A Clear Picture (ADVENT-URE 14: Coal from the Altar)

Hundreds of years before Jesus was born at Christmas, a prophet told His story; you could actually say that quite a few people were inspired to write about Jesus before He came to earth.  This one
prophet presents perhaps the broadest picture. That would be Isaiah, who wrote in chapter 53 of the book bearing his name:
3 He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed.

Isaiah also said that a virgin would give birth to a child and He would be called Immanuel - that name means, "God with Us," according to Matthew 1.  Isaiah shared the story of our Savior with clarity, and we need to have a clear picture of Jesus today.  There are many who tell of a Jesus who does not line up with the Biblical description, an accommodating Jesus who loves us but who does not require us to change, to conform to His standards.  We must search the Scriptures to discover the true Jesus and enter into the salvation He provides.

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God wants to give us a clearer picture of Himself, and there are passages in the book of Isaiah that s
how us who the Messiah is - God revealed this information to the prophet for whom the book is named, and I want to turn your attention to Isaiah 6. Verses 1 through 3 are quite imposing:
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
3 And one cried to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!"

Isaiah goes on to describe his interaction with one of the angelic beings, and we pick up in verse 6:
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar.
7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged."
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: "Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

A live coal was used to cleanse the prophet.  With cleansing came clarity, and later in his book, the prophet writes some breathtaking statements about the Messiah.  Isaiah 7 said that the virgin would give birth to a child and He would be called "Immanuel," which we're told in Matthew 1 means "God with us."  In Isaiah 9, we read that, "His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 53 describes the suffering that our Savior would endure for us.

The clarity of our Christian life is impacted by the cleansing that we experience.  If our desires are for the things of this world, and we allow the enemy to distract us, then we cannot see what God wants to do in our lives and we cannot fully appreciate Who Christ is to us.  I hope that through our Advent-ure together, we can be challenged to reflect with clarity on Who Jesus is and what He wants to perform in our lives.

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It's described on the Huffington Post website as perhaps this year's most viral Nativity scene. The story says: "It shows Joseph and Mary taking selfies with Baby Jesus, a shepherd checking his social media accounts and the Three Wise Men on Segways delivering gifts from Amazon.com. Yes, the cow is organic."

It is, wait for it, the Hipster Nativity Set!

Youth leader Mark Oestricher, on his website, WhyIsMarko.com, is cited in the article.  He has a piece called, "The 70 Wierdest Nativities (The Revised 2016 List)."  He says, "Funny thing is that even though it’s been sent to me by about 30 different people, I first saw it when its creators reached out to me, asking to be included in this year’s list! That was a first, and made publishing an updated list this year something of a non-negotiable."

When you visit the site, ModernNativity.com, you can meet "the cast."  It states:

Fresh off a Whole Foods shopping spree, Joseph is rocking his man bun and finest denim shirt, while Mary shows off her high cheek bones with her best duck face.

About the shepherd...

It wouldn’t be a modern day birth if at least one person wasn’t putting it on Instagram, and luckily, our teenage shepherd has it covered #babyjesus #nofilter. Next to him are some well taken care of animals.

The stable has a solar panel.  But, interestingly enough, there is not a mention of baby Jesus in any of the descriptions, other than the cast heading, "Mary, Joseph and Jesus," plus the aforementioned hashtag.

For a pricetag of $129.99, a person or family can have their very own Hipster Nativity Set - but hurry, there are less than a thousand left, the website says!

Well, as Marko and the Huffington Post remind us, there are a variety of nativity sets out there.  Some are creative, others are downright weird.  Can God use these to tell His story?  Absolutely.  Are some of them totally unbiblical, bordering on inappropriate or crossing the line?  Yep.  But, the central thread here is that people, commercially motivated or not, are looking for ways to express a very familiar and redeeming story.

We need to be reminded of the central scene in the Christmas story.  And, we don't stop there - we must pursue those two elements to which I referred earlier: cleansing and clarity.  Because, without the transformative power of God being released in our lives through Jesus who was born into this world, we cannot experience a relationship with Him - and that's the point, that's the story of the Nativity - redemption, salvation through Christ!

As we are cleansed by Christ, we gain a greater sense of clarity in Christ.  God wants us to conform our desires to Him, and that cannot be done if we are distracted by the lures of this world, the pursuit of worldly pleasure.   Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are more than just a marketing tool; the scene at the manger brings us hope and signifies for us the way of salvation.