A person who knew nothing about football was taken by a friend to a college football game. The friend explained the game as clearly as possible before they arrived.
As the officials met with the captains of both teams for the coin toss, the football fan was asked by the clueless friend what was happening. The fan explained that a quarter was tossed in the air and the visitors got to call "heads or tails." If the visitors called correctly they got to pick whether or not they wanted the ball first or not.
Well the game got underway and it was a thrilling game. It was back and forth. First the home team would get ahead and then the visitors would gain and regain the lead.
Finally the game was done and the stands began to empty. As they left the stadium, the fan asked his friend what they thought about the game.
A quizzical look came over the friends face. "It’s all about money." "What?" was the shocked reply. "Yeah, all night I long I thought to myself, ’Why is everybody yelling, "Get the quarter back, get the quarter back."
Some of us are groaning and some of us are laughing and some of us are asking, "What’s the point?"
Let me share another scene. You are a fly on the wall of the plant manager’s office that stands a floor about the plant floor and allows him to look out at the entire operation.
He sees everything: shipping, receiving, quality control, and the various production departments. In his office are sheets of paper that have various numbers and plans and directives that give him his orders.
You are on the floor. You run one machine. You are aware of the station to your right, and your left, and maybe behind you. But, you operate a station that is in the middle of the production process.
An order comes from behind the glass walls that a change in design is coming because the customer has to have it changed. What is the usual first thought? (Be nice now.) "What is going on up there? That is the zillionth change today! Why don’t they come down here and do it themselves!"
Now, good managers try to help an organization understand the big picture. Why? Because it is very easy to see things from our station and think, "yadda, yadda, yadda."
But the manager has a window to a larger picture that needs to be understood throughout the organization. (Make that should be understood.) It is a matter, and this is point I am trying to make, of perspective.
I think about the challenge of perspective on sports teams. Egos get in the way don’t they? Much has been said in the last few years about several player-coach relationships in the NBA. And fans tend to side with one side or the other, correct? The coach sees things one way; the player sees things the other way. The baseball situation last summer was the same thing.
As we move into the Christmas season and we hear the same carols again, and see the same TV specials and classics, and hear the same familiar Bible passages, I can almost guarantee that we will almost go on autopilot. Why?
A very good reason has to do with our perspective. We process the Christmas story and season from our perspective. What does Christmas mean to you, to me?
We get caught up in the gift list, the calendar, and the decorations. Now, they are wonderful and they are fun, but I have been struck this past week about the issue of perspective. And I have asked myself, "What if we tried to see and understand Christmas from God’s perspective?"
The communion table stands in front of us and forces us to think about Christmas differently this morning. And as we do so, several questions come to mind. But one in particular comes to the forefront between the intersection of manager, the cross, and the tomb where the table is. "Why do we need Jesus?"
In our text for this morning, Isaiah gives us an answer to our question and an important view of God’s perspective about our existence and this holiday season.
Perspective number 1: "I’m looking for godly people." In verse 5 we read, "You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways." God is looking for people to follow Him. His heart is thrilled when we make the choice to change our ways and our lives and turn them to Him and choose to cheerfully do good and follow godly or pure ways.
This is clearly stated in the gospel accounts of Christ’s birth where the angels announce "Peace on earth and goodwill toward men." God is interested in people who do good to and for others. But it is a good that comes as we follow God’s godly ways because the baby boy whose birth is announced to the shepherds will make it possible for God’s godly ways to become a part of our lives.
Perspective number 2: "I’m looking to change people for the better." In the remaining sentences of verse 5 we read, "But we are not godly. We are constant sinners. . . How can people like us be saved?"
Such honesty makes us flinch and begin to argue and rationalize, "Oh I know that we make mistakes but God understands." Well God does understand. But, He also does not understand why we will not allow Him to thoroughly forgive us and help us change for the better.
When God sent Jesus to earth, he knew that the human condition need to be changed, deeply and dramatically changed. He knew that what He had tried to do through the covenant with Israel was not working anymore. A new covenant was required. A covenant that would deal with the internal realities of human nature and not external rituals that could not impact and change the human heart.
When the baby boy was born, God was actively looking for people to change for the better. The Christ child came, not so we could get and give gifts to one another, but because God wanted us to have the greatest gift there ever has been - the gift of a new and better life, a life in which guilt and shame are removed and a life is transformed for the better.
Perspective number 3: "I’m looking to make people who truly look like me." In verse 8, Isaiah says, "You are our Father. We are the clay and you are the potter. We are all formed by your hand."
Sin, that choice, that part of our nature, that sets us up to be our god, has done a pretty good job of messing up the human race. Murder, terrorism, greed, and a whole host of terrible tragedies, have marred us. We are misshapen clay figurines. We are in need of reshaping.
But, for God to truly reshape us, He had to become like us. And He became like us in the form and person of the Christ child. As John wrote, "He became flesh and dwelt among us."
And not only did He have to become like us, He had to live perfectly which meant He had to live in such a manner that exposed Him to those who could not deal with His perfection. They were threatened by it. He was competition and they were losing.
So, a few hours after proclaiming the new covenant at the table, they killed Jesus on the cross. The anger of humanity at having its shortcomings and sins exposed burst forth in cruelty, mockery, and death.
The human race flailed itself against its creator in violent fury and rage. The creatures tried to set themselves up as king. The baby boy, now a man, was sacrificed, so that men could become god.
The attempt only lasted until Sunday morning and then the Creator, broke the bonds of death and took back His place. And a new way to God, one of faith and not works, makes it possible for the potter to reshape the clay, from the inside out.
So, why do we need Jesus? We need Jesus because we need a change in our lives that begins with the manager and ends with the empty tomb.
So as we begin this advent season, let us do so with confession and repentance because that is what the baby boy came to look for. That is what the baby boy came to make possible. Amen.
