We began our Advent series last Sunday, Enchanted Noel. Here's what it's about.
God has a story. We are a part of it. Maybe a small part.
This story begins, of course, with creation and then the Garden of Eden. This
place, the Garden in Eden, was a remarkable place. It was very good. It was a
place of abundance, beauty, a place where God walked around. People lived there
without sin. And without clothes, because there was no shame. It was heaven on
earth. Heaven and earth overlapped there in the Garden. God wanted his special
creatures, the ones made in his image, to expand this goodness and abundance
around the rest of the earth. But before they could even get started, our first
parents fell to temptation. They reached out to take the knowledge of good and
bad, rather than seeking wisdom from God. And they were kicked out of the
Garden.
No wonder humanity longs for connection with the
supernatural.
Ever since then, God has been working his plan to bring heaven to earth. This is what Advent is all about. God himself came to this world to bring the kingdom of God here: “on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s presence brings a different quality to creation. He infuses it with his beauty and power.
This season our series of messages is “Enchanted Noel.” When I speak of enchantment in this context, I’m not talking about magic and spells or superpowers. I’m talking about qualities of this world that go far beyond the material. We step into this world beyond the material when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper: the Body of Christ, the Blood of Christ. There is more to these elements than bread and juice. There is a supernatural reality that we are all part of. I want to call our attention to this spiritual realm. This season begs us to look beyond molecules and photons to meaning and love.
On the one hand, let’s recognize that the dominant Western world view
today is “science.” If you deny science, you are stupid, backward, and
superstitious. The material world is the “real world.” This is a real bias of
modern thought. Anything beyond the material is soft, squishy, and suspect.
It helps us to realize that this perspective is unique in
human history. Most people for most of history have had a great deal of respect
for the supernatural world. Sometimes that respect has led people astray, but
not always.
But this material worldview cannot speak to some of life’s
most important elements: meaning and love.
This is why we need Christmas. Even before Christ, there
were winter festivals, feasts of celebration as days grew shorter and darker.
Today in the West, we scientific people set that material perspective aside and
we seek wonder and surprise and the intangible. We call it “Christmas spirit.”
We can look more closely at this world. Even this material world is
full of mystery. We look farther and farther into space, and we find more and
more mystery. We look deeper and deeper into the properties of matter, and we
find mystery there too.
While we tend to focus on science, let's note that on the other hand, God communicates through story. The Bible is not a
fact manual. Everything in the Bible has to be understood in the context of
story. We speak of the Christmas story, not the Christmas timeline or formula
or policy. God communicates through story because story leans on relationship. And
God wants relationship. He wants relationship with you.
So he puts you in a story, in this enchanted world. It’s a
story of love and redemption. It’s a world in which heaven works to overlap
with earth. The more we tune into heaven, the more heaven comes to earth. “On
earth as it is in heaven.”
God’s greatest work of bringing heaven to earth begins with
the Christmas story.
Enchanted Noel
- December 1 - Longing: The Prophets
- December 8 - Watching: Simeon and Anna in the Temple
- December 15 - Believing: The Magi
- December 22 - Receiving: Mary and Joseph
