Preaching at Christmas is kind of odd because we always tell the same stories. I struggle because I like to say thing that are novel and interesting and it’s hard to do that when there’s only 4 or 5 stories and they’ve been told millions of times. There’s the annunciation—Gabriel telling Mary she will have a baby. The angel telling Joseph the same thing. Mary’s trip to see Elizabeth. The walk to Bethlehem for the census. The struggle to find a room at the inn, and the birth of Jesus.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re good stories, but you can only add so much that is new and different from last time. As a preacher it’s sort of daunting. You must have heard these stories 100s of times and I’m supposed to say something new? Every year I have this same struggle, and every year, I come back to the same answer—keep it simple, the story speaks for itself. I don’t need to say anything radically new, because God’s profound love for the world is still a radical idea. It may have been preaching a billion times, but there are still people who haven’t heard the story, or who don’t really understand it. The story simply needs to be told and retold and it will speak for itself.
I mean, when you think about it, there’s something special about a really good story that allows it to be told again and again, even if it’s nothing new. My dad went to Boot Camp for the National Guard under Nixon. He has lots of stories to tell and we beg him to share them again and again. He’s reluctant to keep repeating them because we’ve already heard them, but we love them and we insist. He has one about the day he arrived that is a particular favorite.
All the guys showed up to camp in big trucks. They got off and waited for their names to be called. The sergeant called their names and their assignment so they could group up. At one point, he called out, “Mungomerry Larry”. No one moved. “Mungomerry Larry.” Still nothing. So he moved on, “Smith, Christopher.” “Allen, Marvin,” on and on, and then again, “Mungomerry Larry”. Still no one. Finally, all the guys but one had been called and had their stuff. As my dad tells it, you did not want to be “the one guy” in any situation at boot camp. So, this poor guy was standing there probably mortified and the sergeant walked up to him and said, “What’s your name?” “Larry Montgomery, Sir.” “That’s what I’ve been saying, “Mungomerry, Larry.” I’m not sure why I love that story so much, but I do and I could hear my dad tell it 1000 times and it wouldn’t get old.
I think the Christmas stories are like that—we can hear them 1000 times and they don’t get old. There’s something incredible about God choosing a young teenage women, waiting to be married, to carry the Son of God in her womb. Not a queen. Not a duchess. Not someone rich and powerful, but someone meek, poor, and lowly. She was God’s choice. Something about God choosing such a woman, gives me hope, should give us all hope, that God can choose us to act, despite our flaws, despite our inexperience, despite our status. God can choose you. God could entrust you to care for, nurse, teach, and rear God’s own self. That’s a story worth retelling.
God came into the world out of love to save us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whomsoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God didn’t come out of anger. God didn’t come to smite us. God didn’t come to castigate and punish us. God came to save us. God came because God loves us. And that’s a truth worth retelling.
For many of us we’ve heard the stories already. We know Jesus was born already. We’ve accepted Jesus and asked that we be born of the spirit already. We are familiar with Christmas and we know Jesus. We know that God has redeemed the world through Jesus already. He already died on the cross. He already rose again. He already offered us eternal life. All of this has happened already.
For many of us, we’ve begun a life with Christ already, but for some of us, it’s yet to happen. There are many who do not yet know Jesus or the hope he offers, or what it feels like to be from the shackles of guilt and shame, anger and revenge. There are those who are still waiting. There are many who struggle under the weight of darkness, who don’t yet know the light of Christ. For them, though Christmas time comes and goes each year, they haven’t yet experienced Christmas. They haven’t experienced the Incarnation—God in the flesh. For them, Christmas has not yet come. It’s not yet real. It may be imagined, but it hasn’t been lived.
There are those this season who live with expectancy for the return of hope, light, joy, and peace. Those who have lived it time and again and are anxious to relive the memories. And others who have only heard about it. They know about it—they have head knowledge, but they don’t really get it--they don’t have heart knowledge.
Today I want to offer an invitation to have heart knowledge. If you haven’t asked Jesus to live in your heart, to be Lord of your life, to forgive your sins, to free you from the guilt or shame of your past, I want you to have that opportunity today. There may be others of you who have experienced Christ’s love, but you feel distanced from it. I want you to have the opportunity to get close to the feet of Jesus and be reminded of what it feels like.
Now, I have to be honest, I don’t know how God does what God does. I don’t know how it is we feel freedom, joy, and peace because of Christ. But I do know that it’s possible. I can’t tell you how, but I can tell you I’ve experienced it—in the darkest moments of my life, God has shined light and has filled me with hope.
I may not be able to tell you how it happens, but I can tell you why—BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU!!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whomsoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
God came to the world in the person of Jesus out of love---not out of anger, not out of frustration, not out of disgust for what we were doing, but out of love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. God wants you to receive that love so you can have everlasting life. And not just everlasting life in the sense of some prize we get when we’re dead and we just have to suffer until we get there, but eternal life that offers eternal hope today, eternal life that allows us the chance to become someone better here, eternal life that has the power to reconcile and mend our broken relationship now, eternal life that heals our wounds—physically and emotionally in the present, so that we might fully know the love of God. That’s the life God wants you to have—one filled with hope.
If you want to experience that hope, if you want to really know and understand Christmas this year and God’s gift to you, if you want to experience Christmas as something more than credit card bills, house-cleaning, a matted mess of lights, and trying times with in-laws, then I invite you to come to the altar and pray with me now. If you want to know Christmas as a life-giving event that fills you with hope, frees you from past guilt and shame, and changes your life in ways that are equally inexplicable and amazing, then I invite you to come to the altar and pray with me now. If you’ve lost sight of Christmas and want to be re-focused on God and the hope we have through Jesus Christ, then I want you to come and pray with me at the altar now.
Preaching at Christmas is kind of odd because we always tell the same stories. I struggle because I like to say thing that are novel and interesting and it’s hard to do that when there’s only 4 or 5 stories and they’ve been told millions of times. There’s the annunciation—Gabriel telling Mary she will have a baby. The angel telling Joseph the same thing. Mary’s trip to see Elizabeth. The walk to Bethlehem for the census. The struggle to find a room at the inn, and the birth of Jesus.Don’t get me wrong, they’re good stories, but you can only add so much that is new and different from last time. As a preacher it’s sort of daunting. You must have heard these stories 100s of times and I’m supposed to say something new? Every year I have this same struggle, and every year, I come back to the same answer—keep it simple, the story speaks for itself. I don’t need to say anything radically new, because God’s profound love for the world is still a radical idea. It may have been preaching a billion times, but there are still people who haven’t heard the story, or who don’t really understand it. The story simply needs to be told and retold and it will speak for itself.
I mean, when you think about it, there’s something special about a really good story that allows it to be told again and again, even if it’s nothing new. My dad went to Boot Camp for the National Guard under Nixon. He has lots of stories to tell and we beg him to share them again and again. He’s reluctant to keep repeating them because we’ve already heard them, but we love them and we insist. He has one about the day he arrived that is a particular favorite.
All the guys showed up to camp in big trucks. They got off and waited for their names to be called. The sergeant called their names and their assignment so they could group up. At one point, he called out, “Mungomerry Larry”. No one moved. “Mungomerry Larry.” Still nothing. So he moved on, “Smith, Christopher.” “Allen, Marvin,” on and on, and then again, “Mungomerry Larry”. Still no one. Finally, all the guys but one had been called and had their stuff. As my dad tells it, you did not want to be “the one guy” in any situation at boot camp. So, this poor guy was standing there probably mortified and the sergeant walked up to him and said, “What’s your name?” “Larry Montgomery, Sir.” “That’s what I’ve been saying, “Mungomerry, Larry.” I’m not sure why I love that story so much, but I do and I could hear my dad tell it 1000 times and it wouldn’t get old.
I think the Christmas stories are like that—we can hear them 1000 times and they don’t get old. There’s something incredible about God choosing a young teenage women, waiting to be married, to carry the Son of God in her womb. Not a queen. Not a duchess. Not someone rich and powerful, but someone meek, poor, and lowly. She was God’s choice. Something about God choosing such a woman, gives me hope, should give us all hope, that God can choose us to act, despite our flaws, despite our inexperience, despite our status. God can choose you. God could entrust you to care for, nurse, teach, and rear God’s own self. That’s a story worth retelling.
God came into the world out of love to save us. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whomsoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” God didn’t come out of anger. God didn’t come to smite us. God didn’t come to castigate and punish us. God came to save us. God came because God loves us. And that’s a truth worth retelling.
For many of us we’ve heard the stories already. We know Jesus was born already. We’ve accepted Jesus and asked that we be born of the spirit already. We are familiar with Christmas and we know Jesus. We know that God has redeemed the world through Jesus already. He already died on the cross. He already rose again. He already offered us eternal life. All of this has happened already.
For many of us, we’ve begun a life with Christ already, but for some of us, it’s yet to happen. There are many who do not yet know Jesus or the hope he offers, or what it feels like to be from the shackles of guilt and shame, anger and revenge. There are those who are still waiting. There are many who struggle under the weight of darkness, who don’t yet know the light of Christ. For them, though Christmas time comes and goes each year, they haven’t yet experienced Christmas. They haven’t experienced the Incarnation—God in the flesh. For them, Christmas has not yet come. It’s not yet real. It may be imagined, but it hasn’t been lived.
There are those this season who live with expectancy for the return of hope, light, joy, and peace. Those who have lived it time and again and are anxious to relive the memories. And others who have only heard about it. They know about it—they have head knowledge, but they don’t really get it--they don’t have heart knowledge.
Today I want to offer an invitation to have heart knowledge. If you haven’t asked Jesus to live in your heart, to be Lord of your life, to forgive your sins, to free you from the guilt or shame of your past, I want you to have that opportunity today. There may be others of you who have experienced Christ’s love, but you feel distanced from it. I want you to have the opportunity to get close to the feet of Jesus and be reminded of what it feels like.
Now, I have to be honest, I don’t know how God does what God does. I don’t know how it is we feel freedom, joy, and peace because of Christ. But I do know that it’s possible. I can’t tell you how, but I can tell you I’ve experienced it—in the darkest moments of my life, God has shined light and has filled me with hope.
I may not be able to tell you how it happens, but I can tell you why—BECAUSE GOD LOVES YOU!!
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whomsoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
God came to the world in the person of Jesus out of love---not out of anger, not out of frustration, not out of disgust for what we were doing, but out of love. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son. God wants you to receive that love so you can have everlasting life. And not just everlasting life in the sense of some prize we get when we’re dead and we just have to suffer until we get there, but eternal life that offers eternal hope today, eternal life that allows us the chance to become someone better here, eternal life that has the power to reconcile and mend our broken relationship now, eternal life that heals our wounds—physically and emotionally in the present, so that we might fully know the love of God. That’s the life God wants you to have—one filled with hope.
If you want to experience that hope, if you want to really know and understand Christmas this year and God’s gift to you, if you want to experience Christmas as something more than credit card bills, house-cleaning, a matted mess of lights, and trying times with in-laws, then I invite you to come to the altar and pray with me now. If you want to know Christmas as a life-giving event that fills you with hope, frees you from past guilt and shame, and changes your life in ways that are equally inexplicable and amazing, then I invite you to come to the altar and pray with me now. If you’ve lost sight of Christmas and want to be re-focused on God and the hope we have through Jesus Christ, then I want you to come and pray with me at the altar now.
No comments:
Post a Comment