Monday
12/24/18 - Sidney UMC –
Christmas
Eve – 7:00 pm/11:00pm
Sermon Title: “Hope is here, and is now!”
(“Hope
is Coming” Series – Part 5 of 5)
Old Testament
Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-7
New Testament
Scripture: Titus 2:11-14
Gospel Lesson:
Luke 2:1-20
Merry Christmas Eve my friends, my brothers and sisters in
Christ! Welcome once again to this service of worship, which is on this night
of love, joy, wonder, peace, and hope.
We have all gathered here tonight for many reasons. Some of
us always come to Christmas Eve Service, some of us were bribed by our families
to come here, and some of us were just “volun-told” to come here. Maybe some of
us don’t have to work tomorrow, and we figured, “Well there’s nothing else to
do in Sidney!” My mother Susan used to bribe my brother Kenny to go to church
by taking him to the Old Country Buffet afterwards. Whatever our reasons for
gathering tonight, many of us love the majesty, peace, and solemnity of this
night. Many of us love Christmas in all it splendor.
This
night, Christmas Eve is special night therefore, for many of us indeed.
Christmas Eve is ingrained in the fabric of many of our families. We have traditions,
cookies, meals, gifts, Christmas Trees, and etc. and etc. Oh, and now ugly
Christmas sweater parties. This time of the year, this night is special to
millions and even billions of people the world over. It’s a night that
captivates us all.
As
Christians, this is the night that we celebrate the birth of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. God come down from heaven. The sovereign Lord of all of
creation, that creation the heavens and the earth. This God who existed before
time, who has created everything, who is of infinite in power, love, and
wisdom. This God sought to come personally into our world, into our mess. This
God who could have entered humanity with a spectacle that could have easily
been the biggest event and the biggest party in world history.
If God so desired it, the birth of His
only son would make New Year’s Eve in Times Square in New York City look like a
boring and sleepy event. Yet that first Christmas, which probably wasn’t on
December 25th, as we are pretty sure that Jesus was born in the
spring, was so simple.
The sovereign of all creation, could
even get a room in the Holiday Inn. He was born in what we would equate today
to be an old wood shed in the back yard, or a cave. This seen was humble, full
of smelly animals and hay, and the place that the savior of the world was laid
was manger. This manger many scholars believe was a feeding trough to feed
animals. If you have even seen pigs or other animals feed from a troth, well
this is the sort of thing that the baby Jesus was laid in.
The God of all creation, of all
love, power, majesty, and wisdom, comes to us like this. Why would this happen?
It probably isn’t what would do. Who would want to give birth like, let along
to the savior of the world. The birth of Christ, this Nativity Story is one
that continues to humble me, as God loved us so much that He was determined to become
like one of us. It’s the equivalency of a wealthy person giving up that they
have to become poor, homeless, and persecuted. The birth of Christ, this night
hopefully will give hope to us all.
I also find it interesting every
year to see signs that say, “Keep Christ in Christmas”. I completely agree with
these signs, but the funny part is the word “Christ” is in Christmas. In fact
the title of “Christmas” which is about a thousand years old refers to special “mass”
that Roman Catholic Church held on December 25th. For that day was
the “mass,” the service for Jesus Christ. This is where we get the title “Christmas”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas). So you can indeed take Jesus, the
religious part of tonight and holiday out of your celebration, but you can’t
say “Merry Christmas,” with saying the name Christ, the savior, Emmanuel. For
the word Christ is forever etched into this night, tomorrow, and the whole
12-day season of Christmas.
Let’s look again at tonight’s
scriptures. The reading from the Prophet Isaiah foretells the coming the
Messiah, of Jesus Christ. The Prophet Isaiah said this one who will born to us,
the Christ will called:
“Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6b, NRSV).
In our reading from the Apostle Paul’s
Epistle or the letter to Titus for tonight, Paul says of Jesus Christ:
“For the grace of God
has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and
worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are
self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the
manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. He it is who gave himself
for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a
people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” (Titus 2:11-14, NRSV).
You see my friends, Christ is coming
as baby very soon. Very soon he will born and among us. We can call him daily
to come into our hearts and souls, and Christ one day will return to earth in
Glory. This was all foretold centuries before Christ by the great prophets of
the Old Testament and other Old Testament of Hebrew Bible scriptures. Jesus’
cousin, John the Baptist prepared the way for the Messiah, for Jesus. We are
all called to prepare ourselves for the coming the Christ, and to help others
prepare as well. Tonight then is also a night of anticipation and preparation.
I’m sure all people here have everything perfectly ready for tomorrow morning,
don’t we? Tonight is also a night of anticipation and preparation.
Tonight we prepare for a woman named
Mary, likely in early teens, to give birth to the savior of the world. The one
who change the world, teach us how to love to better, to even die for us, only
to be raised gloriously to new life that first Easter morning. The same Christ
that promised that would return to us one day in glory.
In looking again at our gospel reading
for tonight, many of us have the heard story many times. Many of us know that
the gospel of Luke says:
“In those days a decree went out from Emperor
Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first
registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to
their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in
Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended
from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom
he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time
came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and
wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no
place for them in the inn.” (Lk. 2:1-7,
NRSV).
In
our country and other countries we have censuses taken every so many years to
determine our population and other demographic statistics. No doubt a big
reason that Roman Emperor Augustus, who controlled Judea where Mary and Joseph
were from was concerned about taxes. More people, well then more taxes. Not
only this, people were required to go where their families were from. Since
Joseph was from Bethlehem, he took Mary who was to give soon to Bethlehem. The
birth of Christ, the Messiah being Bethlehem was of course written by an Old
Testament prophet hundreds of years prior to birth of Jesus. All the past prophesies,
all the predictions of old are all coming tonight on this night.
We’re
also told in this gospel reading that there was no room at the Inn, or as I
like to call it, “The Bethlehem Holiday Inn”. If my mother Susan had been
present to negotiate though, Mary and Joseph would have been given the
penthouse suite on the house. Unfortunately for Mary and Joseph, this was not
the case. This birth, in the manger, the nativity, even if it didn’t happen
exactly as we might think it did, was all foretold hundreds of years earlier.
The coming
of the shepherds who watched their flocks by night, who worshiped the new
Christ Child, the savior, were foretold. The gospel for tonight speaks
beautifully of their encounter with an angel of the Lord (Lk. 2:8-20, NRSV).
The gospel of Matthew also included the visit of the Magi, or the Wiseman,
which probably wasn’t the actually night that Christ was born (Mat. 2:1-12,
NRSV). We can’t mess up our Christmas play though, and the important thing is
that Wise Men or Magi came as predicted hundreds of years before. In
seriousness though, on Sunday January 6th, we have our holiday
called “Epiphany,” which celebrates the visit of the Wise Men or Magi to visit
Christ. The reason Epiphany is about two weeks after Christmas, is because the
Magi or Wise Men likely came to visit Christ a little later in the story.
However
we have missed or messed up any of the details of what this night is, or what
we celebrate tomorrow, the important thing is this, “Hope is here, and hope is
now!” Jesus will soon be born and be among us! He will change this world and us
forever! He can come into our hearts daily, and he will return again in glory.
I hope that in season of Advent that will very soon at mid-night tonight become
the season of Christmas that rediscover anew the joy of Jesus Christ. The joy
of God in the flesh come down for us, to give us love, joy, peace, and hope. My
friends, my brothers and sisters in Christ, “Hope is here, and is now!”
I
would like to close this Christmas Eve message with a story about love, caring,
and hope. This story with you called “Some Christmas Tears,” by an unknown
author. Here is how it goes:
“It was only four days before Christmas. The spirit
of the season hadn't yet caught up with me, even though cars packed the parking
lot of our local discount store. Inside the store, it was worse. Shopping carts
and last minute shoppers jammed the aisles. Why did I come today? I wondered.
My feet ached almost as much as my head. My list contained names of several
people who claimed they wanted nothing but I knew their feelings would be hurt
if I didn't buy them anything.”
“Hurriedly,
I filled my shopping cart with last minute items and proceeded to the long
checkout lines. I picked the shortest but it looked as if it would mean at
least a 20 minute wait.” In front of me were two small children - a boy of
about 5 and a younger girl. The boy wore a ragged coat. Enormously large,
tattered tennis shoes jutted far out in front of his much too short jeans. He
clutched several crumpled dollar bills in his grimy hands.”
“The
girl's clothing resembled her brother's. Her head was a matted mass of curly
hair. Reminders of an evening meal showed on her small face. She carried a
beautiful pair of shiny, gold house slippers. As the Christmas music sounded in
the store's stereo system, the girl hummed along, off-key but happily.”
“When we finally approached the checkout register,
the girl carefully placed the shoes on the counter. She treated them as though
they were a treasure. The clerk rang up the bill. "That will be
$6.09," she said. The boy laid his crumpled dollars atop the stand while
he searched his pockets. He finally came up with $3.12. "I guess we will
have to put them back," he bravely said. "We will come back some
other time, maybe tomorrow."
“With that statement, a soft sob broke from the
little girl. "But Jesus would have loved these shoes," she cried. Well,
we'll go home and work some more. Don't cry. We'll come back," he said. Quickly
I handed $3.00 to the cashier. These children had waited in line for a long
time. And, after all, it was Christmas." Suddenly a pair of arms came
around me and a small voice said, "Thank you, lady." "What did
you mean when you said Jesus would like the shoes?" I asked.
“The boy answered, "Our mommy is sick and going
to heaven. Daddy said she might go before Christmas to be with Jesus." The
girl spoke, "My Sunday school teacher said the streets in heaven are shiny
gold, just like these shoes. Won't mommy be beautiful walking on those streets
to match these shoes?" My eyes flooded as I looked into her tear streaked
face. "Yes" I answered, "I am sure she will." Silently I
thanked God for using these children to remind me of the true spirit of
giving."
(http://www.gospelweb.net/Christmas/SomeChristmasTears.htm).
Friends, brothers and sisters, “Hope
is here, and is now!” I pray that tonight, tomorrow, this season of Christmas
that we may discover anew and share abundantly with each other the great love
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Merry Christmas, and may God bless us all!
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment