Scandalous love. That’s an intriguing phrase for an Advent sermon. Actually, it’s from the title of a chapter in the book, Christmas Is Not Your Birthday, by Mike Slaughter. In his book, Mike makes the case that the Christmas story is really a story about God’s scandalous love for the world.
It’s scandalous because, we didn’t do
anything to deserve this love. God loves us even though we have not always
loved God. There’s nothing that we can do to make God love us any more and
there’s nothing we can do to make God love us any less. God’s love for us is
always full and complete.
This is why God was willing to take the
incredible risk of sending his only Son to be born in our world. That’s how
much God loves us. God was willing to take that risk because love is at the
heart of who God is.
God sent Jesus into our world of
brokenness and pain knowing that it wouldn’t be easy for him. Jesus would be
born in a manger that was really a feed trough for livestock. From the very
beginning, King Herod sought to kill Jesus and the holy family had to seek
refuge in another country.
Raising a child is one the most
challenging things in life because of all of the responsibility that is
involved. When our first child was born, I remember the incredible joy of
holding her little body in my arms for the first time. But I also remember
feeling the pain just an hour later of watching the nurse draw blood from her
little foot.
We know that at some point, they will fall
and scrape their knees. We know that at some point, they will probably fall off
the bike. We know that at some point, they will walk into a classroom on their
own. We know that at some point they will step on the gas pedal instead of the
brake pedal when learning how to drive. This is all part of what it means to be
a parent. You do what you can do, but at some point, you need to let them learn
on their own. Love involves risk. The
Christmas story is a story of God’s risky love on our behalf. That’s how much
God loves us.
This story of God’s risky love isn’t new.
It’s throughout the bible, especially from the Book of Hosea in the Old
Testament. You don’t hear the Book of Hosea read too often during worship.
That’s because it can get a little too graphic.
I’ll do my best to explain what I mean
without going over the top. Hosea was a prophet who lived during a very dark
time of Israel’s history. Even though God had loved them and given them
everything they needed, they turned away from God and things really started to
fall apart for them.
To give you some idea of how bad things
became for Israel, four of their kings were killed in a span of just fourteen
years. They were facing warfare and anarchy. And all of this was because they
had turned away from God’s love and became very selfish and greedy.
Desperate times calls for desperate
measures. God tells the prophet Hosea to marry someone who he knows will be
unfaithful to him. If that sounds like a crazy thing for God to ask Hosea to
do, then you’re right. It was crazy! It was also a very scandalous thing for
Hosea to do. But that’s what God told this prophet to do to help the people of
Israel and people like us who are hearing this story in worship this morning to
actually visualize just how much God loves us.
Hosea, seeking to be faithful to what God
wanted, did as God instructed. He married this person who he knew would be
unfaithful to him. To make a long story short, Hosea’s wife was unfaithful to
Hosea. Even though his wife cheated on him over and over again, in the end,
Hosea publicly received her back. Hosea’s willingness to receive her back as
his wife was unheard of during that time period.
The point of this story is simple, but
profound. Hosea symbolizes God and God’s unconditional love for the people of
Israel. Hosea’s wife who had turned her back on Hosea is symbolic of how Israel
had turned away from God over and over again.
This story is why God’s love for us can be
called a scandalous love. Even though we turn away from God again and again,
God doesn’t turn his back on us. Like Hosea, God receives us back and offers us
a forgiving love.
This understanding of God’s scandalous
love is probably what the Apostle Paul was thinking about when he wrote in his
letter to the Christian in Rome, “All
have sinned and fall short of the God’s glory, but all are treated as righteous
freely by his grace because of a ransom that was paid by Christ Jesus.”
Amazing Grace is probably the most popular
hymn because God’s grace is amazing. It’s a grace that is offered to us even
though we have turned our backs on God. It’s a grace that is stronger than
anything we might do to offend God. That’s why we call it amazing. God’s love is amazing!
Hosea’s amazing and scandalous love is
similar to the kind of love at Christmas when God sent Jesus. It’s an over the
top kind of love, a love that we don’t deserve, but are invited to receive
again and again.
We often associate the word, “scandal”
with tabloid news stories of crazy things people do. There’s a reason those
scandals make it on the front page. They peak our interest. We want to know why
somebody would do something so out of the ordinary.
God’s love is scandalous, but in a good
way. Mary knew that she was being called to bear God’s scandalous love when she
was told that she was with child of the Holy Spirit. She couldn’t believe that
God called someone like her to be the one who would carry God’s love full term.
Just listen to her words which we know as
the Magnificat from Luke’s Gospel. “My
soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has
looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.”
God’s scandalous love did become
scandalous for Mary and Joseph as they had to endure the suspicious looks and
the hurtful gossip regarding her pregnancy. God’s scandalous love for the world
has a way of turning heads and creating a stir in the crowd.
The Christmas story doesn’t just invite us
to be spectators of God’s scandalous love. Like Mary and Joseph, it invites us
to become part of the scandal in which we becoming willing participants in offering
God’s love to the world.
In his book, Surprised by Scripture,
Tom Wright shares a story about a youth group that became willing participants
in offering God’s scandalous love in their community. As their Bishop in
northeast England, he had invited teenagers from the various churches in that
area for a week long gathering. They had bible studies in the morning, social
projects in the afternoon, and worship rallies in the evening.
His favorite memory from that week was
when he went with one of the dozens of afternoon groups to paint the back walls
of a lane of dark and dismal houses in the wrong part of one of the nearby old
towns. They also hung flower baskets all the way down the road.
People came out of their houses our of
curiosity, something they didn’t normally do because they were afraid of those
dark back alleys and what usually went on there. They asked nervously whether
they were from the town’s council or whether they were going to have to pay for
these improvements.
The teens would just smile at them and say
that they were from the church and their work was a present to them and to the
people of their community. The town’s
people were taken aback by all the beautiful work they were doing on their
behalf.
The story didn’t end there. A year later,
the Bishop went back to this town and he noticed something very interesting.
The residents had begun to do more things in that back alley, planting little
gardens and hold barbecues and getting to know one another.
All of this was the result of just one
small gesture of love and generosity from young people who had come together
from various churches to live out their faith in a very practical way. God’s
scandalous love takes a life of its own when lived out in even the smallest of
ways.
The reason that God risked everything by
sending us Jesus was because of scandalous love, a love that turns heads, a
love that makes people step out of their homes to see what new thing is
happening in their community, a love that offers grace even though we have been
unfaithful, and a love that comes to us as a little baby born in a manger.
And like Mary, God invites us to offer
this love to the world, a world that God loves and seeks to redeem. Mary knew
that the baby inside her was not just meant for her, but was also meant for the
whole world.
Christmas is a time for us to share God’s
love for the world. This means that we share in God’s broken heart whenever we
see pain and suffering in our community and world.
God feels the pain of those who are
unemployed or who live in communities where there is little or no hope. God’s heart breaks for families that are
trapped in the cycle of poverty.
God’s scandalous love calls each one of us
to reclaim the true meaning of Christmas, to not have Christmas be about us,
but about what God wants for the world. We are to reclaim Christmas by joining
Mary in accepting God’s call to be a blessing to our community and world.
Over these first few weeks of Advent, we
have been extending the invitation to reclaim Christmas through our special
Christmas missions offering this year. Our special Christmas gift is going to
help build a Habitat for Humanity house not too far from here in Amesville.
I have invited Ken Oehlers who is the
Director of our area Habitat for Humanity to share with us of
how our special Christmas offering will make a difference in the life of family
here in Athens County. Ken…
(Ken Oehlers Shares)
Can you imagine what a difference our
church can make through this special missions offering? We’re just one church,
but when we reclaim Christmas and offer ourselves to those around us, great
things can happen. Lives can be changed. People can receive hope. Communities
can be transformed.
This
year, let’s reclaim the true meaning of Christmas. Let’s help build a home for
a family in need in Amesville through Habitat for Humanity. Let’s share Christmas love!
Sharing Christmas Love!
Small Group Questions
Romans 3:21-26 & Luke 1:39-55 & The Book of Hosea
December 4, 2016
Have you ever thought of how the words, "Christmas" and "risky" are closely associated? The story of Christmas is risky because God was willing to risk everything by sending his only Son into a broken and hurting world. Just like parents take on the risk of caring for a newborn, God entrusted Mary and Joseph to care for the Son of God!
What risks do we take in order to share God's love with others?
The Book of Hosea tells the story of the prophet Hosea who was told by God to marry a woman who would be unfaithful to him. God instructed Hosea to remain married to her despite her unfaithfulness. Hosea's willingness to stay married to his wife even though she was unfaithful would have been viewed as very scandalous in biblical times significantly more so than today. Hosea would have been ridiculed for his willingness to stay with his wife and would have been ostracized by his friends and family. The point of this story is to show just how much God loves us even though we are often unfaithful to God.
Share a time when you felt God's unconditional and scandalous love being extended to you even though you knew deep down that you didn't deserve it.
The story of Hosea and the story of Christmas is a story that reminds us to share God's scandalous love in our community and world. This is closely associated with our church's mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of our community and world.
How does it make you feel to know that our church's special Christmas mission's offering that we are receiving during the month of December will be used to help the Athens County Habitat for Humanity build a house in nearby Amesville for a family in need?
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