As the Priests Prepared

When I was growing up, holiday gifts for giving were still a limited commodity and budgets for presents seldom got into three figures for the great majority of families! Shiny new silver quarters were more common than Liberty dollars! And even penny candy was very well thought of in nickel and dime quantities. Mom and Dad would hide the presents until the night before Christmas, then Dad would spend hours doing the "some assembly required"! Especially when a fully assembled bicycle could cost an extra $1.50! And given our general choices for combination play sets with buildings and assorted animals, people and soldiers, the doll houses, forts and village buildings could take some time indeed.

We usually knew what was coming since we were given a price limitation and got to browse through the catalogs to pick the most toys we could get for three to five dollars. Of course the anticipation for the one present each, was half the battle of getting through the weeks of December. And the playful recon by my brothers and sister of the various places where the Christmas stash could be hid was an annual event. There was only one successful find in all of those years that I am aware of, most of the time our waiting had to be in suspense along with regular reminders that bad boys and girls might not be rewarded.

One of my friends from school even got a lump of coal one year to go with the switching he earned the week before Christmas! Somehow, his real present wasn't found until hours after everyone else had opened theirs! That premise of missing out on Christmas because of bad behavior was always a minimal part of the fall ritual. Behavior of a proper sort was always expected and regularly encouraged. If the annual Christmas rituals of the fifties did nothing else they did encourage thinking about a far distant reward that just possibly be missed! Of course, we then lived in a time when there was still only one Christmas story.

We were always reminded that the year long wait for our annual Christmases was short indeed to the thousands of year wait for the first Christmas and the ongoing wait for the final return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is that waiting period and the priestly reminders for the first Advent that I would like to focus our hearts on this morning.

Early one in the aftermath of the garden fall, the lives of animals are sacrificed so that a suitable covering for Adam and Eve might be had. Later in their life the sacrifices of their sons are judged by the Lord and only the animal sacrifice that had required the life blood was accepted. When Noah went into the ark, sacrificial and edible animals were taken in more numerous quantities than any of the other. No sooner had Noah quit the ark than he built an altar and "taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings"

This regular ritual became the necessary habit of those who belonged to the Lord. Even Job sacrificed for the sins of his own children and when Abraham came to Palestine he gave a tithe of his wealth to the priest-king Melchizedek. In several places we read that Abraham practices the sacrificial ritual, even obeying the Lord to take his only son for such a sacrifice. Providentially the Lord God provided a substitute ram for the son. Well might Isaac and the spiritual heirs of Abraham consider the substitution which in time will have an even more significant application.

In the great coming out of Egypt, the Exodus ritual was enacted and reenacted all the way through to the coming of Christ. The lamb was sacrificed and eaten meal by meal, year by year for almost a millennia and a half. And his blood was painted on the door stops as a token reminder of how their sins were covered. The Lord also established a priest-hood through Aaron and his natural descendants.

In the desert, the sacrificial reminders and rituals became a focused part of the people of God. Annually a goat was symbolically set loose to carry their sins into the desert, thank offerings and blood offerings of several types were established to not only support the priests and Levites but to give the appearance of an atonement for the real sins of the people. The Tabernacle became a Temple in the time of Solomon and except for seventy some years, Zion's hill was the center of the cultic reminder of sins covered by the blood of thousands of animals down through the time of Christ and for another generation after His real and final sacrifice.

The first Advent came and went and by the Lord's own providence and the revelation of His word - the symbolic sacrificial system and the ceremonial law ceased in a Roman blood letting unrivaled in the ancient world. The scattered church very soon had the comfort of John's Revelation and the wonderful revelation of the Letter to the Hebrews to explain what had happened and why. And in the learning of the lessons taught in those books as well as the other parts of the New Covenant Cannon, the focus of Christian hearts are turned to the future once more so that they and we might well realize the importance of Jesus Christ "today, yesterday and forever".

It is well that we be reminded that our hope is in the future and not only in the past. Otherwise, like the Jews we might be backwards looking people unprepared for today and tomorrow. What is the worldly crowds greatest complaint? That the Church of Christ is buried in the past with nothing relevant for the future! Ahh, but contrair the whole focus of our hope and worship is and must be in the future heavenly revelation when our prophetic Priest-King Jesus Christ shall return.

Look at the tenth chapter of Hebrews which we read earlier. See the first eighteen verses are there to remind us of what is past and what sacrifices can no longer be given. The remainder of this chapter is to encourage us to focus our expectations on the present and future life in His Spirit. The ancient holy of holies is opened to us through the body of Jesus Christ and the fulfillment of Jeremiah's prophecy is ours to live.

This is the prophetic portion from which the writer to the Hebrews quotes in verses fifteen through eighteen. This is the New Covenant which will not be imposed on a man from the outside, but which will be written in our hearts. Therefore, our writer observes, let us be practical about our obedience to God as we wait His coming which point is held up for our anticipation at the end of this chapter. Here is the purpose of the Advent both present and future! Everyday can be Christmas as one writer once admonished his readers. And the fact that the love of God indwells us must empower us to show forth His grace day by day.

There are some who wonder why I cannot get into the annual Holiday thing and spread some good cheer and expensive coin more wildly than I have done for most of my adult life. It does no good to mention that when you are in the habit of remembering Christ the year around there is no need for a rash spending spree that limits your ability to give graciously and generously the other eleven months of the year. I know quite a few people who are depressed and deprived all they way through spring because of the lack of control in the merry month of December! I even remember a young lady who was bitter at Christmas time because her grandparents gave a full tithe to the church during the year, that they could have and should have given to her! How little did she understand the year around commitment of the Christian faith. She could only see her childish wants instead of her loved one's faith.

What are we called to do to celebrate daily and weekly under the Lordship of the Christ of Christmas? The writer to the Hebrews would remind us of four opportunities for an ongoing witness. "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water". Here we may know three things. We may have a conscience cleansed by His blood, we may have the assurance of the removal of guilt and we may approach our Holy God in prayer.

Second, "Let should unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful." Notice the plural emphasis there. It is the Church together that is to hold fast the confession, it is together that we are stimulated to love and good deeds. It is together that we are encouraged and it is together that we can afford to help those in spiritual and material need throughout the whole year.

Third the writer encourages us: Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Here we may understand that our love is not a selfish satisfaction, but a call to ministry in the Name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has been my hope for some years that we might grow as a fellowship to the point that we have more people than necessary for managing our own household and then that we might put them to work with the necessary resources to minister to those in need around us. May we remember this obligation and pray for such growth in numbers and commitment that this role of Christian love might become more possible.

Last, we read: "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Yes, we ought to do more than our resources allow, but our first calling is to worship our Redeemer in Spirit and in Truth. We are also to stand against the worldly ordering of the seasons and the myths that they spread to justify the robbing of the rich to support their own favorite causes.

I am well reminded of a story of a conservative and a liberal who were walking down the street. A beggar asked for a handout, the conservative reached into his pocket and gave a dollar. The liberal likewise reached into the pocket of the conservative and gave another dollar away. So much wealth is being confiscated in our time, that it is a wondrous testimony to God's people that still enough is found to do the work of the Kingdom and more is found to invest in helping those who are willing to help themselves.

Let us invite those whose spiritual need is greatest to join us in the worship or our great Creator God and Lord of the Universe. And even as we order our lives under His Lordship we declare His past and present glory which will be made manifest one day - One Great Day in the future. Having remembered the injunction in verse thirty-two let us finish the race and "persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised." May the Lord encourage us and empower us by His Spirit in doing His will and work until He comes again. Come quickly Lord Jesus, Come quickly.

Amen.

Resources Used:
     Hewitt, Thomas.           Tyndale New Testament Commentaries: Hebrews.
     Lockyer, Herbert.         All the Promises of the Bible.

Places Preached:
     Christ Covenant REFORMED  (Presbyterian Church in America)
                               Box PO Box 13926 -- Columbus, OH  43213
                               TKC02         06 December 98