Merry Christmas!!
I hope you had a wonderful celebration on Christmas Day--a chance to be with family and friends--a chance to share gifts which you know is really a reenactment of God's perfect gift in the birth of Christ. But here we are 2 days later--Dec 27 and you may be wondering--What Now?
A lot of us experience that let down after Christmas Day. After weeks of shopping, baking, decorating, mailing and wrapping--- suddenly Christmas Day is past. Now what? Anybody feel some of that?
Well, the church over the centuries has found a way to deal with that. You see, Christmas is not just a day, it's season. The 12 days of Christmas! And we're only in day 3! The 12 days of Christmas! You know that song. The one nobody can remember all the verses for.
When we went caroling on our hayride last Sunday night we did pretty well with the song until we got up to the 9th or 10th verses and then we weren't sure how many "lords a-leapin" we had.
These days after Christmas are not meant to be a letdown--they're meant to be a continuation of the celebration of Christ's birth. Because his birth is such a life-changing event that we can't possibly grab hold of its impact for us in one short day!
The post-Christmas blahs are understandable to some degree after all the frenzy is over. But it doesn't have to be that way. The solution is to look beyond the fallen needles and the stale cookies and the worn-out batteries and focus instead on the greatest gift we have ever been given. It's a gift that always fits. It's a gift that doesn't break or wear out. It's a gift we can put aside and forget about --but boy, are we missing out if we do!
This greatest of all gifts is the birth of Jesus Christ into our lives and into our world and it is the gift of hope that comes with Christ.
God knew what he was doing in coming into our world in the birth of a baby. The birth of a baby--it's the perfect symbol of hope. Our niece and her husband are expecting a baby--the baby is now several days overdue and Stephanie and her sisters are on the phone constantly checking in--is the baby here yet?
There's so much anticipation that goes along with the birth of a child. All the potential and possibility and future that lives within a newborn baby. The gift of a new life is filled with expectation! That's true for the birth of any baby. But it is incredibly true with the birth of the Christ child.
The celebration of Christ's birth is meant to give us hope for each day of life. It's a hope that we need. It's a hope that we depend on. Let's read together what Paul wrote to the Ephesians about hope---
"I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe." Ephesians 1:18-19
"That you may know the hope to which he has called you!"
We depend on hope--we literally can't live without it.
Dr William Buchholz in the Western Journal of Medicine reports that he overheard a discussion between 2 oncologists--cancer specialists-at a medical conference some years ago. The one doctor said, "You know, I just don't understand it--We both used the same drugs, the same dosage, the same schedule. Yet I got a 22% positive response rate and you got a 74% positive response. That's unheard of for lung cancer that's metastasized. How do you do it?"
The other doctor replied--"We're both using Etoposide, Platinol, Oncovin and Hydroxyurea. You call yours EPOH. I reverse that. I tell my patients that I'm giving them H--O--P--E. Sure I tell them that it's experimental and we go over the possible outcomes and side effects. But I emphasize that we have a chance. There is HOPE."
Hope is essential for human life.
Now I'm not talking about false hope. It's been said that nothing in the world arouses more false hope than the first few hours of a diet!
In one of his movies, Woody Allen says: "We have 2 alternatives. One leads to hopelessness, alienation and despair. The other leads to total destruction." There are a lot of false hopes that lead us to choices like that!!
Like the woman who said she bought a daily lottery ticket every day so she would have 24 hours of hope. Or the empty hope we put in fame and fortune.
But the hope we have in Christ is real. The hope of that new born in Bethlehem that we celebrate is a hope both for now and the future.
The Gospel readings that we heard from Luke and John's gospels are different --yet equally powerful ways of describing what this Christmas celebration is all about. Luke tells so beautifully of the events on that night in Bethlehem. The angels, the shepherds, the manger, Mary and Joseph with the Christ child. Such peace and power all wrapped together.
John's gospel presents Christ's birth in more theological terms--yet just as power-filled.
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth." John 1:14
"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." Among us--not far away in some safe and comfortable place--but in the midst of a mess in the stable in Bethlehem. And he is born in the midst of the mess of our lives this Christmas. And he brings God's gifts of grace and truth. Those are gifts that create hope for you and me.
In Christ we have hope for the present--here and now. You and I hear a lot of statements like "It's too late. Nothing can be done about it. You can't change the world. What's the use, he'll never change."
The hope we have in Christ rejects those kinds of statements. The birth of Jesus shows that we don't have to accept things the way they are. New things are possible as the birth of Christ proves.
We don't have to stay trapped by the same old despair, failures, addictions or bitterness. New ways of living, new relationships with the people around us are not only possible, they are a certainty if we follow Christ's way. Maybe not in the way and timeframe we anticipate, but in the way the Lord knows is best.
Christ's birth says to us that we don't have to accept things the way they are. We can trust his promise that in God's time all will be as he intends it to be.
And that brings us hope for Dec 27, 2009--right here, right now, in this world.
But Christmas is also a celebration of hope for the future because Christ was not only born, he died. But that was not the end of him. God overturned the seeming victory of evil and death and resurrected Christ to new life. And through our baptismal faith you and I are given the promise that the same will be true for us. That even when evil and death seem to winning that actually, God's goodness and grace will have the final say. That God will give us new and eternal life with him.
Do we have any football fans here? Last weekend we were at a concert and the MC said that he was taping the Grizzlies national championship game. And he didn't want anybody to tell him the score if they heard anything. Unfortunately, the game didn't turn out so well. I've done that a lot of times--taped a game I couldn't watch and then replayed it later. But I remember one time taping a Philadelphia Eagles playoff game while I went to make a hospital visit. On the way home though I heard that the Eagles won the game. A lot of times if I know the outcome of a game or a movie, I won't want to watch it. But this time I did.
I got excited when my team did something well. I enjoyed the big plays. But when they blew a play or threw and interception, I knew I didn't have to worry. It was much easier to accept the mistakes and failures because I knew that no matter what happened, that the Eagles were going to win that game. The outcome was certain.
The same is true for us because of the hope we have in Christ. We can endure the low points, the trying times because we know that God has already won the victory for us. No matter what happens, we don't have to worry because the Lord has won and the result is final.
And that's the gift that hope in Christ brings us at Christmas. And so if you find yourself with a case of the post-Christmas blahs, maybe it's because in the midst of all the commotion you never really got to unwrap God's gift to you. Now is the time to unwrap the gift of Christ that God gave you on the 25th--the gift of hope.
There was a woman who had been diagnosed with cancer and had been given 3 months to live. Her doctor told her to start making her final preparations. So she contacted her pastor and had him come to her house to discuss her final wishes.
She told him which songs she wanted sung at the service, what scriptures she would like read. The woman also told her pastor that she wanted to be buried with her favorite Bible.
Everything was in order and the pastor was preparing to leave when the woman said, "There's one more thing." "What's that?" asked the pastor. "This is very important." The woman continued. "I want to be buried with a fork in my hand." The pastor stood looking at the woman not knowing quite what to say.
"That shocks you doesn't it?" the woman asked. "Well to be honest, it seems sort of strange," said the pastor. The woman explained. "In all my years of attending church dinners and functions where food was involved my favorite part was when whoever was clearing away the dishes would say 'you can keep your fork.' It was my favorite part because I knew that something better was coming.
When they told me to keep my fork, I knew that something great was about to be given to me. Some delicious cake or pie. Something I knew I would love. So I just want people to see me there in that casket with a fork in my hand and I want them to wonder 'What's with the fork?' Then I want you to tell them: "It's because our dear friend wanted you to know that the best is yet to come!'"
That story is great way to think of heaven and the life to come and a great way to remember the hope we have in Christ. But for me personally, the most powerful part of that story is that it was sent to me several years ago by a great friend who has been a tremendous inspiration to me. Kevin has ALS--Lou Gehrig's disease--a slow moving form that he has battled for 30 years. He's been confined to a wheelchair for years and can't speak. But he can still mouth his words and is still able to communicate very powerfully the faith he has in Christ. His sense of humor, his presence at worship every Sunday that he's able, his care for family and friends---are truly amazing. Kevin knows the best is yet to come and he and his wife Ceal who is an incredible care-giver are a tremendous motivation to all those who know them because they live by hope in Christ.
So ---it's December 27--What now?? Christmas Day is past--- but the best is yet to come as we live by hope in Christ.
Amen.
