This blog is an invitation to us all to wake up and see afresh the wonder of Christmas. The landing point of this blog is the following two verses from Psalm 139:
5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.
We are all feeling the need for a break and rest, and I wonder how many of us are ‘carolled out’. I wonder how any of us are stressed about the next few days: travelling home, family, lists of unfinished Christmas cards and menus. How many of us have allowed ourselves to domesticate God into a pair of comfy slippers by a warm fire?
Christmas describes the miraculous wonder of:
- Jesus: the Son of God, born of Mary, and starting as a helpless baby
- Jesus: the timeline changer - BC becomes AD
- Jesus: the world changer - Old Testament becomes New Testament
- Jesus: who has opened the way back to Heaven for humankind
- Jesus: who we believe is at his Father’s right side saying ‘Father listen to… . He/she/they are praying to you’
- Jesus: who knew the psalms and helps us to read them with New Testament eyes
So here is a 'past, future, present' timeline.
And Jesus himself teaches this, doesn't he? John, in his Gospel - written so we might believe, tells us that Jesus says: "I have told you this now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe" (John 14: 29). And how true this is from our experience. It is usually when we look back that we see where God was working. That is a wonder - and also a divine timeline!
Another timeline concerns the Gospels - Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Only Matthew and Luke contain the Christmas narratives and both of those Gospels reference Mark as a source. Mark was written first. So why is Matthew the first Gospel in the New Testament canon? This is because Matthew is written to a Jewish readership and sets out to show that Jesus fulfils the Old Testament prophecies. His Gospel is therefore the logical bridge between Old and New Testaments. And Matthew, at the start of his Gospel says: "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about" (Matthew 1: 18). The phrase 'Jesus Christ' (ie Jesus the anointed one) is a type of executive summary. Matthew takes 28 chapters to explain this identity. So here is another past, future, present timeline.
And so how about us? What is our timeline? This Christmas I am encouraging us to pause and reflect, to look back to remember, to remind ourselves of those times when we were suddenly aware of the majesty and power of God in our lives, and to recall those moments intentionally. Let us lay aside the menus, tinsel and Christmas cards and focus on Jesus in the present moment.
I am going to conclude with inviting us to read the first six verses of Psalm 139, with New Testament eyes:
1 You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
You hem me in behind... that's the past taken care of.
You hem me in before... there's the future in God's hands.
You lay your hand upon me... this is God's hand (in Jesus' name) upon us now in this moment. Let us be astonished.
Nigel Rawlinson
Respond