WEBVTT 00:00:01.080 --> 00:00:03.399 Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons, 00:00:03.560 --> 00:00:05.620 a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown, 00:00:05.799 --> 00:00:08.539 Harrisburg. This epiphany in Lent, we're back 00:00:08.539 --> 00:00:11.000 in the Gospels, specifically the Gospel of Mark. 00:00:12.039 --> 00:00:14.660 We are seeing the revelation of God in Jesus. 00:00:15.140 --> 00:00:17.879 Mark is showing us the true King becomes a servant 00:00:17.879 --> 00:00:21.079 for us. He says right at the heart, the Son of 00:00:21.079 --> 00:00:24.420 Man came not to be served, but to serve and to 00:00:24.420 --> 00:00:28.530 give his life as a ransom for many. And Mark 00:00:28.530 --> 00:00:31.649 is nearly always asking his audience, what do 00:00:31.649 --> 00:00:36.530 you make of that? So what do you make of this 00:00:36.530 --> 00:00:41.090 good news? We'd love to meet you and we hope 00:00:41.090 --> 00:00:43.189 you'll consider coming and joining with us each 00:00:43.189 --> 00:00:45.189 Sunday morning at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown 00:00:45.189 --> 00:00:48.009 Harrisburg. You can find us online at secondcitychurch 00:00:48.009 --> 00:00:50.390 .org and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. 00:00:51.189 --> 00:00:56.880 We hope you enjoy this sermon. God bless. We 00:00:56.880 --> 00:00:59.759 think of these accounts and these beautiful accounts 00:00:59.759 --> 00:01:04.260 and yet utterly tragic accounts of you on the 00:01:04.260 --> 00:01:14.400 cross Right there next to that thief Lord for 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:21.659 us Your pain and your sorrow your affliction 00:01:21.659 --> 00:01:25.370 The redemption of the world for the forgiveness 00:01:25.370 --> 00:01:39.450 of sins. God, it's easy at times to rush to Sunday 00:01:39.450 --> 00:01:46.269 morning, but I pray that you would help us to 00:01:46.269 --> 00:01:49.269 be a people that sit in this reality of the suffering 00:01:49.269 --> 00:02:01.719 Savior. what sin did, what you did for us. Lord 00:02:01.719 --> 00:02:08.780 bless our time of meditation tonight. Amen. At 00:02:08.780 --> 00:02:10.900 the heart of Christianity, at the heart of the 00:02:10.900 --> 00:02:13.860 Christian faith is this idea of the descending 00:02:13.860 --> 00:02:17.840 God, the God who comes low, God who goes down. 00:02:19.080 --> 00:02:24.969 In fact, you could say that that is the thing 00:02:24.969 --> 00:02:27.270 that distinguishes Christianity from certainly 00:02:27.270 --> 00:02:31.870 the other monotheistic religions, really any 00:02:31.870 --> 00:02:35.449 other faith. That's the distinguishing thing, 00:02:35.909 --> 00:02:41.750 going down of God. God comes down. And while 00:02:41.750 --> 00:02:44.090 that idea might be anathema actually to some 00:02:44.090 --> 00:02:47.650 of these other religions, it is the heartbeat 00:02:47.650 --> 00:02:56.560 of Christianity, God descending. In the incarnation 00:02:56.560 --> 00:03:02.180 of God, we have God's great affirmation of His 00:03:02.180 --> 00:03:09.580 world. Far from being a God who condemns physicality, 00:03:10.900 --> 00:03:13.939 God embraces it. Far from being a God who just 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:18.759 looks from far off a galaxy far, far away wherever 00:03:18.759 --> 00:03:23.389 He is up there. He's the God who comes near. 00:03:25.030 --> 00:03:27.169 Far from being a God who demands our praise and 00:03:27.169 --> 00:03:29.370 demands our homage, though, of course, with all 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:34.370 good reason to do so, he comes down lowly in 00:03:34.370 --> 00:03:40.050 a manger to shepherds, common folk. God descends. 00:03:41.490 --> 00:03:44.009 And of course, actually, if you have been with 00:03:44.009 --> 00:03:46.210 us this year so far, we've been in the Gospel 00:03:46.210 --> 00:03:49.120 of Mark. And what we've seen already in the gospel 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:51.900 of Mark in Jesus' ministry is that he comes down, 00:03:52.479 --> 00:03:55.479 not just physically in this idea of the incarnation 00:03:55.479 --> 00:03:58.039 of God, God truly in the flesh, but when he does 00:03:58.039 --> 00:04:01.580 so, he takes on time, space, and the dynamics 00:04:01.580 --> 00:04:03.960 of speech and actions for that time and space. 00:04:04.099 --> 00:04:07.939 And so he speaks with the common language of 00:04:07.939 --> 00:04:11.800 his day, the common humanity of his day, seed 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:17.589 and soil and fish, farming. and all of that kind 00:04:17.589 --> 00:04:22.569 of thing. A God who embraces when He descends 00:04:22.569 --> 00:04:27.230 the time and the space and the actions of those 00:04:27.230 --> 00:04:30.350 time and space, the people of that time. God 00:04:30.350 --> 00:04:35.149 descending in real physicality to real people. 00:04:36.930 --> 00:04:39.889 So when He descends, He comes down to the lowly 00:04:39.889 --> 00:04:42.170 in the manger and He descends down into time 00:04:42.170 --> 00:04:44.569 and space. But also we actually hear that He 00:04:44.569 --> 00:04:50.149 does this In some ways, qualitatively too. This 00:04:50.149 --> 00:04:53.470 is in 2nd Corinthians. Do I need new batteries? 00:04:53.810 --> 00:05:00.769 Am I kind of breaking up? Probably do. I'm going 00:05:00.769 --> 00:05:02.329 to keep going and then maybe I'll have to stop 00:05:02.329 --> 00:05:07.350 for this. What we're told is that though he was 00:05:07.350 --> 00:05:14.120 rich, yet for our sake he becomes poor. It just 00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:17.540 seems to be the constant dynamic. If we look 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:20.839 at Christ, what we see is the descending God, 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:26.439 the God who is high up and who embraces the lowly 00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:32.300 place. Of course we come to the cross. It's not 00:05:32.300 --> 00:05:36.319 a grand death. What did we just hear? It's a 00:05:36.319 --> 00:05:40.819 criminal's death. It's actually so lowly and 00:05:40.819 --> 00:05:45.040 disgusting. Kind of way to die that Roman citizens 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:48.939 weren't allowed to die that way the lowest of 00:05:48.939 --> 00:05:55.939 the low God coming down God descending I'm going 00:05:55.939 --> 00:05:59.399 to take a quick break from this short homily 00:06:17.899 --> 00:06:20.740 I'd rather pause and make sure you're able to 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:24.339 hear me later on than keep going. That doesn't 00:06:24.339 --> 00:06:27.579 know this, but some of you know Ted Prescott. 00:06:27.779 --> 00:06:29.439 He didn't know I was going to mention this, but 00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:32.560 some of you know his work, his life -sized piece 00:06:32.560 --> 00:06:37.040 that depicts the descent of Christ from the cross. 00:06:37.540 --> 00:06:41.899 It's actually just titled, Descent from the Cross. 00:06:42.420 --> 00:06:44.199 It's currently at the Museum of the Bible down 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:46.120 in DC, and I know some of you have had the opportunity 00:06:46.120 --> 00:06:49.600 to go see that. And it's part of this larger 00:06:49.600 --> 00:06:52.699 exhibition of these images of the descent of 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:56.500 God, the God coming down. But in this time, God 00:06:56.500 --> 00:07:01.600 coming down from death. He said, die. Being lowered 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:05.939 down. The emphasis in these pieces is not the 00:07:05.939 --> 00:07:10.180 descent in Christ's incarnation. It's not the 00:07:10.180 --> 00:07:13.060 emphasis of Christ's descent in his taking on 00:07:13.060 --> 00:07:16.889 the physicality of time and place. It's not even 00:07:16.889 --> 00:07:21.230 the descent of Christ in how he died, this lowly 00:07:21.230 --> 00:07:23.389 kind of death, but in the fact that he died so 00:07:23.389 --> 00:07:26.149 much that others had to actually take him down 00:07:26.149 --> 00:07:31.529 further. As a family, we went down and saw this 00:07:31.529 --> 00:07:33.970 exhibit a few weeks ago and a couple things stood 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:38.990 out to me. Both in Ted's piece and in these other 00:07:38.990 --> 00:07:42.350 depictions of the descent of Jesus, there are 00:07:42.350 --> 00:07:46.360 often quite a few people around. five to eight 00:07:46.360 --> 00:07:50.800 people or so. Standing around or helping lower 00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:56.220 the very body of our Lord. Part of what I read 00:07:56.220 --> 00:07:58.879 was that it was common to depict these different 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:01.939 people coming together to carry the body of Christ 00:08:01.939 --> 00:08:04.519 down. And you think actually some of the texts 00:08:04.519 --> 00:08:06.939 we're reading tonight mention some of those people. 00:08:07.660 --> 00:08:10.759 Joseph of Arimathea. I'll actually hear of him 00:08:10.759 --> 00:08:16.730 in a couple days. Wealthy. well -connected, able, 00:08:17.689 --> 00:08:22.310 getting the ear of Pilate, Nicodemus, sometimes 00:08:22.310 --> 00:08:27.189 a Roman soldier, the Marys, Mary Magdalene and 00:08:27.189 --> 00:08:29.430 Mary the mother of Jesus, the disciple John, 00:08:29.470 --> 00:08:31.550 these kinds of folk, and they're all varied. 00:08:32.409 --> 00:08:33.950 You think of those different people, their different 00:08:33.950 --> 00:08:36.549 ages and their different experiences, their different 00:08:36.549 --> 00:08:41.710 knowledge of the Lord, some committed, some questioning. 00:08:42.480 --> 00:08:45.320 Some just coming to terms with the fact that 00:08:45.320 --> 00:08:50.659 this one who died is the son of God Some doubting 00:08:50.659 --> 00:08:55.580 real people Really different kinds of people 00:08:55.580 --> 00:08:58.840 the wealthy and the poor and the enemies and 00:08:58.840 --> 00:09:02.080 the loved ones and the really religious the Nicodemuses 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:07.700 and the not so religious the soldiers Those wondering 00:09:09.629 --> 00:09:11.549 Another thing that I noticed, and this is actually 00:09:11.549 --> 00:09:15.190 very pronounced in Ted's piece, but on others 00:09:15.190 --> 00:09:20.429 also, is that so often the people in these pieces 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:24.409 of art are not often actually depicted as though 00:09:24.409 --> 00:09:26.490 they were living in the ancient Near East with 00:09:26.490 --> 00:09:28.769 the garb of the ancient Near East with the beards 00:09:28.769 --> 00:09:33.049 and the facial structure and all of that. Instead 00:09:33.049 --> 00:09:36.070 they're They fit the time and the context of 00:09:36.070 --> 00:09:38.649 the artist. So Albrecht Durer's descent has people 00:09:38.649 --> 00:09:42.490 largely clothed with what you'd expect, like 00:09:42.490 --> 00:09:50.889 16th century German art. Van der Weyden's folk 00:09:50.889 --> 00:09:53.970 in his great painting, they're all wearing what 00:09:53.970 --> 00:09:57.190 you'd expect from a Dutch Renaissance kind of 00:09:57.190 --> 00:10:02.169 painter. Bright reds, greens, and things like 00:10:02.169 --> 00:10:08.710 that. Ted's piece was made in the 1980s here 00:10:08.710 --> 00:10:14.769 in Pennsylvania. It fits. Friends, this is what 00:10:14.769 --> 00:10:20.629 I'm saying. This is how it should be. Why? Why? 00:10:20.649 --> 00:10:22.990 Because we believe that the ultimate descent 00:10:22.990 --> 00:10:28.570 of Christ, which is not his incarnation into 00:10:28.570 --> 00:10:32.059 the manger, or his speech among the farmers and 00:10:32.059 --> 00:10:35.279 the fishermen of his day, but in his death on 00:10:35.279 --> 00:10:44.919 a Roman cross is for us today. He descends. He 00:10:44.919 --> 00:10:50.840 descends for 15th century Holland, for 16th century 00:10:50.840 --> 00:10:57.299 Germany, for 21st century Harrisburg. This is 00:10:57.299 --> 00:11:01.279 what we proclaim. That the death of Christ long 00:11:01.279 --> 00:11:06.480 ago on that lowly Roman cross is the descent 00:11:06.480 --> 00:11:12.860 of God for us For you and for me This is the 00:11:12.860 --> 00:11:14.980 ultimate descent him going down not just to this 00:11:14.980 --> 00:11:22.600 earth But to death and to death Playing the reality 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:34.809 of sin Conquering Satan low for you and for me 00:11:34.809 --> 00:11:40.450 Which is say if you if you really want to wrestle 00:11:40.450 --> 00:11:44.870 with religion do comparative religion What are 00:11:44.870 --> 00:11:47.129 the different gods like what are the different 00:11:47.129 --> 00:11:51.929 religions say no doubt you have heard as I have 00:11:51.929 --> 00:11:55.909 They're largely probably talking about the same 00:11:56.169 --> 00:11:59.970 when it all comes down to it. They're all sort 00:11:59.970 --> 00:12:02.490 of touching the same elephant saying, oh, he's 00:12:02.490 --> 00:12:05.850 like a tree trunk grabbing his leg, like a great 00:12:05.850 --> 00:12:16.029 wall touching his side. That's absurd. That's 00:12:16.029 --> 00:12:19.429 crazy because Christianity alone says that God 00:12:19.429 --> 00:12:24.990 keeps going down. It's the only religion that 00:12:24.990 --> 00:12:28.700 says this. And it's right at this unique thing 00:12:28.700 --> 00:12:32.419 of Christianity that is the hope of the world. 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:37.919 God continuing to go down, down, down, giving 00:12:37.919 --> 00:12:40.700 of himself, giving of his very life, descending 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:47.080 to the tomb for us. God expiring on the cross 00:12:47.080 --> 00:12:50.700 for us. God being taken down from the cross for 00:12:50.700 --> 00:12:57.799 us. God being put in the tomb for us. Here's 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.299 where I'm going and this is all and simply with 00:13:00.299 --> 00:13:05.620 this It is on it is in the descent of Christ 00:13:05.620 --> 00:13:13.179 it is in the stopped heartbeat of Christ That 00:13:13.179 --> 00:13:19.960 is the heartbeat of the good news God going low 00:13:19.960 --> 00:13:27.580 for you today Amen Thank you for listening to 00:13:27.580 --> 00:13:30.299 Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this sermon 00:13:30.299 --> 00:13:32.580 has encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate 00:13:32.580 --> 00:13:35.759 the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing 00:13:35.759 --> 00:13:38.440 to this podcast and joining us in person each 00:13:38.440 --> 00:13:41.299 Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us online at 00:13:41.299 --> 00:13:43.740 secondcitychurch .org and on Instagram, Facebook, 00:13:43.940 --> 00:13:46.679 and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God 00:13:46.679 --> 00:13:47.000 bless.