The True and Greater Connection

Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for Christmas. We thank you for the birth of the Savior.

Father, we confess before you that so much of what makes us happy depends upon circumstances

and that much of how we understand Christmas has been shaped by secularism and consumerism.

And so, Father, we ask that you help us to remember Jesus, his birth, and to celebrate it.

Celebrate it as much as we can with others.

And we are so grateful that both online and in person we are able to remember and celebrate his birth today.

Pour out the Holy Spirit upon us. Draw us close to Jesus.

And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, there's very technical things about the liturgical year.

If you are Lutheran or Anglican or Roman Catholic, you understand that the visit of the wise men isn't actually part of the Christmas story.

That's epiphany.

The circumcision of Jesus isn't part of the Christmas story.

That's on the octave day of Christmas.

Christmas.

And you can well imagine.

Some Anglicans and Roman Catholics and Lutherans can be very anal about all of this type of stuff.

But in our general culture, when we think of Christmas, we think of everything from the shepherds to the birth to the magi coming.

And we sort of, in our culture and in our imagination and much of our hymns, we think of all of them going together.

But one of the things that we leave out when we're thinking of that big story is the fact that you have this very, very tender moment in verse 20.

Well, let's just read it and listen to this very, very tender moment in Luke chapter 2, verses 19 and 20.

Luke 2:19

But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.

It's very tender.

I'm not saying that in a dismissive way at all.

It really is very, very tender.

The birth of a newborn child is almost always a cause for great celebration.

And the mom looking at the baby and it's just a wonderful moment.

And you could well imagine any mother, if there'd been all this talk about angels and all of that stuff and the message.

And, of course, Mary knew how the baby came to be.

And you can just well imagine her pondering them in her heart.

And then in verse 20, it says,

And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

It's all very good.

And then the next thing is they said, oh, by the way, eight days later, this poor little baby,

they took a knife to his private parts and cut off part of it.

That's usually not part of the whole Christmas story.

In fact, you don't normally have Christmas cards with that as part of it.

You'll see Christmas cards with the magi, with the shepherds, with the angels.

This part, they sort of skip out of the Christmas story.

And actually, it's interesting.

I bumped into a friend yesterday.

I hadn't seen him in about a month.

And he's Jewish, at least nominally.

And I wished him a belated Hanukkah.

And he wished me a Merry Christmas.

And then he asked me what I was going to preach on on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning.

It's always very interesting.

He's a secular Jewish fellow who always often asks me what I'm going to preach on.

So I said that, well, actually, I said by surprise, I'm going to speak on the concept of dwelling,

God dwelling with us on Christmas Eve.

And on Christmas morning, I'm talking about something that might interest you.

I'm talking about the circumcision of Jesus.

Jesus was Jewish.

He got circumcised.

And he went, oh, yeah, I guess.

But sort of had never thought of it, that Jesus was Jewish and he would have been circumcised.

But for many people, it's sort of an awkward thing.

The idea of circumcision is, frankly, for many in our culture, barbaric.

And it just seems like a horrible thing to do,

that you would go and willfully hurt a baby eight days after he is born.

But we're going to walk into it.

One of the things which is interesting, this thing which seems barbaric, is actually,

it's actually really, it really is interesting.

I watch a lot more Netflix and Amazon Prime than my wife does, mainly because if I exercise at home,

I usually have something on while I'm exercising.

So I watch more things on Netflix and Amazon Prime than my wife does.

And sometimes I'll watch something and I'm getting into it a little bit and I'll think,

this is exactly the sort of thing my wife would like to watch.

And sometimes I'll stop it right there to watch it from the beginning with her.

And other times I finish it because I actually, if it's a good movie or a good show,

I enjoy watching it a second time.

And the second thing is, I actually get almost as much pleasure, maybe even more,

knowing that Louise is going to like it and watching it with her.

And knowing that she's going to like it and just as I experience, in a sense,

her experiencing the movie is a good thing.

And one of the things I'll do, which is maybe Bada, she's a very good wife,

so she doesn't complain about me too much.

But one of the things I'll do, if it's a very, very well-crafted movie,

we just watched something the other day that I'd already seen.

And she sort of had dozed off because we were watching it late night.

And I said, no, well, let's start it off tomorrow.

And then the next day, as we started to watch it, I said,

just what happens right here is actually really important for the rest of the movie.

And there's many times in movies, and sometimes I'll sort of bugger,

like a third of the way, and I'll say, this is actually really important.

It's just something that comes up in the course of the story

that you can either easily just yawn over.

But in terms of if it's a very well-done story,

you'll end up seeing that actually something which happened at the beginning

or the third or the two-third mark

is really important to understand everything that went on.

It's really important to understanding how the movie makes sense,

the type of story that's being told.

And so here we have this thing, which for many of us in our culture,

and many Christians, they see it as something barbaric.

The idea that you take this beautiful little baby boy,

eight days old,

and then take a knife to his private part

and cut something off is just like I'm squeamish.

It's a very squeamish idea.

But this weird thing that seems barbaric

is actually a really important bit

to help bring together the whole big story of the Bible

and to help us to really enter into and appreciate

what it is that Jesus has done for us.

Because one of the things which is so wonderful about the Bible

is it doesn't just sort of give us doctrinal truths

like Jesus was the firstborn from the dead

or that he set aside his glory and didn't cling to being God

and they give these doctrinal things.

But much of how the Bible communicates its reality

is told in the form of story.

And there's this overarching story told with lots of different...

Sort of like if you ever read the novel World War Z.

And if you read the novel World War Z,

you have newspaper reports,

you have interviews,

you have actual stories,

you have eyewitness accounts strung over

all these different genres from the beginning to the end.

And it actually makes a very powerful story.

And that's a good way to understand what the Bible is.

You have laws,

you have sacrifices,

you have these weird wars,

you have Jesus,

you have all this crazy stuff in the book of Revelation.

And God,

the master storyteller,

is telling this one big story

by using all these different genres

spread out

because he's the same yesterday,

today and forever.

He can begin to tell a story

in the year 2000 BC

and end it in the year 33 BC

or 50 BC or 60

or when all the New Testament's written.

So this idea of circumcision

is one of those weird little things

that if I was watching it with Louise

and it first appears in the Bible,

I'd nudge her and say,

this is really important for the rest of the story.

So just before we get into why it's important,

we're going to watch a little movie

that just helps to bring the story of Jesus to life,

a mini movie,

and then we'll continue on.

And part of this shows a little bit of the angst

that Mary and Joseph experience.

One of the things which is

the story with Jesus being circumcised

actually touches on a human experience

which all of us know.

Maybe some of us are living it right now.

And if we aren't living it right now

or if it's never been true in our own life,

we know people for whom it's true.

I know of three or four different women

who lived when they were still

in their late teens and early 20s

that lived at home with their dad and mom

and brothers and sisters.

But the dad had done something so bad to them

that in each of these cases,

they went somewhere between two to four years

living in the same house with their father

without ever saying a word to him.

Like not once.

That actually requires profound self-discipline.

They treated him as if he was part

of the furniture in the house

because the dad had done something so bad

that they just refused

any type of conversation with them.

Many of us probably know friendships

where something has happened in the friendship.

Maybe a secret has been betrayed.

A confidence has been betrayed.

That leads to the cutting off

of the relationship,

that the friendship comes to an end,

maybe permanently.

We all know, of course, of marriages

where there can be a type of betrayal

that leads to a cutting off

of the other person

and ending of the relationship

completely and utterly.

And then, of course,

we have our normal types of things

with mortgages and financial arrangements.

If you stop making your mortgage payments

at some point in time,

the promises of what happens

if you stop making the payment

is exercised and they repossess the house.

I once...

It's a very, very funny story.

I mean, he's gone to be with Jesus.

But even if he was here,

he wouldn't mind it.

But there used to be a multi-multi-millionaire

who came to the church.

I've told you about him before.

He'd like to take me

to the most expensive restaurant in Ottawa

and tell me to order whatever I wanted on the menu.

It was also one of those remarkable times

where you get to see how that, you know,

the 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% lives

where he would look at the menu

and then he would just close it

and say to them,

I don't see anything on there I want.

This is what I want.

And he would just tell them.

And they wouldn't say,

get a hike, get what's on the menu.

They'd say, thank you, Mr. Blank.

We'll do that for you.

And that's, I guess, what it's like

when you have lots of zeros,

zeros, like a number

and then lots of zeros

in your bank account and your assets.

Anyway, one of the things which was so funny,

we came back, we'd walked somewhere

just to have a coffee this particular time.

When we came back, his car was gone.

And it turned out that he'd forgot

to be making the payments on his lease

and it had been repossessed while we were out,

which is a very, very funny thing.

But the point is,

we're all familiar with the fact

that commitments are made

and that part of making commitments

is that there's a sense,

an important sense,

that you have these things

that you need to do

to maintain the relationship,

to maintain the covenant.

And if you don't do it,

you get cut off.

It's a very, very common human experience.

So one of the things

which is quite remarkable

about the Christian story

is that we discover

right at the very, very beginning,

in fact, at the very, very, very beginning

of the Christian story,

we see that it's understood

that God has made human beings

to be in a relationship with him,

a relationship where we are at peace with him,

comfortable with him,

in joy, in a sense, with him,

and that it's human beings

that break this relationship.

And even in the breaking of the relationship,

which brings death and sin

and suffering into the world,

God, even there,

makes a promise

that he is going to make it right

because human beings

can no longer make it right.

And it's not very much longer

in the story after that

with this constant promise

that there's going to be,

in a sense, a line

that God will, in a sense,

orchestrate in the human race

and it's out of this particular line

that a savior and redemption

is going to happen.

It's a little bit like

if you read The Lord of the Rings

and you imagine what it was like

at the beginning of The Lord of the Rings

long before Aragon comes onto the stage

because when you meet Aragon

and you figure out who he is,

he's the son of,

the son of,

the son of,

the son of,

the son of,

and you can see

that there's this sense

of destiny with Aragorn

that long, long ago

there was going to be

this particular person

that was going to set

the evil right.

The same type of thing

is there in the biblical story.

And so we get this

turning point in the story

when Abraham arrives

and Abraham is sort of

an odd choice of God.

He worshipped the moon.

He worshipped the moon

and God calls him

to stop worshipping the moon

and come to this land

that he is going to give him.

And the way this covenant

or commitment

that God makes with Abraham,

that he's going to make

a relationship with Abraham,

it's not done sort of

in the way a lawyer

would write up a contract.

In the Bible,

it's told in the form of a story

and it goes between

chapter 12 of Genesis

and chapter 17 of Genesis.

And over those six chapters,

this idea of a covenant

that God is going to make

with Abraham

that's going to bless

the entire world

and ultimately lead to redemption

is told in the form of a story

in a variety of incidents.

And first we get the promise

that God makes to Abraham

that from his seed

that there will be

this blessing

that will bless

the entire world,

all the people

who have lived

and are living

and will live.

And then in chapter 15,

we get this very,

very odd story

of Abraham,

God speaking once again

about this covenant.

And in the ancient world,

so if you make

a mortgage nowadays,

they just say,

you know,

you don't look at

the fine print too bad,

but basically

there's all these things

if you stop making

the payments,

they're going to do

this, this, this, this to you

and they come after you

and they make sure

they can get as much

of their money back

as they possibly can.

That's how it works.

And in a sense,

God is going to make

a covenant with Abraham

and the bank

doesn't usually,

I mean,

if you're really rich,

I guess you can negotiate

these things with the bank,

but basically you just,

you pick the best rates.

They said all the terms

and all the penalties

are on you.

That's how it works.

All of the penalties

are on you.

And so God,

in chapter 15,

he makes his covenant

with Abraham

and back in those days

what they would do

is they would,

they would take an animal

and they'd kill the animal

and they'd cut the animal

in half

and they'd put maybe

a couple of animals

as part of the sacrifice

and the person

who was the weak person

in the contract

or in the covenant,

he or she would have

to walk between

all of the killed,

the animals

that had been cut in half.

And it was enacting,

they wouldn't write it down

on paper,

it was enacting,

this is what's going

to happen to you

if you don't keep

the terms of the covenant.

You see these animals

killed,

cut in half

that you're walking between,

you don't keep up

the covenant,

this is your fate.

And one of the things

which is so remarkable here,

it's the beginning

of one of these themes

that comes throughout

the entire rest of the Bible

and culminates in Jesus,

is that you'd expect now

in the story

for Abraham

to get up

and walk between

these animals

because God is vastly

more powerful.

But what happens?

No, God puts Abraham

into a deep sleep.

And it's obvious

in the language

that he's put him

into a sleep

that in a sense

he's come into God's presence.

And who walks

between the animals?

It's God,

not Abraham.

God walks

between the animals.

Does it symbolically

in terms of some smoke

and with a torch.

In other words,

God says,

if you fail

to keep the terms

of this relationship,

I'm going to be the one

who pays the price.

And it's only after that

in chapter 17

that there's something

for Abraham to do.

And you see,

this is one of the things

that begins

this great pattern

in the Bible.

In the Ten Commandments,

it begins,

I am the one

who redeemed you

out of slavery

in Egypt,

therefore this is

how you live.

And redemption

always precedes

living with God.

And so even here

in chapter 15

and 16 and 17,

first you have the promise

in chapter 12,

other things happen.

Chapter 15,

then something else

happens in chapter 16.

And then in chapter 17,

when Abraham is to enter

into this covenant

that God has already said

that he is going to be

the one who bears

the punishment,

the cost,

if the covenant isn't made.

And then for the whole covenant

to be completed,

what happens to Abraham?

He's circumcised.

In the story,

he's 99 years old

when it happens.

Everybody in his household

is circumcised.

Ishmael is 13.

And it's a very,

very interesting thing.

The Bible would find

female circumcision

completely abhorrent

because we know

that one of the reasons

that women are circumcised

is a part of a male dominance

over women.

And in particular,

it's to remove

any sense of pleasure

for them

in conjugal relations

between a husband

and a wife.

It's a very oppressive thing

to do to a woman.

And the Bible knows

nothing of it.

In terms of this,

for a man,

it has nothing to do

with his eventual ability

to sire children

or experience pleasure

in the conjugal act.

But there's this

symbolic thing,

so to speak,

of the source of life,

of ongoing life,

which is cut in a tiny way.

God takes the big promise

upon himself

and to be part of this covenant,

to enter into it

for the Jewish people,

Abraham takes this small,

symbolic,

but still costly

and very powerful,

symbolic act

that he's entering

into the covenant.

And as you see

the rest of the story develop,

you see that God desires

not just mere lineage

of one person

circumcised to another

and biological inheritance

because the entire

original point

of the covenant

in Genesis 12

is that there's some way

that the entire human race

is to be blessed,

that this covenant

is to point to something

beyond that

which is merely physical,

which is to be,

in fact,

something deeply spiritual.

And so we see here

this promise

of some great gift

of life

and it's in that context

that we have Jesus coming

and his circumcision.

And before I say

a few more words,

we'll watch another movie

that helps to bring home

something special

about the person of Jesus.

Is it going to work?

Okay.

Throws off my rhythm.

Anyway,

so one of the things then,

we have this interesting thing

at the beginning of this story

which continues on,

these variety of different images

of the fact that

God wants to enter

into a relationship with us.

There's consequences

for breaking the relationship

and the fact of the matter is

is if you read

what we call the Old Testament

and our Jewish friends

call the Torah or the Tanakh,

you'll see that

human beings broke it constantly,

that the Jewish people

broke it constantly.

And it's not that we are

to take from that

that the Jewish people

are particularly bad

or particularly virtuous.

In a sense,

they are everyone

and that human beings

aren't able

to keep the terms

of God's covenant

or relationship.

So here we have Jesus

entering the story now

and he gets circumcised.

But we,

and in other words,

he now enters into

the covenant people,

the covenant relationship

that God has desired

to have with his people.

But at the same time,

Jesus is going to be the one

who ends up dying

upon the cross.

So what we actually see

in the person of Jesus

is this wonderful

coming together

of the story.

We see that on one hand,

Jesus is part

of the covenant people.

He identifies with those

who are to be

in a relationship with God.

And while all of us

aren't able to keep

the covenant

in the way that we should,

he is able to keep it perfectly.

And yet at the end

of the story,

he in a sense experiences

the true and greater

circumcision.

He is both part of the line

of chapter 17

where Abraham is circumcised

and he is in fact

reenacting chapter 15

where God himself

takes upon himself

the consequences

and punishments

that come

if people aren't able

to keep the covenant.

And so it is

that by Jesus'

in a sense

physical circumcision

and the true

and greater circumcision

that happens

with his death

upon the cross

as the Lamb of God

who takes away

the sin of the world,

he both represents

the people

and he represents God

to create

a new covenant,

a new covenant

where God begins

to dwell with us

in a new way.

That everything

in the,

what we call

the Old Testament

and what our Jewish friends

call the Tanakh,

everything is pointing

to this time

where God is going

to keep

not only chapter 15

and chapter 17

of Genesis

but also chapter 12.

That it's only

when God,

the Son of God,

perfect God

and perfect man

dies

on the cross

that there is

this possibility

of a blessing

that will go

to all

in the human race

who put their faith

and trust

in Jesus.

And that

when we put

our faith

and trust

in Jesus,

in a sense

what happens

as we've talked

before,

you reach your hand

out to Jesus

and you can't reach him

but his hand

can reach yours

and he takes you

and you in a sense

enter into him

and he enters

into you

and so that all

that he accomplished

by his life

and all that he accomplished

by his death

and all that he accomplishes

by his resurrection,

you enter into that

as he enters

into you

taking away

your sin

and your punishment

and your shame

and all that you deserve

for not having lived

a holy life

and

I'm just going to finish

this thought

you'll just be ready

to point

okay

and so that is

this true and greater

it's also the promise

of a spiritual reality

that now enters

into you

that

you now

by being united

to Christ

you're united with him

now

and into eternity

that death

is the ending

of this one created order

and the entering

into what God

has promised

of the new heaven

and the new earth

and now we finally

have the video

that I would have shown

a few minutes earlier

and in the same region

there were shepherds

out in the field

keeping watch

over their flock

by night

and an angel

of the Lord

appeared to them

and the glory

of the Lord

shone around them

and they were filled

with great fear

and the angel

said to them

fear not

for behold

I bring you

good news

of great joy

that will be

for all the people

for unto you

is born this day

in the city

of David

a savior

who is Christ

the Lord

and this

will be a sign

for you

you will find

a king

wearing a magnificent

crown

no dad

that's not it

oh really

let me try it again

for unto you

is born this day

in the city

of David

a savior

who is Christ

the Lord

and this

will be a sign

for you

you will find

a powerful

well trained

soldier

no dad

you did it again

that's not right

okay

how about this

and this will be

a sign for you

you will find

a democratically

elected president

what

no

a trendy

motivational speaker

no way

a big tech

CEO

a movie star

time traveling

cyborg

no

no

none

none of those

are right

the shepherds

we can't find

any of those

okay

then

little miss

know it all

what did

they find

for unto you

is born this day

in the city

of David

a savior

who is Christ

the Lord

and this

will be a sign

for you

you will find

a baby

wrapped in

swattering cloths

and lying

in a manger

oh that's

right

a baby

does that even

make sense

a baby

is totally

helpless

yeah but if

Jesus didn't

come as a baby

then he wouldn't

have known

what it was

like to grow up

ah but wait

why did he

have to grow up

that's easy

to save us

ah

well then that

means that the

best part about

Christmas is

the baby

right

the baby

oh

well

guess it's

time you

get some

sleep

we got a

big day

ahead of us

tomorrow

no

we're not

done with

the story

okay

just a little

longer

and suddenly

there was with

the angel

a multitude

of the heavenly

host praising

God and saying

glory to God

in the highest

and on earth

peace among

those with whom

he is

Jesus was cut

off that we

could be

connected in

Jesus was

cut off

that we

could be

connected in

one of the

things that

makes human

life so hard

is that you

are the one

who has done

that wrong

that makes

you cut off

and in many

of our

relationships

there's no

way to

redeem that

there's no

way to

make atonement

for it

there's no

way to

fix that

and this

is this

profound

part of

the Bible

of Jesus

being cut

off

of entering

into what

it means

to be

cut off

in the

most complete

and perfect

way

when he

dies upon

the cross

saying my

God my

God why

have you

forsaken

me

that is in

fact the

very very

means that

Jesus'

death upon

the cross

is that

true and

greater

circumcision

that we

see

promised

first with

Abraham

in the

stories in

Genesis

and then in

Jesus in

his birth

and then in

his death

and resurrection

that Jesus

enters into

our life

in weakness

that when we

put our

faith and

trust in

him our

separation

from God

is ended

that in a

sense a

very real

and true

sense our

eternal

destiny with

him is

guaranteed

that we

can hope

in that

and trust

in that

and that

he is present

with us now

even in our

weakness

even in those

moments of

abandonment

or breaking

that seems so

insoluble and

maybe on this

side of the

grave they are

but we have

Jesus to

teach us

and help us

to humble

us to

make amends

of life to

say that we

are sorry

that we are

guilty because

our identity

is no longer

rooted in our

ability to

keep control

of things

our identity

begins to be

rooted more

and more

and more

in Jesus

and his

true and

greater

circumcision

his being

cut off

that we can

be connected

into him

and into

God

for all

eternity

let's watch

this final

movie

why

why

why

why

why

did

Jesus

come to

earth

why forsake

the majesty

and fellowship

of heaven

exchanging a

palace for a

stable

immortal

comforts

for a

feeding

trough

and robes

of glory

for the

feeble

body

of an

infant

an

unparalleled

irony

this

supreme

unrivaled

nobility

experiencing

absolute

and total

humility

our

sovereign

God

Emmanuel

as a

baby

he

didn't

come

to

heap

shame

upon

sinners

or to

judge

and

cast

out

the

impious

but to

break

bread

with

those

called

unrighteous

he

didn't

come

to

illuminate

every

mystery

of the

cosmos

or to

enlighten

the

intellectual

but to

fulfill

the

testimony

of

prophets

clothed

in

rags

he

didn't

come

to

elevate

a

single

nation

or to

advocate

a

particular

political

affiliation

he came

because

he saw

you

broken

in

need

of

salvation

he

saw

you

lost

and

abandoned

crying

out

surrounded

by deaf

ears

fighting

through

the

tears

but

beaten

down

by

the

torments

of

this

world

and

unable

to

bear

your

distress

he

renounced

his

eternal

throne

walked

the

earth

bore

the

stripes

accepted

the

nails

and

gave

up

his

last

breath

so

that

you

could

receive

the

breath

of

life

our

God

our

holy

infinite

God

beheld

your

pain

perceived

your

heart

and

determined

that

your

soul

was

worth

dying

for

from

the

manger

to

the

cross

to

the

empty

tomb

it

is

all

a

story

of

profound

love

of

a

savior

who

rescued

his

children

from

darkness

of

a

blameless

king

who

declared

that

no

sacrifice

was

too

great

for

the

sake

of

his

beloved

creation

why

did

Jesus

come

to

earth

he

came

for

you

just

stand

and

bow

our

heads

in

prayer

in

closing

now

father

we give

you

thanks

and

praise

you

are

a

great

storyteller

that

you

are

very

wise

we

confess

before

you

that

there

are

parts

of

the

story

that

when

we

read

them

we

find

it

a

bit

fearful

a

bit

barbaric

we

ask

father

that

you

help

us

to

trust

more

and

more

that

if

we

are

to

dig

down

into

your

word

we

understand

and

see

how

even

in

these

parts

which

seem

so

hard

and

difficult

in

fact

your

great

love

and

your

great

goodness

is

revealed

in

different

ways

we

ask

father

that

you

fan

into

flame

within

us

once

again

a

deep

appreciation

for

the

humble

birth

of

the

savior

in

in

in

Bethlehem

2000

years

ago

that

that

story

father

will

be

true

and

deep

and

real

to

us

and

help

to

shape

and

form

our

heart

help

to

shape

how

we

understand

politics

how

we

understand

being

good

neighbors

how

we

understand

business

how

we

understand

service

and

family

friendship

and

love

how

we

understand

prayer

and

how

we

understand

hope

father

we

ask

that

you

bring

this

story

deep

into

our

hearts

that

we

might

live

lives

that

bring

you

glory

and

we

ask

all

of

this

in

the

name

of

Jesus

your

son

and

our

savior

amen