MCC Podcasts
Christmas Is Worship - OMG : The Appropriate Response to the Presence of God
You know, aside from the word awesome, it may be the most overused and misused word or phrase of our day, aside from the word awesome, that's almost a tie. You hear it when, for instance, somebody sees their remodeled kitchen on HGTV for the very first time. You hear it when, you know, they say, "Move that bus," and then it's almost the next words that come out of somebody's mouth. Or when you have your car overhauled and you thought you had it stolen and your friends bring you in and there it is, you hear it then. You hear it when your spouse's complete makeover is shown to you for the first time when he or she walks out from behind those curtains. Or it's offered as a really, really quick phrase, spoken very, very quickly to begin a sentence if you're in high school or junior high. At the beginning of a sentence, like it would be, for instance, spoken at the beginning of a sentence about who Tommy Mazzarello is dating today or how well Paul Addison did in his last wrestling match and he tore it up by the way. You start the sentence with that. And when you're texting it, you simply have to write three letters to represent the phrase and you know what the phrase is by now, oh my God, or text version, o-m-g, o-m-g or oh my God, or the Christian version, oh my gosh, right? We do the Christian version and it's one of the most overused and today I want to specify misjues, misapplied, misdirected phrases or terms of our day, except for today. O-m-g is the only appropriate response. It's the only appropriate phrase on this Sunday of Advent, the day before, the day before Christmas. When we remember what was read before the lighting of that candle today and we really say to our minds, you will not be allowed to let that sort of drift into the annually rehearsed list of common things that happen. Oh yes, that's right. Can you imagine? Oh yeah, that's right. God came down, hmm, o-m-g, to stand with eyes covered, fascinated by the fact of it. Oh my God, is the correct appropriate, and in this case, literal response. This entire story is, always will be, one big o-m-g when you really think about it. You've already had the text read. We're going to focus this morning on Luke 2, especially 8 through 20. And look again at why o-m-g to say, oh my God, is the only response, the celebrity response. I mean, it's a balloon's bouncing, confetti flying, celebration singing event, and unless we become numb to the brilliance of it, to the effect of it, to the joy of it, to the literal truth of it. Why is that? Well, one reason o-m-g is the only appropriate response to what the shepherds heard, saw, announced, and experienced is because it means this. It means the world has what the world needs most, a savior. How many times have you said or thought some version of this statement, man, oh man, this place is so broken? Do we ever need help? Do we ever need a rescuer? You could translate savior rescuer as synonymous. Do we ever need somebody who can come and touch this place and fix it? Because we don't want to bury another kindergartener, we don't want to have to bury another parent, we don't want to think about any more injustice or experience injustice or the unfairness of the world, or have to contend with any more expressions, another expression of greed or war or name it. How broken are we? And in the midst of all that brokenness, Jesus leaves the church and says, now you go and represent what I really value. You go and give everybody an order of a taste of what will one day be, and we're looking for what will one day be. But boy, we're getting awfully tired of the time between now and that one day, aren't we? And then the shepherds come and the shepherds get this message and it says, guess what? The world just turned a corner. We were heading here and now, boom, there's this point in history that's just occurred and now we're going there. We are actually headed to the future for which we long. God has not just stayed wherever God is and watched. God has come and he's with you, he's among you, a Savior is born. Look at verse 11, not someday, but the word Texas, today in the town of David, a rescuer has been born to you. He's the Messiah, the one you've been hearing about, studying about, hoping for, dreaming about, talking about, now you're going to kiss his cheek. The Messiah is here, this is the day that history changes. One of the reasons the only appropriate response is, oh my God, because oh my God is exactly what the shepherds experience is, oh my God is what we have experienced. Have you forgotten that? Has this become a nice annual concept, let me remind us, literally, forcefully, powerfully, God, the creator of all, took on human flesh, submitted himself to a mother's womb, was born, came, left his Holy Spirit and is one day going to come and fix everything that breaks our hearts every day. And the proper response is, oh my God, that's an OMG moment. Another reason why this is an OMG moment, a time for celebration, a time for, that's the only appropriate response to the experience of the glory of God. First of all, because the world has now what it needs most, a Savior, the church's responsibility is, and it's pretty challenging because it doesn't look very much like the Savior's got anything to do with us these days, not from the world's perspective. The church's responsibility is to give hope and be a blessing to all of those who are longing for the one we know, whether they know it's him they're longing for or not. And we are to say, here's what it's going to be like one day. Come and experience the love of the community of Christ. It's like the home of an ambassador. When the United States ambassador is living in Kuwait, when you go into that ambassador's home, you get a little taste of America. It smells like America. It tastes like the food of America, the dress like America, the Beatles are playing, whatever it might be. If you go in that house and you, this is what America's like, and then when you come here, you realize, it's kind of like what that ambassador is. The church is like that home, the home of an ambassador. People experience our community and the community of Christ. They should get a little taste of what the world will one day be like. That's the thing for which we're striving, and that's an, oh my God moment, because God has touched down here. It's a second reason. It's an OMG moment, because in this experience of God on earth, no one gets left out. There is no caste system. There are no untouchables. By the way, that's a great challenge for us to illustrate as well. No one gets left out. It takes tremendous intellectual ability of Christians to be able to live with the things we believe on the one hand and not compromise what's true, and on the other hand, live with the conviction no one gets left out. Those doors will never be closed to anybody, no matter what kind of tragedy they're involved with or decisions they're making. If those doors become closed and the presentation of the gospel and the opportunity to experience the love of Jesus Christ through his people, if they're ever closed to anybody in the whole world, then we're inconsistent. We're not biblical people. No one gets left out. I love that we are increasingly as a community learning that the fact that we embrace and love a person does not mean we agree with every decision that person makes. And the fact that we embrace and love somebody and even befriend somebody that believes drastically different things and what we're convinced Scripture teaches doesn't mean we believe the things that they're embracing, it's not a compromise. The compromise is to not be able to embrace as a friend and welcome somebody into the experience of our lives just because we disagree with just about every decision they make. That's the compromise. You see the intellectual challenge of that if we're people of truth but also people of experience. The gospel is for everyone, no one gets left out, everybody gets to play ball, everyone's included, even the shepherds versus eight through ten. There were shepherds living out in the fields nearby and the significance of that is not lost on us. We've already talked about that many times. These are the leftover people. These are the stinky people. These are the undesirables, the shepherds. They're out in their fields by night and Jesus comes to them first. I would've thought he'd have come to an ambassador or a king or a noble person or a priest but he goes to the fringes of society and says, "I've got good news and I choose you to announce it." How is it that the Christian church could insist on only going to the celebrities of society at the expense of the fringes, we're so unlike Christ when we do that. No one's left out. Everyone gets to play. I was an intern when I was in college, a youth ministry intern at RK Baptist Church and we had a cool little community at RK Baptist Church, a community of interns, youth ministry interns and there were some had interns and there were volunteer interns and we all got paid. One day the youth pastor comes into the office and he says, "Guess what? I've got four tickets to the Neil Diamond concert." Now back then Neil Diamond was the bomb. He still is the bomb. That was not somebody under the age of 13 that said that, Jeffy. He did write and perform one of the all-time classic songs, "I Am I Said." You listen to that. Anyway, we'll get off. They come in. We're all excited. Neil Diamond concert. We're all going to the Neil Diamond concert. They were five interns, four tickets. They said, "Well everybody but you are because you're more of an E.L.O. guy. We need someone to stay back, lead the Bible study, run the youth ministry and answer the phones." So we're going to go, "Thank you so much for making this happen." I played along, but Alex was kind of wounded and then my selfish self said, "Leave somebody else out." I mean, leave somebody else behind, not me. We say, "Oh my God, not only has God come to earth and chosen the fringes to announce it, illustrating, making a statement about where he puts the decimal point in people." That means no one gets left out. Everyone has access to a relationship with God. No one has to stay back to answer the phones in the office. Some play in some watch. That's the news we celebrate today. That's why the only appropriate response to this message that is read year after year after year is, "Oh my God, is this really true? The world has what it needs most. We're moving in the direction of healing. We have this community of Christians in the world to give a taste of that healing, and everybody gets to play. There's no racism, there's no educational boundary, there's no class system with the gospel, just humanity. The only prerequisite for being treated with dignity and experience, the hope of Christ, is being human. Isn't that wonderful? And God is the downbeat of all of it." And finally this, in verse 15 and following, you have this message, "When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, 'Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing which has happened, which the Lord has told us about.'" In other words, the shepherds are saying, "Oh my God, let's go find him." Do you know that one of the most precious acts and powerful acts of worship, the Christian community, is the act of pursuing a deeper relationship with Christ, going to where you think He is to find Him. I mean, there's this incredible hunger. He on the one hand says, "Great mystery, He satisfies all of our hunger, satisfies all of our longings, but He's also as active creating new longing." No matter how much of Him you experience, it's a worshipable thing to long for more. Jesus is like a fixed moving target. He's findable and never catchable. You experience the presence of Him that brings comfort and relationship, and then He says, "Now come on, now take another step." One of the reasons this is an "Oh my God" moment is because, here you go, now, Jesus can be found by all who seek Him. He's not going to hide His face from anyone who genuinely seeks Him. It's one thing to know that God is near. It's quite another thing to know that He is near, and He's findable. One's conceptual, one's relational. Lots of people believe in God. Far fewer people believe that He's accessible, that He can actually be known. But He is accessible, and He can be known. The shepherds here that the Savior has been born, and they say, "Let's go right away." And they decide to go find Him now. In Hebrews 11, you have this text. It says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him, and can you just imagine those shepherds searching for Him? Anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who what earnestly seek Him. When we seek God with all of our hearts, we will find Him." If you're here this morning, and you're here more because it's Christmas than any other Christmas Sunday, the Sunday before Christmas Eve, you came with someone you love. Let me just tell you this. You go ahead and keep pursuing God. Go ahead and keep hungering for truth, for something more than what life is offering. If you're pursuing God with an open and sincere heart, He will be found by you. Jesus promises that. Jesus says, "In fact, I am the way, the truth, the light. I want to find God, I'm the gateway. Come and find me." When we seek Him with all of our hearts, He will be fined, and I cannot even imagine better news than that. Not only does this Savior of the world exist, He can be befriended by us, and will befriend us. That's one heck of an OMG experience. When Bach was writing his music, the great, beautiful, worshipful music that he produced came from a conviction. He said, "All music should have no other end in aim than the glory of God and the soul's refreshment." Yet that all music Bach said should have no other objective, no other aim than glorifying God. In other words, responding to this truth and the soul's refreshment and the process of glorifying God. He says, "Where this is not remembered, there is no real music, but only what he calls a devilish hubbub." Bach's not saying if you have drums or bass guitar or lead guitar, that he's not talking about that. If the music isn't aimed at the glory of God responding to the shepherd's announcement and the refreshment of our souls and the finding new strength to serve that God, it's nothing more than a devilish hubbub. And he used to begin each of his charts. He'd write, "J.J., which meant Jesus' Juba." In other words, "Jesus helped me." He ended them with these letters, not O-M-G, S-D-G, "Soli de Grasia," which means to God alone be the praise, or only to God the praise. Had Bach been composing today, he would have argued that his compositions were simply natural expressions, responses to the announcement those shepherds made. They were to give hope to Earth. To remind creation that we're moving in a new direction, things will not always be as they are today. Anyone care to translate that into the modern vernacular? Yep, O-M-G, that's the only proper response to that story today. Oh my God, oh my merciful, gracious, acting, loving God. What other response could there be about the party? (gentle music)