Defending Christmas

This blog post is a tradition, having appeared every year at about this time since all the way back in 2009 at my prior blog.

            We are just over a week away from Christmas Day.  Among other things, that means it’s the time of year for pastors to complain about the secularization of Christmas.

            There are secular aspects to Christmas, of course.  There always have been. Some of them are fine.  There’s nothing particularly wrong with giving and receiving presents, as long as you don’t go overboard about it.  There’s nothing wrong with decorating trees and putting up Christmas lights.  In fact, I enjoy looking at them.   

The reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25 is not because Jesus was actually born on that date—we don’t know the actual day on which Jesus was born, although there are various theories.  The reason we celebrate Christmas on December 25 is that it was a time when there were already secular celebrations at that time, centering on the winter solstice.  It might be more accurate, then, to say that followers of Jesus have been trying to Christianize a secular holiday rather than the other way around.

            Therefore, I don’t think Christians need to feel like they’re trying to defend Jesus in some sort of war on Christmas.  In fact, the idea of Christians fighting a war over the birth of the Prince of Peace seems like a contradiction in terms.  All we need to do, as Christians, is make clear what it is that we are celebrating, regardless of what anyone else is doing.

            Let others wish us a “happy holiday”; we can still wish them a merry Christmas.  If some don’t want a nativity scene at the courthouse, we can still put one in our front yard.  More than three-fourths of Americans claim to be Christians.  If three-fourths of the houses in this country had nativity scenes in their yards, there’d be no need for one on public property.  In fact, we’d probably make more of an impact that way.

            We don’t need to get mad at people who want to secularize Christmas.  What we need to do is calmly, persistently, and lovingly make sure people know that, as Christians, we are celebrating the birth of Christ.  Then, in that same way, we need to make sure people know who Jesus is, why we worship him, and why others should worship him, too.  If we do that, our Lord and Savior will do the rest.

Do Your Best

This is the message given at the communion service at Oahe Manor Thursday, December 12, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 1:18-25.

            You know, in a lot of ways, Joseph is kind of the forgotten man of the Christmas story.  I mean, we know he’s there.  We certainly would not put together a nativity scene without Joseph.  But a lot of times that’s about all we know about Joseph—that he’s there.  The Christmas story tends to be about Mary and the baby and the shepherds and the wise men.  Joseph is just kind of set to one side.

            That’s true even in the Bible verses we read today.  We’re told that an angel appeared to Joseph.  We’re told what the angel said.  We’re told that this took place to make an Old Testament prophecy come true.  But we’re not told a thing about what Joseph said.  We’re not told anything about what he thought.  We’re not told anything about how he felt.  It’s like Joseph was just kind of prop, like he’s not really all that important.

            But put yourself in Joseph’s place.  You’re about to get married.  And the woman you love, whom you’re about to marry, comes to you and tells you she’s pregnant.  And you know the child cannot possibly be yours.  And yet, she swears that she has not been unfaithful to you.  She tells you that she was visited by an angel, and that this child is, in fact, the son of God.

            How would you react to that?  I mean, you might want to believe it, but how could you?  It sounds so totally unbelievable.  Who ever heard of such a thing?  I mean, yeah, you’ve heard about the Old Testament prophecy about the virgin birth, but that was eight hundred years ago.  And now, your fiancée is trying to convince you that she, out of all the people in the world before and since, was told by an angel that she’s the virgin the prophet was talking about?  Come on.

            But, you still have feelings for Mary, so you decide to just cancel the wedding and keep things quiet.  Your family and close friends will know what’s happened, but they don’t have to know why.  Life can go on for everybody.  And then, you get visited by an angel, too.  And the angel tells you that everything Mary told you was true.

            How would you feel?  Relieved, probably.  Maybe a little ashamed for having doubted Mary.  But then what?

            I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be scared to death.  Think of the responsibility!  It’s hard enough to raise kids under normal circumstances.  But this.  I mean, is the kid going to look different, have some sort of angelic shine to him or something?  Is he going to act different?  What are you supposed to do?  How in the world do you be the Dad to the Son of God?

            I suspect a lot of stuff like this was going through Joseph’s mind.  Probably some of it went through Mary’s mind, too.  I’d be they had a lot of talks about it when they were waiting for their child to come, and probably after he was born as well.

            We’re not told about that in the Bible, though.  Again, we’re not told anything about what Joseph said or thought or felt.  He was not even asked if he agreed with all this.  It was like whether he agreed with it really did not matter.  Joseph does not appear to have been given any choice about it.  We’re just told that Joseph took Mary home with him as his wife.  In other words, Joseph accepted the situation God had given him and decided to do the best he could with it.

            And it strikes me that this is the same thing that God often asks us to do.  Because there are a lot of times in our lives when things happen, and whether we agree with them or not really does not matter.  We’re not given any choice about it.  God just asks us to accept the situation God has given us and do the best we can with it.

            Some of you—maybe all of you—are here because of situations you were not really given a whole lot of choice about.  Even if you made the decision to come here, you made that decision because of situations you did not have much control over.  If you could have everything the way you wanted, you’d feel better, you’d be able to do more things, you’d be independent, and you would be living on your own rather than be here.

            I certainly don’t blame you for feeling that way.  And I’m sure God does not blame you for feeling that way, either.  But, as you know, that’s not one of the options you have.  You are in the condition you’re in, and that condition requires you to be here.  God did not give you a choice about that condition.  And what God asks is that you accept that condition and do the best you can with it.

            What that means, exactly, is different for each of you.  Each of you has different talents and abilities.  Each of you is in a little different condition.  That’s okay.  None of us is asked to do everything.  We’re just asked to do the best we can.

            You know, when the angel talked to them, the angel did not tell them all the stuff that was going to happen.  The angel did not say, “Oh, and by the way, you’re going to have this baby when you’re traveling away from home, and it’ll be born in a stable.  And then you’re going to have to go away and live in Egypt for a couple of years before you can come back home.”  Joseph and Mary did not know any of that.  They lived their lives one day at a time, the way we all do.  They made it up as they went along.

            So, if you don’t know exactly what to do, that’s okay.  Joseph and Mary did not know what to do, either.  But if we accept the situation God has given us and resolve to do the best we can with it, God will show us what to do, just like God did with Joseph and Mary.

            We don’t always get to choose our situations.  But we do get to choose how we respond to them.  If was accept the situation God has given us and decide to do the best we can, God will take care of the rest.

The Most Important Person in the World

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, December 8, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Micah 4:1-5:3 and Matthew 2:1-8.

            One thing that most people know about the birth of Jesus is that it took place in Bethlehem.  Even most people who don’t believe in Jesus know that.  You ask people on the street where Jesus was born, and most of them would be able to come up with “Bethlehem”.  We sing about it, like we just did with “O Little Town of Bethlehem”.  Jesus’ birth is Bethlehem’s big claim to fame.

            The thing is that it was not just an accident or a coincidence that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  As we just heard, this was something that was predicted in the Old Testament.  The prophet Micah had said that the King would be born in Bethlehem.

            The book of Micah was written, to the best of our knowledge, around 700 B.C.  That would be about a hundred years after the prophecy of Isaiah that we talked about last week, but still a long time before Jesus was born.  

            It was written at a time when the nations of Israel and Judah were in big trouble.  Israel and Judah was still technically independent countries, but they was basically under the control of Assyria.  It was sort of like how countries like Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia were in the days of the Soviet Union.  They were considered independent countries, but they were only independent to the extent that they were allowed to be.  Israel and Judah could do nothing that Assyria did not allow them to do, and they had to pay Assyria to keep them from just invading and taking over.

Micah says this happened because the people of Israel and Judah had abandoned God.  But, he says, it will not always be this way.  God has a plan.  Eventually, things are going to be the way they were always supposed to be.

It’s not going to happen right away.  In fact, Micah says that for a while, things are going to get even worse.  But eventually, God is going to bring the nations of Israel and Judah back together, and they’re going to be strong again.  And God, speaking through Micah, says the one through whom this is going to happen, the ruler over Israel, is going to come from Bethlehem.  And, as we heard in our reading from Matthew, Bethlehem is where Jesus was, in fact, born.

Why Bethlehem?  Well, we don’t really know, of course.  God, speaking through Micah, says the King is to be born in Bethlehem, but God does not say why.  I’ll bet the people Micah was speaking to wondered about it, though.  Why Bethlehem?

People knew where Bethlehem was, of course.  They’d heard of it.  It was not too far from Jerusalem.  It was the hometown of King David, so people knew it for that reason.  The Savior was supposed to be a descendant of David, and we’ll talk about that later in this sermon series, but that did not mean he had to born in Bethlehem.  There was nothing special about the town.  David had never made a big deal about being born in Bethlehem.  When we read the book of Micah, we’re not told of anyone questioning Micah about it, but the question had to have occurred to them.  Why Bethlehem?  Why there?

The one thing Micah said about it, the one clue we’re given, is that Bethlehem is the home of the Ephrathites.  We’re then told that the Ephrathites are small among the clans of Judah.

Why is that important?  Well, again, we don’t know.  But we do know that one of the reasons Micah told people this was so when the Savior came, they’d know about it.  They’d be able to pick him out.  There had already been false Messiahs and false prophets, and Micah knew that was going to continue.  It was important that people be able to pick out the true Messiah when he came.  

One of the ways people would know whether someone was actually a true Messiah was if they knew whether he’d been born in Bethlehem.  And since Bethlehem was small, that’d cut down the number of people who could claim to be the Messiah.  If the Messiah had been born in a big city like Jerusalem, there might’ve been all sorts of false Messiahs who could make that claim.  But not that many people were born in Bethlehem, and the people there would know if someone had been born there or not.  It was a much more effective sign for God to have the Savior born in a little town like Bethlehem.

I think there’s more to it than that, though.  I think the fact that the Savior was born in Bethlehem fits in with the way God looks at this world.  As we’ve talked before, God does not look at the world the way we do.  God does not necessarily honor the same things we honor.  God does not see as important the same things we see as important.  God simply has different and better priorities than we do.

Who are some births that have been celebrated in recent years?  When one of Britain’s royal family has a son or daughter, that’s a big deal, right?  When Kim Kardashian and Kanye West had a baby recently, that was a huge deal.  Not to some of us, necessarily, but in the news it was.  Google it and you’ll see all kinds of stories.

On the other hand, when a baby is born to people who live in Gettysburg, or Onida, or Agar, it’s not a big deal.  I mean, it is to their family, and to their friends, but the world does not really notice.  Those of you who’ve had children, I’m guessing they did not put you on the national news when you did.  USA Today probably did not send a reporter out to talk to you and a photographer to take pictures.  The world looked at it as just another baby, just one more kid out of all the thousands and millions of kids who are born all the time.

That’s how the world looked at it when Jesus was born, too.  I mean, yeah, there were the shepherds and the wise men, but shepherds were considered pretty low-class people at the time.  Nobody paid a whole lot of attention to them.  And despite the way we show it in our nativity scenes, the wise men did not actually show up on the night of Jesus’ birth.  It was sometime later, maybe up to two years later, when they met Jesus with their gifts.  On the night of Jesus’ birth, very few people even noticed, and to most of those who did, it was just one more Jewish kid born in the world.

But of course, Jesus was not just one more Jewish kid born.  But because he was born in Bethlehem, in a stable, of all places, almost nobody knew about it at the time.  Mary and Joseph knew, of course.  The shepherds knew, and the wise men.  And eventually, everybody else would come to find out, too.  Jesus was not just one more Jewish kid born.  He was someone special.  He was someone important.  In fact, he was someone unique.  He was the Messiah.  But hardly anybody saw it at the time.

God saw it, though.  And God saw it when your children were born, too.  And God also saw it when you were born.  God never, ever sees a baby as “just another kid being born”.  God sees each one of us as special, and important, and unique.  God sees us that way when we’re born, and God continues to see us that way throughout our lives.

God could’ve had Jesus be born in a big city, in a palace, to parents who were rich and famous.  God could’ve had Jesus be born with lots of publicity and a big show.  But instead, God had Jesus born in the little town of Bethlehem, in a stable, with no fanfare except a few shepherds, to parents who were just common people, people like you and me.  And, as far as we know, Jesus grew up as just a common person, too.

God does not see things the way humans tend to see them.  God does not judge a person’s importance based on their fame.  God does not judge a person’s importance based on their money.  God does not judge a person’s importance based on their power.  To God, each one of us is important.  And we always will be, no matter what we do, no matter where we go.  Each of us will be important, and special, and unique.

Micah told the people that God had a plan to bring the nation together.  That plan involved a baby being born in Bethlehem.  The most important person in the history of the world was to be born in a small town to common, ordinary people. 

And the most important person in the history of the world is still being born to common, ordinary people.  Because to God, each one of us is the most important person in the history of the world.

Reach Out

I hope you’re having an awesome day today.  In fact, I hope this awesome day is just one part of an awesome week for you!

That's a pretty optimistic statement, I guess.  Well, I try to be an optimist.  I think it's the best way to be.  One of my favorite Doctor Who quotes is when the Doctor says, “I am and always will be the optimist.  The hoper of far-flung hopes.  The dreamer of improbable dreams.”

I think that’s a good way to go through life.  Certainly, we should not lose touch with reality, but the only way we can accomplish things is we believe they are possible in the first place.  If we think things will go right, well, maybe they will.  If we convince ourselves things can't possibly go right, well, they almost certainly won't.  That's just kind of the way life works.

Still, I know that sometimes it's hard to be optimistic.  Sometimes things go wrong, and sometimes they stay wrong for a while.  Sometimes, it’s a pretty long while.  If things stay wrong long enough, it's hard to convince ourselves that they'll eventually go right.  If things stay wrong long enough, we start to think they'll never go right again.

I understand that.  I’ve been there.  The thing is, God understands it, too.  God understands how hard that can be.  But God is always there with us.  God is there in those times when things go wrong, and eventually, God will help them start to go right again.  Just hang in there.  Don't give up.  Things will get better, if we just don't lose our trust in God.  Remember, with God, all things are possible.  Nothing is too hard for God.

But one other thing, too.  If things are going wrong, don't suffer alone.  Don't suffer in silence.  Reach out to people.  Reach out to your friends.  Reach out to your church.  Reach out to your pastor.  We may or may not be able to help, but we can at least let you know you're not alone.  We can let you know that, no matter how bad things are, there are at least people who love you and care about you and want to help.

No one is supposed to try to get through life alone.  That’s why God put us into families and into communities—so that we would not have to go through life by ourselves.  Even Jesus didn't try to get through life by himself.  He sought out people to be with him.  If Jesus needed to have people around him, you and I certainly do.

There are people who are here for you.  We are here for you.  All you need to do is let us know when you need us.  Never think it’s too much trouble.  Never think you’ll be bothering us.  We want to help you.  And there will be times when we need you to help us, too.

We all need help to stay optimistic.  So don’t be afraid to reach out.  And have an awesome week!

Don't Worry, Be Ready

This is the message given at the Oahe Manor service Sunday, December 1, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 24:36-44.

I hope you all had a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving.  But today is December first.  So, even though we still think of this as Thanksgiving weekend, in the church we need to turn the page.  Today is the first Sunday of the season of Advent.  This is the time in the church calendar when we get ready to celebrate the coming of Christ.

In our reading from Matthew, Jesus talked about getting ready for the coming of Christ, too.  Not his birth, obviously, but the time he's going to come again.  And there are ways in which that second coming will be like the first.  In both cases, people had been told that Jesus was coming.  There are Old Testament prophecies of the coming of the Savior to earth, and Jesus himself said that he would come again.  Also, in both cases, even though people know Jesus is coming, there is no way to know when it's going to happen.  And so, in both cases, it's important for us to be ready.

Jesus says that when he comes again, it's going to be a day just like any other day.  We'll be living our lives, eating and drinking and getting married and doing all the things people do in their lives.  And suddenly, Jesus will be here.  The way it sounds, once he comes, there won't be any time to get ready any more.  So, since we don't know when Jesus is coming and we won't have time to get ready after he comes, we need to be ready now, so we're ready whenever he comes.

That sounds like kind of a hard thing.  It's really not.  We don't have to do a lot of special stuff to get ready for Jesus to come.  In fact, we don't really have to do anything.  Salvation is not about doing stuff.  Salvation is about faith.  If we believe in God, if we've accepted Jesus Christ as our Savior, if we've asked God for forgiveness of our sins, then we are ready.

If you went to the inspiration service last Tuesday morning, you heard Norma talk about the Boy Scout motto, “Be prepared”.  That's what we're talking about here.  And when I think about that, I think about something else Jesus said.  This is in Matthew, too, but it comes earlier, in Chapter Six.  Jesus says, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

See, to me, worrying and being prepared always seem like exact opposites.  I don't know about you, but the times I do the most worrying are when I'm not prepared.  That's when I start thinking about all the things that could happen or might happen and start wondering what I'll do if they do happen.  If I'm not prepared for stuff, I do a lot of worrying about it.

But I don't worry if I'm prepared.  Because why should I?  When we're prepared, we don't need to worry.  If those things that could happen or might happen actually do happen, it's okay.  We're ready. We know what we're going to do.  There's nothing to worry about, because no matter what happens, we'll be able to handle it.

And that includes the time when we meet Jesus, too.  If we've asked God for forgiveness of our sins and accepted Jesus as our Savior, we don't have to worry about what happens when the time comes.  We're ready for it.  There's nothing to worry about, because when Jesus comes, we'll be able to handle it.

That's true regardless of whether we meet Jesus because Jesus came to earth again or whether we meet Jesus because we've left this earth.  If we've asked God for forgiveness of our sins and accepted Jesus as our Savior, we don't have to worry even about death.  When the time comes, we'll be ready for it.  When the time comes, we'll be able to handle it.

Did you notice, when Jesus told the disciples to be ready, he never told them anything to do.  He did not tell them “I could come again at any time, so make sure you live a perfect, sinless life”.  He did not tell them, “I could come again at any time, so make sure you spend all day every day praying and reading the Bible”.  If you read the verses around this passage, there's really only one thing he tells the disciples to do to get ready, and that is to be faithful to God.  And again, we do that by asking god for forgiveness of our sins and accepting Jesus Christ as our Savior.

We struggle with that idea sometimes.  It seems too simple.  It seems too easy.  We think, “That cannot be all there is to it.  There must be something more that I have to do.  There must be some great and high and noble thing I have to do.  The almighty, all-powerful God would not let somebody like me into heaven.  The righteous, holy, perfect God would not want someone like me around.  I have to get better.  I have to do something to show I'm good enough.  I have to do something to earn my way into heaven.”

We're so tempted to think that, but it's just not so.  There is nothing we can do to be “good enough”.  In fact, there is no such thing as being “good enough” to go to heaven.  We don't get to go to heaven because we're good, we get to go to heaven because God is so good.  We don't get to go to heaven because we're earned it, we get to go to heaven because Jesus earned it for us.  All we need to do is believe.  Believe and accept Jesus Christ as our Savior.

If we've done that, then we're prepared.  And when we're prepared, we don't have to worry.  We can be at peace, and look forward to the day when we will go to be with Jesus in heaven.

A Promise Kept

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, December 1, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Isaiah 7:3-17 and Luke 1:26-38.

We just got done with Thanksgiving, and I hope you all had a wonderful one.  I hope you got to eat lots of turkey—at least if you like turkey—and I hope you got to watch lots of football—if you like football—and I hope you got to spend some time with family and rest and do all the things we do to celebrate Thanksgiving.  And of course, I also hope you spent some time actually giving thanks to God for all the things God has done for us.

But now, in the church, it's time for us to turn the calendar page to preparations for the coming of Christmas.  This is the first Sunday of Advent.  We lit the first candle of the Advent wreath, we're singing the Advent hymns, and we're starting to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.

That's good.  We need to prepare to celebrate Jesus' birth.  They prepared for it in Old Testament times, too.  They may not have known just what they were preparing for, exactly, but they were still preparing for it.  There are lots of Old Testament passages that talk about the coming of the Messiah.  So, our sermon series for December is “Jesus Foretold”.  We're going to look at some of the Old Testament prophecies and see what they had to say about the coming of the Messiah.  And we're going to start by talking about the sign of the virgin birth, as referenced in the book of Isaiah.

The book of Isaiah, or at least the part we're dealing with today, was written in the eighth century B. C.  In other words, it was written about eight hundred years before Jesus was born.  At this time, Israel was separated from Judah, and Judah was in big trouble.  There were two kings who were sending their armies to march on Jerusalem and take it over.  The king of Judah, King Ahaz, was scared, because he did not think his army could defeat these other armies.

God sends the prophet Isaiah to King Ahaz, and tells him to tell Ahaz not to worry about it.  It'll be okay.  Just stand firm in your faith.  God will defend you.  God will defeat your enemies.  And, he says, ask God to give you a sign of how God can be trusted.  And Ahaz says no. Ahaz says, no, I don't want a sign.

Think about that.  How many times in your life have you wished God would give you a sign of some sort?  I have, sometimes.  I might ask God for a sign that I'm on the right track.  I might ask God for a sign that things are going to work out.  Sometimes, I might just ask God for a sign that God is still there and that God knows what I'm going through.  Sometimes I've thought that I've gotten a sign and sometimes I have not, but there have been several times when I've asked for one.

But Ahaz did not want a sign.  Why not?  I mean, here he is, scared that two different armies are going to defeat him and take over his country, and he does not want a sign that God will protect him?  I'd think you'd love to have a sign in a situation like that.  In fact, I think I'd be looking for a sign, desperately trying to find one, trying to find something, anything, that said God was with me and that things would be all right.  But Ahaz did not want one.  Why not?

Well, you know, as much as we might think we want a sign from God, sometimes it's a tricky thing.  You see, if we ask for a sign from God, what we're really agreeing to do is surrender to God's will.  If we say we want a sign from God on whether we should do something, and God gives us a sign that we should, then we have to do it.  Even if we really don't want to do it, if God gives us a sign to do it, we'd better.  If we say we want a sign from God on whether things are going to work out the way we want them to and we get a sign that says no, then we have to re-think everything we've been doing.  Even if we really want things to work out a certain way, if God gives us a sign that they won't, we need to adapt to that.  If we ask for a sign from God, we need to surrender our will to God's will.

And a lot of times, we really don't want to do that.  We might think we do, but when it comes right down to it, we probably don't.  Ahaz did not.  He wanted God to defeat his enemies, of course, but he wanted God to do it in a way that left Ahaz in control of the situation.  After all, that's what it means to be king—to be in control of everything.  If Ahaz asked for a sign from God, then he would be surrendering his will to God's will.  He would be acknowledging that God was in control, and not Ahaz.  Ahaz did not want to do that.

But Isaiah tells Ahaz that he's going to get a sign anyway, a sign that showed God would always protect God's people.  The sign is that a virgin is going to give birth to a son and he will be called Immanuel, which means “God with us”.

And eight centuries later, it happened.  Jesus was born to the virgin, Mary.  Jesus was “God with us”.

Eight centuries is a long time to wait for a promise to be kept.  You know, one of the things about the way we read the Bible is that we kind of compress the amount of time it took for these things to happen.  Think of it this way.  Eight centuries ago, it was the year 1213.  Think about if God made a promise to someone in 1213 and it had still not been fulfilled.  You think people would start to doubt God's promise?  You think people would start to wonder if that promise was actually true?  You think there'd be a lot of questions about a promise God supposedly made in 1213 that had not come true yet?  Of course there would be.

And there were doubts among the Jews before Jesus was born, too.  They believed in God, and they believed Isaiah was a prophet, but still.  Eight centuries.  Eight hundred years.  And nothing had happened.  For a lot of that time, they'd been under the control of some other country.  Once in a while something would happen to give them hope.  They'd even gain their freedom, momentarily.  But it would never last.  And so, even though they believed that a Savior would someday come, very few of them actually expected to see it happen in their lifetime.  They believed, in theory, but that belief did not really affect their lives in any meaningful way.

Does that make them much different from us, do you think?  We believe in God, and we believe in Jesus Christ as our Savior.  And yet, those things we read in the gospels, the story of Mary we read this morning in Luke, happened two thousand years ago.  God was with us, in the form of Jesus, two thousand years ago.  And we're told that, sometime, Jesus is coming back.  And we believe it, but still.  Two thousand years.  Two millenia.  Twenty centuries.  And, as far as we can tell, nothing has  happened.  For a lot of that time, in fact for all of that time, somewhere in the world, Christians have been persecuted.  Once in a while, something happens to give us hope, but it never lasts.  And so, even though we believe that Jesus did come, and even though we believe Jesus will come again, very few of us actually expect to see it happen in our lifetime.  We believe, in theory, but too many times, that belief does not affect our lives in any meaningful way.

And so, we doubt.  And we worry.  And we get scared of our enemies, whether those enemies are physical enemies like King Ahaz had or are enemies like illness or debt or loneliness or broken relationships or all the other things that affect us in life.

And God comes to us, just like Isaiah came to Ahaz.  And God tells us not to worry about it.  It'll be okay.  We just need to stand firm in our faith.  God will defend us.  God will defeat our enemies.   All we need to do is trust God.  All we need to do is surrender our will to God's will.

God gave Ahaz a sign.  That sign was a promise.  Eventually, that promise was kept.  It took a long time, but eventually, the virgin did conceive and give birth to a son, and the son was Immanuel, God with us.

God will keep God's promises to us, too.  It may take a while, but eventually, it will happen.  The question is, do we believe that?  Do we believe it enough to let it truly affect our lives?  In other words, do we believe it enough to do what King Ahaz could not do?  Do we believe it enough to trust God and surrender our will to God's will?

On this first Sunday of Advent, as we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ, those are questions we need to answer.

The Honor Roll

This is the message given in the Wheatland Parish Sunday, November 24, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Mark 14:12-26 and Psalm 139.

This Thursday is Thanksgiving, so it seemed like the perfect time to end our sermon series called “Thank God”.  So far, we've talked about how thanking God helps us feel joy and feel like we are one with God.  We've also talked about how, even though we know, as the Apostle Paul says, that we should be thankful in all circumstances, it can be a really hard thing to do, and how God understands if sometimes we just cannot do it.

The thing is, though, that even though God understands when we simply cannot feel thankful, that should still be our goal.  Not in the sense of feeling guilty if we don't feel thankful, but in the sense of knowing that we'll feel better if we do.  It's okay for us to feel whatever we feel, but we also need to try to find ways to not feel it any more, to start feeling the thankfulness that really will help us once again feel joy and feel that we are one with God.

And that's why we read the story from the gospel of Mark about the Last Supper.  Some of you might have wondered about that, because we usually read that story when it's getting close to Easter, not at Thanksgiving.  But it seems to me, when I read that story, that one of the things Jesus does there is give us an example of being thankful in all circumstances.

Let's look at what's going on here.  Jesus is about to take the Passover meal with his disciples.  This is the last time he's going to be with them before he gets arrested—that, of course, is why we call it the Last Supper.  The arrangements are made.  The meal is prepared.  Jesus comes, and the way it's written, the first thing he tells the disciples is that one of them is going to betray him.

The disciples—other than Judas—are shocked.  Judas himself might be shocked, at least shocked that Jesus knows what he's going to do, anyway.  But Jesus tells them it really is going to happen, and that it really is one of them.

Then, it's time to eat.  What happens then?  Here's what it says:

"Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it, this is my body.”  Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it."

Think about that.  Jesus knows exactly what's going to happen.  He knows that later on that night, he's going to be arrested.  Then he's going to be beaten, he's going to be tortured, and he's going to be killed in a very hard way.  And he knows that the person responsible for turning him over to the authorities and making all this happen is sitting right there with him.  And yet, Jesus gives thanks.  He gives thanks twice, once before giving his disciples the bread and once before giving his disciples the cup.  Knowing everything that's going to happen, Jesus still gives thanks to God the Father.

I wonder what Jesus actually said.  There's no way to know, of course.  None of the gospels quote Jesus there.  They just say he gave thanks.  It may have just been a ritualistic Jewish prayer, just a formula prayer that Jews always said before taking a meal, especially the Passover meal.  That would explain why we don't have Jesus' words.  On the other hand, all the gospels that talk about this specifically point out that Jesus gave thanks twice.  If it was just a ritual, there'd have been no need to say it at all.

What would Jesus have had to be thankful for, at that point?  The food?  What good was that going to do him?  This was the last meal he would have on earth.  His friends?  One of them was going to betray him, and all of them were going to abandon him.  The coming day?  Jesus knew what that was going to bring for him.  Yes, he knew he would eventually triumph over death and would later go to be with God the Father in heaven, but he was going to have to travel a long, hard road to get there.  And as we learn from Jesus' time in the Garden of Gethsemane, it's not a road he particularly wanted to travel, any more than anyone else would.  If you were Jesus, what would you be thankful for right then?  Anything?

Again, there's no way to know what Jesus was thankful for.  The only thing I can think of, though, is that Jesus was thankful for the chance to serve God the Father.  Jesus was thankful for the honor of being the one who would bring salvation to the world.  Jesus was thankful that, as the Divine Son, he had the privilege of being the one who would suffer, die, and then conquer death so that our sins would be forgiven.

Maybe some of us would look at that and think, “Oh, yeah, that was some honor, all right.”  But if we think about it, it really was an honor.  After all, who else could've done it?  Who else could have been fully divine and fully human at the same time?  Who else could've been sent from heaven to do what Jesus did?  Who else could have left the presence of God the Father, abandoning the power that comes from God the Father, leaving the joy and beauty and peace and love that comes from being in the presence of God the Father, in order to bring salvation to us?  No human could've done it, obviously.  No angel could've done it, either.  None of the cherubim or seraphim or any other heavenly beings could have done it.  Out of all the earthly beings and all he heavenly beings, there was only one who could do it.  The only one who could be sent from heaven, the only being capable of doing what Jesus did, was Jesus himself, the divine Son of God.

Only the divine Son was uniquely qualified to suffer, die, and then conquer death so our sins would be forgiven.  And we're told that Jesus was honored for it.  If you wonder why we're told that Jesus is seated at the right hand of God the Father, well, that's one of the reasons why.  To be seated at the right hand of the king was the place of greatest honor.  And Jesus was given that honor because he accepted the chance to serve God the Father in a way that only he could do.

You and I are asked to serve God the Father, too.  We are asked to serve God in a way that no one else can.  Each of us is.  There is some way in which you are uniquely qualified to serve God, just like Jesus was.  And I can just hear some of you thinking, “Oh, yeah, right.  I'll just bet there is.  I'm no better than anyone else.  There's nothing I can do that lots of other people cannot do.  In fact, they can all do those things a lot better than I can.  There's nothing special about me.”

I understand why you think that, but it's not true.  Each of us is special and unique.  Our psalm today talked about how God knows everything about us.  God knows when we get up and when we go to bed.  God knows when we go out and when we come back.  God has known us since before we were born.

What that means is that there is something about you that is different from everyone else on earth.  There is something about me that is different from everyone else on earth.  If I was exactly like someone else, there'd have been no need for God to put me here.  If you were exactly like someone else, there'd have been no need for God to put you here.  The fact that you are here, and the fact that I'm here, shows that there is something we are supposed to do, something that no other being on earth or in heaven can do.

That's part of what it means to be one of God's children.  Those of you who have children, think about it.  Are any two of them alike?  Even if you have twins, are they exactly alike?  Of course not.  Even if they're identical twins, they're still not exactly alike.  Each of us is different.  Each of us is unique.  Each of us is special.  And each of us has something God wants us to do that no one else can do.  Each of us is asked to serve God in some special and unique way.

Think of the honor that is.  Out of all the billions of people on this earth, out of all the heavenly beings, there is something you, and only you, have been chosen by God to do.  It may be easy.  It may be hard.  It may be enjoyable.  It may not be.  It may be something you do with a group of people.  It may be something you do alone.  It may not be the same thing all your life.  In fact, it probably won't be.  But God has chosen you, and only you, to do something.  Out of all the billions of people on earth, God has selected you.

So if you have a hard time thinking of something to be thankful for, be thankful for that.  Be thankful that, out of all the billions of people on earth, out of all the billions of people who are and who have been and who will be, God knows your name.  God knows everything about you.  God has known you since before you were born.  There is no one else on earth like you.  And there is something God wants you to do that no one else can do.

Think about what an honor that is.  And be thankful for the honor of serving the almighty, all-loving, eternal God in your own special, unique way.