Sin and Mercy Fourth Sunday of Advent (Isaiah 7:10-14; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-24)
Maybe it’s a function of aging, but most of us who have lived long enough can’t help but bemoan how each year, more and more, it seems the true meaning of Christmas becomes further removed. We say that Advent is the season that prepares us for Christmas, for the One who is to come: Be ready…He’s coming…stay alert! But to get the true meaning of Christmas, we must ask ourselves why he is coming. Said most simply, the meaning of Christmas can perhaps be given in two word: sin and mercy. To clarify: our sin, God’s mercy. I know that sin and mercy are not common themes we associate with Christmas, but it’s true. Why else did the Son of God take on flesh? Maybe the words that were told to Joseph in his dream get to the heart of the meaning of Christmas: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” It’s all there, but maybe even more, we have to know the meaning of the child’s name: Yeshua/Joshua/Jesus. It means ‘YHWH is salvation’ or ‘God saves’. “the child (Yeshua-‘the Lord saves’) has been conceived…he will save people from their sins.” If it’s true that the meaning gets lost on us – Christmas, why Jesus came, the meaning of His name – perhaps there are number of reasons why. Let me suggest a few in particular. One is that Christmas has become so commercialized, the stable has been displaced by the shopping mall and the internet. We’re all so conscious about spending – who do have to buy for? What can I afford? Do I have a retaliation gift, if that person confronts me with one? A second reason is that Christmas has become merely regarded as a series of days that serve as a break from work or school, a chance to play and maybe take a vacation, with maybe a Christmas bonus thrown in. But a third reason we’ve lost its meaning is that we’ve lost the sense of sin. Yet that’s the very root of what we are about to celebrate in a few days. God comes to save us from our sins. How do we reconcile that with our culture’s experience of Advent, this period of time that we more commonly call the Holiday Season? Could you really imagine receiving a Belk’s mailer after Thanksgiving announcing their annual Pre-Christmas Sin and Salvation Sale? Our culture is not fond of the notion of sin; it’s a touchy subject. Because, to speak of someone’s action as sinful, is generally associated with judging someone. Further we live in a culture that holds nothing as universally true, relativism as it is called. It holds that nothing is universally good or bad, true or untrue for all people. So therefore, what you might regard as sin, is merely your opinion. I don’t share that opinion, so mind your won business. Therefore, there is nothing that is objectively sinful, its’ just your own interpretation. Another thing, despite all the good things that have come with advancements in psychology and psychiatry, they have also caused us to lose sight of personal sin. Some years ago, a famous American psychiatrist named Karl Menninger wrote a book entitled Whatever Became of Sin? He challenged the cultural movement that had disposed of the concept of personal sin. He proposed that we have learned to hide our sins behind the language of stress, anxiety, behavioral triggers, predisposition, transferences, and so on. Isn’t there a healthy understanding of sin? I think so. It’s not to regard ourselves as deplorable. Instead, it’s a balanced self-perspective that comes through humility – seeing ourselves in truth and honesty. And, f what the angel of the Lord declared to Joseph is true – that He will save people from their sins – can we really afford to pretend-away notions of sin or be dishonest about ourselves? Was the angel wrong or did we just not understand correctly what he was saying to Joseph? I don’t think so. While we don’t necessarily need to go overboard in these final days of awaiting our Savior, donning hair-shirts, sackcloth and ashes, maybe we would at least do well to spend some time in prayer, meditating upon what underlies this season – its meaning – as individuals and even as families, bearing in mind that we need a Savior to save us from our sins. In whatever way, it’s always deeper than we can entirely grasp, we should at least dispose ourselves to praying about it and desire to understand. Christmas will have no real personal meaning if we do not see Jesus’ coming as a response to our genuine needs. It is a little like some Christian denominations that wake up on Easter Sunday and celebrate the Resurrection of the Lord without having engaged the events of Good Friday. How meaningful is the celebrations of the Lord’s Resurrection if you never acknowledge his Passion? Likewise, for us now, how meaningful is the birth of our Savior if we don’t first acknowledge our personal need for one? Furthermore, if you have no need for the newborn Savior then the fact that He would grow up and put Himself on that cross for you also has no personal meaning – You can get down from the cross, Jesus. Thanks, but I have no need for your sacrifice. We need Yeshua, ‘the Lord is our Salvation’, the One who comes to save us from our sins – but, sadly, too many of us are oblivious of it. May we never lose sight of the underlying truth that Christmas, at its heart, is really about God’s loving and merciful response to our personal and collective sin. Let us pray: Almighty God, we Your sons and daughters, graced and beautiful beings, created in Your divine image, are also marked by sin – personal and collective. We need a Savior. Please send us a Savior! For it is through Him, that we will find our way to You and be most fully, what You created us to be.