Christianity: Morality Tale or Love Story?

Hello, I'm Pastor Creighton, and thank you for tuning in to New Sun Churches Podcast.

We're a gospel centered church in Port Perry, Ontario, proclaiming the true and life-giving word of Jesus as we love and serve our neighbors.

May God bless you today through his life-giving word.

Jerusalem can be destroyed.

Rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people.

No more shall be heard in it the sound of weeping and the cry of distress.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.

And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them, and they will be his people.

And God Himself will be with them as their God.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more.

Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore.

For the former things have passed away.

And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new.

Well, to understand me, because that's really why we're here, you have to understand that I have a very sophisticated taste in film.

Generally, I'm drawn to the subtle nuances of superhero films, to the realism of Indiana Jones, and of course to those thought-provoking films with Star in their title, whether that's Trek or Wars.

So, as my wife Rachel can confirm, when it's movie night, I can be picky.

I recall movie night a few December ago when Rachel's sister Victoria was visiting us from the UK, and she proposed that we watch a favorite film called A Muppet's Christmas Carol.

But because of my particular taste in film, I'm sorry to say that I responded with something less than enthusiasm.

Rachel asked me, Well, have you ever seen the movie?

And truth be told, I had seen it when I was a very young boy, and I remembered some fragments and impressions of it, a few characters, a few scenes, a few clips, but my limited and vague recollection suggested that I'd rather just we watch Die Hard instead.

But to answer Rachel's question with a yes, I had seen it in the hope that we'd then choose another movie would be too obvious.

I took a clever tack.

I responded to the question with rapid-fire questions of my own to suggest I was so familiar with A Muppets Christmas Carol that I was bored of it.

You know, that's the one with Ebenezer Scrooge, right?

That's the one with Tiny Tim, Kermit, etc.

It's a very subtle strategy, I know.

But Rachel, of course, knew exactly what I was doing.

And she wasn't going to let my imperfect and limited recollection of this story be the basis on which I judged it.

She was rightly determined to have me watch the whole story and draw my conclusions accordingly.

Sometimes I wonder if our attitude towards Christianity can be something like my attitude towards this movie.

At the heart of Christianity is the Bible.

And the Bible is, after all, a story.

The story of salvation.

And for those of us who are familiar enough with this story, we could probably recollect a few characters that we learned about in Sunday school, a few passages that we remember preachers droning on about, and probably there are a couple clips of Bible movies that come to our mind that we've watched as well.

Perhaps what comes to mind when you think of Christianity suggests that you've seen this thing already.

And maybe it's a nice story, and especially around Christmas time, and you're glad that there are other folks who are really into it, but it's really not for you.

Or perhaps it's more than that.

Perhaps what Christianity brings to your mind is an unwelcome feeling of burden.

The scenes we remember from this story of the Bible seem to suggest that God is very difficult to please, and he expects a lot from us.

And while we suspect Christianity probably has some good moral advice about the good God expects us to do, the story itself seems to offer us no help with which to accomplish it.

Life is burdensome enough, don't you think?

So why bother with this taskmaster God and burdensome story?

Or so a limited recollection might suggest.

Perhaps we need to check a vague recollection about this story against the whole story itself and draw our conclusions accordingly.

Let's see what we discover.

See, this is why I love lessons and carols.

Every year, it's a beautiful opportunity to let God's great story speak for itself.

It's true that there are many characters and scenes that we could have included in today's telling of the story, but the Bible lessons we've heard today outline what Christians believe to be the most essential points to its plot.

Taken together, we might be surprised what we find.

We might be surprised to find that instead of a morality tale about what we need to do for God, we find at the heart of Christianity a love story.

It's a love story of what God has gladly done for us to reach us, to rescue us, to restore us to himself.

Christianity is a love story between God and His people, brought to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Just consider what we've read.

In creation, God was pleased to make human beings in his image to participate in and with to participate in and um with him and one another and to partner with him in multiplying the good of creation.

But the loyalty and affections of our first parents were fickle and self-serving, much like our own.

Instead of participating in and partnering with God, our first parents decided to take it upon themselves to determine what is good and evil, and, if possible, to become gods on their terms, apart from their creator.

They repaid God's boundless love for them with rebellion.

What they sowed was selfishness and pride.

What they reaped was alienation from God, from one another, and from creation itself, resulting ultimately in death and deterioration.

One trespass led to condemnation for all human beings.

And humanity has lived in this shadow ever since.

But into the darkness of humanity's rebellion, God's constant love shines all the brighter.

In love, God commits himself to the redemption of a wayward humanity.

The light of the knowledge of the glory of God is about to shine among us once more and even brighter than before.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant, and I will be their God, and they will be my people, for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their sin no more.

But humanity's salvation, our rescue, our restoration can only be realized if our state of condemnation is itself condemned, if our death is put to death, and if our alienation from God is answered by atonement, but we're powerless to atone for ourselves.

There is no morality tale or insightful or powerful enough for us to set ourselves right before God.

We, like sheep, have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way.

We cannot do what it takes to reconcile ourselves with God.

To be reconciled with God, we need God to enter into our tragic story and to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

So that is what God in Jesus Christ did out of his great love for us.

He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and by his wounds we are healed.

See, this is not the good advice of a quaint morality tale, is it?

This instead is the good news of the great love story, the rescue, restoration, and atonement fulfilled in the crucified and risen Lord Jesus.

In his death, Jesus put the power of death to death, so that in his resurrection we might be restored as he is to everlasting life.

Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

What shall separate us from the love of God?

And the love story doesn't end here.

Christians wait for the day when the risen Lord Jesus will return, when his glorious kingdom will be fully realized on earth, when all wrongs are made right, when all creation is renewed, and once for all, God will dwell with his redeemed people.

They will be his people.

God himself will be with them as their God.

See, Christianity invites us to see this story as our story.

You and I are here today between creation and renewed creation.

But as our lessons and carols remind us, at the very heart of the story, the great pivot point of all history, the bullseye center of it all, is Christmas.

The first Christmas tells us that there is no length to which God will not go to reach us wayward sheep.

God shows us his true love for us in Jesus.

He is not a taskmaster.

He has done for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

In other words, his yoke is easy.

His story is not burdensome.

It's the story of his costly love for us.

In other words, his burden is light.

So I want the records to show that I did indeed end up watching them up at Christmas Carol.

And despite whatever poor impressions I might have had from my youth, I was truly charmed and delighted by the whole story taken together.

Complimented, of course, by the jaunty music, and what can only be described as Michael Cain's single best performance of his career.

He fully commits.

It's been a story that we've delighted in every Christmas since.

Fragments and impressions are not the same thing as the whole story, are they?

And today we can see the great story of the Christian faith laid before us, the story of salvation.

It's the story of God's great love for us, fulfilled in Jesus Christ.

It's a story, as C.S.

Lewis remarks, which works on us much the same as many other stories of its kind, but with this tremendous difference that it really happened.

So for us today who are curious or surprised or stirred, there's an opportunity for us this Christmas.

Tell the story.

That's what our conductor often says to his choir.

But will we hear the story?

Let's not be satisfied with the fragments and impressions we might have of Christianity, of this story.

Let's conclude, and let's not conclude that we know it already and set aside the story till next Christmas.

Let's respond to this story.

Let's acknowledge before God that we have gone astray, but let's trust that the Lord in Christ is the only one who restores and rescues us.

Look to Jesus, and you will find in him God's infinite love for you displayed.

He is the fulfillment of the great love story.

Heaven, come to earth.

God with us.

Amen.

We hope that you've been blessed by God's word today.

If you live in the Port Perry area, we hope that you'll come and worship with us in person on Sunday at 10 a.m.

If you'd like to learn more about Newsong Church, we'd love to connect with you.

Please find our contact information at newsongportperry.ca and reach out to us.

Newsong's ministry is entirely funded by the generous giving of those who worship and journey with us.

If you feel called to support our ministry with a financial gift, please go to newsongportperry.ca slash giving to make your contribution.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.