1 00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:04,760 Our scripture reading today is not a typical Advent or 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:09,720 Christmas time scripture. And, and, and, and I say that 3 00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,560 while at the same time being able to say, and I'm not sure 4 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,400 why, because it really, really fits well with the Advent and 5 00:00:17,400 --> 00:00:19,800 Christmas season. And we'll see why a little more 6 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:22,400 explicitly later. You might be able to guess right 7 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:26,000 off the bat, but we'll see here. Hosea Chapter 11 verses one 8 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:29,440 through 11. When Israel was a child, I loved 9 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:32,280 him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 10 00:00:32,759 --> 00:00:35,920 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. 11 00:00:36,320 --> 00:00:40,040 They sacrificed to the bales. They burned incense to images. 12 00:00:40,280 --> 00:00:44,800 It was I who taught Ephraim and Ephraim is another name for for 13 00:00:44,800 --> 00:00:47,640 the children of Israel. Ephraim was one of the 12 14 00:00:47,640 --> 00:00:52,720 tribes, and for whatever reason, some of the prophets will use 15 00:00:52,720 --> 00:00:56,720 that tribe of Ephraim to refer to all of the Israelites. 16 00:00:56,720 --> 00:01:00,000 So when when we're talking about Ephraim, we're talking about the 17 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,040 Israelites. It was I who taught Ephraim to 18 00:01:03,040 --> 00:01:07,320 walk, taking them by the arms. They did not realize it was I 19 00:01:07,320 --> 00:01:10,320 who healed them. I LED them with words, with 20 00:01:10,320 --> 00:01:14,800 cords of human kindness and ties of love to them. 21 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:18,080 I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek and I 22 00:01:18,080 --> 00:01:22,040 bent down to feed them. Will they not return? 23 00:01:23,160 --> 00:01:27,640 Will they not return to Egypt? And will not Assyria rule over 24 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:29,760 them because they refuse to repent? 25 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:32,480 A sword will flash in their cities. 26 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:35,720 It will devour their false prophets and put an end to their 27 00:01:35,720 --> 00:01:38,400 plans. My people are determined to turn 28 00:01:38,400 --> 00:01:41,560 away from me. Even though they call me God 29 00:01:41,560 --> 00:01:44,920 Most High, I will by no means exalt them. 30 00:01:45,560 --> 00:01:49,920 How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over Israel? 31 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:54,640 How can I treat you like Adma? How can I make you like as a 32 00:01:54,640 --> 00:01:57,880 boy? M My heart is changed within me, 33 00:01:58,520 --> 00:02:02,640 all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce 34 00:02:02,640 --> 00:02:07,360 anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again, for I am God and 35 00:02:07,360 --> 00:02:10,160 not a man, the Holy One among you. 36 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:12,800 I will not come against their cities. 37 00:02:13,120 --> 00:02:17,360 They will follow the Lord. He will roar like a lion when he 38 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,280 when he roars. His children will come trembling 39 00:02:20,280 --> 00:02:22,680 from the West. They will come from Egypt 40 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,880 trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. 41 00:02:27,280 --> 00:02:30,120 I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord. 42 00:02:30,560 --> 00:02:34,760 May the Lord add His blessing to the reading and hearing of His 43 00:02:34,760 --> 00:02:38,160 Word. Now we're starting our Christmas 44 00:02:38,160 --> 00:02:40,720 series, Advent series here, Wicked for Christmas. 45 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,160 I'm going to say just a few introductory words about the 46 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:46,320 whole series before we jump into the meat of it. 47 00:02:46,520 --> 00:02:50,280 And the first is just I. I know that there are split 48 00:02:50,280 --> 00:02:54,880 opinions about the Wicked movies and and not everyone is a fan of 49 00:02:54,880 --> 00:02:57,320 Wicked. I'm shamelessly piggybacking 50 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,880 right now on the reality that this is one of the most popular 51 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:04,480 movie series. It's a 2 parter in in many, many 52 00:03:04,480 --> 00:03:08,440 years and many, many, many folks love it and some folks don't. 53 00:03:08,440 --> 00:03:12,040 Some folks are very loyal to the original and not really loyal to 54 00:03:12,040 --> 00:03:13,920 the original. We don't I I couldn't tell you 55 00:03:13,920 --> 00:03:17,520 what the original Wizard of Oz movie Wicked is a retelling of 56 00:03:17,520 --> 00:03:23,440 The Wizard of Oz. The 1939 version starring just 57 00:03:23,440 --> 00:03:27,960 lost her Judy Garland. I almost said Dorothy Hamill, 58 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:30,520 which was wrong on so many different levels. 59 00:03:31,200 --> 00:03:33,560 Starring Judy Garland was not the original. 60 00:03:34,120 --> 00:03:39,160 It was the 4th full length feature adaptation of the book 61 00:03:39,160 --> 00:03:43,200 by Frank. Yeah, Frank L Baum, L Frank 62 00:03:43,200 --> 00:03:45,560 Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. 63 00:03:45,560 --> 00:03:48,080 It was like the fourth full length feature adaptation. 64 00:03:48,280 --> 00:03:52,400 If you if you factor in stage adaptations and shorter 65 00:03:52,400 --> 00:03:56,040 adaptations, the 1939 version is like that. 66 00:03:56,080 --> 00:03:58,840 Depending on how you do the addition, it's like the 8th or 67 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,400 10th different version of of that thing. 68 00:04:02,400 --> 00:04:05,320 So it's not the original, but it's the one that I grew up 69 00:04:05,320 --> 00:04:07,000 with. So to me, it's the original. 70 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,080 I always liked that movie. The flying monkeys scared the 71 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,280 bejeebers out of me, but I liked that movie. 72 00:04:13,320 --> 00:04:15,520 I love the Wicked movies as well. 73 00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:19,120 The if you're not a fan of musicals, you're not going to 74 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:20,560 like it. There's just no getting around 75 00:04:20,560 --> 00:04:24,600 the fact that it's a musical. But the themes that it explores, 76 00:04:24,760 --> 00:04:28,840 the values that it expresses, I, I don't think it's an accident 77 00:04:28,840 --> 00:04:31,680 that the same person that wrote the stage play on which the 78 00:04:31,680 --> 00:04:36,160 movies are based is the person who wrote the musical Godspell 79 00:04:36,400 --> 00:04:41,200 many, many, many years ago. And the themes of, of love and 80 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:44,680 loyalty of, of goodness and wickedness. 81 00:04:44,880 --> 00:04:47,880 And what is goodness and wickedness and who are the good 82 00:04:47,880 --> 00:04:51,560 and who are the wicked? And, and where does friendship, 83 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:53,360 you know, what role does friendship play? 84 00:04:53,360 --> 00:04:59,120 These are how do you stand up to, to forces of evil in the 85 00:04:59,120 --> 00:05:01,160 world? These are themes that are are 86 00:05:02,080 --> 00:05:04,760 prevalent all throughout the scripture and all throughout 87 00:05:04,760 --> 00:05:07,920 history indeed so. So if you haven't seen them, I 88 00:05:07,920 --> 00:05:10,800 encourage you to check them out. If unless you don't like me, if 89 00:05:10,800 --> 00:05:12,760 you don't like musicals, you're not going to like them no matter 90 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:15,000 how good they are. If you, if you're willing, at 91 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:18,320 least willing to enjoy or tolerate a musical, check them 92 00:05:18,320 --> 00:05:20,240 out. I think you'll really, really 93 00:05:20,240 --> 00:05:23,480 enjoy how that story develops and plays out. 94 00:05:25,080 --> 00:05:29,400 The opening song for the music, for the movies and the stage, 95 00:05:29,400 --> 00:05:33,720 theatrical stage production of Wicked is a song called No One 96 00:05:33,720 --> 00:05:36,280 Mourns the Wicked for. For some of these weeks, I'm 97 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:37,760 going to use clips from the movies. 98 00:05:37,960 --> 00:05:41,040 Other weeks we're going to have live singers in here in two 99 00:05:41,040 --> 00:05:45,720 weeks. Tiny little girl, she's about 100 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,760 that tall. She's in second grade down at 101 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:51,600 Meg's here. She's going to come and sing a 102 00:05:51,600 --> 00:05:54,440 song from the movies. The song is called Popular. 103 00:05:54,560 --> 00:05:58,000 If you know the musical, you'll know that's a really, really fun 104 00:05:58,000 --> 00:05:59,440 song. She's so tiny. 105 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:04,320 She's got a voice and and a personality that fills a room. 106 00:06:04,440 --> 00:06:07,080 So that's going to be a lot of fun in a couple of weeks. 107 00:06:07,080 --> 00:06:10,400 But today we have a movie clip from the first song called No 108 00:06:10,400 --> 00:06:14,600 One Mourns the Wicked. And and on the outside chance 109 00:06:14,800 --> 00:06:17,760 that there are people in here that are unfamiliar with the 110 00:06:17,760 --> 00:06:21,400 Wizard of Oz storyline, a character known as the Wicked 111 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:25,640 Witch of the West is killed. And there is great celebration 112 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:28,800 in Munchkin Land and throughout the Kingdom of Oz. 113 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,640 And that's what's happened when they're singing No One Mourns 114 00:06:32,640 --> 00:06:34,560 the Wicked. They're singing about the death 115 00:06:34,880 --> 00:06:39,680 of the Wicked Witch of the West. So could you turn up the volume 116 00:06:39,680 --> 00:06:41,600 and turn down the lights, please, Donna? 117 00:06:42,040 --> 00:06:45,960 And for whatever reason, this recording doesn't have quite the 118 00:06:45,960 --> 00:06:48,920 same volume as the musical other musical recordings. 119 00:06:48,920 --> 00:06:51,520 So we got to crank it up a little bit so we can hear it. 120 00:06:51,760 --> 00:06:54,640 At this point in the sermon, we listen to the song No One Mourns 121 00:06:54,640 --> 00:06:56,600 the Wicked from the musical Wicked. 122 00:06:56,600 --> 00:06:59,480 For licensing reasons, I can't include it in this recording. 123 00:06:59,520 --> 00:07:02,840 It's a great song and Ariana Grande sings it beautifully. 124 00:07:02,840 --> 00:07:05,400 You can find it on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes. 125 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:08,520 I hope you'll give it a listen. Now back to the sermon. 126 00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:11,840 That question of why wickedness happens, we're going to kind of 127 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:14,120 get to that over the next few weeks here. 128 00:07:14,120 --> 00:07:19,200 But this business of no one mourns the wicked, no one mourns 129 00:07:19,200 --> 00:07:23,440 the wicked. There's a lot of truth in that. 130 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:26,800 There's a lot of truth if you pick the lowest hanging fruit on 131 00:07:26,800 --> 00:07:30,160 the tree of wickedness. I don't know if there was anyone 132 00:07:30,160 --> 00:07:34,800 in the world that was mourning when Adolf Hitler died, when the 133 00:07:34,800 --> 00:07:38,880 Nazi regime fell. No one, certainly no one in the 134 00:07:38,880 --> 00:07:42,760 United States, no one in Western Europe, no one in Russia, no one 135 00:07:42,760 --> 00:07:50,160 in Africa was mourning that day. When, when people or groups that 136 00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:55,360 we see as doing horrible, evil, awful, wicked things in the 137 00:07:55,360 --> 00:08:00,480 world, when they are gone, our tendency is to celebrate, and 138 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:04,360 understandably so. If a source of wickedness has 139 00:08:04,360 --> 00:08:08,240 been removed from the world, people tend not to grieve over 140 00:08:08,240 --> 00:08:09,960 that. They celebrate that. 141 00:08:11,120 --> 00:08:17,600 I think that that is a common human thing across ages, across 142 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:22,360 cultures, across religions, across all sorts of barriers, 143 00:08:22,560 --> 00:08:27,040 that no one mourns the wicked. No one. 144 00:08:27,920 --> 00:08:31,000 Folks in Munchkin Land there happy that the Wicked Witch of 145 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:36,960 the West has died. However, however, there is a 146 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:41,320 truth that we as followers of Jesus have to contend with, and 147 00:08:41,320 --> 00:08:45,000 that truth is this. Well, we see it in Isaiah. 148 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,600 I will not accuse them. This is God speaking through the 149 00:08:48,600 --> 00:08:51,640 prophet Isaiah, and he's speaking about his people, 150 00:08:51,960 --> 00:08:54,760 Israel. I will not accuse them forever, 151 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:59,120 nor will I always be angry, for then they would faint away 152 00:08:59,120 --> 00:09:02,680 because of me, the very people I have created. 153 00:09:03,160 --> 00:09:05,720 I was enraged by their sinful greed. 154 00:09:05,720 --> 00:09:09,640 God's not looking at His people through rose colored glasses. 155 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:12,680 He saw them and he understood them and he knew the depth of 156 00:09:12,680 --> 00:09:15,400 their wickedness. I was enraged by their sinful 157 00:09:15,400 --> 00:09:18,080 greed. I punished them and hid my face 158 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:21,920 in anger, yet they kept on their willful ways. 159 00:09:22,120 --> 00:09:27,760 I have seen their ways, but I will heal them. 160 00:09:28,840 --> 00:09:33,480 I will guide them and restore comfort to Israel's mourners, 161 00:09:33,680 --> 00:09:38,920 creating praise on their lips. God looking at people, his 162 00:09:38,920 --> 00:09:42,360 people that he has made, that he has done so much for seeing them 163 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,360 persist in evil, persist in wickedness. 164 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:52,520 And God says, I will comfort them, I will heal them, I will 165 00:09:52,520 --> 00:09:56,760 care for them. If we jump back to Hosea, we see 166 00:09:56,760 --> 00:10:00,080 it even more clearly that God mourns the wicked. 167 00:10:00,960 --> 00:10:03,520 God mourns the wicked. We'll look at that Hosea passage 168 00:10:03,520 --> 00:10:08,760 again a little bit later, but the simple reality is this. 169 00:10:09,760 --> 00:10:13,640 The we as human beings might celebrate the death of the 170 00:10:13,640 --> 00:10:17,480 wicked. God mourns the wicked. 171 00:10:18,440 --> 00:10:22,960 God's heart is broken. You go back to the greatest act 172 00:10:22,960 --> 00:10:25,800 of destruction in human history, the great flood. 173 00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:30,600 And God looked out and said every desire of every heart is 174 00:10:30,600 --> 00:10:34,920 always evil all the time, except for Noah and his family. 175 00:10:35,160 --> 00:10:39,400 And God decided to wipe out all humanity with a flood except for 176 00:10:39,400 --> 00:10:43,160 Noah and his family. We are told that God was grieved 177 00:10:43,200 --> 00:10:46,720 by that. God was not celebrating the 178 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,480 death of those folks. God's heart was broken. 179 00:10:50,760 --> 00:10:56,960 God was grieved. Our God, the one we serve, the 180 00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,400 one we follow, God mourns the wicked. 181 00:11:01,360 --> 00:11:04,640 God mourns the wicked, hears that Hosea passage. 182 00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:07,880 God says this. My heart is changed within me 183 00:11:08,200 --> 00:11:09,880 after going through that whole list. 184 00:11:10,160 --> 00:11:14,800 I saved my my, I saved Ephraim. I've saved Israel like I brought 185 00:11:14,800 --> 00:11:18,480 them my son out of Egypt, and then they turned away from me 186 00:11:18,480 --> 00:11:20,760 and they followed the bales and they burned incense to other 187 00:11:20,760 --> 00:11:22,320 things. They did all of these wicked 188 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:25,080 things and God is set to destroy them. 189 00:11:25,080 --> 00:11:27,360 But says, my heart is changed within me. 190 00:11:27,560 --> 00:11:31,720 All my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce 191 00:11:31,720 --> 00:11:36,200 anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again, for I am God and 192 00:11:36,200 --> 00:11:39,240 not a man, the Holy One among you. 193 00:11:39,800 --> 00:11:41,960 I will not come against their cities. 194 00:11:42,120 --> 00:11:47,320 They will follow the Lord. Now here's the catch God, well, 195 00:11:47,520 --> 00:11:49,920 not a catch. It's it's a just a piece of this 196 00:11:50,200 --> 00:11:52,560 and it's something God says in a couple of different ways at a 197 00:11:52,560 --> 00:11:55,240 couple of different points in Scripture where he says here for 198 00:11:55,240 --> 00:11:57,880 I am God and not a man. It's like when he said through 199 00:11:57,880 --> 00:12:00,920 Isaiah, my ways are not your ways and God talking to the 200 00:12:01,000 --> 00:12:03,160 human beings. My ways are not your ways. 201 00:12:03,160 --> 00:12:04,840 My thoughts are not your thoughts. 202 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:06,360 The heavens are higher than earth. 203 00:12:06,520 --> 00:12:09,040 So are my thoughts higher than your thoughts and my ways higher 204 00:12:09,040 --> 00:12:11,400 than your ways. God much more succinctly here, 205 00:12:11,400 --> 00:12:16,200 for I am not a man. God is saying, I'm not like you. 206 00:12:17,520 --> 00:12:21,440 That's what holy means. I'm not like you. 207 00:12:21,760 --> 00:12:24,120 I am holy. I am different from human 208 00:12:24,120 --> 00:12:28,360 beings. And where you celebrate, I have 209 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:34,200 compassion. Where you rejoice, I mourn even 210 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:37,120 for the death of the witch, even for those who have done great 211 00:12:37,120 --> 00:12:41,640 wickedness, even for those who have died in that wickedness. 212 00:12:42,480 --> 00:12:49,520 God mourns the wicked. And that's an essential thing 213 00:12:49,520 --> 00:12:55,040 for us to grasp here as we move into the Christmas season that 214 00:12:55,160 --> 00:12:58,040 we see a lot of where there was a lot of wickedness going on at 215 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:00,600 that time. Herod the Great, who was the, 216 00:13:00,680 --> 00:13:04,240 the, the king of Israel at the time that Jesus was born. 217 00:13:05,360 --> 00:13:08,360 And you know the stories, the three magi, they come, they see 218 00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:10,640 the star, they're looking for the one to be born king of the 219 00:13:10,640 --> 00:13:12,680 Jews. They go to Jerusalem, they go to 220 00:13:12,680 --> 00:13:15,840 the palace, they ask Herod, where's the one to be born king 221 00:13:15,840 --> 00:13:17,400 of the Jews. Herod hasn't heard anything 222 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,800 about it. He sends them off to find the 223 00:13:20,800 --> 00:13:23,280 Messiah in Bethlehem, the one who's been born. 224 00:13:23,280 --> 00:13:26,160 And he says, please come back and tell me so I can worship him 225 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:28,960 too, when he just really wants to kill him because that's what 226 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:32,480 Herod the Great did. Herod the Great did all sorts of 227 00:13:32,480 --> 00:13:36,280 wicked things, including killing political rivals, including 228 00:13:36,280 --> 00:13:38,440 killing his own children at times. 229 00:13:39,920 --> 00:13:43,440 He did many wicked things. He killed every boy, child, 2 230 00:13:43,440 --> 00:13:48,280 years old and two years old and under around Bethlehem. 231 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:51,440 And so God, but God had warned Joseph in a dream, and Joseph 232 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:53,960 took Mary and Jesus and they fled to Egypt. 233 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:59,640 And we're told by Matthew that when God calls them back, that 234 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:02,000 this is the fulfillment of the prophet and Hosea. 235 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:04,960 For I have called my son out of Egypt. 236 00:14:05,360 --> 00:14:07,000 We're going to come back to that in a minute. 237 00:14:09,320 --> 00:14:14,440 But this wickedness is real. Lots of people were mourning the 238 00:14:14,440 --> 00:14:16,360 death of those children in Bethlehem. 239 00:14:18,880 --> 00:14:21,480 I don't think any of those folks were mourning Herod's death. 240 00:14:21,480 --> 00:14:24,320 When it came. It was wicked. 241 00:14:25,040 --> 00:14:27,960 No one mourns the wicked except God. 242 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:33,600 God mourns the wicked. But this begs a question that we 243 00:14:33,600 --> 00:14:36,040 have to answer, which is who are the wicked? 244 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:42,760 This is I, I feel like I'm not an English major, I'm not a 245 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:45,480 music major, I'm not a theater major. 246 00:14:45,880 --> 00:14:48,400 But I feel like this is the central theme of the Wicked 247 00:14:48,400 --> 00:14:53,200 movies is who are the wicked? Who really is the one that's 248 00:14:53,200 --> 00:14:58,840 wicked in the in the book, the original book by by bomb and in 249 00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,280 the 1939 movie, clearly the wicked was the Wicked Witch of 250 00:15:02,280 --> 00:15:06,400 the West, the bad guy in the whole thing doing all sorts of 251 00:15:06,400 --> 00:15:08,600 awful things. And you have, you have the great 252 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:11,760 and powerful Oz, who's a fraud, but he's essentially good. 253 00:15:11,760 --> 00:15:14,680 He has no, he, he's, he's not great and powerful. 254 00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:17,400 He's just a guy. And then you have Dorothy coming 255 00:15:17,400 --> 00:15:21,080 in and, and acts as the hero and, and kills the Wicked Witch 256 00:15:21,080 --> 00:15:24,000 of the West. And people celebrate and people 257 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,960 rejoice. The Wicked theatrical production 258 00:15:27,960 --> 00:15:34,480 and the movies retell the story and in this version spoilers if 259 00:15:34,480 --> 00:15:38,040 you haven't seen it spoilers You'll find this out very early 260 00:15:38,040 --> 00:15:43,240 on in the movies anyway that that it's Oz and his chief 261 00:15:43,240 --> 00:15:49,560 assistant that are really the wicked and the witch known as 262 00:15:49,560 --> 00:15:54,360 the Wicked Witch of the West is is actually named Elphaba. 263 00:15:54,600 --> 00:15:57,080 And she's really the one that's on the side of good. 264 00:15:57,920 --> 00:16:00,920 She's the one protecting the weak, protecting the vulnerable 265 00:16:01,160 --> 00:16:05,320 from exploitation and slavery and death. 266 00:16:06,520 --> 00:16:09,640 And she gets branded as wicked and her name gets stripped away 267 00:16:09,640 --> 00:16:12,720 from her, and she's no longer known as Alpha, but just the 268 00:16:12,720 --> 00:16:13,920 Wicked Witch of the. West. 269 00:16:15,080 --> 00:16:17,120 That's this one of the central themes here. 270 00:16:18,120 --> 00:16:21,800 And Glenda the good witch. Glenda the good Once you watch 271 00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:24,000 them and do I encourage you to watch the movies, they're 272 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:26,560 really, really good. But once you see the whole thing 273 00:16:26,560 --> 00:16:29,400 all the way through and go back and watch that opening sequence 274 00:16:29,400 --> 00:16:34,560 again, you see where it looks like Glenda is rejoicing along 275 00:16:34,560 --> 00:16:37,800 with the crowd and where it looks like she's agreeing with 276 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:40,160 them and all that they're saying she's really not. 277 00:16:40,400 --> 00:16:43,480 There's a lot of subtle storytelling there as they 278 00:16:43,480 --> 00:16:45,560 grapple with this question, who are the wicked? 279 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:49,920 And that's a real question we have to grapple with and in our 280 00:16:49,920 --> 00:16:52,080 earth. And it seems to me, again, I'm 281 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,160 not a history major, but it seems to me this is not a new 282 00:16:55,160 --> 00:16:58,240 problem and it's not a particularly cultural problem 283 00:16:58,400 --> 00:17:02,440 that it's out there everywhere that human beings divide up into 284 00:17:02,440 --> 00:17:06,200 groups and, and decide who's good and who's bad, who's in and 285 00:17:06,200 --> 00:17:09,680 who's out, who's wicked, who's righteous, and, and make those 286 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:11,520 decisions. And to make it easy for 287 00:17:11,520 --> 00:17:14,200 everyone, we can tell whether you're wicked or not. 288 00:17:14,200 --> 00:17:16,520 All we have to do is look at how you vote or look at how you 289 00:17:16,520 --> 00:17:19,640 tweet or look at what you post or look at whether you go to 290 00:17:19,640 --> 00:17:21,640 church or not, or look at this, that or the other. 291 00:17:21,880 --> 00:17:23,760 And then we can know whether you're wicked. 292 00:17:23,760 --> 00:17:27,359 We know, we know. But the problem is there's lots 293 00:17:27,359 --> 00:17:29,840 of fighting over it. Actually, maybe that's a good 294 00:17:29,840 --> 00:17:33,320 thing that we don't all agree. There's lots of fighting over 295 00:17:33,320 --> 00:17:34,680 it. And I'm going to get a little 296 00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:36,040 dark for a second. I'm going to a little 297 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:38,960 controversial for a second. At least touch on topics that 298 00:17:38,960 --> 00:17:41,200 are controversial. But a couple of years ago on 299 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:47,760 October 7th, when one group of people raped and murdered and 300 00:17:47,760 --> 00:17:52,480 killed men, women, and children among another group of people, 301 00:17:53,240 --> 00:17:56,960 the world was instantly the divisions within the world were 302 00:17:56,960 --> 00:18:02,360 revealed because you have one side saying that one group was 303 00:18:02,360 --> 00:18:06,280 wicked and the other side saying that the other group was wicked. 304 00:18:08,080 --> 00:18:11,160 You had you had one group of people saying that the folks 305 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,600 that were killed that day were innocent and good and victims, 306 00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:18,240 and the people doing the killing were the wicked. 307 00:18:18,440 --> 00:18:22,600 Yet another very large group of people, both sides very large, 308 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:25,520 another very large group of people saying no, no, no, no. 309 00:18:25,680 --> 00:18:29,360 It's the people that got killed that day that were wicked. 310 00:18:30,320 --> 00:18:35,600 And that's why we're celebrating who are the wicked. 311 00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:40,400 Charlie Kirk was assassinated. He had one group of people 312 00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:44,640 celebrating the wicked was dead. And another group of people 313 00:18:44,640 --> 00:18:48,960 mourning that a good and righteous person is dead, killed 314 00:18:48,960 --> 00:18:52,000 by wicked people. Another folks saying the person 315 00:18:52,000 --> 00:18:56,360 doing the killing, that was the good person, who are the wicked? 316 00:18:57,200 --> 00:19:00,080 These are questions we have to grapple with that we have to 317 00:19:00,080 --> 00:19:08,040 wrestle with and and we need to be cautious about how easily we 318 00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:10,400 arrive at answers for these questions. 319 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,480 The good news is, the good news is, is that as followers of 320 00:19:15,520 --> 00:19:19,560 Jesus Christ, the Bible gives us a cheat code for sorting out who 321 00:19:19,560 --> 00:19:21,800 the wicked are and who the wicked aren't. 322 00:19:22,160 --> 00:19:23,480 We, we got it. We got it. 323 00:19:23,560 --> 00:19:25,880 And here's another passage from Isaiah. 324 00:19:26,760 --> 00:19:28,800 Yeah, we got as Jesus, as followers. 325 00:19:28,800 --> 00:19:30,920 We have a cheat code for this debate. 326 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:34,920 Here's the cheat code. Isaiah 53, six prophecy of the 327 00:19:34,920 --> 00:19:37,080 Messiah. All of us, like sheep, have 328 00:19:37,080 --> 00:19:40,080 strayed away. We have left God's paths to 329 00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:43,200 follow our own. Yet the Lord laid on him the 330 00:19:43,200 --> 00:19:46,200 sins of us all. Our cheat code is this. 331 00:19:46,200 --> 00:19:48,280 Who are the wicked? We are. 332 00:19:49,600 --> 00:19:52,160 All of us. All of us. 333 00:19:53,560 --> 00:19:58,680 That passage in Isaiah 53 is is one of the most well known 334 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:02,880 passages, prophecies of the Messiah of Jesus when he comes, 335 00:20:03,640 --> 00:20:06,600 and in the heart of that passage is this. 336 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:11,000 All of us. Like sheep have strayed away, we 337 00:20:11,000 --> 00:20:13,960 have left God's paths to follow our own. 338 00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,000 Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. 339 00:20:21,680 --> 00:20:26,080 The fact that someone went off the path in a direct different 340 00:20:26,080 --> 00:20:31,520 direction than us does not make us less wicked than them, or 341 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:35,240 them more wicked from us. If we're off the path, we're off 342 00:20:35,240 --> 00:20:39,120 the path. And the reality is that the by 343 00:20:39,120 --> 00:20:42,880 whoops wrong button, the Bible makes very clear that we are all 344 00:20:44,160 --> 00:20:49,360 we are all in that category of wicked because we all like sheep 345 00:20:49,360 --> 00:20:51,840 have gone astray. By the way, God is not always 346 00:20:51,840 --> 00:20:54,840 does not always speak nicely about us human beings, does he? 347 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:57,280 God looks at us and says, I'm not like you people. 348 00:20:57,320 --> 00:21:00,760 Just so you know, I'm not like you people and you're more like 349 00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:04,160 sheep than people sometimes. Calling us sheep was not a 350 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,960 compliment. God was not saying how cute and 351 00:21:06,960 --> 00:21:09,640 cuddly humans are and all fluffy and nice. 352 00:21:09,840 --> 00:21:12,560 God was saying you guys are dumb. 353 00:21:12,920 --> 00:21:17,200 Sometimes you do the same dumb things over and over. 354 00:21:17,320 --> 00:21:19,640 You cannot take care of yourselves. 355 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:23,560 You need a shepherd to guide you and protect you or you won't 356 00:21:23,560 --> 00:21:26,040 even be able to find your own food and water. 357 00:21:27,640 --> 00:21:31,080 Yeah, we've gone astray like sheep. 358 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:35,240 Here's the good news right here as we move into the Christmas 359 00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:38,640 season, that the Christmas season is a time to celebrate 360 00:21:38,800 --> 00:21:42,920 the world altering truth. That God mourns the wicked 361 00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:51,120 because God mourns the wicked. Jesus was born because all of 362 00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:52,800 us, like sheep, have gone astray. 363 00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:58,120 God sent his Son Jesus to live among us as one of us to live 364 00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:04,520 and die and rise again to be our Savior and our King, because God 365 00:22:04,520 --> 00:22:09,840 mourns us in our wickedness. If God celebrated the death of 366 00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,280 the wicked, if God celebrated the destruction of the wicked, 367 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,520 Jesus would have no reason to have come. 368 00:22:16,480 --> 00:22:19,240 God would have no reason to have been born among us. 369 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,480 The simple truth is, here we are again back in Hosea. 370 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:26,680 My heart has changed within me. All my compassion is aroused. 371 00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:30,400 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate 372 00:22:30,440 --> 00:22:36,360 Ephraim or any or or or the world, for I am God, not a man, 373 00:22:36,360 --> 00:22:40,320 the holy one among you. I will not come against their 374 00:22:40,320 --> 00:22:43,200 cities. They will follow the Lord. 375 00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:48,240 Let's look at Matthew. And so it was fulfilled what the 376 00:22:48,240 --> 00:22:51,600 Lord had said through the prophet out of Egypt I called my 377 00:22:51,600 --> 00:22:57,120 son and in Hosea begins with Hosea 11 begins with when Israel 378 00:22:57,120 --> 00:23:01,040 was a child I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. 379 00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,560 Matthew was quoting Hosea and when he was quoting Hosea, he 380 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:08,120 wasn't just picking a cherry. He wasn't just cherry picking a 381 00:23:08,120 --> 00:23:11,240 verse and saying, oh, here's a place where God said out of 382 00:23:11,240 --> 00:23:14,320 Egypt, I've called my son and, and, and Jesus had to go to 383 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:16,560 Egypt and then God brought him back out of Egypt. 384 00:23:16,760 --> 00:23:20,400 Prophecy fulfilled. It's not that's kind of a 385 00:23:20,400 --> 00:23:25,160 simplistic way of looking at it. Matthew's looking at that and 386 00:23:25,160 --> 00:23:29,280 saying that at the very moment of Jesus's incarnation, at the 387 00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:35,720 time of his birth, Jesus is part of this story that Hosea was 388 00:23:35,720 --> 00:23:37,720 telling. He's tying the incarnation of 389 00:23:37,760 --> 00:23:43,080 Jesus to this entire Hosea Chapter 11, where God, instead 390 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:46,680 of rejoicing and punishing his people for their wickedness, 391 00:23:46,880 --> 00:23:51,120 God's heart changes and he has compassion and he calls them to 392 00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:54,760 return to him. And in Jesus we see that he 393 00:23:54,760 --> 00:24:00,800 comes to be our shepherd, to be our shepherd here on this earth 394 00:24:00,800 --> 00:24:04,280 with us. God's grief and compassion for 395 00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:08,240 the wicked is what motivated Jesus's messianic ministry. 396 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,200 That's why he came. That's why because God mourns 397 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:17,320 the wicked, because God has compassion for the wicked. 398 00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:19,880 And that is so good, such good news for us. 399 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:22,680 Because we all, like sheep, have gone astray. 400 00:24:23,400 --> 00:24:25,720 And just because some people have gone off the path in a 401 00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:29,520 different direction doesn't mean we've gone off the path any less 402 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:35,840 than we've gone off the path. And because we're sheep, because 403 00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,720 we're sheep without a shepherd, we will always be going off the 404 00:24:39,720 --> 00:24:41,320 bat. You seen some of those videos on 405 00:24:41,480 --> 00:24:44,680 I've never raised sheep. If you're a sheep herder and you 406 00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:47,280 feel like I'm insulting sheep, I apologize. 407 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:52,760 But I've seen those videos where the sheep stuck in the ditch and 408 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:54,520 it's way down there and it can't get out. 409 00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:57,000 And the guy struggles and he gets down in the ditch and he 410 00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,880 frees the sheep and he gets him up on land and while he's 411 00:24:59,880 --> 00:25:02,800 climbing back out of the ditch, the sheep runs around and jumps 412 00:25:02,800 --> 00:25:07,240 back in the same ditch. I saw one of the video, guy got 413 00:25:07,240 --> 00:25:09,120 up and he looked what the sheep had done and he just went like 414 00:25:09,120 --> 00:25:12,680 that. That's what sheep do. 415 00:25:14,200 --> 00:25:18,080 And so Jesus came to be our shepherd because he doesn't want 416 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:19,960 to destroy us. He doesn't. 417 00:25:19,960 --> 00:25:20,920 Want to wipe? Us out. 418 00:25:21,080 --> 00:25:23,880 He doesn't celebrate. Even when those things 419 00:25:24,120 --> 00:25:26,920 ultimately at times have to happen, he doesn't celebrate. 420 00:25:26,920 --> 00:25:30,840 He mourns and grieves because each one of us he knit together 421 00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:35,840 in our mother's womb, each one of us he died for, each one of 422 00:25:35,840 --> 00:25:41,520 us he has given His image to placed his image within. 423 00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:47,160 And when one of us dies? In wickedness, God mourns. 424 00:25:47,160 --> 00:25:53,080 That doesn't celebrate that. It might be true. 425 00:25:53,840 --> 00:25:57,800 That among human beings, no one mourns the wicked but it. 426 00:25:57,800 --> 00:26:00,680 Is also. True that our God, who is holy, 427 00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:05,760 who is different than us, mourns the wicked, and he invites us 428 00:26:07,080 --> 00:26:08,280 to. Share in his heart. 429 00:26:08,840 --> 00:26:11,600 For all people to share the love. 430 00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,240 Rather than throwing stones at the wicked, we drop the stones, 431 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,560 knowing that all we, like sheep have gone astray. 432 00:26:18,280 --> 00:26:21,640 Rather than celebrating when the wicked die, we mourn, 433 00:26:22,520 --> 00:26:26,560 particularly if someone has died in their wickedness and we. 434 00:26:26,560 --> 00:26:30,040 Grieve that. And we go to them in compassion, 435 00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,000 and with that voice of the Lord, call them to follow our Good 436 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,440 Shepherd in Jesus name, Amen and Amen.