WEBVTT 00:00:00.700 --> 00:00:05.000 Well, good morning again and welcome, especially if you're joining us for the first time. 00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:09.620 If you're not regularly a part of our church, we're delighted to have you with us and delighted 00:00:09.620 --> 00:00:14.919 to have an opportunity to tell the Christmas story together to prepare our hearts for the 00:00:14.919 --> 00:00:17.620 celebration that awaits in just a few weeks. 00:00:19.019 --> 00:00:24.260 There's a story that I saw the other day that I've actually seen for the last two years. 00:00:24.260 --> 00:00:26.800 It seems to circulate around Christmastime. 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:32.600 It's a story in the news about a mall Santa turned vigilante. 00:00:33.039 --> 00:00:37.719 I don't know if you've seen this story or not, but the story goes that in this mall in 00:00:37.719 --> 00:00:43.719 Milwaukee, there's this mall Santa and a little girl comes up to him and says that she wants 00:00:43.719 --> 00:00:44.939 to tell Santa a secret. 00:00:45.100 --> 00:00:46.900 And so he leans down and he says, yes, what is it? 00:00:47.320 --> 00:00:52.920 And she points to her stepfather who's in the crowd and she confesses to him the things that 00:00:52.920 --> 00:00:56.679 her stepfather has done to her, the bad things that he's done to her. 00:00:57.119 --> 00:01:01.859 And so Santa listens to this and then he turns and he gives a look to his elves and they 00:01:01.859 --> 00:01:08.060 all go over to this stepfather and they bring a little Christmas justice to this man and 00:01:08.060 --> 00:01:10.620 they give him a beat down in this mall. 00:01:11.120 --> 00:01:14.620 And there's a photo with the article of Santa in handcuffs. 00:01:14.620 --> 00:01:20.200 And as people are cheering him on as a hero, and there's even a hashtag that comes with 00:01:20.200 --> 00:01:21.760 it, hashtag free Santa. 00:01:22.620 --> 00:01:28.640 And I saw it the other day and I thought that's amazingly relevant to what we're going to be 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.700 talking about at Lessons and Carols. 00:01:31.760 --> 00:01:34.240 I don't know if the story is true or not. 00:01:34.320 --> 00:01:36.020 It's probably, who knows? 00:01:36.019 --> 00:01:38.780 But I do know that there is a strong connection. 00:01:39.200 --> 00:01:43.640 There's a very strong connection between Christmas and justice. 00:01:44.539 --> 00:01:45.899 Christmas and justice. 00:01:46.019 --> 00:01:50.119 You've heard it all this morning in every lesson we've read. 00:01:50.939 --> 00:01:56.019 These are considered Christmas readings and yet they all have a very strong theme of justice 00:01:56.019 --> 00:02:02.299 in them, of people's desire and God's desire to put the world right. 00:02:03.379 --> 00:02:07.479 And so we're going to look at one of these lessons more closely, the one we just heard 00:02:07.479 --> 00:02:11.019 read, Isaiah chapters 64 and 65. 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:16.219 And the question we're going to be asking is, what does Christmas have to do with justice? 00:02:17.139 --> 00:02:21.359 Why is this such a central theme as we try to understand the meaning of Christmas? 00:02:22.079 --> 00:02:25.939 This passage breaks down into three sections and so we're going to look at this. 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:27.900 In three parts. 00:02:28.340 --> 00:02:32.840 The first part we see in verses 1 through 3, we see a cry for justice. 00:02:33.439 --> 00:02:35.320 Let me pray and then we'll dive in. 00:02:37.260 --> 00:02:41.200 Lord, we thank You this morning as we gather here around Your Word. 00:02:41.200 --> 00:02:47.480 We thank You for Your promise to us that You're not a God who leaves us to our own devices, 00:02:47.860 --> 00:02:54.680 but You're a God who is by name, You have referred to Yourself as God with us, Emmanuel. 00:02:54.680 --> 00:02:59.580 You're the God who has always promised and now delivered on that promise to be in the 00:02:59.580 --> 00:03:00.719 midst of Your people always. 00:03:00.860 --> 00:03:02.840 And so, Lord, we thank You that You're here with us. 00:03:03.319 --> 00:03:06.020 We ask that You would be the one to speak to us this morning through Your Word. 00:03:06.520 --> 00:03:07.960 We ask this in Your Son's holy name. 00:03:08.460 --> 00:03:08.719 Amen. 00:03:08.719 --> 00:03:16.180 So, the first thing that we see in Isaiah 64 in verses 1 through 3 is we see this cry 00:03:16.180 --> 00:03:16.879 for justice. 00:03:17.780 --> 00:03:20.879 Now, as we talk about that, I want to first say this. 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:28.219 You know, as absurd as the mall Santa vigilante story might be, I suspect it's actually not 00:03:28.219 --> 00:03:35.539 too far off from how many of us might think about God and God's justice. 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:40.819 I think that most of us probably think, most people probably think of God mostly like Santa 00:03:40.819 --> 00:03:41.199 Claus. 00:03:42.800 --> 00:03:50.180 God's here to help us be happy and to be fulfilled and hopefully to give us what we want when we 00:03:50.180 --> 00:03:52.740 ask, assuming that we are on the good list. 00:03:52.740 --> 00:03:57.680 So, life is about living a good enough life to make the good list, and then hopefully God 00:03:57.680 --> 00:03:58.460 will bless us. 00:03:58.879 --> 00:04:01.740 But everybody knows that there are some exceptions. 00:04:02.140 --> 00:04:07.180 There are exceptionally evil people out there, all of the tyrants and the racists and the 00:04:07.180 --> 00:04:12.160 child molesters, people who are exceptionally bad, and most of us think that in those cases 00:04:12.160 --> 00:04:14.680 God should probably step in and bring some justice. 00:04:15.480 --> 00:04:19.980 But other than that, God is more or less a kind of Santa Claus figure in our lives. 00:04:19.980 --> 00:04:27.560 And that's partly because the whole idea of a God who punishes sin, who hates sin, has 00:04:27.560 --> 00:04:29.780 kind of gone out of fashion in our culture. 00:04:30.780 --> 00:04:35.100 All right, so these days it's very common to hear people say, well, you know, people used 00:04:35.100 --> 00:04:40.420 to believe in a God who was angry and had got angry at sin and judged people and all of that. 00:04:40.700 --> 00:04:44.620 People used to believe in that, but we've sort of evolved as a society. 00:04:44.860 --> 00:04:48.980 We've become a much more loving and tolerant and educated society. 00:04:48.980 --> 00:04:53.340 And so, because of that, we now believe in a God of love, and the God that we believe 00:04:53.340 --> 00:04:59.960 in now loves people and accepts them and embraces everyone just as they are. 00:05:00.060 --> 00:05:04.879 He's a God who essentially wants to affirm us and wants to make sure that we're happy, 00:05:04.939 --> 00:05:07.140 and that's the kind of God that we prefer these days. 00:05:07.600 --> 00:05:10.860 Now, compare that to Isaiah chapter 64 verse 1. 00:05:11.640 --> 00:05:12.740 Here's what Isaiah says, 00:05:12.740 --> 00:05:30.819 Isaiah is crying out to God for justice on behalf of his people. 00:05:30.819 --> 00:05:31.819 His people. 00:05:31.819 --> 00:05:34.480 His people had suffered so much violence. 00:05:35.139 --> 00:05:36.740 They had suffered so much war. 00:05:37.360 --> 00:05:38.560 They had suffered oppression. 00:05:38.800 --> 00:05:40.659 They had suffered subjugation. 00:05:41.899 --> 00:05:45.339 They were being taken into exile by Assyria. 00:05:46.199 --> 00:05:50.719 Isaiah knew that after that they would again be taken into exile by Babylon. 00:05:50.720 --> 00:05:57.480 And so, he's watching his people whose entire story had been one of oppression and subjugation 00:05:57.480 --> 00:06:01.020 and bloodshed, and he's crying out to God. 00:06:01.280 --> 00:06:02.840 And he's essentially saying to God, 00:06:03.220 --> 00:06:04.680 God, why don't you do something? 00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:10.920 Why don't you do something about this evil that I see happening right in front of my face? 00:06:11.000 --> 00:06:11.760 Where are you? 00:06:12.540 --> 00:06:14.180 Why have you not intervened? 00:06:14.180 --> 00:06:21.500 And, you know, I think that if we're totally honest, that's how we feel when we look around the world today, 00:06:21.500 --> 00:06:28.400 when we see Russia invading Ukraine, massacring civilians and looting and raping and torturing people. 00:06:29.139 --> 00:06:35.639 I think it's how we feel when we see that there's been another school shooting, another mass killing. 00:06:36.139 --> 00:06:42.079 I think it's how we feel when we see that there are currently 82 million refugees and displaced people in the world. 00:06:42.079 --> 00:06:47.139 And we look at these things and we say, how can God let this happen? 00:06:47.659 --> 00:06:49.099 God, why don't you do something? 00:06:49.599 --> 00:06:52.279 You know, there are a hundred different issues I could name. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:58.680 Many of you in this room care deeply about and even work on trying to solve some of these issues. 00:06:59.139 --> 00:07:04.180 But we see things like this and we think, if there is a God, why doesn't He do something about this? 00:07:05.539 --> 00:07:07.839 And I think if we're honest, we all feel that. 00:07:07.839 --> 00:07:14.739 Because deep down, most of us actually want a God who cares about injustice. 00:07:15.060 --> 00:07:19.239 We want God to get angry and punish the evildoers. 00:07:19.699 --> 00:07:28.679 And that's why the whole idea of a God who just accepts everyone and affirms us in our life choices is ultimately so empty, so vapid. 00:07:29.479 --> 00:07:35.759 Because a God who doesn't care about all of the suffering and evil in the world is not a loving God. 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:46.539 He's more what I would think of as a supernatural sociopath who's clearly not worthy of our worship, not worthy of our consideration. 00:07:47.740 --> 00:07:58.599 A truly loving God who is a God that would be worthy of our worship is a God who gets angry at sin and punishes evil and brings justice for the oppressed. 00:07:58.600 --> 00:08:12.379 Right? So, to put it another way, if you believe in a God of acceptance and love who doesn't care about sin, then with all due respect, your privilege is showing. 00:08:14.820 --> 00:08:20.220 Most people who believe in a God like that have probably never personally experienced violence. 00:08:20.540 --> 00:08:24.340 They've never suffered under subjugation or oppression. 00:08:24.339 --> 00:08:31.419 I think that's one of the reasons why this view of God is so popular among wealthy Western elites. 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:44.439 But if we turn our ears to the rest of the world, we will hear the voices of those enduring violence and war and poverty and oppression. 00:08:44.440 --> 00:08:48.540 We will hear them crying out, and they sound a whole lot like Isaiah. 00:08:50.460 --> 00:08:57.500 Crying out for God to rend the heavens and shake the mountains and bring justice. 00:09:00.860 --> 00:09:04.900 So, that's the cry for justice that we hear in Isaiah. 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:13.720 But as we continue in the passage, we see in verses 4 through 7 that there's a serious problem that comes along with this. 00:09:14.539 --> 00:09:20.639 Because justice, by definition, requires some kind of standard of good and evil. 00:09:21.379 --> 00:09:21.519 Right? 00:09:21.620 --> 00:09:28.039 Justice requires, by definition, the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. 00:09:28.039 --> 00:09:35.019 So, let me ask you, where do you draw the line between right and wrong? 00:09:35.759 --> 00:09:41.799 Where do you draw the line that determines who the people are who deserve judgment? 00:09:42.899 --> 00:09:46.360 And who the people are who make the good list? 00:09:47.139 --> 00:09:48.559 Where's that line in the sand? 00:09:48.559 --> 00:10:01.519 We all draw that line differently, and chances are you're going to draw that line in a way that reflects your life, your values, your background, your assumptions, your family, your politics. 00:10:02.219 --> 00:10:02.339 Right? 00:10:02.419 --> 00:10:05.179 So, conservatives are going to draw that line one way. 00:10:06.239 --> 00:10:09.079 Progressives are going to draw that line probably in a different place. 00:10:10.339 --> 00:10:17.339 Someone from a communal culture is going to draw it one way, and somebody from a more individualistic culture is going to draw it another way. 00:10:17.340 --> 00:10:23.500 A secular humanist is going to draw that line one way, and a religious person is going to draw it another way. 00:10:23.560 --> 00:10:27.860 We all are going to draw that line in different places, but we all draw that line somewhere. 00:10:28.519 --> 00:10:32.340 And here's the thing, most of us tend to assume that we're on the right side of that line. 00:10:32.460 --> 00:10:39.820 Wherever we draw it, we're like, here's those people over there, those are the bad people, here's the line, and I'm with the good people, the people like me, the normal people. 00:10:41.340 --> 00:10:46.340 And I think we tend to make that assumption because of the way we view ourselves relative to other people. 00:10:46.340 --> 00:10:49.360 I heard somebody say this recently, and it really resonated with me. 00:10:49.700 --> 00:10:55.240 Have you ever noticed how when you confront evil in yourself, we tend to psychologize it? 00:10:56.540 --> 00:10:59.879 But when we confront evil in another person, we tend to demonize it. 00:11:01.940 --> 00:11:06.420 There's a fundamental difference between how we see ourselves and how we see other people. 00:11:06.419 --> 00:11:17.679 You know, at the height of the Me Too movement, there were a lot of articles coming out condemning the perpetrators and condemning the system that enables them, and rightfully so. 00:11:17.679 --> 00:11:28.159 But in the midst of all of that, a woman named Claire Deterer wrote a piece in the Paris Review, and the piece was entitled, What Do We Do With The Art of Monstrous Men? 00:11:28.939 --> 00:11:31.059 And the first part of the article was pretty standard. 00:11:31.199 --> 00:11:32.500 She was condemning the behavior. 00:11:32.639 --> 00:11:33.639 She was talking about the industry. 00:11:33.959 --> 00:11:37.879 And she was saying, what do we do with the art that these perpetrators have created? 00:11:38.019 --> 00:11:43.120 Should we still go to their performances and watch their movies and go to their comedy shows and all of that, or not? 00:11:43.179 --> 00:11:44.000 Should we boycott it? 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:46.000 So that was the kind of point of the article. 00:11:46.139 --> 00:11:51.259 But there's a place in the article where she took a really unexpected turn. 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:57.039 She turns around to focus on us as the outraged audience. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:03.179 And you have to think, this is at peak outrage, when this is all we were talking about as a society. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:07.899 And so she turns the focus around, and she focuses on us as the outraged audience. 00:12:07.899 --> 00:12:21.480 And in the article, she asks, why are we…she says, you know, here's all this stuff that we're outraged at, and rightfully so, and it's bad, but why are we as the audience so quick to pour on the outrage? 00:12:23.139 --> 00:12:25.240 And I thought that was a very interesting question. 00:12:25.240 --> 00:12:31.539 And she says, it could be that what the audience feels in its heart is pure and righteous and true. 00:12:32.060 --> 00:12:34.740 But there might be something else going on here. 00:12:35.740 --> 00:12:41.480 When you're having a moral feeling, self-congratulation is not far behind. 00:12:41.480 --> 00:12:42.480 Right? 00:12:43.800 --> 00:12:58.320 When we call other people out for being abusers and racists or whatever we're accusing them of, we're drawing a line, and we're saying that certain things are unacceptable and evil over there, and those things deserve to be punished. 00:12:58.580 --> 00:12:59.940 And, you know, part of that is right. 00:13:00.019 --> 00:13:01.879 It's important to call out things like that. 00:13:01.899 --> 00:13:02.620 It's good and right. 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:08.580 But it also feels good to be calling those people out, and it feels good to be the one doing that. 00:13:08.580 --> 00:13:15.740 And by saying that someone else is on the wrong side of the line, by implication, I'm saying that I'm on the right side of the line. 00:13:16.780 --> 00:13:19.259 I'm distancing myself from that behavior. 00:13:19.420 --> 00:13:20.139 I'm above that. 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:20.920 I'm better than that. 00:13:21.100 --> 00:13:22.060 How dare you do that? 00:13:22.100 --> 00:13:23.700 I would never do something like that. 00:13:25.100 --> 00:13:26.139 And it feels good. 00:13:26.200 --> 00:13:29.160 There's a form of self-congratulation that's happening there. 00:13:31.520 --> 00:13:36.280 And, you know, for that, it really doesn't matter what your standards are. 00:13:36.279 --> 00:13:56.980 Whether you have a conservative bent or a progressive bent, whatever your ethics, wherever you draw the line, the point she's making is that there is something in us that drives us to call out those on the wrong side of the moral line so that we can congratulate ourselves for being on the right side of the moral line. 00:13:57.439 --> 00:14:00.559 And so then we ask, okay, well, why would we want to do that? 00:14:01.240 --> 00:14:04.659 What would be the motivation for that? 00:14:04.659 --> 00:14:07.019 And here's what she says. 00:14:08.360 --> 00:14:12.439 It's a bit of a longer quote, but it's worth it to hang in there. 00:14:12.719 --> 00:14:13.120 She says, 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:22.139 Even in the midst of my righteous indignation, I know that on some level I'm not an entirely upstanding citizen myself. 00:14:23.019 --> 00:14:26.740 Sure, I'm attuned to my children and thoughtful with my friends. 00:14:27.220 --> 00:14:30.860 I keep a cozy house and I'm reasonably kind to my parents. 00:14:31.580 --> 00:14:37.379 In everyday deed and thought, I'm a decent enough human, but I'm something else as well. 00:14:37.379 --> 00:14:44.679 I suppose this is the human condition, the sneaking suspicion of our own badness. 00:14:45.600 --> 00:14:50.500 It lies at the heart of our fascination with people who do awful things. 00:14:50.500 --> 00:15:06.019 Something in us, in me, chimes to that awfulness, recognizes it in myself, is horrified by that recognition, and then thrills to the drama of loudly denouncing the monster in question. 00:15:06.019 --> 00:15:09.579 Do you understand what she's saying here? 00:15:09.579 --> 00:15:17.579 Deep down, we all have a sneaking suspicion of our own badness. 00:15:17.580 --> 00:15:30.700 We have this deep, unadmitted fear that if anyone really knew the truth about me, they would see that I'm not the person I claim to be. 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:36.840 They would recognize the monster, and they would run in fear. 00:15:37.920 --> 00:15:47.080 And so, she's essentially saying this, outrage, whatever else it may be in our society, outrage can be like a moral morphine. 00:15:47.580 --> 00:15:51.680 It could be pain medicine for our own conscience. 00:15:52.600 --> 00:15:56.460 Because when I call out another person as being evil, I get a little hit. 00:15:57.040 --> 00:15:58.180 I get a little bump. 00:15:58.980 --> 00:16:06.100 I get a brief reassurance that I must be one of the good guys, because I'm definitely not that bad guy. 00:16:06.480 --> 00:16:10.300 And for the briefest of moments, I feel a little more reassured. 00:16:10.299 --> 00:16:12.719 But it never lasts. 00:16:13.240 --> 00:16:18.219 And that's why the outrage industrial complex grows and grows. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:23.379 Isaiah, on the other hand, has the courage to be honest. 00:16:24.419 --> 00:16:28.059 He says, here's God's standard of good and evil. 00:16:28.219 --> 00:16:32.439 Here's where God draws the line in verses 4 and 5. 00:16:32.440 --> 00:16:38.640 Good people, Isaiah says, good people who live up to God's standard do two things. 00:16:38.960 --> 00:16:44.520 Number one, they believe and trust in God in all things above all else. 00:16:45.100 --> 00:16:53.440 And two, good people are righteous, which means they consistently do right in all their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:59.040 They believe and trust in God above all else, and they always do right in their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. 00:16:59.039 --> 00:17:04.899 And he recognizes, because he's honest, that God's standard is hopelessly out of reach. 00:17:05.759 --> 00:17:07.579 It's hopelessly unattainable. 00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:15.019 And so, that's what we see in verses 5 through 7 to sort of put it in more accessible language. 00:17:15.159 --> 00:17:17.500 He says, here's the reality, God. 00:17:18.159 --> 00:17:21.259 We sin, and that sin angers you. 00:17:21.539 --> 00:17:24.879 And then we sin more, and that sin angers you. 00:17:24.879 --> 00:17:28.799 And the truth is, we've been sinning for a very long time. 00:17:29.039 --> 00:17:37.059 And he says, we're so unclean that even our best attempts at righteousness are like greasy, filthy rags. 00:17:38.460 --> 00:17:40.339 And then he says, what's really going on? 00:17:40.379 --> 00:17:45.099 He says, you know, whatever we may pretend to be, no one calls on your name. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.659 No one really calls on your name. 00:17:49.339 --> 00:17:51.680 And that's really what the word sin means. 00:17:51.680 --> 00:17:55.379 It means ignoring God in the world that He made. 00:17:56.340 --> 00:17:57.940 And He says, we're all ignoring you. 00:17:58.460 --> 00:17:59.880 No one calls on your name. 00:18:01.500 --> 00:18:05.720 He's saying, essentially, you know, we get so caught up in all of our righteous indignation. 00:18:05.840 --> 00:18:07.720 He's so angry about Assyria. 00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:09.580 He's so angry about Babylon. 00:18:09.820 --> 00:18:12.580 We're so angry about all of these things going on in the world. 00:18:12.660 --> 00:18:18.360 He says, we get so caught up in our own righteous indignation and our finger-pointing and our outrage. 00:18:18.359 --> 00:18:20.500 We get so caught up in that that we lose sight of the truth. 00:18:21.639 --> 00:18:23.279 And here's the truth, Isaiah says. 00:18:24.679 --> 00:18:29.319 The one who is most justified in their outrage is God. 00:18:29.319 --> 00:18:37.960 In the face of our rejection and rebellion, the one who is most justified in their outrage is God Himself. 00:18:39.619 --> 00:18:42.299 So, His realization, and the problem is this. 00:18:42.419 --> 00:18:44.579 It doesn't matter where we draw the line. 00:18:44.839 --> 00:18:50.460 The devastating realization is that according to God's standard, we are all on the wrong side of the line. 00:18:51.599 --> 00:18:53.039 We're all on the wrong side. 00:18:53.039 --> 00:18:55.879 So, here's the turn in Isaiah. 00:18:56.019 --> 00:18:57.579 It begins with this cry for justice. 00:18:57.700 --> 00:18:59.940 God, do something about all of this evil over here. 00:19:00.619 --> 00:19:03.000 But then Isaiah realizes the problem with justice. 00:19:03.119 --> 00:19:04.339 And here's the problem in a nutshell. 00:19:05.180 --> 00:19:12.279 If God doesn't bring justice and stop invasions and stop racism and stop poverty and stop all of these, 00:19:12.339 --> 00:19:15.579 if God doesn't bring justice, then there's no hope for the world. 00:19:15.659 --> 00:19:16.920 He's the only one who can do it. 00:19:16.920 --> 00:19:26.320 But the problem is if God does bring justice, then there's no hope for us because nobody's going to survive it. 00:19:27.600 --> 00:19:30.960 Nobody's going to pass through that unscathed. 00:19:31.380 --> 00:19:32.820 And so, here's Isaiah's dilemma. 00:19:33.539 --> 00:19:39.120 He realizes that even as he's calling God's judgment down on Assyria and Babylon and all of the evil, 00:19:39.220 --> 00:19:42.560 even as he's calling judgment, he's calling judgment down on himself. 00:19:42.559 --> 00:19:51.019 And he realizes, I can't call divine judgment down on the injustice of the world without calling divine judgment down on me. 00:19:53.139 --> 00:19:56.419 So, then he cries out in verse 5, well, who then can be saved? 00:19:57.480 --> 00:19:58.659 What hope is there? 00:20:00.839 --> 00:20:02.819 And that leads us to the third point. 00:20:02.819 --> 00:20:07.099 Again, we take a turn in this passage. 00:20:08.399 --> 00:20:12.919 And we realize our only hope, our only hope is found in God's love. 00:20:13.960 --> 00:20:15.119 Isaiah says in verse 8, 00:20:15.579 --> 00:20:21.659 But now, O Lord, and he uses God's covenant name, Yahweh, you are our Father. 00:20:22.740 --> 00:20:23.799 You're our Father. 00:20:25.220 --> 00:20:27.980 When God looks at us, He doesn't just see minions. 00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:32.660 He doesn't just see servants who have disobeyed His orders. 00:20:33.579 --> 00:20:34.640 He sees children. 00:20:36.440 --> 00:20:42.640 He sees beings whom He has crafted with His own hands. 00:20:43.380 --> 00:20:45.160 We're the clay, you're the potter. 00:20:46.299 --> 00:20:49.799 God sees that which He most loves in all of creation. 00:20:50.480 --> 00:20:56.019 And this is really the unanswerable dilemma that runs through the entire Old Testament. 00:20:56.019 --> 00:21:00.839 God's love compels Him to bring judgment. 00:21:01.920 --> 00:21:07.779 God's love compels Him to bring an end to suffering and violence and injustice and to restore the world that He made. 00:21:08.119 --> 00:21:14.839 But God's love also compels Him to have mercy because we are His beloved children. 00:21:15.139 --> 00:21:22.720 So, God is compelled to bring judgment, and He's compelled to show mercy, all of it being driven by love. 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:28.200 And we realize that up until the very end of the Old Testament, there is no answer to this question. 00:21:28.579 --> 00:21:30.960 Love demands both judgment and mercy. 00:21:31.660 --> 00:21:34.339 And so, there's this question as we get to the end of Malachi, 00:21:35.339 --> 00:21:39.400 how can you have both judgment and mercy at the same time? 00:21:39.400 --> 00:21:44.720 And if you stop with the Old Testament, there is no answer to that question. 00:21:48.980 --> 00:21:51.080 The answer to that question is Christmas. 00:21:53.040 --> 00:21:53.820 It's Christmas. 00:21:53.819 --> 00:22:00.039 The prophecies of Isaiah say that one day God's going to come as a judge. 00:22:00.960 --> 00:22:02.779 He's going to bring justice for the oppressed. 00:22:03.339 --> 00:22:04.720 He's going to liberate the captives. 00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:08.000 He's going to topple the wicked with a breath. 00:22:09.319 --> 00:22:12.259 He's going to do what He says in Isaiah 65, 17, 00:22:12.259 --> 00:22:15.700 For behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth. 00:22:18.099 --> 00:22:21.940 All of the evil stuff that we deal with now, it won't even be a memory. 00:22:23.220 --> 00:22:24.500 It will be wiped away. 00:22:25.640 --> 00:22:32.799 But before that day, God will first come as a child, born in Galilee. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:40.399 And as a child, He will be like us in every single way except one. 00:22:42.319 --> 00:22:47.000 He alone will embody God's standard of righteousness. 00:22:47.899 --> 00:22:51.879 All His life, He will believe and trust His heavenly Father above all else. 00:22:52.440 --> 00:22:56.559 All His life, He will be righteous in all His ways. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:05.759 And yet, this child will grow up one day not to be a judge, but rather to be judged, 00:23:06.399 --> 00:23:13.240 to take our place, which He did on the cross at Golgotha. 00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:17.619 So, even as we celebrate this birth at Christmas, 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:24.279 all of these events occur in the shadow of the cross, which awaits. 00:23:24.279 --> 00:23:30.420 Christmas, God's answer to the dilemma, God's way of bringing both judgment and mercy. 00:23:30.619 --> 00:23:34.899 So, this answers the question for us, what does Christmas have to do with justice? 00:23:35.680 --> 00:23:40.599 Christmas is God's way of bringing judgment and mercy at the same time. 00:23:41.240 --> 00:23:46.099 Christmas is God's way of giving hope both to the world and to us. 00:23:47.079 --> 00:23:52.279 The judge enters the world and allows himself to be judged instead of us. 00:23:54.279 --> 00:23:57.819 You know, earlier I mentioned the situation in Ukraine. 00:23:58.160 --> 00:24:03.960 We are fortunate enough to have with us two professional musicians from Ukraine, 00:24:04.099 --> 00:24:07.119 Yulia and Ruslan, and they're going to, in a moment, 00:24:07.639 --> 00:24:12.480 sing a traditional Ukrainian Christmas carol, Christmas hymn. 00:24:12.480 --> 00:24:20.099 And you have the English version in your bulletin so you can follow along as they sing. 00:24:20.740 --> 00:24:25.579 But here's the verse that really struck me as I read this carol, 00:24:25.680 --> 00:24:30.299 because this is saying exactly what we've just been saying here this morning. 00:24:30.299 --> 00:24:38.259 The love of the Lord and God's truth, you will bring faith to the world, to your people. 00:24:38.799 --> 00:24:40.500 The truth will live on. 00:24:41.119 --> 00:24:43.599 The shackles of sin will be shattered. 00:24:44.500 --> 00:24:50.159 But my child on Golgotha, my child will die. 00:24:50.160 --> 00:24:58.480 So, I'd love to invite you all to come up and lead us, and I'll close us in prayer. 00:24:59.960 --> 00:25:06.860 Lord, we thank you for your word, and we pray that your spirit would continue in us what your word has begun. 00:25:07.200 --> 00:25:10.820 Lord, that you would continue through word, through prayer, through song, 00:25:11.200 --> 00:25:15.860 to press these truths into us, that we might understand why you came and that it might change us. 00:25:16.220 --> 00:25:17.600 I pray this in your Son's holy name. 00:25:17.599 --> 00:25:18.319 Amen.