Thank you, Lord, that you've called us to
be close, closer than we can ever imagine.
And you have drawn us near.
You have drawn us near in the incarnation
of Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ has gathered up all humanity
into himself, the one new human being.
And, Lord, we thank you for that new
humanity today in Jesus Christ and that we
are gathered up into him.
We are truly in Christ and through adoption
and grace made sons and daughters.
Thank you.
Thank you for this, Lord, this fourth Sunday
of Advent and also Christmas Eve in the
name of the Father and the Son and
the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
May be seated.
We're going to talk today about have yourself
a little cosmic Christmas.
How's that?
These are very, very fun pairings for Christmas.
Usually we read about the manger scene and
some of the more familiar things are descriptions
from, we would say, below.
But today we're reading out of the context
from above John the Eagle.
He's going to take us places where we're
not familiar on Christmas.
He's going to take us into the scene
and the unseen.
He's going to show us what's going on
behind all of this thing we call Christmas,
the mass of Christ.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
And it is, as I said, the fourth
Sunday of Advent, as well as Christmas Eve.
And that's just a rare calendrical pairing, you
know.
And so let's consider the scriptures that we
heard this morning to begin with.
You know, when we think about the story
of Jesus and his birth, if you think
about Mark's version of that, it's very, very
short.
He just starts right out, bam, talking about
the prophecy of Isaiah and introduces John the
Baptist.
He he wastes no time getting into the
story of Jesus on the ground.
OK, and so that's Mark's version and that's
the oldest and the shortest gospel.
And then Matthew begins with the genealogy of
Jesus and that genealogy beginning with Abraham.
But then Luke goes back even farther.
He begins with anybody know Adam?
He goes way back to Adam in the
genealogy of Jesus.
OK, now, if that's not good enough, where
does John take us in the beginning before
all beginnings?
And so we're just getting deeper and deeper
because John is that's my favorite gospel.
And and I love the book of Revelation.
It's such a beautiful book about the revelation
of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ, it's the unfolding, the unveiling of
Jesus Christ.
It's not about charts and and per se
in times that's those are subcategories, the end
times that we get in the book of
Revelation.
But the big story, the big theme, the
big topic is the revelation of Jesus Christ,
the unveiling so that we might be able
to see him with eyes of the spirit.
And so John begins in the beginning before
creation with God's Greek word is logos.
His word in the beginning was the word
John is writing this out of Ephesus, you
see, and so he's surrounded by pagan culture.
And so he doesn't take us back to
those things that would be familiar to the
Jewish story about the Messiah's lineage and all
of that.
So John wants to take and communicate to
a pagan culture something that they were very
familiar with the term logos.
John borrows this from pagan philosophy, Heraclitus, and
Heraclitus was actually based way back before John
out of Ephesus.
And so John took the Virgin Mary and
tradition tells us ended up in Ephesus.
And so John's sitting around going like, how
am I going to talk about Jesus to
this culture?
And he pulls out this word called logos.
And he says, that's it.
That's it.
And so he says, in the beginning was
the logos in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the
word was God.
He's building on it.
This is not what the pagans believe.
The pagans believed it was some sort of
universal reason and the foundation and reason for
all existence.
It's true.
And John's bringing that in as well, because
logos, Jesus, the eternal logos who is begotten
of the father in eternity is that ground
of being that foundation of all existence.
And this is the one who spoke the
worlds into existence, this eternal word from the
father.
And this is the pre-incarnate state of
the logos not made flesh yet, who spoke
the worlds into existence.
This is the being of Jesus, fully God
and fully man.
This is the one who created all things
and new creation.
He's making all things new.
This is the one that John's talking about.
And so with God's logos, his word, his
eternally begotten son, we would say, and then
as the creed riffs from phrases from the
gospel of John, God from God light from
light.
He is the true light that lightens the
heart of every human being.
That light is coming into the world.
John is telling us light from light, true
God divinity from true God divinity, true divinity
from true divinity, begotten from a father, a
father's begotten mother's birth, begotten of the father,
not made with human hands of one being,
one being with the father, one divine essence
with the father and with the son, the
father and the son and the Holy Spirit.
Three persons in one divinity, one God.
This is the one that we're contemplating today.
Well, that's the gospel of John.
And we believe that John wrote the book
of Revelation as well, the revelation of Jesus
Christ.
And John's final great writing, this revelation of
Jesus, it gives us an even deeper prophetic,
mythopoetic language to describe the above and the
below realities of redemptive history.
This is what the book of Revelation is
describing.
It's the realities of the scene and the
unseen aspects of the history of our redemption.
That's what it's all about.
And it's in mythopoetic, prophetic, apocalyptic language.
Right.
So it takes some getting used to read
through the book of Revelation.
It's kind of like one of those commercials.
Don't do that at home alone or something
like that.
Anyway, I do.
You'll be blessed.
John is talking about above and below, even
in the book of Revelation, the scene and
the unseen realities around in this chapter, chapter
12.
We heard today, Revelation 12, the scene and
the unseen realities around the birth of Jesus
Christ.
No major story here, but you get this
cosmic story of what's happening in the heavens,
the scene and the unseen, and he goes
back and forth between the heavens, the unseen
and the earth, the scene.
And present, past and future are not in
chronological order throughout the book of Revelation.
So throw out a type of reading that
is sequential from chapter one to chapter 22.
He's recapitulating throughout the book.
He's going back and then he'll stop and
then he'll go back and then he will
summarize everything.
And then he'll start in the middle of
somewhere else.
So you can't follow it chronologically.
And so even with this passage that we
heard today and a great sign appeared in
heaven.
A great sign.
Here it is.
What is that great sign?
He's going to talk about two signs, a
woman.
A woman clothed with the sun, with the
moon under her feet and on her head,
a crown of 12 stars.
Mytho-poetic language.
John is describing something that's truer than true
right here.
And so as we read these signs and
these symbols and consider the 12 stars and
what are the biblical images of the 12
stars other than speaking of the nation of
Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel.
And so this woman, this daughter of Zion,
as it were, this multifaceted woman, it's not
just one identity.
It's not just in one time, but it's
a woman who reaches past, present and future.
On earth and in heaven.
Who is this woman?
That's what we're going to ask today.
We're going to ask today, who is this
woman?
Who is this dragon?
And who is this male child?
The sun, those three things.
Follow me if you can follow me with
three things.
It's going to be a three point sermon.
Can you believe it?
I never do that.
The woman, the woman is a great and
wondrous sign.
John is seeing her appear in heaven.
In the heavens.
And she's clothed with the sun and the
moon under her feet and the 12 stars
on her crown.
And so this speaks of royalty.
This speaks of ruling.
This speaks of a queen ruling in heaven.
As it were, she's pregnant.
She's pregnant and she's crying out in pain
as she is about to give birth.
This glorious heavenly woman described by John is
the climactic evolution of the people of God,
first of all.
First, this woman is the encapsulation of all
the history of Israel.
She incorporates all of the prophecies of the
people of God, and she's wearing the 12
tribes on her head.
This is the daughter of Zion.
And if you read through the prophet Isaiah
alone, Isaiah seven and so forth, it speaks
of the nation of Israel as a woman
about to give birth.
Genesis 49 in today's reading spoke of this
woman coming from the tribe of Judah.
And did you pick up the parallels between
what this glorious one coming forth from Judah
would look like and do with the scepter
and the ruling staff?
And then you find that again in Psalm
two that we read today.
And then in Revelation 12, what we read
today, we also see allusions to Psalm two.
He shall rule them with a rod of
iron.
We're speaking of the son, the male child
now.
This is the son.
This is the male child that this woman
gives birth to.
Genesis 49, the lion of the tribe of
Judah.
But also the heavenly woman is a picture
of the Virgin Mary, the one who sums
up all of the prophecies again of the
Messiah coming into the world, this faithful Israelite,
this faithful one who said, let it be,
let it be.
That is the phrase that needs to resound
through our lives as we emulate Mary, who
said yes to God, the new Eve.
Mary is the new Eve who reverses the
no of the first Eve.
Had Mary not said yes, let it be,
we would still be here in our sins
because we would be waiting on our Savior
to be born.
But because she said yes, and in such
humiliating circumstances, as young as I'm married, just
betrothed, an angel appears and says, you will
conceive a son by the Holy Spirit.
And in this, Mary is the first we
could say born again believer because she's conceived
the son in her womb and all of
us.
We are born, John says in John one,
not of blood, not of flesh, but of
God.
We're born from above.
The best translation of being born again is
born from above.
Thank you, Mary, for saying yes.
But the picture of the woman also shifts
to earth, right?
Because it says that the male child is
lifted up in the ascension and he's taken
off and he's lifted up off of the
earth.
You see, it's like scrambled eggs.
He's not going like chronologically here.
He's just fast forwarding ahead to the ascension
of Christ.
The male child is lifted up and then
the woman is led by God into the
wilderness.
This is why I can't just be the
Virgin Mary.
And I've got tons of Catholic and Protestant
commentaries that I refer to all the time,
Orthodox commentaries, and they all see this in
a multifaceted dimension.
It is, yes, daughter Zion.
She is the woman with the twelve crowns.
But daughter Zion has birthed Mary and Mary
must birth the male child.
None of that can be left out.
And so beautiful mythopoetic language here just captures
the imagination.
And John is saying, let reason and imagination
be brought back together throughout the book of
Revelation.
And so who is this woman who is
being driven into the wilderness?
Sounds like the first exodus coming out of
Egypt, being driven into the wilderness where that
people, that woman is nourished.
It says for twelve hundred and sixty days.
Twelve hundred and sixty days computes to three
and a half years and three and a
half years or twelve hundred and sixty days
is always talking about the season of persecution,
the season of turmoil and travail.
And that's where we're living right now, because
the woman driven into the wilderness is the
church, the final people of God, Jew and
Gentile.
We have been made one, one people of
God, Jew and Gentile through Jesus Christ, the
faithful Israelite.
And so John is talking about this, this
life in the wilderness where it's life on
the margins.
That's what that's referring to.
The church lives a life on the margins
in the midst of the great city Babylon
in the book of Revelation.
There is the city of God coming down
out of heaven and there is the whore,
the great whore, another woman called Babylon, and
she is the woman of the earth.
And so she represents the world and that
which is antithetical to the kingdom of God.
Revelation 17 and 18 describe her qualities.
Sounds very much like America, but I'll move
on.
It sounds like the West.
It sounds like the earth.
It sounds like people.
Yeah, living apart and in defiance towards God.
So check that out.
So who is this woman?
She is the daughter of Zion.
She is the Virgin Mary.
She is the bride of Christ, the church.
And so this heavenly woman is both earthly
and heavenly.
You see, and there is one church in
heaven and on earth and the bride of
Christ is being formed.
The bride is making herself ready on earth,
right?
John says, rejoice for the bride has made
herself ready and that is life in the
wilderness.
That is the church in the wilderness living
close to the bridegroom.
And hearing the voice of the bridegroom and
being gathered into the bridegroom until that final
call.
Rejoice, rejoice for the bride has made herself
ready.
You see, the Bible begins with a wedding
and it ends with a wedding.
And that's where we're going to that great
wedding feast of the lamb as the bride
of Christ.
We are that woman in the wilderness being
sustained and nurtured through the sacraments and by
the power of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Who is the red dragon?
We've talked about the woman now.
Who is the red dragon point to?
Yeah, it tells us a lot more about
who the dragon is.
Another sign appeared in heaven.
Behold, a great red, which speaks of death,
red dragon with seven heads and ten horns
and on his heads, seven diadems.
He's acting like a king.
He's acting like a ruler.
He is the god of this world, the
ruler of this world, Jesus says, who has
been cast down contending for Messiah ship.
He's contending against the male child.
He's wearing a crown.
His tale here, it is mythopoetic language swept
down a third of the stars, a third
of the angels of heaven and cast them
to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman who
is about to give birth so that when
she bore her child, he might devour her.
She gave birth to a male child.
This is who the male child is, one
who is to rule all the nations with
a rod of iron.
Bad news for the dragon.
But her child was caught up to God
and to his throne, the ascension of Jesus
Christ.
And the woman fled into the wilderness.
OK, now here's another scene scene to about
gives you the back story of the red
dragon.
Now, war rose in heaven.
He's going back now.
Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon
and dragon and his angels fought back.
But he was defeated and there was no
longer any place for them in heaven above.
And the great dragon was thrown down.
You see, this is a great defeat story
and a great triumph of our God.
That ancient serpent taking us back to Genesis
mythopoetic language, who is called the devil and
Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.
And we wonder why there is evil in
the world.
This is the unseen story of what's behind
the rebellion against God.
And it's still taking place because we live
in an already not yet kingdom awaiting the
return, the final advent of Jesus Christ.
He will come again in glory to judge
the living and the dead and his kingdom
will have no end.
But now we overcome the enemy by the
blood of the lamb, the cross and the
word of our testimony.
And we love not our lives unto death.
Revelation 12, 12.
So that's the present victory in the midst
of the war, in the midst of the
unseen battle that we're up against.
Merry Christmas.
This is the Christmas story, you guys.
This is what you don't get in a
secular Christmas story.
You've heard enough of that because Jesus came
to destroy the works of the devil.
I'm just quoting scripture, right?
He didn't come to, you know, just to
sort of float around in a cloud.
And he had a vocation to destroy the
works of the devil before he ascended.
Right.
And he's sitting on a throne and he's
ruling and reigning as the only Lord God
right now.
He was thrown down to the earth, this
serpent, this Satan, and his angels were thrown
down with him.
And I heard a loud voice in heaven
saying, finally, we got him out of here.
Right.
I heard a loud voice in heaven saying,
now the salvation and the power and the
kingdom of our God and the authority of
his Christ have come.
Here he is for the accuser of the
brethren, the brothers and sisters who wants to
accuse all of us before the throne of
God day and night.
The accuser of the brothers and sisters, the
brethren has been cast down who accuses them
day and night before our God.
And they have conquered him by the blood
of the lamb, the cross and by the
word of their testimony.
For they love not their lives unto death,
and in fact, death is where they went.
And he's speaking of the martyrs of the
church who love not their lives unto death.
But because of the victory of the cross
and the vision of the cross and living
the cross, they were able to see death
as a doorway into life eternal because Jesus
Christ has trampled down death by death.
And so death is now the servant, just
the doorway, how we enter into that life.
Now, in Jesus Christ, death has been completely
destroyed in the one new man.
But everything is infused with death until he
comes.
Everything dies that's alive.
Therefore, rejoice, O heavens, for you dwell in
them.
But woe to you, O earth and sea,
for the devil has come down to you
in great wrath because he knows that his
time is short.
He knows his time is short.
And so here it is again, he takes
another scene.
And when the dragon saw that he had
been thrown down to earth, he pursued the
woman who had given birth to the male
child.
But the woman was given the two wings
of the great eagle so that she might
fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to
the place where she is to be nourished
for a time and times and half time.
And so who is this woman?
But the church, the people of God now
living and worshiping the Lord.
Number three, who is this male child?
We all know this is the king of
kings and the lord of lords.
And we see the heavenly contention.
Even in heaven, there was contention about who
would have this authority, who would reign, who
would be the lord of the cosmos.
Today, we worship the male child, the birth
of the male child who rules the nations.
How on earth does he rule the nations
except through weakness instead of great strength, through
humility, through love, through nonviolence?
This is the way that he rules the
nations.
And he says, come unto me, for I
am gentle and humble and I will give
you rest.
He can even give us rest because he
knows he's going to sum it up at
that final advent in his return.
He wants us in this great wilderness of
life to be nourished and to rest and
to take his yoke upon us, the lord
of lords, the king of kings, Jesus Christ.
In the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Spirit.