Heavenly Exchange Policy

Genesis 11:1-9; Psalm 80:1-7; Micah 5:2-5a; Hebrews 10:5-10

Central Baptist Church, Lowesville, VA

24 December 2006

If something goes wrong, can I get my money back? That is one of the concerns of the myriad shoppers making purchases during this season of gift-giving. What if it is the wrong size, the wrong color, the wrong fit, or the recipient already has one? Will exchanging this gift be a hassle or an easy experience that extends my message of care? The question touches on the underlying concern of many regarding faith in Christ Jesus. What will it cost to give my life to Christ Jesus and will it be worth the risk? What if I decide it is not worth the risk? Can I get an exchange receipt?

The psalmist’s words speak of a people who knew their need. He speaks of a people recognizing their need for the action of Yahweh in their midst. They had abandoned faithfulness to the covenant with Yahweh and were once more in a position of conflict. They needed rescue, redemption, and release from the oppression of enemy forces. Though the nation had banished Yahweh from the temple throne, the psalmist recognizes that Yahweh is still enthroned in the heavenly sanctuary. The stories of Yahweh’s Exodus redemption had been laid aside, discarded as though no longer valid for the current day’s issues.

Israel and Judah had abandoned Yahweh in their quest for prominence among world powers. They had decided that Yahweh’s protection and the demands of the covenant upon them no longer fit in with their desires and needs. They had returned the gift of God’s blessing to go it their own way. Now the psalmist decries the error, pleading for Yahweh to take them back. From the very beginning of the wilderness wandering, it had been clear that the people were free to turn away from Yahweh’s offer to be their God and guide them into a new life in the land promised to Abram. Having rejected Yahweh’s offer as insufficient, would God take them back?

Any success we had in our major missionary task in Mexico was due to the influence of Marta and Antonio. They opened doors for us in the community amid a backlash by people who were afraid of what ulterior motives we might have harbored. We developed a close friendship with this couple who participated in Bible studies with us and encouraged our work with an open-air children’s Bible club. When it came time to respond to the gospel of grace in Christ Jesus, we hit a wall. They were concerned over what would happen if they accepted salvation and then did not live in moral perfection. They wanted to wait to accept the gospel of grace on their deathbeds to grant security that they would not lose such a precious gift. How could God take them back in grace if they spurned God’s gift in disobedience? They could not fathom the depths of God’s willingness to restore, redeem, and forgive. Do we recognize the quality and depth of God’s gift of love?

Love and grace aside, there is no compelling reason that Yahweh should have redeemed a nation who had spurned the covenant gift. Micah reminds us, however, that while God allowed the nation to be sent into exile restoration would be offered through a ruler arising out of Bethlehem. This restoration would go beyond the former covenant, for it would extend throughout the entire world as this new reign would stem from God’s initiative, not simply the might or passions of a mortal. Covenant restoration by Yahweh’s hand would overcome human rejection of God’s gift, spreading love with the entire world.

Last night I had the privilege of sharing this message of God’s loving initiative with a group of Hispanic families at the fiesta sponsored by the local association. We played party games together, laughed, talked about the different paths bringing us to this part of Virginia, and shared food prepared as expressions of God’s love and grace. I had not met any of these men, women, or children before. I watched members from Baptist churches trying to converse with phrase books with people who did not speak their language, whose customs were different, and lived different lives from their own. We had decided to love these strangers as God loved us through Christ. We built bridges of friendship, shared the gospel, and started a process to get glasses for one of the men attending. We accepted that the gift of God’s love is too precious to reject and completely worthy of sharing with others. Are we committed to sharing God’s love with strangers? Will we allow the love of Christ to make a difference through us?

Last night, I shared from Genesis 11 the tower of Babel story. Like the passage from Hebrews we read this morning, it is not the first passage that comes to mind when we think of Christmas. Yet like the Hebrews passage it speaks of God coming to earth, not to exact sacrifice, but to attend to our actions, plans, and need to relate to God. In the Babel story, this tower being built to reach into the heavens to dethrone the gods cannot even be seen from heaven. Yahweh comes down to investigate, anyway. Man’s claims to accomplish whatever he dreams of are ridiculed by the narrator. God will have the last word. So in the Hebrews account, God comes to earth in Christ Jesus, not to demand sacrifices but to call humanity in a quest of fellowship and love. There is recognition that man can do nothing to reach heaven by will power, sacrifice, or any other means. Nor does God expect the burden of relationship to fall on our abilities. It is rather offered as a gift of grace to be accepted.

Restoration to fellowship with God never came through sacrifice. It was never the product of human initiative to gain God’s attention. Rather, God has always called humanity to fulfill God’s will as the best way for us to live and rejoice fully in the life granted by the author of life. Life was a gift of God’s love, and God’s instructions the manual to live it well. Do our lives show God’s love to others?

In an age of enlightenment, we believed that increasing knowledge would be the key to riding the world of its problems and the wrongs of war and oppression. We found out that knowledge was not a sufficient answer. In an age of experience and entertainment, we believed that sucking the marrow out of life was the way to live its fullness and overcome barriers of anger, hate, and discrimination. We found that living without boundaries did not solve our problems. In an age of technological advance, we believed we could rid the world of its inconsistencies and unexpected ills. We found that technology was an insufficient answer to pain, grief, and loss. In an age turning back to a full sensory experience of the natural world, we find that nature is not an idyllic paradise of love, care, and concern.

Hebrews reminds us that the world’s ills lie inside our own hearts and lives. It is within ourselves we need to search for the need of sanctification, restoration, and redemption. This is why we celebrate Christmas, for God knows better than ourselves our true needs. God took the initiative in the story of Christmas to meet us at our innermost reality. Rather than requiring sacrifice, infection control, technological advancement, or academies of learning for the eradication of evil, God was born in a smelly feeding trough to teach us how to fulfill God’s love and will for our lives.

God did for us what we could not do. God came down to reconnect our lives with the gift of God’s love and presence. God has a policy about exchanging this gift of love. In grace, Christ offered himself freely that we might live in God’s presence, sanctified from the inside out. We have been granted the greatest gift of all in the message of Christmas. Who will better understand God’s love because of our celebrations? Celebrating God’s gift of love, what response will we bring in exchange?

—©2006 Christopher B. Harbin