C, The Second Sunday after Christmas - John 1: 1-2, 14, 16-17, Ephesians 1:7-8, 11-14 "Grace Upon Grace"

Today is the Second Sunday after Christmas.  Epiphany follows on January the sixth.  Epiphany continues the Christmas season, switching the focus from Jesus as a human child, to being also the Son of God from eternity.  But today marks the end of the twelve-day Christmastide church season from Christmas Day to now.  And it's from where we get the seemingly trite carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas. 

For the sake of time, we'll hear just the last verse which summarises all that's given in cumulative number over the twelve days. 

On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Twelve drummers drumming – Eleven pipers piping – Ten lords a-leaping – Nine ladies dancing – Eight maids a-milking – Seven swans a-swimming – Six geese a-laying – Five golden rings – Four calling birds – Three French hens – Two turtle doves – And a partridge in a pear tree!

But the carol has deeper purpose than what we first might hear.  The carol contains a code that reveals God as a gracious giver, who lavishes us with gifts, one blessing after another - a giver of grace upon grace.

From John's Gospel we hear, "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  And the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.  And from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."  (John 1:1-2, 14, 16-17)

However, for many today Christmas has become not so much about God and the gifts he lavishes upon us in all his grace and glory.  But rather Christmas has become a melting pot of pressure and things we have to do in a terrible hurry. 

A parody of the Twelve Days of Christmas is the Twelve Pains of Christmas and perhaps you might sigh as you see yourself with, at least, just some of the trials this song portrays.

The twelve things at Christmas that's such a pain to me: Singing Christmas carols – Stale TV specials – Batteries not included – Finding parking spaces – Children wanting stuff – Charities – Facing my in-laws – Five months of bills – Sending Christmas cards – Hangovers – Rigging up the lights – And finding a Christmas tree!

This "me-centred" consumer Christmas is not a very nice picture!  But with all parodies, humour comes about because there's a sense of truth hidden in the satirical song.  Perhaps this parody is more realistic than we would like to admit.  Such is what Christmas has become in a world where Jesus Christ is taken from Christmas. 

If Christ is removed from being the centre of Christmas and its glory and the season becomes "me-centred", perhaps we should call the season "christ-is-me" instead of Christmas.  And if that's the case, then Christmas is an anti-Christ-mass orgy.  When you place yourself at the centre at Christmas, you come against Christ and become an antichrist!  What happens is one ends up doing all sorts of things to glorify the human ego rather than glorifying God.

However, returning to the regular Twelve days of Christmas carol, we hear twelve times in twelve day what "my true love" is giving.  Who is this true love?  God our Father, is of course!  God is love, because his being is the perfection of love.  Our being is human and flawed with our desire to love on conditions, and it's fleeting at best.  But God's love is pure, powerful, self-giving, all-encompassing, and his love is eternal. 

In his love, God gives!  He gives of himself out of love for us.  But God’s love is also jealous!  We hear from Exodus chapter twenty. “I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:5b–6 ESV)

This jealous love God gives to us is not just a love bound in feelings.  Rather, it’s a love which comes to us in a real way, encompassing all of God’s being and benefits more than just our emotions.  His love is a love that's practical, physical, spiritual, and as we've already heard, it's eternal - it never stops!  But the greatest thing about God's love is — it's for you, for us, and for all people!

The twelve days of Christmas is a festival of God's love lavished on us.  His love for you is unfaltering kindness and generosity.  It's a gift and it's the most useful gift one will ever get.  It's a practical gift!  It's a spiritual gift!  It's a physical gift!  And this gift is Good News!  This gift is God's one and only Son, Jesus Christ, and through him we are lavished with even more gifts.  From the one gift we receive a Pandora's Box of gifts.  One might say, "Gifts upon gifts!"

In fact, these gifts upon gifts come from the fullness of God's grace and truth.  Each day of this twelve day season your true love, your true Lord, gives upon giving.  Favour upon favour, blessing upon blessing, gift upon gift, grace upon grace!

In the song The Twelve days of Christmas what is given on the first day is also given on the second day with the second day's gift.  And these gifts continue to flood each day onwards so that on the twelfth day we have received gift upon gift.

Do you realise that this is an eternal progression?  What you received in baptism on the first day to the glory of God, you have received every day since!  You have received blessing upon blessing, forgiveness upon forgiveness, salvation upon salvation, and unfaltering kindness upon kindness.  And it will continue despite your sinful nature, because of the fullness of God's love towards you.  And this fullness is found in Jesus' death on the cross.  As we’re continuing to receive these gifts upon gifts, let us return thanks with thankfulness upon thankfulness!  Let us be repentant upon repentant!

Why? In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight.  In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.  In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.  (Ephesians 1:7-8, 11-14)

For us in these twelve days of Christmas and beyond, our job is to continue to allow the Holy Spirit access into us to continue pouring the eternal blessings of God's love upon us, and through us.  We do this by remaining focused on Christ and the forgiveness he brings us every day. 

If one forbids the Spirit’s work, and the faith he brings, then we walk precariously towards cutting ourselves off from God's grace and the guarantee of our inheritance.

So, let's see the multiplying effect of the twelve days of Christmas as our grace upon grace eternal gift from God as we unlock the song.

A Partridge in a Pear Tree is Jesus born a baby on the first day.  Two turtle doves are the two Testaments of God's Word.  The third day our true love gives us three French hens, which are faith, hope, and love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)  The greatest of these being love, because it's God's being and unlike faith and hope will continue in eternity.

Then four calling birds given on the fourth day are the Gospel proclamations of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John!  And on the fifth day of Christmas, the five golden rings are the five books of the Law, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

The six geese-a-laying represent the six days in which God laid the foundation of creation.  Seven Swans A-swimming are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit: 1) prophecy, 2) ministry, 3) teaching, 4) exhortation, 5) giving, 6) leading, and 7) compassion (Romans 12:6-8; cf. 1 Corinthians 12:8-11).

Eight Maids A-milking are the eight Beatitudes: Blessed are, 1) the poor in spirit, 2) those who mourn, 3) the meek, 4) those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, 5) the merciful, 6) the pure in heart, 7) the peacemakers, 8) those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake. (Matthew 5:3-10)

Nine Ladies Dancing are the nine Fruit of the Holy Spirit: 1) love, 2) joy, 3) peace, 4) patience, 5) kindness, 6) generosity, 7) faithfulness, 8) gentleness, and 9) self-control.  (Galatians 5:22)

Ten Lords-a-leaping represent the Ten Commandments.  Eleven Pipers Piping are the eleven faithful Apostles.  And on the twelfth day our true love, our True Lord, gives us Twelve Drummers Drumming the twelve-part confession of the Apostles’ Creed.

So, surging and snowballing from the fullness of Christ is grace upon grace.  Let the Holy Spirit carry you in the eternal crescendo that centres on Jesus' birth, death, and resurrection for you.  As you think of the Twelve days of Christmas remember the eternal reality hidden in the song; the grace upon grace God gives to you!

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true Lord gives to me:  The Apostles' Creed confession – Eleven disciples preaching – Ten Commandments guiding – Nine fruits of Spirit – Eight beatitude blessings – Seven holy gifts – Six-day creation – Five books of Law – Four Gospel records – Faith, hope, & love – The New & Old Word – and our Lord Jesus born a baby.

Amen. 

C, The First Sunday after Christmas - Luke 2:41-52 "A Lost Child"

Mary and Joseph are in great distress as they search for Jesus.  After three days they feared the worst but expected the best.  Anyone who has lost a child knows the feeling that washes over oneself when a child goes missing.

The story of the twelve-year-old Jesus missing as the family returns from the Passover feast, could be the original script for the Christmas movie franchise, Home Alone.  The extended family leaves to go on holidays with much chaos and confusion only to leave the youngest child behind.  The mother only realises when they have taken off and are high in the sky.

But it’s not little Kevin who’s been left behind, but Jesus.  And he’s not the youngest, but the oldest, Mary’s first-born son.   Yet every parent knows the feeling when the realisation hits home when a minor is missing.

Separation anxiety is bad enough when parent and child are split up on the first day of school, moving out of home, or marrying and making their own way in the world.  We’ve heard about Hannah making a linen robe for her little boy, Samuel, seeing him only once a year as he serves with Eli in the temple.  Imagine that, seeing your little child once a year!

But that would  be a blessing for those who don’t know their child’s location.  How much worse is it when a child’s whereabouts is not known?  The mind races!  Have they been taken?  Are they alive? Where are they?  One fears the worst!

And then there’s the relief when one sets eyes on the child safe and sound.  Along with the joy of the lost being found, there’s also chastisement, especially if the child has wandered off of their own accord.  Measures are put in  place to protect the minor from going missing again.

Then there are those who have lost children in death.  December twenty-eight is the remembrance for the Holy Innocents, the children martyred by Herod in his rage to rid himself of the rival Christ-child King.  Unimaginable is the grief of those who’ve lost a child, seemingly before their time!  Children are expected to bury their parents, not the other way around.  This would have to be one of the worst things a parent has to confront.

But there is relief for Mary and Joseph.  When Jesus is found he says, “Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” (Luke 2:49 ESV)  Here Jesus mentions his Father, but it’s not Joseph.  In fact, Mary is the only parent mentioned by name.  Mary and Joseph didn’t understand what Jesus said to them.  Yet Mary remembered and pondered Jesus words, passing them onto Luke at some stage in the future for him to record it in his gospel account.

We know Jesus was not the natural born son of Joseph.  He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit when Gabriel, the archangel spoke to Mary.  Not naming Joseph can be viewed as a deliberate exclusion by Luke, the gospel’s author.  The boy Jesus, naming God as his Father and not his earthly father, Joseph, is a lesson for all fathers to ween their children from their fatherhood.  To teach and instruct their children about their adoption by the Heavenly Father in baptism.  God does not have grandchildren, just sons and daughters!  So, it’s mum’s and dad’s responsibility to hand their children onto their God and Father — Jesus’ Father who is in heaven.  In a similar way Elkanah and Hannah did this with Samuel.

One can imagine Samuel not understanding what was going on when he was young and sent to the temple to live with Eli.  Mary and Joseph also didn’t understand Jesus, having to be in his Father’s house. When we teach of God’s adoption in baptism, children may not understand, and as parents we might sinfully seek to have our children glorify us over God.  But through enduring teaching of our children, they will believe they are sons and daughters of the Father, long before they understand, if ever!

Losing a child is traumatic, no matter if it’s permanent, in death, or even, just for a time!  In a picture similar to Hannah and Elkanah, God the Father, gave up his one and only Son, to be born to human parents, Mary and Joseph.  However, Samuel’s ministry before the Lord differed greatly from Jesus’ ministry.  Jesus’ ministry was a baptism into death.  From the moment Jesus was conceived, he became the child, who was to be lost in death so humanity could be found by the Father, with life in Christ!  

Three days lost was too much for his parents to bear and understand, how much more his death on the cross, descent into the grave and hell, and resurrection on the third day?

How difficult it is for us to understand God the Father turning his back on his one and only Son to allow him to be the Son of Man, to be the Holy Innocent One for us, serving us salvation and innocence in exchange for our guilt and sin.  Serving you salvation to save you from your humanity!

The generations of children growing up today face a myriad of challenges that see too many realise their corruption only to give up and commit suicide.  Some take a longer road to death by giving themselves over to their desires that don’t deliver the perceived pleasures they thought they were going to get.  Like a throwaway Christmas present, over time they realise they’re on the garbage heap of life.

From the moment a child learns to say “no”, every human has always sought to make the pleasure, “all mine”!  These desires and pleasures become sexual in adolescence and adult life.   Then somewhere in there, we add the fixation of amassing goods; wealth and possessions that really aren’t all that good.  And when, and if, these temptations die down, honour and glory become more important as we seek to leave a legacy of our desires that ultimately, lead us to death.

How difficult it is for us children to turn our backs on the addictions that cause death.  So much so, the hopelessness realised in these days is accelerated in parallel with the ease and quickness of the ability to get, and be failed by, our desires and pleasures.

How difficult it is for us to understand that from the moment the Son of God was conceived within  Mary, he was saying “yes” to the will of our Father in heaven.  That when Jesus lay in a manger as a weak human baby, the Son of God was willingly putting aside his divinity to be in an environment of desire, disease, and death.  To serve and save humanity as the Son of Man! 

When he was a toddler and the holy innocents were being murdered by Herod’s men, he understood his mission as the Son of Man, and the Son of God, was to be innocently crucified on the cross, to save us from our desires, diseases, and death. 

Even now as he is at the right hand of God the Father, in all his risen glory, he continues to carry us in prayer before our Father. 

Our Father, together with his Son, send the Holy Spirit to serve us in a way that leads us from our evil, temptation to furnish our kingdoms of destruction and unwillingness to forgive.  To forgive!  To know and welcome God’s will is being done.  To hope in God’s kingdom coming in power and glory!  And to know and believe we are holy, because Jesus is our holy bread, despite the unholiness that leads every person to death.

What we consume and hang onto in this world is death.  We call it life and living, but it’s not!  However, a deposit of life has been placed within your shell of deathly existence.  When Jesus lay in the manger and when the children of Bethlehem were being murdered, he saw you!  When Jesus was asking questions of the teachers in his Father’s house in Jerusalem, when he wept over Lazarus’ death, and when he wept over Jerusalem, he was learning your death and weeping over you.  When he was nailed to the cross, when our sin nailed him there, he said of you, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34 ESV)

And because you do what God does not want you to do, he and Jesus constantly send you the Holy Spirit!  So, you too, do not like what you do, but allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in your destruction of death, and resurrection to life eternal, even now in this earthly existence. 

The Father of Lies, the devil, and society in all its good and evil, rages against the destruction of death.  So too does the Old Adam within and it seeks a resurrection of its own that seeks to reestablish the savagery and death from which you’ve been rescued.

But our Lord and Father wins the battle over the devil, sin, and death, through his Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

See the almighty heavenly joy, when you, the lost child, are brought by the Holy Spirit into the Father’s house.  See also the heavenly choir sing, “Glory to God in the highest”, when our Father is glorified in his Son Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, at your resurrection and return to be with your Heavenly Father, face to face forever. Amen.

Let us pray. Father welcomes all his children to his family through his Son, Father giving his salvation, life for ever has been one.  Lord God Holy Spirit, let us daily die to sin, let us daily die with him.  Holy Spirit, walk us in the love of Christ our Lord, so we live in the peace of God, our Father.  Amen.

C, Christmas Day, The Birth of our Lord - Luke 2:8-20 "You Cant' Hit an Angel with a Stick"

 

Text:     Luke 2:8-20 

…[T]here were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favour rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Sermon

You can’t beat a shepherd with a stick!  None of us here would be able to strong arm a shepherd and steal his sheep.  Rather if we tried to overrun the shepherd and flog his sheep we would end up on the wrong end of the stick.  We would be struck with the shepherd’s staff.  We would feel the sting of his rod on our backs; the shepherd’s staff would bear down heavy on our shoulders, and we would have to flea from him and his flock in fear.

Shepherds are masters at caring for their sheep.  Looking after sheep in the daytime is one thing — watching their sheep feed on pastures, making sure they don’t stray too far.  But at night as the sheep rest, the pressure to keep sheep safe rises to a whole new level.  For in the cloak of darkness lurk all sorts of menaces just waiting to make a meal out of a sheep.  Often you would find not just one shepherd looking after the flock but a number of shepherds watching the sheep every hour of the day: a family of shepherds perhaps.  So, while one watched the others slept and when alerted they would all jump up, take their staffs, and drive off the attacker.

It would have been just a regular night outside Bethlehem.  The shepherds were watching over their flocks at night.  They were on the lookout for lions, wild dogs, or wolves, and thieves seeking a quick catch before disappearing into the darkness.  And if one of these attackers had stepped out of the darkness, there would have been a commotion, as the shepherds would have banded together and scared off the foe from the flock.

But this night outside Bethlehem was no ordinary night.  In fact, the night became as bright as day as an angel of the Lord appeared and the glory of the Lord shone all around.  Now the shepherds knew what was transpiring, was not the normal.  They knew they couldn’t beat off an angel of the Lord with a staff or sticks, and the fearless shepherds shook with terror.

But this angel was not about to strike the shepherds and scatter their sheep. No!  He came with good news.  And for folk like the shepherds, the news he brought was truly life saving news.  He said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)

This was good news for the shaking Shepherds.  As rugged as these men were, they had no access to God because of their lifestyle.  Being shepherds brought them into contact with ritually unclean situations and animals, and having to watch over their sheep twenty-four hours a day, meant no time to go and make the appropriate sacrifices to the Lord at the temple at Jerusalem.  So, the shepherds lived as outcasts, unclean and unable to have an audience with God in the temple.  It’s no wonder that these men shook with fear.  Not only was this an extraordinary event, but the holiness of God shone upon these men who knew they were not fit to stand in the holy presence of God.

However, the angel’s call to have no fear was well founded.  He told them to have no fear because the Saviour born is “for you”, and this sign is “for you”, that you will find the baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.  And with that the shepherds were privileged to be the first people on earth to hear the song of heaven, Glory to God in the highest, only ever sung in the presence of God; sung now because God was Immanuel, “God with us”, lying in a manger wrapped in cloths — for us — for you!

It must have been a great show seeing the hosts of heaven light up the night sky and even greater to hear that the Saviour was born for them, unclean shepherds.  So much so these shepherds left their sheep — now that’s just not done — and they said to each other, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”  And off they went and found everything as the angel had told them.

The irony in all of this is that these men gained access to God, through an extraordinary event; these men leaned over a manger and saw the child, where usually they would have tipped food into similar mangers to feed their sheep when no fodder was to be found.  What was extraordinary for them was for God too, for God had never lowered himself to such a point that he was restricted to one place in time — as a baby lying in a manger.

We should never let the enormity of this event slip past us.  God came into darkness and shone his glory.  God came to earth for us, for you, for me, and he continues to shine his glory on us.  Although now it’s masked by faith in his Word, so that only those who hear and trust his Word see his glory, and, like the shepherds, have access to a holy God in these dark times. 

The irony doesn’t stop their either.  The child, the Son of God, these shepherds viewed was to grow into the man who was sent by God to be the Shepherd of humanity, beginning with the Jews and then all people, including us, who are the Gentiles.  This holy God born into the darkness of humanity, brings light as he comes as Supreme Shepherd, and was deserted by God and sacrificed as a lamb, in the darkest hour on Good Friday, so that in his sacrifice we — having been cleaned — can say, “Let’s go and see and hear what the Lord has done for us.”  And having been in the Risen Shepherd’s supreme presence and receiving forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation, we can return to our everyday lives glorifying and praising God for all the things we have heard and seen, which are just as we have been told in God’s Word.

So, the inspired words Isaiah wrote all those years before Christ was born are for us.  The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. 4 For as in the day of Midian’s defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.  (Isaiah 9:2,4,6-7)

The zeal of God has accomplished this for you.  We no longer have to fear the shepherd’s rod and staff striking us and oppressing us and driving us away from the flock of God into darkness and death.  Rather because this Christ child was born for you, because this Shepherd was laid in a manger for you, and was nailed to the cross for you, we now can live in peace as the Shepherd’s sheep, living forever in the light.  We have been adopted and given an identity as his children, his sheep, with eternal access to his divine glory.  And now the rod of the Shepherd beats off the enemy, from within us and from near us, every time we hear the Law.  And his staff, the Gospel, saves us and comforts us as we live under his twenty-four hour a day watch. 

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, 3 he restores my soul. He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.   You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  (Psalm 23:1-6)  Amen.

C, Fourth Sunday of Advent - Micah 5:2-5a "Micah's Shepherd Prophecy"

In the days of the split kingdom, Micah was tasked to tell Israel and Judah of their impending destruction.  Both kingdoms had become conceited and presumptuous in their existence, bending God’s Word to suit their disobedient desires and pleasures, refusing to repent, not listening to those God tasked with the call to heed his Word and change their ways.

And why should they listen to Micah?  He was a man from Moresheth, near the former fields of the Philistines.  His imagery speaks of a remnant of the mighty Israel, shepherded again from Bethlehem by a new king who will lead in the strength of the Lord.  This new leader will come after the annihilation of Jerusalem and Samaria.

Although the book of Micah is just seven chapters, we are told the Word of the Lord came to him during the reign of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, before the Samarians were exiled to Assyria and the Judeans were exiled to Babylon.

Israel and Syria joined forces to attack Judah when Ahaz was king.  Before and after him his father Jotham and Hezekiah his son did what was right in God’s sight.  But Ahaz did not, he appealed to the king of Assyria who attacked and conquered Syria.  After this, Ahaz, king of Judah, went to meet the Assyrian king in Damascus, the capital of Syria, he had just won.  While meeting there with the Assyrian King, Ahaz saw the altar used in Damascus and ordered a replica be used in the Jerusalem temple instead of the bronze altar God had consecrated.

To this and other similar behaviours, God says through Micah, “Hear, you peoples, all of you; pay attention, O earth, and all that is in it, and let the Lord God be a witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple. For behold, the Lord is coming out of his place, and will come down and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains will melt under him, and the valleys will split open, like wax before the fire, like waters poured down a steep place. All this is for the transgression of Jacob and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the transgression of Jacob? Is it not Samaria? And what is the high place of Judah? Is it not Jerusalem?” (Micah 1:2–5 ESV)

God’s justice was not only to descend upon the kings, priests, and prophets of Judah and Samaria, but on all from the greatest to the least.  Therefore, judgement fell on Israel not long after, when Assyria took Israel into exile.

However, Hezekiah, the son of Ahaz did what was right and restored Judah and Jerusalem back under the Law of God and God blessed him.  Yet even so, when Hezekiah was ill, envoys from Babylon came to him, and he showed them the treasuries and storehouses of Judah to which the prophet Isaiah prophesied…

“Behold, the days are coming, when all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have stored up till this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, says the Lord. And some of your own sons, who will come from you, whom you will father, shall be taken away, and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” (2 Kings 20:17–18 ESV)

A reprieve occurred for Judah in the face of their Israelite brothers being exiled to Assyria, and Judah under Hezekiah heeded God’s Word spoken through prophets, such as Isaiah and Micah.

When Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh rebuilt the high places that God, foretold of their destruction through Micah, and were physically demolished by King Hezekiah.  Now, this renewed disobedience set Judah up for exile too.  Bringing to fulfilment what Micah and Isaiah had forecast. 

God then stopped speaking to Israel for four hundred years, fulfilling the silence prophesied by Amos, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God, “when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”  (Amos 8:11–12 ESV)

God had handed them over to themselves, and it didn’t go well for them.  The land of milk and honey they were given, became desolate.  Those prophets whom they loathed for speaking the Word of God, disappeared.  God left them to themselves even after they returned from exile.  Even more so, the Jewish priests had become use to worshipping their own way without God.  They were smug in their desires and embroiled in political scheming.  Now under the rule of the Romans their way had become so wicked, they bowed to Herod the Great who began building the second temple in Jerusalem in 20 B.C.

Then this happened…  

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,  saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”  When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;  and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.  They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:  “ ‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’ ” (Matthew 2:1–6 ESV)

Forced back into the Word of God, Herod and the Jews discovered the prophet Micah and his prophesy from chapter 5:2-5a. 

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has given birth; then the rest of his brothers shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:2–5a ESV)

Now that Jesus has been born in Bethlehem, he shepherds his people.  He does this with his Word of Law and Gospel.  We are God’s people now that Jesus has redeemed us through his death and resurrection.  Yet like the Jews and the Israelites, we seek to go the way of the world around us, just as the Jews did and were caught napping at Jesus’ first coming.

He is coming again, yet many even within the church have turned from “the whole council of God’s Word”.  Leaders in the church, proclaim messages of hope, peace, and love, without addressing sin and calling people to repentance.  We have become fixated on our feelings of happiness without allowing the Holy Spirit to finish us in the joy of God’s holiness.  The second coming of Christ is set to catch out many, just as it did the first time.

If God can destroy the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, his very own chosen people, for not adhering to the work of the Law, what will he do to those who call themselves Christian and do not abide in Jesus’ work of the Gospel?  Who grieve the Holy Spirit by not allowing the Spirit to bring them to salvation humility in the Gospel through the humiliation and mortification of the human spirit in the Law.

Although Jesus came as the Shepherd, he came to be the Lamb of God. Like a shepherd who leads his sheep through the gate, in all humility he entered the gates of death as the sacrificial lamb. 

Are you allowing him to humbly shepherd you through death to life eternal?  Are you being shepherded into the holiness of God’s new heaven and earth in which righteousness dwells?  

Or are you shepherding your own righteousness, like those whom God allowed to be humiliated and perish in their sinful refusal to repent at Jesus’ first coming?

The church is proving itself to be no different to the Jews when Christ came the first time.  The way is wide that leads to destruction, even for God’s people when they choose not to hear his Word.  It’s tragic how so much of the mantra coming from our “human high places” proclaims a love that has nothing to do with being prepared by the Holy Spirit for the holiness of God, through the love of Jesus at the cross.  Like the Jews in Jesus first coming, don’t be turned in on yourself, using God and his Word to worship yourself!  Pick up God’s Word, hear and heed the warnings of the Apostles at the end of the New Testament!  Don’t be like the Jews who killed the prophets and were surprised by what was written in the prophets of the Old Testament when Jesus was born!

However, allow the Holy Spirit to humiliate the heights of human haughtiness within you.  To crush the arrogant altars and idiotic idols within.  Allow the Spirit to work you, so you heed the call of Moses, Micah and the prophets, Jesus the Good Shepherd himself, and the Apostles, to be led in humility, just as Jesus Christ was at his first coming. 

The Shepherd now seeks to shepherd you in the strength of the Lord, as members of his holy remnant, so you’re not surprised by his second coming.  

Come Lord Jesus Come! Amen.