A sermon given in Sydney
Earlwood Indonesian Presbyterian Church
Shalom Pastor Gunung and all here at Earlwood church. Salamat Pagi! I’m pleased to be joining you this morning as we fast approach the holiday of Christmas. There is so much festivity in the air, so many visits to the shops, to see Santa and listen to him lie to our children repeatedly. The shops are playing some of our favourite carols if you happen to like sleigh bells ringing, snowballs, Jack Frost nipping at your nose, and other winter wonderland music. Of course, this is Australia, and we don’t have winter here at this time of year. So, the bundle of information and songs to process are all related to something strange.
Now add to that strangeness the stories about a jolly man-in-a-red-suit who gives gifts to children he doesn’t know and travels the world in a supercharged sleigh to supply those in one night. Oh, don’t forget the rushing to the shops by parents and people attending the annual Christmas parties with crackers and fruitcakes and lying about enjoying being with them repeatedly.
Then move the tale to a Bible story that someone feels obliged to share with us, or the Channel 9 Carols in the Domain or Carols in the Carpark or wherever it is from which they broadcast. They tell of something about shepherds in Israel and a star that leads some foreign dignitaries to travel from Mesopotamia through Iran and Iraq and find themselves in ancient Judea, now Israel, looking for a baby. In a farm stall. Amidst farm animals.
Could anything be more remote? Could anything be stranger?
Today we read the Gospel assigned to me by your pastor from the song of Miriam, the prayer nicknamed “The Magnificat” from Luke chapter 1, verses 46-55. Miriam is the Hebrew name of Mary, the mother of our Saviour Yeshua. She is singing a prayer to God and if you know much about prayers in the Bible, you would say that this prayer/song sounds familiar. A couple of those lines are direct quotes from the Older Testament, and the rest sounds consistent with so many prayers by others.
But maybe this idea sounds strange to you. Christmas is about Jesus and some say that’s a New Testament idea, and now I’m mentioning Old Testament Bible quotations, and you might be thinking—wait a minute, what does Jesus have to do with the Old Testament? That’s about Jewish people, right?
For many people in Sydney, and probably in Indonesia, the ideas of Jesus and being Jewish are far apart. But for Miriam and her betrothed fiancé, Joseph, Bethlehem and Judea, and the anticipation of awaiting the Messiah of Israel—all that is very Jewish and very consistent with who they were as Jews.
Back in Bible days with the centre of the action in Israel, with the central players in the Bible being Jewish, whether Abraham or King David, Moses or Isaiah, and the millions of Jewish people who left Egypt or who were exiled to Babylon or Assyria… the Bible is a very Jewish book.
The Magnificat
Back to the song of Miriam. I really like this prayer. It sounds similar to the one Hannah sang when she praised and exalted the Lord (1 Samuel 2.1-10) after the birth of her special son, Samuel. She had been unable to have children and God heard her prayer for a son. He answered her and she followed with her own song of praise. A Magnificat. That is, a proclamation of the Magnificence of God. That word may seem strange to you, not only because it’s not a usual Indonesian word, but it’s also not an ordinary English word.
The word comes from the Greek word ‘maga’ meaning ‘great.’ To magnify the Lord means to make him great. Like using a magnifying glass to read small print in a book or newspaper. Wait a minute, you might think. How can I make God great, or even greater? Isn’t he already the Great One? Yes, I say, but often in our lives, we sin, and the #1 sin in our lives is taking the place of God, becoming #1 in a situation, imagining ourselves to be primary, the #1, the most important.
So when Mary magnifies the Lord, like Hannah before her, or the Psalmist King David (Psalm 34.4), we proclaim him as king and sovereign, as #1 again. That helps me see what Christmas is all about.
Summer vs Winter Season
We live here in Australia, and many of you are from Indonesia. Both countries are South of the Equator. So when we have this time of the year, it’s always summer. Up north, however, in England or the US, it’s winter, and at the end of this week, we will observe the winter solstice. It’s very cold and dark, and you will have seen those movies and read those books about Christmas in winter, and that may help you make sense of this. In this season up north, the sun sets about 4:30 pm, so after work and after school, much family time is at home and in the dark.
The Jewish people have a festival that will begin next week, the Feast of Dedication (John 10.22) which translates to Hanukkah. It’s also nicknamed the Festival of Lights. There will be a large menorah (candelabrum) in Martin Place and in Bondi which is lit nightly for many days. And most Jewish people like those menorahs in our homes surrounded by family and lots of great food.
You will know that Christmas also features food, and especially lots of lights. In some Christian churches, the leadup to the holiday is called Advent, and there are candles and calendars to assist in the celebrations. They put up a Christmas tree that has its light, and many folks in town decorate their houses or units with strings of ornaments and electric lights. Listen, lights make sense in the darkness of the wintry north, but they seem strange to us here in the warm, summery South.
Think with me about darkness. And we often use the expression, “doom and gloom.” Darkness is used in the Bible as a symbol of many things and into each of those darknesses, I believe God wants to shine his light. Light and dark do not co-exist. Light dominates dark and chases it away. (John 1.5)
In Miriam’s Magnificat, she describes the power of God to chase away the proud, the arrogant, the foreign rulers, and the rich and powerful. Light will always triumph over darkness, and let me give you three more darknesses about which I’m thinking today.
The Darkness of Ignorance
The first problem of darkness I want to address is ignorance. I shake my head at people who refuse to learn. It’s not that someone doesn’t know information. It’s that they don’t want to learn another way of thinking. Sometimes, we watch the news or our social media feed and stand amazed at the level of wilful ignorance. You see it in political contests and you see it in sports and sadly, also in religion. The answer to this is not only education. It’s not only information. It’s the willingness to learn.
Yeshua, some call him Jesus, said, “You search the Scriptures, thinking that in them you find eternal life, but they speak of me.” (John 5.39) We Jewish people are especially academic and prefer scholarship to physical activity. Generally speaking, we win scientific awards at a higher rate than our limited population should. We are only 15 million people worldwide, which is not even one-tenth of one per cent of the world’s population. Even so, we have garnered 22% of the Nobel Prizes across all scientific categories.
But can we get along with each other? Can we use our smarts to assist others? We know so much and know so little. Proverbs chapter one says, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (1.7)
Even Yeshua taught “Woe to you lawyers! For you have taken away the key of knowledge; you yourselves did not enter, and you hindered those who were entering.” (Luke 11.52)
Into the darkness of ignorance comes the Light of the Knowledge of the Lord. When? When we give our lives over to the Lord of life. Paul wrote saying, “God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” (2 Cor. 4.6)
The Darkness of Sin
I’m a preacher and you probably have expected me to link darkness with sin. I will not disappoint you! Sin is so abundant today, so much the norm, that we have likely grown accustomed to it. To label sin as ‘darkness’ is harsh, according to some. However, the human desire to hide from view is a response to sin and shame and is not a natural state. In the Bible, the first indication to God that something had gone wrong was the human desire to hide in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve broke with God, listened to the serpent in the Garden of Eden, and ended up being removed and living outside the Garden. Their activity is labelled as ‘sin’ and may be defined as rationalised self-will. All the while, God is rich in mercy and longs to be in a good relationship with his people, but refusing him and living in opposition to his plan is what we are calling ‘sin.’
We read in 2 Peter, “God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment.” (2 Peter 2.4) Angels were placed in darkness not only as a result of their sin but also as a symbol of it.
The darkness of sin shuts us off from the righteousness and holiness of God. You notice that most people want to isolate in sin; you don’t ring your Christian brother and invite them to go get drunk with you. We choose to sin alone. We like John declared of my people, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” (John 3.19)
But here’s the good news. The darkness of sin can be overcome. Paul wanted the believers to learn that God wanted to “open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me.’” (Acts 26.18)
Yeshua is that Light that erases our sins and gives us THE answer which is Forgiveness. Hallelujah!
The Darkness of Despair
Literal darkness can be bad for us. If we spend too much time out of daylight, we lose track of time, we are more likely to feel depressed and we are more prone to lose touch with reality. Scientific research shows that prolonged exposure to darkness can quickly disrupt our internal rhythms, our sense of self and our relationship with the world around us. We are creatures of the day, and though we need darkness to sleep, we need light to live. Not all darkness is physical. Most of us can access as much daylight as we need – but what if we are stuck in emotional, psychological or spiritual darkness? The effects are much the same – we lose track, we lose heart, and we lose hope.
We often use the phrase, “He’s in a dark place.” Often December is filled with its own sadnesses. Here’s a photo by Kat Love on Unsplash.
But many will say, “It’s holiday time. Let’s celebrate the end of year with parties and be ready to welcome a new year.” I get that. But as I said, up north, sunset is at 4:30 pm. And most of the evening is dark. All the bright lights of glitter and Santa and icicles, Advent wreathes, and Christmas displays cannot make up for the loss so many feel in this season. For many this is not the “most wonderful time of the year” and highlights their loneliness. For others, the end comes with a less-than-golden handshake from a boss who tells you that you are no longer needed at your job. Emptiness and darkness; they ride together. No wonder the suicide rate in Australia, and certainly here in NSW climbs most years in the month of December. We should be filled with Christmas hope, but it’s not so. We are in the darkness of despair. (https://www.aihw.gov.au/suicide-self-harm-monitoring/data/suspected-deaths-by-suicide/data-from-suicide-registers)
Look, when I was a kid, we did plenty of wrong things. I was a hippie in the US in the late 1960s, and we did wrong so that we could make the world a better place. At least, our own world could be better. In contrast, kids today often do the same wrong things, but not with the hope of bettering the world; it is often because there is no hope of improvement.
Into that darkness of despair comes hope. Honest hope. In Luke chapter 2, we meet an old Jewish man named Simeon. He was at the Temple when Miriam and Joseph brought Yeshua in for dedication. Simeon took the baby in his arms and said his famous Nunc Dimitis, “Now Lord, You are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word; For my eyes have seen Your salvation, Which You have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light of revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel. (Luke 2.29-32)
Hope is light. The word used to describe Simeon by Luke is here in verse 25. “this man was righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel; and the Holy Spirit was upon him.” The word ‘consolation’ is the word in Greek “paraklesis” which can mean comforter and carries the meaning of a person who brings hope, like a defense attorney, that is, one called to help in a law court. In the Jewish tradition the word was transcribed with Hebrew letters and used for angels, prophets, and the just as advocates before God's court.
Simeon had hope, and though he was old, God promised him that he would be alive when the Hope of Israel was to show up in the Temple there in Jerusalem.
Conclusion
I guess if we had to choose, most of us would side with the Hope Team. We want to enjoy these summer days and the part of our life that is meaningful and relevant. We want to live in hope of the Glory of God. If you have time, perform a word study on those two topics in the Bible, and you will be amazed at what God is trying to tell us. (1 Peter 1.21, Titus 2.13, Col. 1.27, Eph. 1.12, .18, Rom. 5.2)
Friends, in this season of light triumphing over darkness, we have a job to do. You might know the author Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson, author of Treasure Island and other classics, grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland in the 19th century. At the end of each day, as darkness spread over the city, Robert would watch with fascination as the lamplighters came down the street, lighting the gas street lamps.
One evening, seeing their son with his face pressed against the window, Robert’s parents asked him what he was looking at. Robert replied excitedly, “Look at that man! He’s punching holes in the darkness!”
That is our job together as disciples of Jesus. In the darkness of despair, sin, or ignorance, we are charged to punch holes and bring light to those people. One person at a time. One lamp on one street at a time. You will be thinking of Indonesians to whom you want to bring the Light of the Glory of Jesus. Also be thinking today of some Jewish people whom you know from television or from the news, or maybe whom you know personally. I have given my life the last 45 years in working with Jews for Jesus to bring the Gospel to Jewish people, first in the US, and the last 26 years here in Australia and Asia. Thanks be to God who gives us all opportunities to punch holes in the darkness of those near us, at this season of Light, and throughout our days.
I invite you to join us as we Jews for Jesus carry the message of the Saviour to Israelis, to Russian Jews, and everywhere from Sydney to Subiaco, from Melbourne to Manly, in 2024 and beyond. The more you give, the more we are able to send Bibles, to travel to meet with individual Jewish people in their homes and offices, to make Jesus known. I have this electronic Square so you can tap a donation to the organization or to buy resources off my table up the back, including my own testimony, how God opened my Orthodox Jewish eyes to my Messiah Jesus back in 1971.
You can use this QR code on the screen just now to sign onto our website and hear more from us, or use the white card/slip we handed you on arrival to church this morning.
Amazingly, this QR code will sign you up and automatically code you as being here at the Earlwood Church on this date. Thanks for doing that and agreeing to learn what God is doing among the Jewish people in New York, in Sydney, in Israel and around the globe. Thanks for that.
Pastor Gunung, thanks so much for this invitation to join you today and for your care for our Jewish people today and down the road. Shalom and Merry Christmas.
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