Worship and Spending...

This week, we are looking at an account of the Christmas story that is recorded for us in the bible called the gospel of Luke. Yesterday, we saw that Mary and Joseph responded in worship to God by being obedient to God. Mary and Joseph made sure that Jesus was identified with God’s people so that He would be able to fulfill His role and be identified as the rescuer of God’s people. But that is not the only way that Mary and Joseph were responding to God’s call to worship, as we see in Luke 2:22:

 And when the days for their purification according to the law of Moses were completed, they brought Him up to Jerusalem to present Him to the Lord (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "EVERY firstborn MALE THAT OPENS THE WOMB SHALL BE CALLED HOLY TO THE LORD "), and to offer a sacrifice according to what was said in the Law of the Lord, "A PAIR OF TURTLEDOVES OR TWO YOUNG PIGEONS."

Now to understand what is happening here, we first need to ask and answer several questions. First, what is Luke referring to when he talks about the days for their purification? We God’s command regarding the days of purification recorded for us in Leviticus 12:1. Let’s look at it together:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: 'When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. 'On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 'Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. 'But if she bears a female child, then she shall be unclean for two weeks, as in her menstruation; and she shall remain in the blood of her purification for sixty-six days. 'When the days of her purification are completed, for a son or for a daughter, she shall bring to the priest at the doorway of the tent of meeting a one year old lamb for a burnt offering and a young pigeon or a turtledove for a sin offering. 'Then he shall offer it before the LORD and make atonement for her, and she shall be cleansed from the flow of her blood. This is the law for her who bears a child, whether a male or a female. 'But if she cannot afford a lamb, then she shall take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, the one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for her, and she will be clean.'"

According to the Law, which are the first five books in our Bibles that contain a list of commands that reveal God’s nature and character and the nature and character that the Jewish people needed to possess and display in order to experience a right relationship with God, a Jewish mother would be viewed as being unclean for 40 days after the birth of a male child. Now a natural question that arises here is “why? Why would a mother be viewed as being unclean after giving birth? I mean doesn’t God command us to have children? Aren’t children a blessing from the Lord?”

To understand the answer to these questions we first need to understand some biology and some theology. The mother, after the birth of a child was viewed as being ceremonially unclean and unable to enter into the temple to worship because of the discharges of blood that occur after a woman gives birth to a child. In the Old Testament, bleeding or the discharge from a body lacked wholeness and was therefore viewed as being unclean. As we know, the loss of blood can lead to death, which is the antithesis of a normal healthy life.

Thus, in the Bible, we see blood portrayed as, on the one hand, representing a cleansing agent for the selfishness and rebellion that separates us from God, and on the other hand, a polluting substance when it is in the wrong place. And because God is perfect; and because God is Holy, which means to be totally separate in terms of character and conduct, God presence could not be present with anything that was unclean.

So, after a male child was born, on the 8^th day that male child would be circumcised, but the mother would remain unclean for 33 more days. During that time, the mother was forbidden to enter into the temple area to worship God as she recovered physically from giving birth. After the 40 days for her purification were over, the mother was to present a lamb for a burnt offering and a pigeon or a turtle dove for a sin offering. This set of offerings was required before the mother could return to the state of being considered clean and able to participate in the worship of God.

This leads to a second question, which is, “why did the mother have to bring these offerings and present her firstborn son to the Lord?” We find the answer that question in the second letter in our Bibles, called the book of Exodus. In Exodus 13, we read the following:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Sanctify to Me every firstborn, the first offspring of every womb among the sons of Israel, both of man and beast; it belongs to Me."

A few verses later, in verse 11, we read the following:

"Now when the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, as He swore to you and to your fathers, and gives it to you, you shall devote to the LORD the first offspring of every womb, and the first offspring of every beast that you own; the males belong to the LORD. "But every first offspring of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then you shall break its neck; and every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. "And it shall be when your son asks you in time to come, saying, 'What is this?' then you shall say to him, 'With a powerful hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 'It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.'

In these verses we see God command the Jewish people to respond to what He had done to deliver the Jewish people from slavery at the hands of the nation of Egypt. As part of that deliverance, one evening, the Lord went through the land of Egypt and struck down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but He passed over all of the Jewish homes who had marked their doors with the blood of the lamb. This feast was referred to by the Jewish people as the Passover. In addition to celebrating the Passover feast, God commanded that all firstborn sons of the Jewish people were to be consecrated to the Lord as a response to the sparing of the lives of the firstborn Jewish people during that first Passover.

Now, with these questions answered, we get a picture of what Mary and Joseph were doing in response to the birth of Jesus that first Christmas. Mary and Joseph were responding to the birth of Jesus by following and fulfilling God’s commandments to dedicate their firstborn son to be Holy to the Lord. In other words, Mary and Joseph were following God’s command to dedicate Jesus to be wholly devoted to the Lord.

Jesus was being dedicated to live a life that is separated to God and separated from all that is unclean. Jesus was being dedicated by his parents to live a life that was committed to God and the mission of God in the world. Mary and Joseph worshiped God by giving their son who was the Son of God back to God.

Now you might be thinking to yourself “well Dave, thanks for the history lesson, but what does this story have to do with the question that you asked at the beginning of your sermon? What does this have to do with how much money we spent, as a nation, on Christmas? What does this have to do with what Christmas calls us to when it comes to our spending?” If those questions are running through your mind, I want to let you know that those are great questions to ask.

Tomorrow, we will discover the answer to those questions…