Listen here: “Christian Imagery: Heads Up“
Jeremiah 33:14-16; Luke 21:25-36
- The anticipation of the birth of Christ is as important as the birth itself because without the anticipation, the historical context that gives meaning to the birth, Christ’s birth would be meaningless.
- However, our anticipation of Christ’s birth is imaginary because we live two thousand years after Christ’s birth.
- So we have imagine what the original anticipation was like, because we do not live during the historical time of that anticipation.
- It is impossible to anticipate something that happened long ago. The best that we can do is to imagine it, to think of it in terms of images or symbols.
- The birth of Jesus was a world-sized event, not a local event, and to make that point Luke employs world-sized imagery.
- He wrote of sun and stars and the earthly distress of nations.
- He was noting and predicting world changes that could only be described as historical and global.
- To say that “the powers of the heavens will be shaken” (v. 26) points to cataclysmic world events.
- At the time that Luke wrote no one could know exactly what changes Jesus would bring.
- All he knew was that Christ would change the world in in ways that no one could expect or predict. And such changes have already happened.
- (This is just a teaser. If you want to know more, listen to the sermon.)
- Sunday morning messages are available on the website (www.stpaulsmarietta.org/audio). Tell your friends.