Notes for December 10
Mood:  d'oh
Topic: MyWords::RE::God'sWords

Building Your Own Jesus 2

> Last week, “Tear down your idols—Yahweh never forgets.”

> Live in the joy of God’s ONE GIFT.

> To help us get in the mood of thinking about “gifts.” [GIFT GUIDE]

à There is ONE GIFT God most wants to give us; what stands in the way is idols.

à Idols: Joining the Name of God with my agenda instead of his … refer to selves as “Christian,” yet there are things that we would not give up if Jesus asked us to [habits/lack of forgiveness/activities] … claim that Jesus’ purpose is that, if only you do what he wants, you’ll always have wealth and convenience … join Jesus with political policies … consumed with our purchases instead of the one who gave his life to purchase us—compared to this ONE GIFT, all these others are about as worthwhile as flamingo poop.

àà These temptations aren’t only today: In first century … Essenes: Expected God to send someone to destroy the religious leadership in Temple, to purify … Zealots: Expected God to destroy the Romans … Sadducees: Expected God to reveal himself in and through the Temple … Pharisees: Expected God to reveal himself by keeping all the traditions that had been added to Torah.

àà Jesus refuses to fit into any of these categories … he is God enfleshed, and God has always refused to fit neatly into our categories: I AM WHO I AM.

> This God has ONE GIFT that he wants to give us.

DILEMMA

> How do I receive God’s one gift?

TEXT: LUKE 1:26-56

> Temple: We expect that/Few people expect Galilee, partly because seemed backwoods but it’s a place with a high population of non-Jews! [Only place where it’s hinted that Galilee: Isaiah 9:1-2: Point is that God’s light can reach to the darkest places.] … not top ten most likely places for God to show up.

> Nazareth: Fewer than 2,000 people, probably around 500: Strong Jewish community, two miles: Remains of a funeral cult, decorated skulls, worship dead.

> Gabriel: “Hero from God”: God sends a hero.

> “Virgin betrothed”: Marriage occurred in two phases … At 13, betrothed: Committed to one another, only broken by divorce/… didn’t live together until a year or so later, beneath canopy, wedding blessings, a week of feasting.

> She is in the time of waiting for the wedding … she stands as symbol for Israel at this time, waiting for Messiah/for us, waiting for return of Jesus. WAITING FOR GOD’S GIFT.

> “Joy to you, grace-filled one!”/“Blessed …”: God has given something of himself to you./“FEAR NOT … God’s grace has found you.”

à Then comes the shocking news: “You will conceive in your womb”: Only other place this phrase occurs is three times in writings of Hippocrates.

à Y’hoshu-Yah: “Yahweh saves.”: King: But Israel is larger than anyone expected and his kingdom runs deeper than any human realm.

à Mary’s first words: “How?”: No sexual relations with anyone … she had waited … God himself is her reward.

à “Holy Spirit … power of Highest overshadow”: [Ex40:34-35]: TABERNACLE: Tiny glimpse of God’s glory … word they used to describe was “bright cloud”: Later rabbis, SHEKHINAH, “dwelling.” God’s glory around us all the time, cannot see, once in while … rip in space-time continuum.

à “You will become tabernacle where Most High is revealed.” [“Highest” … Melchizedek … “nothing impossible with God.”]

> She knows what people will think, whisper … she has a child, months before her wedding.

> Yet she says: “I am the Lord’s slave-girl. May it be unto me according to your word.”

> Elisabeth: “Filled with …”=Equipped for specific, God-chosen purpose, to encourage Mary.

> 1:46: “My life makes God bigger.” How?

à 1:47: Rejoices regardless of pain/1:48: Sees beyond this moment: “all generations”/1:49-56: God shatters and scatters those that think they’re strong, he lifts up those that know God is strong.

> And what is the ONE GIFT that he gives?

CONSIDER AS WE SING A COUPLE OF SONGS

RESOLUTION

> The one gift God gives to Mary … wants to give to you … HIMSELF.

> Not in sense of bearing God incarnate … but Christopher. [REPROBUS: “How can I serve?” HERMIT: “Do what you can where you are, carrying across the river.” One day, a small child approached the river and asked to be carried across. The giant began to comply, only to learn that the small boy was far heavier than any other passenger he had taken. The child revealed that he was in fact Jesus Christ, and that his unusual weight was due to the fact that he bore the sins of the world. The boy then baptized the giant in the river, and he acquired his new name Christopher, Greek for "Christ-carrier" (christo-phoros)]

> God offers you the gift of himself, the gift of being a Christ-carrier.

APPLICATION

> God does this for those who know their own weakness and who live to make God bigger.

> ONE LEGO ALONE IS WEAK AND USELESS … LEGO ONLY BECOMES USEFUL WHEN IT BECOMES PART OF SOMETHING BIGGER. SAME WITH YOU.

> CANDLE OF HOPE [God never forgets], CANDLE OF COMFORT [God is strong].

> I AM WEAK, BUT I LIVE TO MAKE GOD BIGGER.