The Children's Christmas Program

We had the kids Christmas programs in Onida and Gettysburg last Sunday.  I don’t know how long churches have done children’s Christmas programs, but it’s a long time.  It’s a tradition that goes back at least to when I was a kid, which is more years ago than it seems like it should be.  It probably goes back a lot longer than that, I don’t know.  I googled it, but I couldn’t find anything.

Traditions are fine, of course, and I’m not opposed to them.  But sometimes, it’s interesting to ask the question:  why?  Why does almost every mainstream Christian church have a children’s Christmas program?  What’s the reason for it?  I mean, we all like it.  We all enjoy seeing the kids up there, looking cute in their costumes, hopefully remembering most of their lines and not misbehaving too much.  But is that it?  Or is there another reason for it?

I think there’s another reason.  At least, I hope there is.  It seems to me that the Christmas story is one that many of us, at least those of who have are part of a church, have heard many, many times.  And like any other story that we’ve heard many times, it can stop meaning as much to us as it used to.  We stop thinking about it.  We still like hearing it, but it does not make an impact on us any more.

What the children’s Christmas program can do for us is help us hear the Christmas story in a different way.  We hear it in a different voice.  We see it through different eyes.  The point of having a children’s Christmas program is to encourage us to really think about the Christmas story.  The point is for us to realize what an incredible thing it was that God did for us by sending the divine Son to earth.

Whether you make it to a children’s Christmas program this year or not, I hope you’ll find a way to really think about the Christmas story.  I hope you’ll be able to realize what an incredible thing God did for us.  May the meaning of the Christmas story become real to all of us this year.

Have a wonderful Christmas!

No Ordinary Joe

This is the message given in the Agar United Methodist church on Sunday, December 16, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 1:18-25.

            Remember last week, I mentioned that contest we had a few years back to choose our favorite Bible character?  Mary, as I said, won the contest.  Joseph, on the other hand, didn’t even get to the quarter-finals.

That’s kind of how it is for Joseph.  When we hear about the story of Jesus’ birth, Joseph is pretty much the forgotten man.  We hear a lot about Mary and Jesus, and the shepherds and the wise men and the angel, but never much about Joseph.  Joseph is kind of the odd man out of the Christmas story.  It’s like he’s just sort of there. 

 But, of course, that’s not true.  Joseph was a really important figure in the life of Jesus.  The decision God made in choosing Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus was every bit as important as the decision to choose Mary as his earthly mother.  And yet, we’re told almost nothing about him.  In fact, at this point we’re not even told that he was a carpenter.  The only way we find that out is when Jesus is referred to later as “the carpenter’s son”.  We’re certainly not told anything that would indicate that Joseph was unusual in any way, any more than Mary was.

The gospels don’t even tell us how Joseph found out Mary was going to have a baby.  Matthew just says Mary “was found to be with child.”  I suppose, at some point, Mary must have told him.  Imagine you’re Joseph, at that point.  The woman you’re engaged to tells you she’s going to have a baby. You know it cannot be yours.  And yet, she swears she has never been unfaithful to you, that this is some sort of miracle from God, that this child she’s carrying is going to be the savior of the world.

            How do you think you’d react to that, if you were Joseph?  I mean, you’d want to believe it.  We’re not told for sure, but the scriptures make it sound like Joseph really did care about Mary.  He’d want to believe she was telling the truth.  But how could he?  A baby born without a human father?  The savior of the world being born like a human baby, born to an ordinary, single woman?  No matter how much Joseph wanted to believe that, there’s no way he could have, any more than you or I could.  It just would’ve seemed impossible.  It would not have made any sense to him, any more than it’d make sense to you or me if it happened today.

            What would you feel, if you were Joseph?  Hurt, betrayed, angry, sad. I’m sure Joseph felt all those things, too. 

           Then, we hear that an angel came to Joseph in a dream to tell Joseph that Mary was telling the truth.  Even so, the story gives Joseph kind of short shrift.  I mean, when Gabriel came to Mary, we’re told about all of Mary’s questions, and we’re given all of Gabriel’s answers.  Eventually, we’re even given a big speech by Mary about what she thought and how she felt about all this.

            We don’t get any of that about Joseph.  In fact, you know how many words of Joseph are quoted in the Bible?  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  Not one word.  From what we can tell in Matthew, Joseph never got to say anything.  The angel just did a monologue.  The angel told Joseph what Joseph needed to know, and Joseph did what the angel told him to do.  It’s the same every time in scripture that an angel appears to Joseph—when he’s told to take his family to Egypt, and when he’s told to go to Nazareth.  Each time it’s just, the angel tells Joseph to do something, and Joseph does it.  It’s like what Joseph might have felt or thought did not matter at all.

            But of course, it did matter.  Joseph mattered.  Joseph was chosen by God to be the earthly father of Jesus, just as much as Mary was chosen to be Jesus’ mother.  And if we want to know why God chose Joseph, we can look at the one thing about Joseph that we are told.  Matthew Chapter One, Verse Nineteen tells us that Joseph “was a righteous man”.  He may have been an ordinary man in some respects, but just like Mary, Joseph had an extraordinary faith.

            You know, after the story of Jesus’ birth, we never hear about Joseph again.  There’s one more reference to him in the Bible, in the story about when Jesus is twelve and stays behind to talk with the rabbis after Passover, but you know what?  Joseph is not even mentioned by name.  We’re just told that Jesus’ “parents” went to look for him, and we’re left to assume that includes Joseph.  Again, it’s like Joseph is just sort of there, like he’s not really very important.

            But think about it:  Joseph would’ve had a lot of responsibility for raising Jesus.  Not only was Joseph responsible for providing Jesus with food and shelter and love, he was responsible for Jesus’ education.  After all, there were no schools for kids to go to back then.  At that time, a boy would stay home with his mother until about age seven, and then go to work with his dad.  This was not just a work time, either.  It was a time for education, and the education would’ve been mostly religious education.

            In other words, Joseph was the one responsible for raising Jesus as a religious man.  That’s why God chose Joseph, a righteous man, to raise Jesus. Now obviously Jesus, as the divine Son of God, knew God in a way the rest of us never will.  But still, Jesus was raised as a human being.  Joseph was the one who gave him a background in the scriptures and in the religious teachings of the rabbis.  Think of all the times Jesus quoted scripture to people.  How do you think he knew it so well?  He learned it from Joseph.

            Think of the strength of character Jesus had.  Now again, Jesus was not just a human being, but he did have a human side to him, and it was important that the human side be strong.  Again, Jesus got that from Joseph.  When he was helping Joseph, Joseph was showing him how a good, righteous man is supposed to behave. 

After all, Joseph never had an easy life.  We assume that he and Mary did not have a lot of money.  They moved around a lot—again, we’re told that they moved a couple of times when Jesus was still very young.  Joseph had to deal with lots of problems.  The way he dealt with those problems was a model for Jesus to follow.

            Joseph, as a carpenter, was what today we’d call a small business man.  That meant Joseph was always dealing with the public, and back then, just like today, there are times when the public is not all that easy to deal with.  Sometimes business was slow, and Joseph wondered how he’d have enough to pay the bills.  Sometimes a whole lot of business came in at once, and everyone demanded their project be done first. Sometimes something Joseph made would break and the customer would be mad at Joseph and demand he fix it for free, whether it was his fault or not. Sometimes, Joseph would make something for someone and they’d refuse to pay him, or claim that he’d done it wrong, even if Joseph had done exactly what they’d told him to do.  Joseph had to deal with all this and more, every day.

            Now, think of all the times Jesus had to deal with difficult people.  How do you think he learned how to do that?  From Joseph.  From watching his earthly father deal with difficult people, and seeing him handle them in the way a righteous man does.

            Joseph was obviously so important in the life of Jesus.  Yet, as I said, he’s kind of the forgotten man.  He’s just sort of there.  In fact, when I was picking hymns this week, I could not find a hymn about Joseph.  There are none. Mary, the shepherds, the wise men, the angels, the baby, they all have hymns. But Joseph?  Nothing. 

We never really think about Joseph in this story.  He neither asks for nor receives any attention.  He just very quietly obeys God.  He does what God expects him to do.  A very quiet, humble, righteous man.

            How many Josephs have you known in your life?  I’ve known quite a few.  We have some in this church.  Men and women who never look for any attention, and who don’t get or even want any glory.  People who just quietly serve the Lord and do whatever needs to be done.

            Most Josephs have no idea that they are Josephs.  They have no idea how important they are.  That’s the thing about Josephs—they don’t think they’re anybody special.  They think they’re just doing what a person is supposed to do. They don’t think they’re any different from anybody else.  They think, well, anybody else in my position would do the same thing.  They think they’re just common, ordinary, everyday people.

            It never occurs to Josephs that they are important people.  Yet, when you think about it, Josephs are the most important people in the world.  They’re the ones who do the things that everyone else just takes for granted.  They’re the ones who do the things in our lives that just automatically happen, the things we never even think about, the things that are just done.  They do them quietly, humbly.  Josephs don’t expect or even want any thank you for what they do. They don’t want anybody to make any big fuss over them.  When you do try to thank them, they tell you it was no big deal and change the subject.  Yet, without Josephs, nothing of any importance would ever get done.

            God specifically chose Joseph.  God knew that Jesus’ earthly father could not be someone who would demand a lot of attention.  God knew Jesus’ earthly father could not be someone who wanted glory for himself.  God knew Jesus’ earthly father had to be someone who did not want the spotlight, someone who would quietly do what needed to be done, and then step out of the way.  A good, humble, quiet, righteous man.

            Joseph was chosen by God.  All Josephs are chosen by God.  We would not have the Christmas story, and we would not have the Savior we have, if not for Joseph.  This Christmas season, let’s thank God for Joseph.  Let’s then think of all the Josephs in our lives, take some time to pray for them, and thank God for putting them in our lives.  Let’s make sure we thank them for all they do to make our lives and the world what they are.  Then, let’s try to think of a way we can be a Joseph, too.

Getting Ready for Christmas

This is the time of year when you’ll hear people ask, “Are you ready for Christmas?”  I know what they mean by that, of course, and so do you.  They mean things like, “Have you bought all the presents yet?”  “Have you gotten your Christmas cards out?”  “Have you got all the decorations up?”  “Have you got your travel plans made?”  They’re talking about all the stuff we seem to think we have to do to “get ready” for Christmas.

It struck me that this kind of “getting ready for Christmas” is strictly an adult thing.  When we were kids we didn’t have to do a bunch of stuff to “get ready” for Christmas.  Christmas just came.  And when we were kids, it couldn’t come soon enough.  We didn’t get the kind of high-tech toys kids get now, but we were just as happy with the stuff we did get.  And even if Grandma just got us clothes, we were still happy just to have Grandma there for Christmas.

When did that change?  And why?  Why do we feel that we have to do a bunch of stuff to get ready for Christmas?  It’s not that the stuff we do is bad or wrong or anything.  I do that kind of stuff, too (although to be honest, I don’t put much up for decorations.  That tends to be Wanda’s department).  But when we feel like we have to do all this stuff to get ready for Christmas, we run the risk of taking the joy out of Christmas.  Christmas becomes another thing we have to get through, rather than a time of hope and love and joy and peace.

So, at the risk of giving you one more thing to do, here’s how I’m going to suggest you get ready for Christmas:  pray.  Stop, take some time to yourself, and pray.  Say a prayer of thanks to God for the incredible thing God did for us by sending the Savior to earth.  Think about what an awesome thing it was for God to do that.  Think about what an incredible, undeserved gift that was and still is.  Thank God for the wonderful gift of salvation and eternal life that God gave us through the birth and death of the Savior.  Pray about all these things, and think about all these things.  “Ponder them in your heart”, as we’re told that Mary did.

I think that if we truly appreciate what God did for us at Christmas, we’ll find that everything els will fall into place.  And we won’t need to worry about all the stuff we have to do to “get ready for Christmas”.  We’ll be ready for Christmas in our hearts.  Which, after all, is where we’ll find God’s Holy Spirit.

There's Something About Mary

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday, December 9, 2018.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:26-38.

            About four or five years ago we had a contest to pick the favorite Bible character of the people of this parish.  We took Jesus out of it--he plays in a separate league--but the winner of the contest was Mary, the mother of Jesus.

            At the time I was a little surprised at that.  I’d been thinking that maybe Moses or the Apostle Paul or someone like that would win.  But as I think about it, I can understand why Mary is so popular with us.  Those great heroes of the Bible--the people like Paul, or Peter, or Moses, or Abraham, or any of those--we admire them and all, but it’s hard for us to really relate to them.  We feel like they’re somehow above us.  We cannot imagine ourselves doing the things they did.

            But Mary--Mary is someone we can relate to.  Mary strikes us as an ordinary person.  The Bible certainly does not tell us anything about her that indicates she was among the elite or among the wealthy.  This passage from Luke that we read today is the first time we learn anything about Mary, and what does it say about her?  Just that she was a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph.  That’s all it says about her in the first chapter of Matthew, too, when we read about the angel appearing to Joseph.

            We talked last week about how amazing it is that God chose to have the divine Son, one of the members of the trinity, come to earth in the form of a helpless human baby.  But once that decision was made, God had another important decision to make.  Who was going to be the baby’s mother?  Who would be the woman who would be responsible for giving birth to and raising the God the Son in his incarnation on earth?

            As we know, it was Mary.  But why?  Why Mary?  Why, out of all the women in the world, did God choose to have Mary be the one to give birth to and to raise Jesus, the divine Son of God?

            It may well be that Mary’s very ordinariness, at least in human eyes, was part of the reason.  You know, the fact of Jesus’ birth in a stable in Bethlehem is so ingrained into us that we really cannot imagine Jesus’ birth happening any other way.  But Jesus could have been born in lots of ways.  He could’ve been born to wealthy parents.  He could’ve been born in a palace.  He could have been surrounded by all kinds of privilege and prestige.  In fact, that’s how a lot of people expected the Savior to be born.

            But that was not the way it was, and I don’t think that was an accident.  I don’t think God would’ve left anything about the birth of the divine Son to chance.  The fact that Jesus was raised by ordinary people gave him an understanding of human beings that he might not have had otherwise.  

Now, maybe you say, wait a minute.  If Jesus is God--God the Son--he should understand everything.  Why would he need to be raised by ordinary people to understand human beings?  And there is truth in that.  But remember, while Jesus was fully divine, he was also fully human.  That means he had to grow and develop and learn, just as all humans do.  It also means his parents would have an influence on him, just as all parents do.  

And the other part of it is that, to fully understand something, you have to experience it yourself.  I did not know what it was really like to be a lawyer until I became one.  I did not know what it was really like to be a pastor until I became one.  I did not know what it was really like to be a husband until I became one.  And I’m sure you can think of a lot of things like that in your life.  You never really know what something is like until you experience it.  Jesus, as the divine Son of God, clearly did understand human beings.  But I have to think that actually living as a human being somehow gave him a deeper and clearer understanding of us than he had before.

So that’s one part of it.  But still, there are an awful lot of ordinary people in the world.  There’s an old quote, attributed to Abraham Lincoln, to the effect that God must love common people because He made so many of them.  So while saying that Jesus needed to be born to an ordinary woman eliminates some people, it still does not answer the question:  why Mary?  Why, out of all the ordinary women in the world, was Mary chosen to be the mother of the divine Son of God?

Mary was a woman of great faith.  Look at our reading for today.  Mary is minding her own business one day, and all at once the angel Gabriel appears to her.  And Gabriel says she’s going to have a son, she’s going to name him Jesus, he’s going to be great and be called the Son of the Most High, he’ll have the throne of David, and his kingdom will never end.

Suppose that was you.  Suppose you were minding your own business, doing whatever you do, and this happened to you.  What would your reaction be?

I’d probably freak out.  I mean, just having an angel appear to you would be weird enough.  And then to have the angel tell you all these incredible, unbelievable things?  I’d be going, who, me?  I’m going to do what?  My son’s going to be who?  Are you crazy?  Am I crazy?  What’s this all about?

And yet, Mary just accepts it.  She stays calm about it.  She never protests.  She never doubts.  She never even thinks about refusing.  She only asks one question:  how will this be?

How will this be.  No doubts that it’s going to happen.  No fear about being chosen.  No fear about what’s going to happen when people find out that she’s pregnant.  She accepts it all.  All she wants to know is how it’s all going to happen.

That’s incredible faith.  That’s incredible trust.  Mary was fully obedient to God.  She was being asked to do something unbelievable, something frightening, really--to be the mother to the divine Son of God.  And yet, she simply accepted it and trusted that if this was what God wanted, God would make it all work out somehow.  Mary may have been an ordinary woman in some ways, but she clearly had an extraordinary faith and trust in God.

And she needed that faith.  In Matthew, we read about how King Herod decided to kill all boys two years old and younger, in an attempt to kill this “king” he’d heard about.  Mary and Joseph had to take Jesus and go to Egypt.  They had to live in a foreign country, where they probably did not know anyone, probably did not know the language, and somehow make a living for themselves and their precious baby.  And then, just when they were getting established there, they were told to go back to Nazareth and start over again.  I’m glossing over that kind of quickly because of lack of time, but read Matthew Chapter two sometime and think about what it would’ve been like to live that.  And yet, we’re never given even a hint that Mary complained about that or thought it was unfair of God to allow that to happen.  It took incredible faith and trust in God to do all that Mary and Joseph had to do.

We’re not told much else about Mary’s role in raising Jesus.  We have the story in Luke where Mary and Joseph lose track of Jesus, only to find him in the temple talking to the Rabbis.  But Mary clearly stays involved in Jesus’ life.  In fact, she was the one who prompted Jesus to do his first miracle, turning water into wine at the wedding feast.  And that’s a remarkable story, too.  They’re at a wedding, the hosts run out of wine, and Mary goes to Jesus and tells him that.  Jesus does not want to do anything, but he ultimately does.

As I was thinking about that story, there was something about it that had not occurred to me before.  The reason Jesus gives for not wanting to act is “my time has not yet come”.  But Mary just ignores that and goes to the servants and tells them to do whatever Jesus says.

Now, this is just speculation, and you don’t have to agree with it.  But what if Jesus saying “my time has not yet come” was just the human side of Jesus making an excuse?  After all, Jesus knew what was in store for him once he started his ministry.  He knew that once he started doing miracles his life was never going to be the same.  He knew that this was something that was going to lead him down a road that would eventually take him to the cross and to death.  Could it be that, knowing all this, Jesus was just reluctant to start down that road, and was trying to put it off as long as he could?  Maybe Mary knew that it was, in fact, time for Jesus to start down that road.  After all, the angel Gabriel had told her who Jesus was and what he was going to do.  Maybe Jesus needed that push from Mary to get started in his ministry and do what he’d come to earth to do.

Why was Mary chosen?  Because Mary was an ordinary woman of extraordinary faith.  She was fully obedient to God.  She trusted God completely.  She was able to put up with all kinds of hardships without complaint.  She accepted the responsibility God had given her and lived up to it as well as she could.

I said at the beginning of this message that we can relate to Mary.  And I hope we all can.  Because Mary was what most of us are supposed to be--ordinary people with extraordinary faith.  People who are fully obedient to God.  People who trust God completely.  People who don’t complain, but who accept the responsibility God gives us and live up to it as well as we can.

And maybe you say, but that’s not me.  Yes, I may be an ordinary person, but I don’t have extraordinary faith.  Well, maybe not.  But maybe you do.  Do you think Mary knew she had extraordinary faith, before all this happened?  Maybe, but I doubt it.  I don’t think Mary thought there was anything special about her.  But God saw something special about her, and God chose her to be the mother of the divine Son of God.

Maybe you don’t think there’s anything special about you.  But I can tell you this--God sees something special about you.  God sees something special about each one of God’s children, just like human parents see something special about each of their children.  And God has chosen you to do something, too.  It may not be something as incredible as being the divine Son of God.  But it’s still something special.  There is something God has chosen you for, something that only you can do.

What is it?  I don’t know.  Maybe you don’t know.  Maybe you’re already doing it.  But here’s my advice:  keep your eyes open.  Keep doing what you’re doing, keep living your life, keep trying to serve God as well as you can.  But keep your eyes open.  Keep your ears open.  And keep your heart open.  Ask God to show you what you’re supposed to do.  Ask God to give you chances to serve God.  God will hear that kind of prayer.  And in due time, God will always respond.

There was something about Mary.  But there’s something about you and me, too.  And if we’re open to it, God will use us in a special way, too.

Faith in My Father

I’ve been doing a lot of driving lately.  Well, there’s nothing unusual about that.  But lately, the weather has been kind of “iffy”.  We’ve had a lot of fog, which sometimes can cause the roads to be icy.  We’ve had threats of storms--the storms haven’t hit where I am, but they’ve sometimes been predicted for places I needed to go.

For example, last week I needed to go to Armour to see my parents, because I hadn’t been there for a month or so.  We planned to leave on Thursday and come back on Friday.  Well, Thursday night and Friday morning there was a terrible fog.  There was a snowstorm predicted for Armour Friday night, and freezing rain was predicted for Gettysburg and points along the way.  So I had to make a decision on whether we were going to go and when we were going to go.  Were the roads going to be good enough for us to make the trip each way?  Who knew?

And all that got me thinking about when I was a kid.  Back then, I did not have to worry about things like that, because I did not have to make those decisions.  My dad did.  And as I look back on it, it’s kind of amazing how much trust I placed in Dad to make those decisions.  If Dad said the weather and the roads were good enough for us to go, then they were good enough for us to go.  If Dad said they weren’t, then they weren’t.  I had absolute confidence that whatever Dad decided must be right.

In fact, those decisions were probably not any easier for Dad back then than they are for me now. They may even have been harder--after all, there was no internet from which to get weather forecasts and road reports back then.  There was the TV and the radio, of course, but that was all.  Dad was probably no more confident about his decisions then than I am now.  And yet, I trusted him completely.  I had absolute faith in my father to take care of us.

I suspect our heavenly Father would like us to have that kind of faith in Him, too.  There are so many times when we wonder what we should do.  We worry about whether we’re making the right decisions.  And yet, many times, God has already told us what we should do.  God tells us that through the Bible.  God tells us that when we pray and ask.  And God would like us to react to what God tells us the same way that I reacted to my dad’s decisions about traveling. 

If God says to do something, then we should do it.  If God says not to do something, then we shouldn’t do it.  Now, of course, there are situations that come up in life in which it’s not that simple.  But there are situations in life in which it is.  Quite often, our problem is not that we don’t understand what God wants us to do.  Our problem is that we simply don’t want to do it.

God, of course, is completely confident that God’s decisions are right.  We can be completely confident about God’s decisions, too.  We can trust God completely.  Let’s listen to what God is telling us to do--and not to do.  Let’s have absolute faith that our heavenly Father will take care of us.

More Than a Feeling

This is the message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, December 2, 2018.  The Bible verses used are John 1:1-18.

            This is the first Sunday of Advent.  This is the time in which we start to anticipate the coming of Christmas.

            Some people, of course, have been anticipating that for some time already.  The stores have had Christmas stuff up for weeks now.  The Hallmark Channel started showing wall-to-wall Christmas movies before Halloween.  And of course, the reason they do that is because people want to watch them.  I know, from the friends I have on facebook, that many people around here have been counting down to Christmas for quite a while now.

            And that’s okay.  There’s nothing wrong with liking Christmas.  If you want to start celebrating it in October, that’s your business.  It’s not hurting me any. 

            I think, though, that when we start celebrating Christmas that early, we need to be careful about just what it is we’re celebrating.  It can be really easy to get caught up in celebrating the trappings and traditions of Christmas.  We start celebrating the colored lights and the carols.  We start celebrating the trees and the decorations.  We celebrate the nostalgia of past Christmases.  We get caught up in celebrating all the secular, feel-good aspects of Christmas.

            And again, it’s not that celebrating those things is bad or wrong.  I love looking at Christmas lights, too.  I mean, I don’t like putting them up myself, but I’m glad when other people do so I can see them.  I love singing Christmas carols and seeing the trees and everything.  I’m not trying to be a Grinch here.  There’s nothing wrong with any of that stuff.

            It’s just that we need to be careful not to stop there.  Because if we do, we reduce Christmas to just a warm, fuzzy feeling.  And there’s certainly nothing wrong with warm, fuzzy feelings, either--we all need them sometimes.  But if that’s all Christmas is to us, we miss out.  We cheat ourselves.  We stop thinking about the amazing thing that God did for us when Jesus Christ, the divine Son, came to earth.

            So that’s going to be the focus of our sermon series over Advent--the amazing thing God did for us.  And we’re going to look at it by thinking about just how it was that God decided to do this for us.  We’re going to think about how God decided to offer us a chance for salvation and eternal life by sending the divine Son to earth, and all the things that went into God making that decision and then following through on that decision.

            What we’re going to start with is God making that decision at all.  How did it come about that God decided to send the Divine Son to earth?

            To talk about that, I think we first need to talk about the trinity.  As Christians, we believe in the Holy Trinity.  God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  The three in one.  God in three persons, as the old hymn says.  Each person of the trinity separate and distinct, and yet each person of the trinity fully God.  God the Father is God, God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God.  And yet, there is just one God.

            If you find that to be a little bit confusing, that’s okay.  The fact is that we don’t fully understand how the trinity works.  We know that when Jesus was on the earth, he said things like “I and the Father are one” and “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.”  And yet, while Jesus was on earth, he prayed to God the Father.  And he said that after he left, God the Holy Spirit would come.  So again, the trinity is three separate and distinct persons, and each is God, and yet there is only one God.

            I’m going through all this because somehow, in some way, the three persons of God made the decision that one of them, God the Son, was going to come to earth.  The decision was made that God the Son would be born to human parents, would grow up just like human beings do, would teach people and heal people and serve as an example for people.  And then, the decisions was made that God the Son would die, taking the punishment that should go to us for our sins.  Also, the decision was made that through that death, and by our faith in God the Son, we would receive salvation and eternal life.

            How do you suppose that decision came about?  Were there other options, other ways in which salvation could be achieved, that the trinity considered and then discarded?  Were there other possible ways by which God might have given us the chance for salvation and eternal life that the trinity decided were lacking something, that they would not work as well for some reason?

            Because this was quite a sacrifice for God, you know?  It was a sacrifice in a lot of ways.  For one thing, the three persons of the trinity together make up one God.  Our reading from John tells us that Jesus Christ, “the Word” as John puts it, was with God the Father from the beginning.  Now, for the first time ever, there was a sense in which they were going to be separated.  Yes, Jesus still had a very close connection to God the Father while he was on earth, but I have to think it was not the same.  I wonder how that felt for the members of the trinity.  To have one of them--God the Son--be separated from the other two.  That was quite a thing.  What an amazing thing for God to do.

            And then, to make the decision that one member of the trinity, God the Son, would be born to human parents and live as a human being.  That’s quite a sacrifice, too.  That’s quite a comedown.  And especially when you consider that God the Son entered this world as a baby, the most helpless, dependent form of human life there is.  Think about that.  Going from being God, a member of the trinity, to being not just a human, not just someone like you and me, but someone who could not feed himself or protect himself or do anything for himself.  Someone who was totally dependent on human parents for life.  Again, what an amazing thing for God to do.

            And then, to make the decisions that this member of the trinity, God the Son, would experience death.  God would die.  That’s quite a sacrifice, too.  God had never experienced death.  God understood death, of course--God understands everything.  But God is eternal.  God had never experienced death--that’s what “eternal” means.  But now, God, in the form of the divine Son, was going to experience death.  God would die.  God would die so that you and I would have the chance for forgiveness and salvation and eternal life.  Again, what an amazing thing for God to do.

            God would not have had to do any of that.  God would not have had to offer us forgiveness or salvation or eternal life at all.  God could’ve just given us the punishment that we, as sinners, deserve.  Or, God could’ve chosen some other way to offer forgiveness and salvation and eternal life to us.  That other way might not have worked as well, but it would not have required as much of a sacrifice on God’s part, either.  God chose to make all these sacrifices, and of course other sacrifices that we’ve not even talked about as well.  God did that for you.  And God did that for me.  God did that because the best way--maybe the only way--for us to have the chance for salvation and eternal life was for God to make all those sacrifices for us.  God did that out of the incredible love that God has for you and for me and for every other human being on earth.

            So I hope, as we approach Christmas, you will think about these things.  I hope you will “ponder them in your heart”, as we’re told Mary did.  Because if you don’t, if you settle for just letting Christmas give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, you’ll miss out.  You’ll miss out on the amazing, incredible, awesome thing God did for us.  You’ll miss out on appreciating how much God sacrificed for us.  You’ll miss out on the true miracle of Christmas--that God made sacrifice after sacrifice so that you and I and everyone else could have the chance for salvation and eternal life.

            There’s nothing wrong with warm, fuzzy feelings.  But God did not come to earth in the form of the divine Son to give us warm, fuzzy feelings.  Enjoy the lights and the carols and all the rest of it.  But don’t cheat yourself out of experiencing the true miracle of Christmas.  Be sure you truly do appreciate the sacrifices God made for us.  Be sure you truly do celebrate what the divine Son came to earth to give us:  the chance for salvation and eternal life.  Because salvation and eternal life will beat a warm, fuzzy feeling every time.

Not Feeling It Yet

Thanksgiving is now over.  A month from last Sunday will be Christmas Day.  Are you in the Christmas spirit?

I have to confess that I’m not.  Don’t get me wrong.  I have not turned into some sort of Grinch who hates Christmas.  I’m actually looking forward to Christmas.  But that’s the thing--I’m looking forward to Christmas.  I’m not feeling like it is Christmas, or even the Christmas season.  Not yet.

I’m not sure why that is.  Part of it might be that the weather has been pretty nice so far.  Don’t get me wrong--I’m not complaining about that.  I’d love it if we had highs in the 40s and 50s all winter and then got warmer in the spring.  I know it doesn’t work like that, of course.  In fact, it’s supposed to turn this weekend.  The point is that I normally associate Christmas with cold and snow, and we haven’t had much of either yet.  So maybe that’s my problem--it just doesn’t feel like Christmas yet.

But I think another part of my problem is that we start hearing about Christmas so early these days.  The stores start putting out Christmas stuff in October.  The Hallmark Channel has been running wall-to-wall Christmas movies since before Halloween.  Satellite radio has had Christmas music available since about that same time.  That’s not wrong, exactly.  But it seems to me that when we hear about Christmas so early, it takes away from the specialness of the season.

But maybe you say, well, what’s wrong with that?  After all, the spirit of Christmas is love and happiness.  What’s wrong with starting those feelings early?  In fact, wouldn’t it be a good thing to feel those things all year long?

Well, yes and no.  I’m not opposed to love and happiness, of course.  They’re wonderful things.  But that should not be all Christmas means.  When we limit Christmas to that, we reduce Christmas to just a warm, fuzzy feeling.  And while there’s nothing wrong with warm, fuzzy feelings, that’s not all Christmas should be.

Christmas, primarily, is about the birth of the Savior, Jesus Christ.  Jesus did not come to earth just to give us a warm, fuzzy feeling.  He came to teach us.  He came to show us how to live.  He did not say that believing in him and following him would give us warm, fuzzy feelings.  In fact, he said that sometimes it would give us the exact opposite, that sometimes people would look down on us and criticize us for following him.  But he said it would be worth it, because his death would provide the way for salvation and eternal life for all of us.

If you enjoy listening to Christmas music in October and watching Christmas movies on Halloween, that’s fine.  It’s not a sin.  But don’t let that be all Christmas means to you.  If it is, you’re cheating yourself.  Christmas is about the birth of the Jesus Christ.  If we accept Jesus Christ as the Savior, we will get salvation and eternal life.  And that beats a warm, fuzzy feeling every time.