MCC Podcasts
Christmas and the Exodus
I'm going to be dipping in and out of Exodus chapter 33, really only dealing this morning with a handful of verses. But I want to read the whole thing to you, not the whole chapter, but this section of verses that I'll be using. Just listen here while I read, from Exodus 33 beginning at verse 12, what's happened just before this, Moses has gone up to the mountain and received the Ten Commandments. God wrote them on tablets. Those Ten Commandments reveal the values, the character of God, and he's inviting people here, "Live in harmony with me," in other words. Take on my values, and we're going to have a great life together. And Moses comes down from the mountain, and of course you know the story of the golden calf. Israel, probably, their sin probably, was making the image to represent God. It wasn't probably true that they were totally apostate, but they were trying to give themselves an image to represent the God that had been leading them. But God's not even thrilled with that, even that, regardless of the intentions. That just limits him too much. And so let's just say they weren't having their best day in terms of relationship with God. Moses comes down, he sees what's going on, he throws down the tablets, he breaks them. I love the little scenario, the conversation he has with Aaron, who's been left in charge, and he's, "Aaron, what's going on here?" And Aaron, if you go back and read this, you'll get a laugh out of this. Aaron says, "It's not my fault, it's the people." They took all the gold, and they threw it into the fire, and out came this calf. That's actually what he says. It reminded, I read it again this last week, and I was like, "No, my dog ate my homework, really, it wasn't my fault." I just threw the gold in the fire, and out jumps this calf, I know nothing. So God's love is not diminished for his people, but he's a bit disappointed with them. And what he says is, "I still love you." And he and Moses have some really interesting conversations. Some theologically challenging conversations that you should go back and read later. But where it ends up is this, that God says, "We're going to still go on this journey, but I've been leading you. Now I'm going to send an angel to lead you, because I'm so disappointed with you. We're still going to, I'm going to keep my promises to you, but I'm going to send my first lieutenant to lead you." And Moses says, "That's not good enough for me and your people. You go with us." And so that's the context of their discussion. And in verse 12 of Exodus 33, it says, "Moses said to the Lord, 'You've been telling me lead these people, but you have not let me know whom you will send with me some unnamed angel, some unnamed messenger. You've said, 'I know you by name, and you've found favor with me.' He says, 'If you're pleased with me, then teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.' And the Lord replied, 'My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.' And then Moses said to him, 'If your presence does not go with us, then do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you're pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?' And the Lord said to Moses, 'I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you, Moses, and I know you by name.' Then Moses said, 'Now show me your glory.' And the Lord said, 'I will cause my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name to the Lord in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.' And then he goes on to say, 'But you cannot see my face and live.' And then the Lord said, 'There's this place near me where you may stand on a rock, and when my glory passes by, I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I've passed by, and then I will remove my hand and you will see my back. But it's not safe for you to see my face. My face must not be seen.' We're going to dip into that section of Exodus for this morning's Christmas message. The journey God started in Exodus, He reiterated in the Christmas event, and they have a lot in common. So what I want to do is just food for thought, recognize a couple of things that these two events have in common. Both events, first thing they have in common, both events address the human hunger to experience God's presence on life's adventure. Both events address this desire in us that says something like, 'Man, don't send your first cousin to guide me. You guide me. Don't send us out into a world of broken people to touch their lives, and then stand back and sort of shout instructions and encouragement from the distance. We want to walk with you. We want to go where you go. We want to walk right, step right in behind you. We want you. Nothing else will do, just you. Verse 33, 12, and then 14 through 16, that I've read already, Moses says, 'Don't send us up unless you go with this.' I've heard you say you're going to send your angel. The angel isn't going to, that's not going to work for me. These are your people. Moses said to the Lord, 'You have been telling me, lead these people, but you've not let me know whom you will send with me.' You've said, 'I know you by name, and you've found favor with me.' You come, and the Lord says, 'Then my presence will go with you. I will give you rest.' And Moses is so emphatic that he said, 'That's a good thing because I will rather not go if you don't go with us. You go with us, don't send us up unless you're going to go up with us.' Both events address the human hunger to experience God's presence in life's adventure, Moses wants God's presence. And in Christmas, the same desire is addressed. Do you remember Matthew chapter 1? In verse 23 it says, 'The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel.' Which means what? God with us, not an angel with us, not God's favorite, God giving somebody a favorite angel is a favorite assignment, God with us, can you just hear Moses calling out thousands of years ago, 'You go with us.' And that whole experience reiterated in Christmas. And the need for you to be here with us, and God says, 'Oh, you're right, Immanuel, God with you, not from a distance, with you.' These events are linked. They both address the human hunger to experience God's presence in life's adventure. And by the way, if in you there's a human hunger to actually experience the presence of God, foster that hunger. Probably if that hunger is in you, accompanying it is a disappointment with how seldom, if ever, that happens, but do not give up. Moses did not give up. He insisted, 'I will have your face, I will have the presence of God, I will have it.' And so should we, Christmas and Exodus, same message. There's a second way that Christmas and Exodus are linked. Second one is this, both address the human need to know God's ways for life's adventure. Man, it's great to have your presence. I kind of need to, if you have an expectation that your character, your nature become my character, my nature, as represented in these tablets where you've written down your values and some guidelines and you've got to give us an idea of how things work, how would you, how would you handle this, what are your ways, how should our lives be patterned, what should be our values in Exodus 33, the first part of verse 13, Moses says, 'If you are pleased with me, then teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you.' I've reminded you of this many times, but here's yet another example of it. In the Jewish mind, there's no distinction between what you believe and what you do. Well there is to be no distinction. That's a false dichotomy in the Jewish mind. Later on, we came up with philosophies and concepts and you might believe this, but it doesn't necessarily get linked exactly to what you do, not in the Jewish mind. You see it here, 'Teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you.' There's a knowing and a doing, but they're all linked. They're not really two different things in the mind of Moses. In Christmas we have the same need to know God's ways addressed. In John chapter 1, the Gospel of John the first chapter, it's a Christmas text. In verse 18, after introducing the idea that light came into darkness, darkness did not overcome it, it persistently loved those who rejected, introduces John the baptizer who's introducing the Messiah, the Redeemer, the deliverer. And then Jesus has explained a bit, and you have this reference, this connection again with the Exodus experience of Moses of seeing God. And in John chapter 1, verse 18, 'No one has ever seen God.' And then it says this, 'But the one and only Son, or the uniquely begotten Son.' That's the force of that phrase. Who is himself God? Now another point here, that Jesus who came was actually God, Jesus was fully divine and fully human. Don't try to figure it out. You'll get a headache. God's Christmas morning. The only begotten Son who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, and here's the phrase I want to pull out, 'He has made him known,' or you could translate that, 'He has explained God.' Or if you're inclined toward this kind of study, there's a sort of a beefy word. 'He has exageded God.' You know the force of that word, 'exageded him,' when we are seminarians and we're taught to take what we see in Scripture and figure out what's there, and then present it to people in ways that are consistent, we are doing exagesis. We're going to something, figuring, lifting out the real meaning, and then showing it. That's the same word that's used here. The Exodus story, show us your ways so we can know you. In the Christmas story, no one has seen God, but Jesus has explained him. Jesus has shown us God's ways. Jesus said, 'When you have seen me, you've seen the Father.' You want to know the Father? Look at Jesus. Jesus explains God. So both events address the human hunger to experience God's presence in life's adventure, and we should never let go of that hunger no matter how often we're disappointed by it. And both events address the human need to know God's ways for life's adventure. In fact, being a Christian doesn't Jesus call it following me, isn't the invitation? Come and follow me. Come and be an apprentice of mine. Come and know me and the forgiveness that comes through my death. But also know me and the guidance I give for the way I always intended for humans to live. This one, finally, another way that these events have something in common. Both events, the Exodus and Christmas, address humanity's need for grace during life's adventure. For God to have some miraculous superglue for the soul. Both events. Now we read Exodus. I used to read Exodus kind of arrogantly. I don't know if I were one of those guys. I would have recognized what was going on in Idaho. I would have never grumbled like that. Now, they need a grace, we need grace, all of humanity needs grace. Marriages need grace, friendships need grace, your neighbor needs grace from you, you need grace from your neighbor, your workplace needs grace, your children need grace, your parents need grace. The Exodus story and the Christmas story. You know what? They're both about grace. They both address humanity's need for grace on life's adventure. In Exodus 33, 19, the Lord says, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name and the Lord in your presence." And then this, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy." In other words, "I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion, even in the Exodus story." God is driven by mercy and compassion. It's as though God is saying, "Man, I'm not going to ever stop having grace and mercy and compassion." I had it back then on whom I chose to have it. I'll have it here on whom I chose to have it, and don't hear that so much as there were five people here, and I choose to show mercy to two and the other three are out. This is more global than that. I'm just going to have mercy and compassion as I long to have mercy and compassion. Anybody here experiencing that mercy and compassion from God? Gone through something that should have crushed you, and then you look, and hey, a year later, you look, and here you are today on Christmas morning in worship, and you're still breathing. You didn't know how you could take your next breath back then. Has God shown you mercy? Has God shown you compassion? Because that's who He is. He loves that. He was showing mercy and compassion in the Exodus story, the story before the section we read reminds us that God heard the prayers of His people, generation after generation after generation, calling out to Him in bondage, and He said, "I am going to come down and deliver you." Why? I am in compassion. And in John 1 again, we see that message in Christmas. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him, yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name. He gave the right to become the children of God. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, or a husband's will, born of God, born from above. The word became flesh, made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one, and only see the Exodus themes in that encounter with Moses the same words even. And then this, "The one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." There's your mercy and compassion language. Exodus and Christmas, man, they're linked. They both address humanity's need for grace on life's adventure. And I can't finish this message without, and especially this point, without reference to that most well-known text that comes just two chapters later. Talk about grace on life's adventure. For God so loved the world that He Christmest us. He gave us His only, or again, His uniquely begotten Son. Why? So that whoever believes in Him, whoever, and there's that Jewish sense of belief again, whoever places their trust, their life in His hands, and finds forgiveness and a way of life. It's source of life and way of life. Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life, an abundant life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world. And sadly, that's been the take on much of what we've been communicating about Christianity, isn't it? God can't wait to push the button that opens the trap door. You're going to get it yours someday. It must break God's heart to hear that message, and to see Christianity attached to who's out and who's hated and who's going to be punished. That's not God's heart. He loves. He did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but to rescue the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned. Whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed. In other words, they stand, they condemn themselves. And God watches us condemn ourselves and we reject Him, and then He goes back to the back of His throne room and He throws up over it. "Please don't, please don't, please choose differently, please my Son, please." My daughter choose Me, so He didn't come to condemn. He came to love. All those who believe in that Son take hold of that grace and that mercy. Both events, Exodus and Christmas, address humanity's need for grace along the adventure. You know, every Christmas story that you have, whether you realize it or not, is pregnant with an Exodus story. The journey God started in Exodus, He reiterated at Christmas because when God sees a people in bondage, trapped in need of hope and life, His answer today is the same as it was 2,000 years ago and 4,000 years ago. His answer is freedom, Exodus, Christmas. That's the picture we try to see in the lighting of these candles which are symbols, but that white candle is burning now. Christ has come. And there's another coming of Christ that Christians all over the world celebrate. And we purposely plan to practice this today on Christmas. And we're going to end our worship with communion. But allow yourself to knit all of these things together, deliverance, Christmas, presence of God, God with us, Emmanuel, and then the Scripture speaks of the presence of God in communion. We're going to look at a candle that's lit and I encourage you to do that as you come forward in a moment. You're going to be unhosted tables, there are just two of them up front here. You make the way up during the music and receive communion. But take a look at that candle and you have the representation of the presence of Christ, the presence of God in Christ there. And you have the experience of the presence of God in communion and deliverance attached to all of it. And man, it would be a waste of a good day if today if you haven't experienced that kind of deliverance. To spit in the face of the world that laughs at people who admit that they are dependent and embrace the face of the one who says, "You want life, I'll give you life," the kind of life that gives you the freedom from having to prove anything to anybody. And maybe today when you receive communion, you can, by the breaking of that bread and the drinking of that cup, let that be your statement of surrender to Jesus. I give you my life, I admit my need for grace and ask for forgiveness. And this is the downbeat me eating this bread, me drinking this juice, me living like you live, source of life, way of life. But on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He took up the loath. And He said, "This is my body, this loath." And in ripping that loath, He linked Exodus, Christmas, Easter, and He said, "And this is my blood." Instead of a new covenant, a new agreement, a new contract, which I willingly spill because I'm committed to grace and compassion. I will show compassion to whom I choose to show compassion and grace to those to whom I choose to show grace and I choose to show it to all of humanity. In the bread and the cup, in the lighting of the Christ candle, in remembering the Christmas message of the Exodus, may you meet Christ, come as you feel led, receive communion.