Advent 1

[HKHaugan]

Matt.12:6 Jesus said, “But I say unto you, that in this place is one greater than the temple (KJV).”

Which is really greater? Is it the building, the people, the leaders, the institutional forms and rules under which they operate, or the One for whom the building, the institution and the people exist? Another way of putting it, are the forms more important than the substance? Are the structures superior to the One who initiated them? ““The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath (Mk.2:27 NIV).”

If you look at any corporation, business, organization, club or social gathering, what are they really there for? Initially, they were visible means enacted to meet an invisible need. Of course the profit and social motives are there but it is the idea and the need that plow the furrow.

When you consider the enormous change from the first wheel to space ships you can tell it is a challenge to the creative urge that mirrors the image of God in each of us. All human enterprise, all human invention, is really an extension of the human body so that the physical comfort, security and creativity of the person in the body are enhanced.
Invention is the extension of intention.
The car, the airplane, the boat extend our ability to travel beyond the limitations of our feet. Telescopes, glasses, binoculars, microscopes, movies, cameras increase the ability of the eyes. Sound systems help hearing. Computers magnify our thinking ability. Massive agriculture frees us from the soil to pursue other areas. All our physical senses are magnified.

The very fact that they enhance physical existence suggests a greater mind and a greater invisible force is at work to benefit a struggling humanity. We could go on and on. All of this is certainly in line with God’s Genesis commandment to rule the earth and subdue it. But in the overall picture fallen mankind is trying to return to Eden without God, an Eden man makes, not the one God planned or has waiting for us in His Son. We must realize we are now in the land of Nod, east of Eden and a flaming sword keeps us from reentering.

Now here’s the rub---when our religious, political, economic and educational structures, the foundational support system for our whole human enterprise, are separated from their spiritual source, when they are secularized, they only self-destruct. Our world, our culture, is melting because of secularization, its political correctness and the de-spiritualizing of all our social institutions. What we are looking at is a massive caricature of Adam and Eve taking the devil’s advice to think and act apart from God and His Word.

But there is one more aspect. Within the physical body there is a personal consciousness. You have the soul, the mind, the heart and the spirit of the person. God created the forms so that, as persons, we could experience the very being, the essence and the fullness of God through a relationship with Him and others. So everything visible has a personal, relational and spiritual purpose, a goal of fulfillment. The problem arises when the forms, their maintenance and leaders become more important than the one who initiated the whole process in the first place. They become temples erected to glorify man apart from God. This is idolatry. This is the product of sin and its spiritually isolating force. This is the work of sin’s author, the devil. Recognize it for what it is. So “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work (1Jn.3:8 NIV).” Through Him, His Cross and Resurrection, recovery and restoration to God the Father in the Holy Spirit was accomplished. We’ve got to get the whole context here. He came to do a spiritual work in order to make right what man had done wrong with the physical, trying to live according to what he could see rather than by the Spirit which is true reality.

Now think of Advent and its theme, the return of Jesus.

Preparing for Christmas is not only celebrating and honoring Jesus’ coming among us but also anticipating His return, because, in His return, He will be making everything right for eternity.

So we ask God’s question, the one He asked Adam in the Garden---and this is the real Advent question---“Where are you?” To start with we are in between our birth and His return, created, chosen and called for God’s purpose. What are we doing with what we have been given? To know that you were spiritually created and chosen with a specific spiritual calling in a material world to be part of its reconciliation to Him means that God also provides the way and the power to live out the calling. Where are we spiritually in our personal and interpersonal vicinity?

Now is the time to pray for our specific direction for our specific calling in our specific part of the world. Where we are in our personal context anticipate celebrating the birth of Christ by preparing spiritually, specifically and specially for His return.