In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
Last week I had a really cute moment in Preschool Chapel. One of the kids said, “Christmas is Jesus' birthday, so why do we get presents?” And I gave an answer – God gave Jesus to us as a gift, so we give gifts to each other. But this is really a profound truth, and it's going to be what we focus on today while we ponder the 1st Article of the Creed. God, your Heavenly Father, is first and foremost a Giver.
Now, most of the time, when we discuss the first article of the Creed, we look at it from the angle of Creation – and understandably so. “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth.” However, for the past 175 years or so since Charles Darwin printed his book, discussions on creation have been... warped a bit. Now, if I say “creation” - we all think “the past”. We all think way back when, in the beginning. And that's fine, that's part of what we are confessing in the Creed, but it's not the fullness of it. Consider how the explanation begins: I believe that God has made me and all creatures. This isn't just a past tense, way back when thing – God's creation is a here and now thing. He has made me; even right now God creates, He still takes care of me. When we say that God is the Creator, we need to remember that He is our Creator – that right now, God the Father is our Maker – that we live, we exist simply and solely because He wills it. The discussion over creation isn't merely a debate ofver history – but the move that the world has been trying to make is to push God out of the present and bury Him firmly in the past. The academics of the 19th Century were fine having a God who wound up all of creation and let 'er rip a long time ago but then stayed firmly and squarely hands off. But that's not what the Scriptures teach – our Old Testament lesson says, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name.” Do you hear the past creation but also the present activity of God, the present, on-going care and sustaining of Creation that is ascribed to God. Without God actively willing it, without God actively preserving and continuing His creation, we don't exist.
That's more than we think of today when we hear the world creation. And we as Christians do need to learn to hear the word more fully, to remember the fullness of God's creative work, how God is intimately involved with all of His creation, from the smallest particle to the most distant galaxy. God has made, God knows, and God still preserves it all. Creation is the giant symphony that God not only conducts but plays.
To aid in this fuller, Scriptural, understanding of God being The Creator, it is useful to remember that first and foremost God is a giver. And this isn't something that Pastor Brown just whipped out out of no where. Luther's explanation to the first article of the Creed is a litany of all that God gives. He gives me my body and soul – He also gives me clothing and shoes – He richly and daily provides me with all that I need. Do you hear the repetition, the focus on giving? How all the things God provides get echoed in the 4th Petition on “Give us this day our daily bread”? Your God is first and foremost a Giver.
So, what precisely does God give? He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my members, my reason and all my senses, and still takes care of them. The first and most basic thing to remember is that God has given you – you. God has given you your life, your existence, and this is a precious gift. Your body is a gift to you from God. God in His wisdom and wonder, made you you – and that's a fantastic thing. But we don't think it is today. In fact, the world tells us to hate everything about our bodies. A lot of this is couched in advertising – you're not fill in the blank enough, so buy our product, talk to your doctor about our pill, and then you'll be so much better. Maybe she's born with it as a gift from God, but come on, we all know that maybe it's maybelline? Do you get the disdain, the just go tinker with your body, modify it, change it? And it's getting more and more drastic and dire – and all of it forgets that God has given you your body – given you a wondrous body that He wants you to have. God, in His wisdom, did not choose to have me be 6 feet tall; I don't need to get leg extension surgery, which is actually becoming a thing. The world disdains the body – but your body is a great gift to you. In fact, the Father sends Jesus to go to the Cross and die and rise so that you too will be raised and so that you will get to have your body as it was meant to be for all eternity.
And God gives you more. He also gives me clothing and shoes, food and drink, house and home, wife and children, land, animals, and all that I have. God gives you countless blessings. He has put you here on this planet, surrounded you by neighbors who all work together to see that you are provided with all that you need for life. And it's wonderful. And yet, how often the world twists and disdains this gift. How often do we have greed and covetousness unleashed, where we no longer are happy with what we have, with what God gives, and we are told instead to want and desire and lust after more and more? And it makes us miserable, because it teaches us to disdain God's gifts. And how many people look at the world itself wrongly? The world is a gift to you from God, for your care, for your benefit; oh no no no, if you eat too many hamburgers you're going to kill the planet. Do you see how that approach disdains God's gift? Yes, we manage things, but the earth is a gift to us to care for and use for our neighbor's good; it's not our mother, it doesn't get to steal God's creative thunder. And yet, you listen and there are people calling for so many sacrifices to appease an angry earth... all of this is a direct attack on the idea that God the Father is our Creator and that He is a Giver.
No – God gives. He gives you good things. Indeed, “He defends me against all danger and guards and protects me from all evil.” Over and against all the sin that we have unleashed in God's creation – the sin that makes the whole of creation [groan] together in the pains of child birth as Paul describes it in Romans – God still defends. He still provides and still protects us. This is His wondrous love. And why? Not because of any merit or worthiness is me – God doesn't owe me any of this – but He does it only out of fatherly, divine goodness and mercy. Or in other words, God is the Creator because He's a giver. Because He is good and He loves to give. Because He delights in giving good things. So if you don't understand that God gives, that God delights in giving – you don't get God. That whole “God loves a cheerful giver” thing is because fundamentally God IS the cheerful giver, who gladly and lovingly blesses all creation and works His creatures to be blessings to each other.
And this is the tragedy we heard in Luke. [Jesus] said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when [the ruler] heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. See and understand how much God has given you, how freely and joyously the Father provides for you. But don't worship the gift, don't serve the gift – worship God the Giver and give freely as He does. God's a giver – He's going to give you more. And this is one of the temptations Satan will tempt you with – Satan will try either to make you hate the gift – I don't like my body, I hate this worthless food, our house isn't big enough, so on and so forth, or as the ruler in the text, Satan will tempt you to turn the gifts into an idol, where you have to hold on to them, where you cannot share them, where you cannot give them... and thus the image and likeness of God the Giver gets shattered and broken in us again.
No, remember my friends that God is and always remains a Giver. We see this in all creation – your life and your time is a gift from God to you. And to see that you get to keep your life and to live for all eternity, the Father gives His most precious gift – He sends His Son, Christ Jesus to rescue and redeem you from sin. And that will be our particular focus next week as we look at the second article of the Creed... and of course our focus on Christmas, and really pretty much every weekend. Of course it is, because God the Father is a giver, and we can always ponder His blessings to us of both Body and Soul. Thanks be to God for His generous love towards us. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
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