Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
Then I said, ‘See, God, I have come to do your will, O God’ (in the scroll of the book it is written of me).” When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. And it is by God’s will that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Every human culture there has ever been; any civilization, no matter how basic or how complex, always has a sense of the other. There is always an understanding that there is more to the world that we can see. There are things beyond our understanding. There are minds and wills and forces beyond us at work in the world and at work in our lives. In some cultures it is a god. Other times it could be a bunch of gods. It could be stars, planets, the moon, the spirits of ancestors, the trees and animals, or maybe the mind of the earth itself. Always there is something other. There is always something holy out there, beyond us and above us. This awareness of something powerful and unseen, something that gives purpose to our lives and makes sense of the world, is part of what it means to be human. There is more to it than that, however. It’s not just that there is something holy out there, or up there, or deep within. There is within us a drive to connect with that something.
Religion is what we call our need to connect with that god, or those spirits. Religion is an attempt to transcend the physical world, and to contact the spiritual. Religion is a way to get to God. The word “religion” comes from the Latin word religare, which means “to tie back.” Religions bind you to certain practices and traditions. Religions require you to hold back from certain behaviors. Often, religions seek to lead people to holiness by prescribing what they can and cannot eat, what they should wear, with whom they should associate, when and how they should pray. Religions often require sacrifices. They encourage and sometimes demand that people give up doing certain things or owning certain things or acting in certain ways in order to earn the protection and favor of whatever is “up there.” In many religions, there are people set aside to act as go-betweens for God and humanity. They offer sacrifices to God (or the gods) on behalf of the people, and they speak for God to the people. In ancient Judaism, these people were called priests. Lots of religions have these mediators. They represent God to the people, and they represent the people to God.
Today is the last Sunday in the season of Advent. Before we move on to Christmas and Advent drops off of our radar for another year, there is something we need to look at. Advent isn’t just a place-holder until Christmas comes. The season of Advent reveals an incredible secret about Christianity, a secret that we Christians ourselves so often miss. For four weeks we have looked ahead to celebrating how God came to us as a baby in a manger. For four weeks we have been looking ahead to the day when Jesus will return as he promised. Advent is about God coming to us. And there it is. That’s the world shattering, mind- bending secret of Christianity: Christianity is not a religion!
At its heart, as it was given to us by Jesus and passed down through the first apostles, Christianity is not a religion. If anything, it is the very opposite of religion. Religions seek to take us beyond what we see. Religions provide ways for us to get to God. Christianity turns that completely upside down. Christianity isn’t about us getting to God. The gospel is that in Jesus, God comes to us! God comes to us as a baby in a manger. God comes to us as a healer and a teacher. God comes to us as a man nailed to a cross. God comes to us out of the tomb, out of death. Religion tries to take us up to God. Christian faith is that God comes down to us.
Christian life is not about being good or being worthy so that we can get to God. It is about living in grace and forgiveness and peace because Jesus has already come to us. We don’t make ourselves worthy of God’s favor. Instead, the whole point of the Christian faith is that God’s love makes us worthy. It is God who bridges the gap. It is God who crosses the distance. Our effort does not and cannot unite us with God. Only God can do that, and in Jesus, God does do that. Salvation is not our job. It’s way above our pay grade. Salvation is God’s job.
The second lesson for today is from the letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament. No one knows who wrote it, but it clearly comes from a time before 70 AD, when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire. It was written at a time when Jewish priests were still offering burnt animal sacrifices to God. That was how it was done. It is what the Old Testament commanded. To people for whom their beloved and sacred, scriptural religious practices involved priests and sacrifices and the right way to do things, the author of the letter writes “Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, “Sacrifices and offerings you [God] have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.” It’s a radical, bold, challenging, and irreligious thing to say. The point is this: God comes to us. God comes to us and our salvation is not up to us, or our sacrifices or how well we follow the rules. Our salvation is in the hands of Jesus. Jesus is himself the sacrifice. Nothing else is needed. Jesus is the true and eternal, once and for all great high priest. There is no need for any middle-man. God comes to us in the flesh. God comes to us in the manger. God comes to us in death and God brings us to himself in resurrection.
As Advent ends for this year, remember that God has come to us in Jesus. Remember that we wait for Jesus to come and bring us the kingdom of heaven. Forgiveness has come to us. Love has come to us. Salvation is coming. Hope is coming. God is coming. Come, Lord Jesus!
Amen.