With Christmas now only 25 days away some organised people in our world are already purchasing Christmas presents for their loved ones. I’m not one of them (although i should probably begin to think about it).
Yet, over the coming weeks we will all get swept up into the “spirit of Christmas” that pervades this time of year and look to presents and gift giving to capture this “spirit”.
This Sunday morning i get to preach on the spirit of Christmas but am struggling to define what that is exactly. After all, some would say that it is simply gift giving, or giving itself. Others may believe that the spirit of Christmas is a time when joy and happiness pervades our being as we seek to look out for others and connect with family over an enormous meal. What if you don’t have family? What if you don’t find this time of year a time of happiness and joy – many in our society don’t. In fact, it is quite often the case that this time of year is one of the hardest for many.
The spirit of Christmas is not something that can be easily defined, as much as I’d like it to be in a box and labelled. Although like the saying “the spirit of the game” you know the spirit of Christmas when you see it (or experience it). The experience of giving and receiving, joy, hope, happiness, family, love, worship, food, and bonding all make up that spirit, however great or little that may be for us.
I’ve been struck this morning by how relevant the story of Mary and Martha is to a Western city lifestyle living. Considering I’m in the “most livable” city in the world then perhaps even more so.
The story goes that Jesus is at Mary and Martha’s house evidently staying there a while. Martha gets busy making food and doing the jobs to ensure that he has a comfortable stay while Mary simply goes and listens to what he is saying and teaching.
Jesus takes Martha to task over why she has been so busy by congratulating Mary on what she has been doing. Poor old Martha’s simply been doing her best but evidently in the wrong places.
I’m not sure about you but these days life is so choc-a-bloc full of activities and tasks, making sure everything is right and comfortable for ourselves and others, that we tend to forget the important things, the things that Jesus would prefer us to be doing.
Perhaps it’s time to begin culling some of the activities that we think are so important and begin to focus on the right things a bit more.
Packer says it all in “A Quest for Godliness”, page 173-174. Decipher it if you can…
“Repentance is thus a character quality of the regenerate, a supernaturally in-wrought dispositional attitude that finds expression in a constant flow of heartfelt penitent acts – ‘faith in keeping with repentance’, as John the Baptist put it (Matt 3:8). As a dispositional dynamic, repentance involved humiliation (conviction of guilt plus contrition of heart for offending God) and conversion (recession from sin and reversion to God), and finds expression in confession of sin and petition for pardon at the throne of grace. The gospel of Christ, as the Puritans understood it, specifies that faith must express itself in a life of continual contrition, confession, and conversion. Without these habits of the heart there is no genuine repentant, and where there is no genuine repentance there is no genuine faith either.”
Yesterday i sat down and read Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”. It was the second time i have read it, the first being a couple of years ago while overseas. I must say that it is one of the most exquisite and brilliant sermon i have read in my lifetime thus far.
His main doctrine and truth that he wants to get across is that ‘there is nothing that keeps wicked men, at any one moment, out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God’. And while this sermon may have been first preached on the 8th of July, 1741, it is still as relevant and God-illuminating and God-glorifying today.
It is hard to put into words just how awestruck one can be from reading it. But as you move through the weight of God’s hatred for sin is emphasised over and over again. The feeling of utter uselessness in the sight of God, the clear vision of a God who hates sin and b/c we are sin therefore hates us. But, it is only through the cross, only through the blood of Jesus that we have any righteousness in the sight of God.
The message hits hard and is an affront to our selfish and individualistic attitude. It humbles you like no other sermon could ever do as Christ is lifted up on high and our abasement is trampled on like grapes in a winepress.
It is reasonably clear to see why many people have, over the course of time, learned to despise such a message. Edwards has been let down by many people who only believe he was a “fire & brimstone” preacher. Unfortunately they do not see what a terrific and beautiful message he brings. That being, the message of the cross.
If you haven’t read this sermon or any of Edwards’ works then i would encourage you to click over to the link above. It will do wonders for your soul.