Christmas as Re-Creation Rev. Terri Hill Contemporary 11/30/08 I Corinthians 15:45-49; Galatians 4:4 Happy New Year! You think I am a few weeks early, don t you? The first Sunday of Advent is the beginning of the Christian year, really. Thankfully it s close to January 1, a gift from the Romans, which most of the world recognizes and goes along with to mark time. Here are some dates for right now and some choices to match to answer the question, What year is it? 5769 5109 4706 2008 1429 Muslim Year Christian Year Chinese Year Hindu Year Jewish Year You can tell a lot by a calendar in a culture. It tells you when they believe the biggest event occurred in their history. The ancient Romans marked time by the founding of the city of Rome; Greeks by the first Olympiad; the Buddhist era from the enlightenment of Buddha; Muslims by Mohammed s flight from Mecca. Each of the years listed on the screen tells you about that culture and who they are as a people. For Christians it is the year 2008 and our whole understanding of time, historical time, revolves around the birth of Christ. AD Latin for Year of Our Lord Anno Domini and BC Before Christ. Time revolves around an axis the birth of Jesus. Everything is marked as before Jesus was born into this world and after Jesus was born into the world the turning point of human history. For you history buffs, what would you say are some of the key, huge events in world history? (Repeat what they call out) A lot has happened hasn t it? One timeline of the History of the World from 15 billion BC (The Big Bang) to the present has so many fascinating markers. Here are just 1
a few as we race through history. Some of you will love this and others of you will take a mental break. The race through human history. -7000 Jericho world s earliest known city -2600 First pyramid build -2000 Abraham migrates -1800 Stonehenge main circle built -1300 Exodus -1000 David becomes King of Israel -776 First Olympiad -750 Founding City of Rome -528 Enlightenment of Gautama Buddha -210 Great Wall of China built -4 Birth of Jesus 70 Jerusalem destroyed 330 Emperor Constantine chooses Christianity 622 Mohammed s flight from Mecca 868 First book printed in China 1099 First Crusade retakes Jerusalem 1249 First college founded at Oxford 1456 Gutenberg printing press 1492 Columbus discovers Americas 1517 Luther starts the Reformation 1607 First permanent British settlement in North America Virginia 1769 Steam engine and spinning mill invented 1776 America declares independence 2
1791 Death of John Wesley 1798 Jenner discovers smallpox vaccination 1815 British defeat Napoleon at Waterloo 1838 Trail of Tears American Indians 1848 Marx and Engels publish Communist Manifesto 1865 End of Civil War 1918 End of WWI (25m killed) 1945 End of WWII (45m killed) 1961 Berlin Wall built 1969 Neil Armstrong walks on the moon 1975 US leaves Viet Nam 1989 Berlin Wall demolished 2001 Terrorists fly into World Trade Center That of course is just a few of the major events in world history. Those of you who are history buffs and love watching the History Channel could do this sort of thing all morning. But the main point here is the central event of it all the one that separates time from before and after the birth of Christ. I love the phrase from Galatians 4:4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman. The fullness of time. When time was ripe. When everything was ready, a convergence of roads and languages and civilizations. The end of the era of patriarchs, kings, and prophets and the beginning of the era of the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God, born of a woman. In the fullness of time. A rather overlooked huge theological point of the New Testament can be best found crystallized I think in 1 Corinthians 15:45-49 Thus it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being ; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. 46 But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. 47 The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. 48 As was the man of dust, so 3
are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. 49 Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. Thus it is written, The first man, Adam, became a living being; Where is this written? Genesis. This is where it all started. Creation. The first man, Adam, which in Hebrew literally means mankind, or as we say today, humankind. God created them male and female. From the Biblical perspective human history can be narrowed down to just two events Creation and Re-creation. The first man as it says in verse 47, was from the earth, a man of dust. He was, we were, created from the earth physical material creatures of water, atoms, proteins, blood cells, all the stuff of the created order. As was the man of dust, verse 48, so are those who are of dust. And as it says elsewhere, from dust and ashes we come, and to dust and ashes we return. Like the first Adam we are mortal, earthy beings. Verse 49, just as we have borne the image of the man of dust. We are in the image of Adam. That involves not just our physical creation from the earth but also our fallen nature as human beings who follow after Adam in disobeying the instructions of God and choosing our own way over God s way. We do that from an early age and we struggle with it all the way through on our way back to the dust. My will or God s will? My way or God s way? What I want or what God wants for me? We are children of the first Adam, bearing the image of the one hiding from God, knowing he has done something very wrong. But WAIT. Something momentous has happened, something earth shattering and cosmos rattling. A new Adam has been born, a second Adam, the last Adam. Verse 45, The first man, Adam, became a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (verse 47) The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. Humanity has been given a second chance. Another man has been born, this one of earth and heaven, born of a woman and also of God. A virgin conceives. This one will be flesh and blood like the first Adam, but also God in human flesh, the very Spirit of God dwelling in a human being fully God and fully man the second Adam. 4
In Jesus comes the re-creation of the whole world. And every level of creation is involved in the birth. Star of wonder, star of night the stars, the heavens reply with light and joy. The angels, the hosts of heaven, tell the good news. People of nations far away Gentiles, non-jews, they come and kneel. The second Adam is for the whole world. There are shepherds and kings, animals and stars, old men and women prophesying, long-barren woman giving birth to the one who will prepare the way. The story, when you step back and try to glimpse the whole, the story is of a new beginning to everything the re-creation of the world. That s what Paul is trying to capture in this first Adam of the dust of earth and second Adam of the breath of heaven. God has done something so large it changes everything. Human history can be divided into the time before Christ was born and the time after it. Now something we don t talk about very often is that what God is doing in human history is not dependent on our individual choices. It is much bigger than you and me. God did not take a vote for when to come into the world in human form. He does not sit on some throne in heaven with his hands tied muttering, If those Adams and Eves would just cooperate I could do something. The big Bible word for this is sovereign. God can do what God wants to do, whenever he wants to do it. Whether you or I go along with it or not, whether we give our consent or not. In the fullness of time, according to God s wisdom, God sent his Son, the new Adam, the new creation, born of a woman, into the world and time was divided in two before and after. In God s graciousness he invites us in, he welcomes us into what he is doing. In fact, he does it all because he loves us and wants to recreate us in the image of the new man, the second Adam. Look back at verses 48 and 49, As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven. Wow! We can participate in the re-creation of all things. The re-creation of the earth. The re-creation of humanity. The re-creation of the world into the Kingdom of God. That is what God is up to in the birth of Jesus and if we want to, we can come along. He is going to re-create the world whether or not you 5
or I individually give him our vote, but he would love to have us in on the renewal of all things. That is what Jesus came to put into motion the renewal of all things. The re-creation. So as we begin this season of Advent, this time of preparing, this looking forward to the event that split human history in two, I invite you to step back and see the birth of Christ from a bigger perspective. Bigger than our individual lives. Bigger than our particular time in history. Bigger than nations or economies or world events. Bigger than pyramids or great walls or the rise and fall of Rome or Egypt or America. Bigger than rivers and oceans and stars and sky. From that perspective this news of this great event is for heaven and earth, for all time and all people. Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, the Son of Man has come into the world and on that truth the re-creation of it all is made possible, is begun. 6