When I was a plant manager in the carpet sample industry in Dalton, Georgia many years ago, we had equipment throughout the plant that at times would choose not to cooperate. The hardware and gluing equipment was easy to fix but the printing presses and silk screen presses were a whole different story. Inevitably, when they would not print correctly, the operators would go back to the basics and realign the equipment, sort of like their default position.
The Christmas season is kind of the same way. How do we re-tell the Christmas story. We have a tendency to get our creative juices going. There are sermons about Mary and Jospeh, sermons from the angels perspective, from the shepherds perspective, from the Magi’s perspective and even sermons from the animals perspective. In all that creativity, we run the risk of losing the real meaning of Christ’s first coming. After 400 years of silence, God did not send a message, He sent Himself. And in coming Himself, He brought with Him hope, peace, joy and love – the default position of Christmas.
We can have hope because God came to us – to all of us. We can have hope because In Christ, God kept His promise. We can have hope because in Christ, light penetrated the darkness and overcame it. We can have hope because the first coming guarantees the second coming. Hope is not wishful thinking, it is a person named Jesus Christ.
Peace was a central promise tied to Christ’s first coming. Why peace? There was the problem of sin hat created separation from God [Isa 59:2]. The solution was a Savior who came to restore our broken relationship with God [Romans 5:1] Peace is not the absence of conflict or difficulty, it is the presence of Christ in history and in our life. Peace is an unshakable attitude rooted in the certainty of God’s promises through Christ. Peace is not a concept, it is a person named Jesus Christ.
The angel declared good news of great joy – a Savior has been born to you. The birth of Christ was the moment God’s plan of rescue broke into history. The first coming of Christ brought joy because God came looking for us when we were lost. Joy is a fruit of then Spirit [Gal 5:22] as evidence of the Spirit’s presence in us. Joy is strength for the battle. “For the joy set before Him, he endured the cross” [Heb 12:2]. Joy is tied to the unshakable conviction that God is involved in every detail of our lives. “In your presence there is fullness of joy” [Ps 16:11]. Joy is not in our circumstances, joy is a person named Jesus Christ
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son….” [John 3:16] We might refer to this as a vertical love, from God to us and from us to God. But there is another love because of Christ. Jesus said, “you will know who are my disciples if you love one another” [Jn 13:35]. The first coming of Christ tore down the barriers that existed between all peoples. Because of Christ, “we are neither Jew or Gentle, slave or free, male or female we are all on in Christ” [Gal 3:28]. We might refer to this as a horizontal love. The manger and the cross were book ends of the same love. Love is not just an emotion, it is a person named Jesus Christ. “Greater love has no one than this: to lay down his life for his friends” [Jn 15:13].
Hope, peace, joy, love – the default position for the first coming of Christ
Dr. Pat Polis
The Church Mechanic
Tune in to “The Church Mechanic,” Thursdays at 5 p.m., when Dr. Polis shares his expertise as a certified church consultant and longtime pastor.