Let Earth Receive Her King

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We’re in the middle of a series looking at how our favorite Christmas carols can give us a window into the grand story God has been telling in the Scriptures, the story that leads to Jesus.  We started last week with the carol we’re using as a frame for the story: “Joy to the World”.  The first line of the first verse set the stage, as it joyfully announced that the Creator Spirit, the LORD God, who had promised His people that He would one day come to redeem what was lost and restore what was broken, had finally arrived in and through the birth of Jesus, and that this was good news, not just for some, but for the entire world.

 Now, let’s look at the next line in our carol: “…Let Earth receive her King.” King?  Hold on a minute!  Believing in a Creator God is all well and good, but we’re not sure we want anything to do with a king.  

For most of us living here in America, the word “king” leaves a rather bad taste in our mouths.  It’s a word that means, “one who holds primary authority or power over a people or a realm”.  Our revolutionary history and our independent spirits cause us to bristle when we hear the word.  But in our carol, the word “King” corresponds directly to the word, “Lord” we talked about last week - “one holding authority, power, and ownership over someone or something”; specifically, in this case, the One who created it, the LORD God Himself.

 So why does Earth need to receive this King?  Surely, if He’s the Creator, He’s been here all along, right?  To get some insight into these questions, we need to go back to that Hebrew creation story again to look at how Image-bearing humanity was created.  We recall that in this poetic story, charged with symbolism, the Spirit of God creates a good world out of chaos, emptiness, and darkness, and then infuses it with Himself, His Light, His Love, and His Life.  He sets it apart from the darkness and fills it with life and abundance.  He brings humanity into being with the unique capacity to connect and relate with Him, and gives them the charge to value His creation, to care for it, to help it to grow and flourish, and to reflect His Image into it.  

 Here’s the amazing thing.  Unlike other creation stories, in this Hebrew story, that charge - humanity’s purpose, is called “ruling” and “reigning”.  That’s kingdom language and it’s frequently overlooked in our readings.

 The story tells us that this Creator Spirit, the Lord God - specifically chose His human creatures - all of them - to serve a kingly purpose.  It seems His intent for this creation kingdom was to allow not only His light, love, and life, but also His authority and power, to flow out from Him and through His Image-bearers, as they rule and reign over His creation, in His way and on His behalf, in intimate connection and loving relationship with Him.  The spiritual, heavenly realm and the natural earthly realm, intertwined and overlapping in harmonious partnership.  That is the astounding picture we’re given in Genesis 1 and 2.

 So, what happened?  That is surely not what we see today. The world around us is far from harmonious and for the most part, the power and authority we experience today is often not wielded with love, care, and stewardship, but instead, with self-interest, oppression, violence, and domination.  

 Again, the Genesis story gives us a symbolic interpretation of what happened.  At the end of Genesis 2, we find that this Creator Spirit, in His desire to be in a true, loving, relational partnership with His Image-bearers, has given them the free will to choose whether to be a part of this life-giving relationship and purpose or to reject it.  We’ll talk more about this concept in the coming weeks, but it appears that the big idea of Genesis 3 is that humanity makes the choice to mistrust their Creator and their relationship, and instead, chooses to put their trust in someone or something else.  As a result, the Image-bearers become relationally disconnected from His Spirit, and the darkness that used to be set apart, creeps into their hearts, minds, and souls; poisoning and distorting their Image of their Creator; darkening and twisting their responsibility to rule and reign, into a violent, self-centered, quest for power and domination; and rendering them unable to fulfill their intended, kingly purpose.  The spiritual realm and the natural realm are no longer united as one; the heavenly kingdom of Light; the dimensional reality of the Spirit of God is now veiled, obscured, and incomprehensible to the earthly kings and kingdoms of this world.  

 But as we discovered last week, this Creator Spirit refuses to give up on His creation or His human creatures.  He is committed to bringing all things back together, to restoring His intended creation kingdom, and to re-establishing His rule and reign “on Earth as it is in Heaven” through His Image-bearers.

 As the Hebrew story tells us, and many of our Christmas carols remind us, even in the midst of the Earth’s darkness, there is an Everlasting Light; a hope and a promise of a true King.  One who is intimately and uniquely connected to the Spirit of the Creator in loving relationship.  One whose trust in Him is unwavering.  One who will not collude with the darkness and violence, but instead, will stand up to it and overcome it.  One who is able to be a true Image-bearer, whose rule and reign reflect the Creator’s light, love, life, authority, and power into the world.  One who is able to save, heal, and restore the heart, mind, and soul of humanity; is able to breathe life back into lost and dying spirits; and is able to lead humanity back to their Creator and to their Image-bearing purpose.

 Joy to the world, the Lord is come...”  The carol proclaims that Jesus is the One.  He is the promised King, the Lord God Himself, in intimate, relational connection with humanity, come in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, to do for humanity what humanity could not do for themselves.  “Let Earth receive her King!”