone?
Did they just react and only later realized that they forgot what sheep were?

The slowest, most monotonous job in the world suddenly became wild and crazy.

• An angel speaking.
• A host of angels speaking.
• A mad rush into town.
• A evangelistic crusade: verse 18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
• A praise and worship service after they returned: Verse 20.

 But in between all the wild rush: What was probably just a few minutes…They found Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a manger. A brief, quiet pause. Joseph is tired. Mary is totally exhausted. And here is this baby.

(I wonder if Joseph had to politely give them some social ques indicating that it was time to leave.  "Thanks for coming. I guess you better get back to your sheep.")
  

When Nick was born, a cousin came to see him and he brought along dinosaurs. He was happy to have a new cousin, but it would be a long while before Nick played dinosaurs.  When you go see a new baby, there is not a lot to do. You look, you ooh and aaaw. The tiny features are so amazing. Even when you have seen such many times.  A baby sleeping is incredibly comforting to see.
 
The scene here is such a mix: the stable, this couple, hubbbud of the village, the very ordinariness of this baby.
And yet it was all conditioned with the message: 
"For there is born unto you this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord."
 
In the few minutes that they spent gazing at this child: All of past history was there present--going back to Genesis 3:15:

" And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."

All of the prophecies of Scripture: The whole story now captured in this scene.
They see all of history brought to a peak.

Friends would later ask, "You saw an angel?"
"You saw the whole sky filled with angels?"
The shepherds would answer, "No, something bigger, something much greater: A babe lying in a manger! 
I saw every prophecy, every symbol, type, story, every covenant of the OT brought to a great fulfillment: A Savior born in Bethlehem."
 
The shepherds say not only all the past, but all the future.
 To use Louise Cowan’s term—an eschatological expansion of time.
 
The lesson to be learned: Take time.
Maybe in the mornings, maybe in the evenings, maybe on the day after Christmas.
Hopefully right now: Enjoy, relax, meditate, think, marvel.
In the mad rush of the season, Take time.

Favorite Christmas Books or Stories

The power of the compressed brevity of the Gospel birth narratives of Jesus always stun me when I hear the passages over and over during the Advent season.  Bureaucratic tax and census policies,  unexpected and unexplainable pregnacies, cosmic occurences with the star over Bethlehem, corrupt political rulers, overcrowded inns, visiting dignataries--smelling of camels and carrying exotic gifts, and angels disrupting the normally passive and despised lives of shepherds--all these and more tightly woven into texts that have exploded into a whole season of great celebrations, hymns, stories, and poems.

Since this is a book blog, it is fitting at this time of year to highlight some of the favored books or readings for the season.  The list to follow is not ranked according to highest to lowest or most favorite to also favored, but rather, simply listed because they came to mind.

But first this quote sets the post into context:

For some of us, reading is a required tradition during the Christmas season. I don't mean ordinary books that we catch up on during the holiday vacation. Rather, we long for an ambience that evokes that timeless sense of magic and holiness that is often called "the spirit of Christmas."  Of course we need to reread the nativity story to savor its pure essence. Yet we hunger for more. With nearly two thousand Christmases behind us, nostalgia must be satiated.

James S. Bell

1.  A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.  How could I not mention this?  We read the story in its entirety in Humanities Class and we performed an adaptation of it in a school play. (I was Scrooge.)  And my family watches both the George C. Scott film version and The Muppets Christmas Carol, starring Michael Caine.  Dickens' classic is part of a group of five short novels that are commonly bound together under the loose title of Christmas Books.

2.  The Homecoming by Earl Hamner, Jr.    There are always comparisons between books and movies.  I watched movie years ago and fell in love with not only the movie, but the family.  I count the Walton kids as the first cousins of my imagination.  The tensions, the lyrical flavor, and the events of the Hamner novel and the Hamner movie script differ.  Both are delightful.  I could read The Homecoming in a short time, a sitting or two, but I prefer the slow savoring of the description, the sound of the Virginia accents, and the unfolding of the plot in segments.

3.  Christmas Spirit:  The Joyous Stories, Carols, Feasts, and Traditions of the Season by George Grant and Gregory Wilbur.  The two men who gathered the contents of this book are friends.  If I did not know them, I would still treasure their labors in this wonderful collection of quotes, poetry, and stories.  The quote above from James S. Bell came from this frequently perused book.

4.  In the Fullness of Time: A Historian Looks at Christmas, Easter, and the Early Church by Paul Maeir. I am not sure if I have ever read all this book, but I often used it particularly during the Advent season for sermon helps.  It is a useful reference for background information regarding Romans and Jews during the time of Christ's birth.

5.  Skipping Christmas by John Grisham.  Several years ago, I read this book and enjoyed it.  It doesn't reach the heights of Dickens and Hamner, but it was a fun read.  I've never watched the whole movie, Christmas with the Kranks, that was based on this book.  And, I am not normally a reader of Grisham's books.

6.  Shepherds Abiding (The Mitford Years Book 8) by Jan Karon.  I don't know how this book would be if one began with it. But if a person has read through the Mitford series and learned to love Father Tim, his wife, and the odd and loveable folks in the community, this book enhances the delightful community of characters.

7.  "Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus" from Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  The television show did a remarkable job of portraying this story, but it is still wonderful to read the actual story. 

I am always moved by how excited the children were over receiving a set of mittens, a tin cup, a penny, and a piece of candy.  What a rebuke to our overly grasping time. 

8.  "The Gifts of the Child Christ" by George MacDonald.  This is a dark and troubling story in some respects, but it is powerful.  MacDonald was one of the main influence on C. S. Lewis.  This story is a good introduction to an important author and a very different kind of Christmas story.  Redemptive stories are not always pretty and neat.

9.  "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry.  O. Henry was a powerful and gifted writer, and this may be his best story, or at least one of the most often anthologised.  It is lyrically beautiful to read and the ending can hardly be read through with dry eyes.  We have this story in several Christmas books, but the one I am looking at right is called Norman Rockwell's Christmas Book.  This is a coffee table collection of carols, stories, poems, and recollectins, along with Norman Rockwell art.  Both the O. Henry and Wilder stories are in this collection.

10.   A Foxfire Christmas: Appalachian Memories and Stories, edited by Eliot Wiggington.  The Foxfire series of books, compiled some years ago, were quite popular.  They grew out of student labors to talk to mountain folks about traditions, practices, beliefs, and folklore.  This collection includes memories of Christmas amonst mountain folks, usually during the Depression era.  Some of these stories are quite sad.  Lots of people never had much in the way of money or goods to celebrate Christmas, and many poor folks did not celebrate.  Even Laura Wilder's few Christmas gifts would have been a surprise to some of these people.  Still, this book is a moving work to read.

Christmas Favorites

I cannot wait until we have an evening free to watch a favorite movie from my high school years and the pilot episode that launched the greatest of television shows ever, "The Waltons."  The movie is The Homecoming.
I rank right up there with "A Christmas Carol" and "Christmas in Connecticut" for favorite Christmas movies.  I feel like I grew up with the Walton children.  I miss them and the joys of youth.  And while growing up in the 1970s was not the same as growing up in the 1930s, and my home life lacked many of the features of life on Walton's Mountain, the connections were and are still strong.

The movie is based on the short, overly short novel by Earl Hamner, Jr., also titled The Homecoming.  Hamner was the soft, Virginia accented, narrating voice at the beginning and ending of the Walton episodes.  There are many differences between the book and movie.  Both are great.  Some evening this month, I plan to re-read the book. 

Have a Theological Christmas...It's a Happy Time of Year

In the last blog, we began listing some wonderful choices for the theologian in your life.  One of the books we highlighted was the Festschrift to Dr. John Frame, titled Speaking the Truth in Love: The Theology of John Frame.  Frame has been involved in many of the theological issues of the past decades that have involved Calvinist thinkers.  It is not as though Frame has always been right, but he has exhibited a generous heart and open mind to issues that have fractured Reformed unity repeatedly.  His series of 4 massive books, the Lordship series, is a gold mine of theological thinking.  And I like his approach to worship and music.  He is a dedicated student and follower of Cornelius Van Til, but he reaches beyond Van Til to include a wider range of approaches to apologetics.  He is one of my favorite Christian thinkers.  Speaking the Truth in Love and the Lordship series are all published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.

Frame studied at Westminster Theological Seminay and took classes under Dr. Van Til.  Westminster sprang to life during the late 1920s when the glories of Princeton Theological Seminary were traded for a mess of liberal pottage.  As J. Gresham Machen, the founder of Westminster, said to him mother in a letter, when Warfield's body was carried out at his funeral, Old Princeton was carried out with him.  Princeton may have died, but Warfield's theology did not.  Fred Zaspel has done a wonderful work of synthesizing and explaining the theology of Warfield in his monumental The Theology of B.B. Warfield: A Systematic Summary.  Covering issues such as Apologetics, Scripture, Christology, Theology Proper, and Soteriology, this book is both a tribute to a Calvinist theologian and a worthy study of theology itself.  Hopefully, it will cause me and others to pull out those overly-long neglected volumes of Warfield and enjoy the source again. This book is published by Crossway Books in Wheaton, Illinois. Crossway publishes an interesting range of theological and practical Christian books.

Warfield's acquaintances included the two Dutchmen Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck.  (Of course, he was also a friend and a colleague with Gerhardus Vos, a Dutch gift to America.)  The story of Calvinism in the Netherlands in the 19th and 20th centuries is an amazing story of Reformation in a small country.  We picture windmills and tulips when we think of Holland, but we should also think of worldview minded theologians and philosophers, such as Kuyper, Bavinck, Dooyeweerd, Schilder, Rookmaaker, and others.  I hope to say more about this new book on Bavinck as soon as I can get to it.  Bavinck's 4 volume Dogmatic Theology was featured last year on my Christmas suggestions. (The biography is published by Presbyterian and Reformed, and Bavinck's theological works--most only recently translated into English--are published by Baker Book House.)

Of course, one of the greatest common denominators of such men as Frame, Warfield, and Bavinck is their debt to and foundations laid by John Calvin.  2009 was the 500th year since Calvin's birth.  Quite a few books were published honoring the memory, influence, and theology of John Calvin.  It was surely fitting that Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company had its own Calvin500 series of books.  P&R has been one of the boldest and most faithful publishers of scholarly Reformed books for decades.  (My first serious Christian books to read--John Calvin: His Roots and Fruits & A Theological Interpretation of American History by Gregg Singer, This Independent Republic by R.J. Rushdoony, & Studies in Theology by Loraine Boettner--were all Presbyterian and Reformed Books.) 

David W. Hall is one of the greater Calvinist scholars in America today.  He has been the general editor and frequent contributor and occasional author of the books in this series.  The volumes pictured below are merely 3 of the 8 books in the series.  Some of the books include texts of lectures given at the great Calvin celebration in Geneva. The list of contributors are a who's who of Calvinist writers and thinkers of our time. 

Christmas Book Buying Suggestions

One of the least known facts about Santa Claus is the way he has changed in his interests during the past few decades.  Most of the toy production and distribution is now handled by elves. Yes, even the house to house distribution on Christmas night is not actually done by St. Nick, but by one of hundreds of mid-management delivery elves.  The change occurred somewhere in the 1990s. Santa, according to an inside report said, "I still love kids and the joys of seeing children at Christmas, but I don't care for modern toys."  As the years have gone by, kids want fewer and fewer dolls, toy guns, stuffed animals, and bicycles. Instead, they ask for electronic gadgets, movies, and sophisticated expensive stuff that they are bored with within 48 hours.

Santa Claus' more recent interest:  Books.  Again, according to the inside report of the 1990s, Santa said, "Book publishing is more thrilling than toy making now.  Of course, I have always included books in my bags of gifts, but today many kids don't want books.  I think the future lies in books for thinking folks."

According, Santa is interested in a wide range of books. His preferred titles include classics, histories, biographies, well bound hardback editions, cheaper versions, novels, poetry, and theology.  Concerning the latter, he said more recently, "If people read more and better theology, then some of the myths and misunderstandings of me would be solved. I don't know when children are sleeping and when they are wide awake. And my gifts are gifts of love, not based on some supposed goodness of kids or people."

Some of the titles and works that Santa really likes giving are given below.  More suggestions will follow.

Simon Shama's greater expertise is in art history and Dutch history.  But he is British (although employed at an American university) and he is the product of British training. His series, A History of Britain, was written and coordinated with an excellent DVD series of the same title.  My students in Humanities love watching Schama's historical documentaries.  He is a historian I have grown to really admire.

Not all that respected among the academic elites, Paul Johnson is yet another great British historian.  He is what I want to be when I grow up.  As he said repeatedly in a 3 hour interview last spring, he is getting rather old now (mid-80s) and so he is writing shorter books.  Churchill is short.  Many longer biographies could be found on Churchill (and I either have them or want them), but this short read is packed with information and application.  Whether just beginning to read about Churchill or needing a refresher course on this world changing man, Johnson's book is a gem.  (So are almost ALL of his other books.)

One of the most profound, most prolific, and most generous minded theologians around today is John M. Frame.  As a testimony to this man's teachings and writings, John J. Hughes assembled and edited one of the largest books ever published by P&R Publishers (Presbyterian and Reformed Publishers).  As can be seen on the cover, this study of John Frame's thinking includes Theology, Epistemology, Apologetics, The Church, Worship, Ethics, Culture, and Future Relevance.  The contributors include many of the best theologians, pastors, writers, and thinkers in the Reformed community today.  This 1000 plus page book is a virtual library of theology.  (I would love to stand up and sing a contemporary Christian song in thanksgiving to God for raising up Frame in our time.)  (Frame's newest book, the fourth and final installment in his Lordship series, is titled The Doctrine of the Word of God.  It is high on my want list.)

The Christian world is still enjoying the feast of Christian thought, evangelism, cultural engagement, and devotion brought out in the writings of Francis Schaeffer.  It may be possible to find better writers, deeper thinkers, more profound theologians than Schaeffer, but it is hardly possible to find anyone who has had the impact on so many as has Schaeffer.  Colin Duriez's biography, Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life, offers a good (but too short) coverage of the life of the man.  And it is always good to read Schaeffer's books again (or for the first time).  My favorite is How Should We Then Live?, but the gist of Schaeffer's apologetic and cultural engagement began with the three titles contained in the Francis Schaeffer trilogy.  Those 3 titles, The God Who Is There, Escape from Reason, and He is There and He is not Silent, began the revolution ...make that Reformation---that is still impacting our world.

One writer who learned from Schaeffer and from that beginning has had a long and lasting impact on the Christian community is Os Guinness.  His books are food for the mind and soul.  I particularly enjoyed reading The Call this past summer and would highly recommend it to any Christian.  It is sub-titled, Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life.  It is already on my 2011 list for re-reading.

A year or so ago, Canon Press began reprinting a 19th century historian Jacob Abbott's Makers of History series.  These books are short (less than 200 pages) biographies of key historical figures.  So far, three volumes have been published in the series:  the biographies of Nero, Alexander the Great, and Hannibal.  Along with the text of the accounts, each book has a modern introduction written by ME.  I would hope that the introductions and the biographies would be fun and instructive readings for all.

Christmas Readings and Viewings

Last night I finished reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Someday, when I grow up, I hope to be well enough read in Dickens to hold an intelligent conversation about him.  I am currently in the awe-struck phase of my readings of him. I recently acquired a beautiful set of Dickens books (the 21 volume Oxford Illustrated Dickens) and this volume (seen above) is the first I've used from it.  I hope to read all of the Christmas stories in this work.  Dickens is generally recognized as being so good that we use the adjective Dickensian to describe certain types of writing, stories, names, and plots.

And some of my children and I watched The Muppet Christmas Carol.  I love this movie (without diminishing in the least my love of the great George C. Scott movie version of A Christmas Carol or the book itself).  I missed the muppets when they first came out.  I suppose I was too old and too serious (and too Scrooge like?) to watch them.  Since I did not have children until later in life (age 37 when the first of four arrived), I just bypassed these delightful characters.  In this show, my favorites are Gonzo, who plays the role of Charles Dickens, and Rizzo the Rat.  When Rizzo falls down the chimney and Gonzo says, "I knew you weren't cut out for serious literature," I roll in laughter every time.

More great movies ahead, and more great books, although most will not be about Advent or Christmas.