Title: Christmas & the Church
Text: Ephesians 2:17-22
No hoops! No hoops!
That was the message given to the women attending the debut performance of Handel’s Messiah on April 13, 1742. Specifically, the women were asked to not wear hoops in their dresses – so as to make more room in the packed concert hall.
‘The Ladies who honour this Performance with their Presence would be pleased to come without Hoops, as it will greatly encrease the Charity, by making room for more company’
As it will greatly increase the charity…
The concert was a fundraiser. Tickets were about $45 in today’s money. Adjusted for inflation, the concert raised approximately $100,000. The proceeds went to two local hospitals and towards the debts of many men who were currently in debtors' prison. Some reports suggest that as many as 142 prisoners were bought out of debtor’s prison with the proceeds of this single concert.
That is quite apropos. The first lines of the Messaiah, taken from Isaiah 40
“Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God.”
At the time of this performance, Handle himself was in significant debt. He had been considered a childhood prodigy in line with Bach and Beethoven, and had various flirtations with greatness. But Handle didn’t play the patronage game very well at all. He was rarely found in the places men like him needed to be to get the funds men like him needed. Money was always tight, the specter of his own potential haunted him – like it does so many young men of great promise.
In another movement, Handle cites Isaiah 53, “He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” In the summer of 1741, Handle was experiencing a taste of that.
And then inspiration struck. One of the most edifying and God glorifying pieces of art ever created was finished in just 23 days. During that time, Handle hardly ate or slept; he was completely engulfed in the creation of this music—and he felt that he wasn’t alone. When he got to the Hallelujah chorus, his assistant found him in tears, saying, “I think I did see heaven open, and the very face of God.”
With the piece written, Handle started looking for singers. Whilst smoking a pipe in a local coffee house, Handle inquired…
“whether there were any choirmen in the Cathedral who could sing at sight, as he wished to prove some books that had been hastily transcribed by trying the choruses which he intended to perform in Ireland.”
A bass, a printer named Jansen, was recommended to him and a rehearsal took place at the hotel where Handel was staying. Jansen failed miserably to cope with ‘And with his stripes’ from Messiah at which, Handel, ‘after swearing at him in four or five different languages, cried out in broken English: “You shcauntrel, tid you not tell me zat you could sing at sight?”.
“Yes sir”, says the printer, “and so I can, but not at first sight”
As displeased as he was with Mr. Jansen, Handle found a soprano that he said, “pleases extraordinary.” That was Ms. Susanna Maria Cibber. Like Handle, her personal life was a bit of a mess. Ms. Cibber had fled the city of London to escape the scandal of an adulterous affair.
It is said that when she finished singing “He was despised and rejected by men” – that a local minister in attendance stood up and said, “woman, all thy sins are forgiven.”
One final detail. The music for the Messiah was all Handle. But the lyrics, which is simply the arrangement of X scripture passages, came from the hand of Mr. Charles Jennens.
A close friend of Handle, Jennens was a member of the “Society for the Propagation of the Gospel” and a passionate evangelical believer. He believed that putting the gospel to music would communicate its truth, not just intellectually, but at a deep heart level.
From zealous Jennens, to the depressed and indebted Handle, to the disgraced soprano Ms. Cibber – the whole story is a demonstration of truth and beauty in community. A group of people, brought together by God’s wise providence, assembled together just so – producing a monument of truth and beauty to the glory of God.
Emblematic of the Church
Technically speaking, that first performance of Messiah was not the church. But it is emblematic of the church. A wide variety of people brought together to proclaim the excellencies of him who called them out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2)
For the next two weeks, we’re going to think about the church as the goal of Christmas. The church as the goal of Christmas. Specifically, the church as a gift from the Father to the Son.
We saw a hint of that last week in John 17:6
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.”
And this is something clearly announced in the first messianic Psalm (Psalm 2).
“As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you. Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.
And we know that Jesus did ask for the nations. In Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Christmas is gift giving season. This practice is partially an echo of old Saint Nicholas, who was an avid defender of the bodily incarnation of Jesus and a very generous man known for giving gifts.
And the practice of gift giving is also in some respects, an echo of the wisemen from the east who brought gold, frankincense, and myrrh to the baby Jesus.
But most fundamentally, Christmas is the initiation of a gift exchange between the members of the trinity. The Father has given the son a people – extracted from every nation, tongue, and tribe, and time.
Hebrews 10:5 cites the greek translation of Isaiah 40…
“Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;”
But a body you have prepared for me… there’s a double meaning there.
First – Christ would take on flesh, be born into this world as a full blown human being. And he would use that body to walk among men, live a perfectly holy life, and offer up his body as the sacrifice to fully satisfy the wrath of God against sin.
Second – emerging out of that sacrifice is a people given to Christ as his possession. We call that people the church. The New Testament also calls that people, the body of Christ.
They are his excellent ones. In whom is his full delight (Psalm 16)
Theologian John Gill writes,
the Father has given to him as his portion, and whom he has made his care and charge: as if it was not enough that he should be King of Zion, or have the government over his chosen ones among the Jews, he commits into his hands the Gentiles also and these are given him as his inheritance and possession, as his portion, to be enjoyed by him; and who esteems them as such, and reckons them a goodly heritage, and a peculiar treasure, his jewels, and the apple of his eye. These words respect the calling of the Gentiles under the Gospel dispensation; and the amplitude of Christ’s kingdom in all the earth, which shall be from sea to sea, and from the rivers to the ends of the earth.
And again, I think that debut performance of Messiah, with all of its backstories and interwoven threads is emblematic of the nature of this gift.
Let’s spend the rest of our time examining one text in particular – Ephesians 2:17-22
Ephesians 2:17-22
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Who are the near and who are the far off? The immediate context is dealing with the Jews and the Gentiles.
The Jews were near, because as Paul teaches in Romans, they had immediate access to the many promises of God. The Gentiles were far off because they were strangers to the covenant promises.
But the concept of near and far off extends beyond the issue of race. Even today we can say that some people start off in different proximities to the promises.
Those living in cultural Christianity are nearer than those living in cultural Islam.
Children growing up in Christian homes are nearer than those growing up in some other worldview.
But look back at vs. 17, And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.
Notice that no matter how close they were to the promises, they still needed Christ to come and preach peace to them.
Brooke recently told me that when she was a child at summer camp, a counselor explicitly told her that just because her dad was a pastor, didn’t mean she was going to heaven. This struck her as new news.
It was true news. Whether a person is near or far off, they still need Jesus to preach peace to them. Why?
Look at 2:1-3
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
But no matter their proximity to the gospel, every human being still needs to hear the same message.
You are dead in your sins and trespasses.
You are captive to the flesh and live to carry out the desires of the body and mind.
And are by nature, children of wrath.
Meaning that no matter the status of your parent’s faith, no matter how culturally christian your environment – you are a sinner who provokes the wrath and judgment of God.
Going back to the debut of the Messiah, you have a diverse roster of characters. Some seemed nearer than others.
Both Charles Jennens, member of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel and Susanna Maria Cibber, disgraced home-wrecking soprano entered the kingdom of God in exactly the same way, Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners… of whom each one of us, as far as we know, is the chief of sinners.
Now look back at our text.
And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Those who were near and those who were far off were brought together in Christ. And they were brought together to become one body – which being built together becomes the dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
Christ did not come to make individual bricks – scattered all over the place. He came to make individual bricks, and then join them together, growing them into a holy temple, a dwelling place of the Lord.
You see, that April night in Dublin’s Musick Hall, all the way back in 1742, that moment is a microcosm of the great gospel project to create unity in diversity.
Not only were they brought together by the providence of God, they were brought together to work together – to create something together – to be truth and beauty in community. That moment was a metaphor for the work the church has been doing for 2000 years.
1 Peter 2:9-10 puts it this way:
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Now let’s stay in the early 1740s for a moment, but fly from Dublin, across the Atlantic and land in the town of Enfield Connecticut. At the same time Handle is composing and conducting Messiah, Jonathan Edwards is in America, overseeing the Great Awakening.
In 1741 – Handle is composing Messiah
In 1741 – Jonathan Edwards is preaching Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God
In 1742 – The Messiah is performed
In 1742 – Edwards is writing Some Thoughts Concerning the Present Revival of Religion
Jonathan Edwards might just be its preeminent “beauty theologian” in the entire history of the church.
As a good puritan, he was of course, completely proficient in the scriptures, but not only the scriptures. Edwards thought long and hard about the role nature played in the purposes of God. He was a deep imbiber of beauty and was constantly thinking about how the links between the natural world and the bible – they were after all, both designed by the Lord.
In one section, we find Edwards meditating on Rainbows. And here he sees another expression of the truth and beauty in community concept we see in Ephesians 2.
One modern theologian summarized Edward’s thoughts:
Christ is the sun in Edwards’ mind, the light which beams over all creation. The saints (individual believers) are the tiny drops of moisture. Just as the sun’s rays catch each drop, however small or insignificant, so does the love of Christ extend to each of his children. This light beautifies each person, each ‘drop’, allowing each the opportunity to participate in the reflection of the Lord’s loveliness.
From Edwards…
“They are all God’s jewels; and as they are all in heaven, each one by its reflection is a little star, and so do more fitly represent the saints than the drops of dew… These drops are all from heaven, as the saints are born from above.” – Edwards, Reflections on Scripture (Genesis 9).
Conclusion:
So what did the Father give the Son for Christmas? Through his sufferings he brought many sons glory. (Hebrews 2:10)
And they are arranged according to his wisdom, each one uniquely positioned – all reflecting the light of the lamb collectively…
“The whole rainbow, composed of innumerable shining beautiful drops, all united in one, ranged in such excellent order, some parts higher and others lower, the different colours one above another in such exact order, beautifully represents the church of saints of different degrees, gifts, and offices, each with its proper place, and each with its peculiar beauty: each drop may be beautiful in itself, but the whole, as united together, much more beautiful.” – Edwards
That’s what we saw that night in Dublin. And Lord willing, that is what we see at Providence Community Church.
Application:
Three points of application
Make merry
Lean into the church
Do not despise your droplet
Communion:
In Hebrews 10:5 we read:
Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me;
That word body has two complimentary meanings.
Firstly, it refers to the incarnation of Jesus Christ. He was always fully God took on flesh and became fully man. He used that body to serve the Father and became obedient, all the way to the cross.
And because of what Jesus did with that body, God has given him another body – the church which is the spiritual body of Christ. Comprised of many members, many degrees, gifts, and offices, each with its proper place, and each with its peculiar beauty.
And this body now remembers the crucified body of Christ via communion, and in this way proclaims the Lord’s death until he comes.