He Changes Everything

A Reflection on the Second Reading for December 23rd, 2018:
Fourth Sunday of Advent

​Hebrews 10.5-10

Brothers and sisters: When Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure. Then I said, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God.’”

When Christ said, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings”

these are offered according to the Law, then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second.

And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

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"See, I come to do your will”
 
In this everything changes.
Heaven and earth;
Animals and angels;
You and me.
Nothing is the same anymore.
 
“He abolishes the first in order to establish the second”
 
When I was sixteen, I offered myself to God for the first time in a school gym just before Christmas; I lay down what I had, and picked up what He was giving me. I was in that gym with people who were growing a church, and the communion plate was being passed from hand to hand down the rows of chairs.  The pastor welcomed any to participate in taking the bread and juice, as long as they knew that they were broken, that they had asked Jesus to forgive them, that they had invited Him into their heart, and knew that because of what Jesus offered of Himself, they were made new.  I had been hearing of Jesus and seeing Him through these people since the fall. As I watched the small plate of bread cubes and the tray of juice cups making their way through us, I realized that before they were passed to my hand from that of my friend next to me, I wanted that to be true of me. And so I jumped off the cliff — and He caught me. Everything changed. Nothing was the same anymore.
 
That Christmas Eve changed me. I was the last one left in our living room with the tree. My younger brother and my Mom and Dad had finished their tea and gone to bed. I sat and looked at the lights and the colour amongst the green branches, and sipped the remnants of my tea. I started to notice the music playing — CBC Radio 2, choirs and orchestras and carols. All my life up to that point these songs had been in the background of every Christmas.  White noise at the mall, in the car, at parties. I heard the words, could have sung along with some of them, but they had just been part of the texture and furniture of a season. Out from the massive speakers my cousin had built, the words of the carols drifted toward me that night — my first actual Christmas Eve. And it was like the Spirit of God drove a stake right through me, pierced me where I sat, and I couldn’t move for Joy and Wonder. I stayed awake the entire night, sitting there on the couch holding a cold cup of tea and finally hearing the words and weeping. Amazed by what my God had done. What He had given. A Son. A Light. A King. Life. Eternity in a bed of hay — unexpected, seemingly impossible, but entirely sure, firmly established and immutable.  A Son coming to create the desire of His Father, to bring it into being among us, in us! Not a veneer or add-on to patch up our system for dealing with our brokenness. Not a system at all. A Person. A Child. A Savior. By God’s desire, we are set aside by Him and for Him, brought to Sacredness. And it’s all through the bringing forward and laying down of His very own Self.

"By God’s desire, we are set aside by Him and for Him, brought to Sacredness.
​And it’s all through the bringing forward and laying down of His very own Self."

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​He came down to earth from heaven
Who is God and Lord of all
And his shelter was a stable
And his cradle was a stall
With the poor, and mean, and lowly
Lived on earth our Savior holy.
(Once In Royal David’s City – Cecil Frances Alexander)
 
And everything changes.  Nothing is the same anymore.

​Noreen Smith

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