Dec. 4, 2016 - Advent 2 - God Rescues and Transforms Us (Like Kintsugi)

Today is the second week of Advent. Last week was Hope – this week is Peace – Colossians 3:15 Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry.
Christmas is a time of peace. Almighty God, thank You that You offer rest for our souls through Your son Jesus. Thank You that we have come into peace with God – that the enmity that was there – the conflict between us and You is over because Your son died on the cross for our sins – and for that we are grateful. Help us to set our hearts on You and to be the people You have called us to be. May this be a season of transformation – that we may be more like You and for that to continue throughout the rest of our lives
Matthew 1: 18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 19 And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. 20 But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.” 24 And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, 25 but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

Jesus is born the Savior of the world – Our Savior. We think first of our personal salvation – that we might be brought back into relationship with God – our sins to be forgiven and that we might go to heaven. It doesn’t stop there. He is not JUST our savior – but this word also means rescuer, or liberator. He rescues us in general. This is the grand story of the Bible. The primary story of the Old Testament is that of liberation – The Passover is an example of that.
Then the Israelites would be captured again and God would rescue them. We are being liberated from oppression and sin
Galatians 1: 4 who gave Himself for our sins so that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father…
This is all-encompassing. Because Jesus was born – because of Advent – we have this present and eternal deliverance and rescue. He has rescued us in every way. It is not just our ticket to heaven – but it is whole life salvation. Everything about us. The complete transformation of our existence happened when we came to Christ. The reality is that it is hard to experience that fully. It is not something we just have going on here all the time – and we ask ourselves – how does it really work? And more importantly – we think – we have the Spirit of God in us and have been transformed – but we think that is not our story – why is it not working in certain areas for me? Why haven’t I been transformed in this? I won’t have you shout out yours – but you have a THIS – that has not been transformed. God promises it though. The other thing we might throw in – not only the bad areas – but God wants to rescue us from our situation – dysfunctional family – addiction – hopelessness – a failed marriage – there are all these things that have entered into our lives – and we think - all this can be made new – and we get tastes of that – but not as much as we really want.
I’d like to go back a few verses to the genealogies – because they are really important and you always teach from there.
Matthew 1: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers. 3 Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,…
5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz was the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse. 6 Jesse was the father of David the king.
David was the father of Solomon by Bathsheba who had been the wife of Uriah.
Tamar – there are three women that are listed in here – the lost or bad women of the Bible. They have their history – and they are probably not as bad as we think – but they were in situations they needed rescuing from.
Tamar, Ruth, Bathsheba…
First - All of them are introduced to us in the Bible through some sort of elicit sexual activity. With Ruth, it is disguised, but boy is it there.
Second - In all of their situations – the behavior of the men is much worse than their behavior, yet they bear all of the shame.
They are very similar to the woman caught in adultery – the Pharisees and religious leaders bring her before Jesus – and say – she was caught IN THE VERY ACT – if that is true – where was the man?
Fourth - Their stories are transformed by God’s grace and power and they are remembered forever and they become part of the genealogy of the messiah.
Each came from an impossible situation – and like they were beyond rescue and redemption. Maybe you have a circumstance that seems beyond redemption.
Ruth – she is the disguised one – but all you have to say is – She was a Moabite – she would have been written off as one who is the worst of the worst – especially if you are a woman Moabite. The Moabites are connected to Lot – and have the same reputation. . Kind of like being a Frankenstein – not the monster, but the family.
Where Ruth was from the worst of the worst – somehow she marries into one of the most prestigious families in Israel. Her words – for thousands of years have been sung and repeated in weddings – where you go I’ll go, where you stay I’ll stay – and your God will be my God.
Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute – so she had two strikes against her. But she knew God (when you read her story) in a way that God’s people did not. That happens often – outsiders see God in different ways. There is a story in Luke 7 about a banquet being thrown by the religious leaders – and this woman comes and washes his feet with her tears and hair and oil – and she – well, although the religious leaders had no idea – she knew EXACTLY who Jesus was.
Bathsheba – the woman who liked to take baths on her roof in plain sight of the king’s palace. She has an affair with David (the king) and he is the initiator and he should take the full blame – she really had no choice. She gets pregnant - She loses her baby and loses her husband Uriah – but later gives birth to Solomon. What could have been a scandal and loss became the mother of the great king Solomon.
Tamar – Judah’s eldest son’s wife. She is a Canaanite – it is interesting how Genesis goes into the story of Joseph – the coat of multi-colors – all this going on – and this story of Tamar seems to be inserted.
Judah sells Joseph into slavery and he is a mess. He moves to Canaan and marries one of their women. His oldest son marries Tamar. He is so evil that God kills him. God said – I’m done with you and kills him – he must have been really really bad. Tamar is left with no children. The most important thing in their culture was that the name be passed on through the oldest son – they had this law – so she should eventually have a boy. They had Levirate marriage – if the oldest son died – it would be the responsibility of the next oldest son to marry the widow of his older brother – and the male offspring would be raised in the name of the oldest son. Judah gives his next son to Tamar – and he is evil too and wants nothing to do with it – and HE dies. Judah has one more son who is too young. And he tells her to go live with her family – and eventually she will get the youngest son – who was still a child at the time – even though he had no intention of doing that because he probably felt that she was killing his sons! Judah’s son grows up. Judah’s wife dies.
She hears that Judah is in the area. She dresses like a prostitute – he hires her out – he doesn’t have the goat to pay – she asks for his staff.
A couple months later – she is pregnant – she is to be stoned. She says – the child belongs to the man who owns this.
Judah was convicted – and declares her as righteous. Tamar saves Judah in doing this. His spiraling life is transformed. When they go back to the story of Joseph – what does Judah do? Joseph says - Bring Jacob’s youngest son – Joseph throws him in prison – and Judah says – don’t take Benjamin – take me! He has gone from casting Joseph into slavery to being willing to die for his brother.
We have all found ourselves in situations – not like theirs, but like theirs – where we are in a circumstance where we can’t rescue ourselves. These stories tell us that we are never too low, lost, or far, or out that God cannot rescue us or redeem us.
We see two things in two secular Christmas stories -= The Christmas Carol’s Mr. Scrooge and The Grinch – they both go through a significant transformation – a significant change. I think – as a practical thing – pick one area – one small thing in your life – “this just needs to go” – it needs to be changed. And then set your heart on that one thing that you will do business with God – you will ask God – I have gone through many practices of how to change… I won’t do that today.
Three Enemies of change:
Busyness. It is too easy to ignore our problems. We are so busy – we just shove it under the rug and it becomes a big bump – that we continually trip over. Do business with it.
Selfishness – that was Scrooge and the Grinch’s problem. Greed. Deal with materialism!
New Years. Not because of what we do on New Year’s Eve – but what do we do? We have these things called resolutions that should be outlawed. 99% of them fail because that is not how it works. They are built on the false premise that trying hard enough can transform your life. They may help you lose weight or stop smoking – but to be really transformed at the heart requires the work of God’s Spirit and His grace. That is the only way to be truly transformed of the heart – by learning to cooperate with what God is doing. Allowing His grace and power to transform us.
“The Christian community, which should have been a clear voice of liberation and wholeness in the wilderness of human bondage and brokenness has too often been an echo of the culture, further confusing those on a wandering and haphazard quest for wholeness.” - M. Robert Mulholland Jr.

God wants to make us holy. We need to discover how that happens. We do not change by trying or wanting to be changed – we change by cooperating with God’s spirit and engaging in the activities/practices that He would have us engage in.
Go back to the story of these four women – a quote
“We are more beautiful having been broken”
This sounds true but it is hard to believe
These women – because of their situations – there is more beauty to their story once it was transformed. Each of them.
In our story – we are always stronger and more beautiful in being redeemed. It will rescue us from pretending and putting up a front. That is mostly what we do. Rather than being transformed, we pretend and put up fronts.
A story I want to end with:
(excerpted from Broken and Whole: A Leader's Path to Spiritual Transformation - By Stephen A. Macchia)
I don’t know anything about art – but there is an art form in Japan – Kintsugi – Where broken pottery is mended with lines of gold filigree. For those who practice this unique art form, the beauty is discovered in the brokenness of the pottery. Without the brokenness, the artist would not be able to rebuild the stoneware into its original design. Mending the broken pot requires skillful, patient and loving hands. Bet of all, the gold strengthens the weakness, and the end result is better than new. In fact, it’s the brokenness that creates the ultimate strength and beauty of the pot. So it is with Christ’s gospel of love. Created and loved into being ourselves, we are eventually and quite frequently broken due to internal or external forces that corrupt our original design. Without Christ’s redeeming love putting our lives back together over and over again, we remain in that state of brokenness. But when we receive His loving embrace and welcome his restorative hands of grace, he re-creatively puts us back together again one piece at a time. We are not fully restored this side of heaven, for we await his return when our full redemption occurs. In the meantime, we welcome his work of sanctification, and it is here where our beauty as created and loved beings is re-formed in Christ. It is the golden strand of Christ’s restorative and redemptive love that holds us together, stronger than ever before. This is the only way to be broken and whole.
When the gold shines through – it is that much more beautiful. We look back at our struggles – and there is deep regret – all of us have those regrets – and he can take that as we yield it over to him – and makes it something of beauty – more beautiful than it could have been had it not happened. It gives hope to us all.

Kintsugi
Lord, thank You – I ask that You would help us as we come to the table – take it when you are ready – but think of that picture we just talked about – and turn your brokenness – whatever it is in this Christmas season – allow God to take some of His gold to put that piece back together in your life.
Lord, as we take this drink and cup, we remember that your blood was shed…