Feast day of the Prophet Obadiah and Barlaam of Antioch
“Oh that
you would rend the heavens and come down,” (Isaiah 64:1a, ESV).
Dear Members and Friends of Second Reformed Church,
The
greatest need of humanity is not food or shelter or clothing. The greatest need of humanity is to
understand how to answer – correctly – the question, “How shall I be
saved?” The greatest need of each of us
is to understand how we might be right we God – saved from His Wrath for our
sin.
Isaiah
was facing the reality that God’s people – like all of humanity – had sinned
and deserve eternal suffering. Israel
had been conquered and taken into captivity in Assyria. Given that reality, he asked, “How shall we
be saved?” The answer that he came up
with is that God must come down and shake the Creation.
In
America, we misquote the Bible to make it say that Christmas is about God being
happy with humanity – about cute babies that don’t make any noise – about
getting gifts far exceeding our expectations.
But
the whole point of Christmas is that all of humanity is under the curse of God,
and unless God does something about it, all of us will be tormented
forever. (But that can’t go on a
Hallmark card, can it?)
The
point of Christmas is that God did come down, in the Person of Jesus. God became Man and dwelt among us. He lived under His Own Law – sinlessly, and He
was put to death by sinful human beings, only to be physically raised from the
dead to the glory of God the Father.
Christmas
without the Resurrection is meaningless.
But with the Resurrection, we can consider what it means that God came
to earth – that God put on humanity in the Person of Jesus – that God was
tempted as a human in every way that we are, yet did not sin
May
God grant each of us a more profound reality of God’s coming down to earth as
we celebrate this Advent season and Christmas.
Please
join us for worship:
11/27/11 Advent 1
Isaiah 64:1-9 “Now Consider”
12/4/11 Communion/Advent 2
Isaiah 40:1-11 “Comfort Ye”
12/18/11 Advent 4
II Samuel 7:1-17 “The Everlasting Throne”
12/24/11 Christmas Eve 7 PM
Luke 2:1-20 “Good News”
Immanuel!
Rev. Peter Butler, Jr., pastor
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