always winter but never christmas

In C.S. Lewis’s beloved classic, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”, he pictures the land of Narnia as being always winter but never Christmas. It’s a country in which hope is frozen. Lewis writes, “it never gets to Christmas”. Narnia is held in the icy grip of the White Witch. However, we quickly discover that “Aslan is on the move” and things begin to change. “Soon there were more wonderful things happening. Coming suddenly round a corner into a glade of silver birch trees Edmund saw the ground covered in all directions with little yellow flowers”.

The coming of Aslan destroyed the endless winter in which the inhabitants of Narnia were held and Spring awakened once again across the land.

I’ve always been enchanted by the character of Aslan the lion and the way in which Lewis clearly portrays him as the Christ figure in the story.

As with Aslan so more wonderfully with Christ. His coming brings winter's cold night to an end. "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" (Isaiah 9:2). 

 I have reflected a great deal this last week on the fact that when the bible speaks about the coming of Jesus it does so in three tenses. Let me explain.

Firstly, Jesus came (at a particular moment in human history).

The Apostle Paul describes his coming in the way: “But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children”.

Galatians 4

He came in time as our Saviour.

Secondly, Jesus comes (in the ordinary circumstances of a Christian’s life).

This is the promise of Jesus: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).

He comes today as our Shepherd. 

Thirdly, Jesus will come again (in a decisive act that will see the curtain drawn on this stage of time). 

The ancient prayer of the church in this regard has always been “Maranatha” “Come, Lord Jesus” (1 Corinthians 16:23).

He will come again as our Sovereign 

And so the Bible presents the coming of Jesus in three tenses. When viewed in that light, the centuries old carol takes on even greater meaning:

O come, O come, Immanuel,

and ransom captive Israel

that mourns in lonely exile here

until the Son of God appear.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Immanuel

shall come to you, O Israel.

In my humble opinion this is the most beautiful rendition of this carol:

Happy Christmas 

(Picture - Eaglesham Moor)

old and unimproved

 I bought a 4 pack of Irn Bru 1901 the other day and was intrigued by the strapline on the packaging - Old and Unimproved. It is a very clever marketing strategy, springing from a belief that this Barr’s product is quite exceptional. Why change what has become a national institution?

Let’s borrow that slogan and consider how it matches perfectly with the message of Advent.

First, the message of Advent is OLD.

When we use the word old we do so on two levels. 

Old could, in one sense, refer to something that is beyond its sell-by-date, tired or broken and no lower fit for purpose.

Alternatively, it can describe that which is enduring, lasting; something that time honours.

The message of Christmas is old. It’s comes to us from another time and place. But it speaks with tremendous power and relevance to our lives in the 21st century. 

700 years before the birth of Christ one of the Hebrew prophets, Micah, described his advent in this way:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times” (Micah 5:2). 

Jesus, the Messiah’s “coming forth is from of old, from ancient days” (ESV). And Micah says of him, “he shall be their peace” (5:5). He is the one who speaks peace into our troubled souls. 

Inner peace has to be one of the most elusive qualities of life in our modern world. Has there ever been a generation that is more restless and therefore lacking in peace than this one? 

The ancient prophet Isaiah speaks into our age when he says, “You will guard him and keep him in perfect peace whose mind (both in its inclinations and in its character) is stayed on you, because he commits himself to you, leans on you and hopes confidently in you” (Isaiah 26:3).

This advent season may our minds be fixed on the promises of God so that when the storms of life buffet us we can draw on those promises and find rest for our souls.

The message of Christmas is old but ever new.

Second, it’s UNIMPROVED

How could it be otherwise when we read again from the prophet Isaiah:

“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”.

(Isaiah 9:6)

The coming child would be given titles that could only be attributed to God. He is truly, “Immanuel God with us” (Matthew 1:23). The mystery and wonder of that truth is captured in a sentence by Charles Wesley, “our God contracted to a span, incomprehensibly made man”.

The message of advent is old (it’s enduring) and unimproved (the greatest story ever told). 

(Picture - Ben A'an)

the advent(ure) begins...

We have just entered the season of Advent when we focus on the coming of Jesus into our world. For me one of the stand out lines in the carols we sing comes from Charles Wesley’s hymn, “Hark! The herald angels sing”. In verse two we sing out, "veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.”

This statement becomes more poignant when it is viewed against the entire revelation of Scripture. Way back in the book of Exodus we discover an encounter between Moses and the Lord. One of Moses’ main requests of God on that occasion was, “show me your glory” (Exodus 33:18). Moses was informed that were that to happen he would die…such is the awesome glory of God! However, in the gospel of John we read that, “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (1:14). Charles Wesley did not write, “veiled in flesh the Godhead hidden” but “veiled in flesh, the Godhead see.” Perhaps the significance of that truth can be more fully appreciated as I recount the following incident from some years back.

In August 1999 the country experienced its last total eclipse of the sun. We happened to be visiting Liz’s parents in Dalry at the time. At just after 11am on August 11th the moon passed in front of the sun causing an incredible natural phenomenon. The air felt distinctly cooler and the birds immediately stopped singing. It felt like we were entering a strange twilight zone. On the days leading up to the eclipse the press warned against the danger of looking at the sun with the naked eye and special glasses were made available for the purpose. As this event unfolded I recall standing out on the street and a gentleman from the estate handed me an old welding mask to observe this rare occurrence. To this day I have a very distinct memory of what took place and what I would otherwise not have been able to see were it not for that shield in front of my eyes.

In a similar way, it is through the Lord Jesus Christ that we see the glory of God. The God who revealed himself in all his brilliance to the ancient people of Israel comes near to us in Jesus Christ. We see his love, his humility, his wisdom, his compassion and…his glory. In Eugene Peterson’s famous translation of John 1:14, God moved into the neighbourhood in the person of Jesus. He becomes all personal, someone we can know in the everyday experience of life.

May we experience much of that reality this Advent season.

(picture - winter walk above Crieff)

love them!

During the six years I lived in Campbeltown I became good friends with a young man who worked at the American Airbase at Machrihanish. We met at 6.30am each Tuesday for bible study and prayer. On a number of occasions he placed a small card in the pulpit which I got when I stood up to preach. I still have one of the cards. On one side it has the words of the singer Michael Card: “He loves you with passion, without regret. He cannot love more, he will not love less.”

On the other side it simply says, “Love them!”

The card reminds me of a central tenet of the Christian life and one that has blessed me as I read Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians in the early part of the week. In 1:2-3 he writes:

“We always thank God for all of you and pray for you constantly. As we talk to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and your continual anticipation of the return of our Lord Jesus Christ” (NLT).

What Paul especially remembered about the Thessalonians was the three primary Christian graces which characterised their lives: faith, love and hope.

Faith, love and hope are the evidences of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Together they completely reorientate our lives, as we find ourselves being drawn up towards God in faith, out towards others in love and on towards the Lord’s coming in hope. The Christian life means little or nothing if it doesn’t pull us out of our own fallen self interests and redirects us towards Christ and our fellow human beings.

John Calvin, the great second generation reformer, referred to this verse as ”a brief definition of true Christianity.” It is a classic description of what a truly authentic Christian life looks like. We find here the principles which form our character as Christians. 

The faith in Christ that changes our lives and shapes our destiny is also the one that shapes our attitude to others…“Love them!”

(Picture, On a walk near our home)

give me a call

 

What verse in Scripture would you look to as a favourite?

I have known some people who would say their choice is Jeremiah 29:11. “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”.

I recently finished reading the prophecy of Jeremiah and was struck afresh by this most famous of sentences. Most of the time the original context is not acknowledged when people quote it. It is spoken by God to a people who faced his judgment in the form of banishment to a foreign land. So here it is in its fuller setting:

“This is what the Lord says: “When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfil my good promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.”

This passage is a heartwarming promise to an undeserving people and contains much for us to ponder about the nature of God and his grace to his children. 

One word jumped out at me, making me sit up and take notice - “CALL”. “Call on me”, says the Lord. I traced that word back as far as I could in Scripture and came to settle on Genesis 4:26. “At that time, people began to call upon the name of the Lord.' 

The way the sentence is set out emphasises that this moment saw the definite beginning of something new. Was this the time when prayer really began? It does seem that"calling on the name of the Lord” was the beginning of a conversation between humanity and God?

Genesis 4:26 is certainly built on the recognition that despite the profound break in our relationship with the Lord (read chapter 3) he continues to speak to his creatures, and makes it possible for us to respond to him. We can call on the Lord, but only because he has called to us. We can call on him to come through on his promises only because he has already made his promises (3:15). 

It will be the story of the people of God from this moment on. In Genesis 12:8 and 13:4 Abram "calls on the name of the Lord" at key moments in his life - modelling a "faith response" to God's promises and showing that as he moves through the land of Canaan he does so relying on the Lord to do what he has said.

So prayer, calling on the Lord, is what we do now - until God intervenes to straighten everything out. Prayer is God's gift to help us grow in relationship with him and navigate life with him in a broken world - a world where we ache and get distracted and struggle with sin. Prayer helps in a world in which we hurt people and get hurt; where we let God down and ignore him, even though we belong to him (e.g. Jeremiah 29!). Prayer is an ointment that heals the wounds of loneliness, discouragement and frustration.

Four chapters after Jeremiah 29, the Lord will once again say to his people:

“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know” (33:3)

Now that is a verse to get excited about for the week ahead!

P.S. U2 referenced this verse on the album cover of "All That You Can't Leave Behind". You might just spot it!

(Picture - Ben Lawers range)