Simplicity of the Gospel - Advent 4&5
When I think about the gospel, the story of God revealing Himself to us, and making a way for us to know Him, it is surprisingly simple. However, we make it complicated. In the Old Testament God gave Moses 10 commandments for the Hebrews that would help them to know Him. These ten rules actually boil down to two simple principles: Love God and Love Others... and really when we love others well, that is the best way to love God. That makes things even simpler: Love God.
If you read the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible), God does expound on these commandments, but he is rewriting culture for the Hebrew people while they are in the desert. He is developing them from a group of slaves into a nation of people who noticeably live differently than the others around them. And the way that they live differently, is that they care for one another. He elevated the common self-centred power structures and builds a community culture that lays the groundwork for what we enjoy as our rights and freedoms today. Later on, it was the priests and leaders, who through time, kept adding to the basic law, making it into a system of complex rules and religion. God never changed His original invitation for His people to know Him and by providing a way for them to do so.
God keeps things simple, so that we can have HOPE that what He promises is accessible, is possible. People make things complicated. Within advent we pause to reflect on the simplicity of a pretty HUGE idea, the incarnation, God becoming human. The Hebrew people had been waiting for God to intervene in history in a big way, but they anticipated Him coming as a warrior King who would deliver them from oppressors and make all things right. Instead He comes as a baby. There is nothing more simple OR complex than a newborn baby! He again offers an invitation for us to know Him, through His son Jesus, and He provides the way.
The beauty of the Gospel is that God has created us to know Him. There is a longing pre-designed in us for love, wonder and discovery. We try to find satisfaction for these desires in many different ways, but they will only truly be satisfied in Jesus. He shows us that relationship with God is possible and does the hard (complex) work for us to make that happen. We need only to see ourselves properly, as less than living up to who He created us to be, and to confess that to Him. He created us to know His love. He created us to wonder at His holiness. And He created us to discover the riches of His peace, joy and hope. Our simple response is to repent of our sin to God, accept God’s forgiveness through Jesus, and say yes to His invitation for an intimate, personal relationship with Him.
Through Christmas, God is offering you both the simplicity and the fullness of His love to you, as an invitation for you to know Him. His love is the greatest standard of love that you have been searching for. You are His joy, and relationship with Him is richer than just happily ever after. In Jesus there is hope and peace and everything else you have longed for at the core of who you are.
I pray, in Christ, you would see yourself with new eyes. That you would see yourself as God sees you, fearfully and wonderfully made. That you are His joy, worthy of His entering into the complexity of human life, death, suffering and relationship. He has come for you to know Him and to know His love for you. Merry Christmas!
