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Christmas Sermon 2003

St. Francis Church, Peoria

 

Fr. John Spencer

“I Wonder…”

 

Our theme is Wonder, the Wonder of it all.  We have our Christmas banner. 

On the banner we have a star, a cross and a dove.  It may seem strange to have all these as part of a Christmas banner, but, from God’s perspective, this is all one event – the star for the birth of Christ, the cross for His death and resurrection, and the dove for the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church.  Part of the wonder of Christmas is that all of these events are summed up in the birth of the Christ child.  Without this event, this Christmas birth, we wouldn’t be here in church; there wouldn’t even BE a church!

Christmas is a time of Wonder:  wonder, which means astonishment, surprise, marvel, excited amazement, uncertainty or doubt.

 

“WONDER-FUL” – Full of Wonder

 

Did you ever wonder how the actual event affected those who were involved?

 

Mary was a young girl – our best guess is that she was 15 or 16 years old.  Here she is betrothed, that is, engaged, to Joseph, but not yet married and she turns up pregnant!  One more unexpected teen-age pregnancy – this was a problem!  It was miraculous, but controversial. 

Did you ever wonder what Mary felt?

·        Doubt?  Of course she had doubts!  (Luke 1:29)

·        Fear?  Probably she was frightened.  (Luke 1:30)

·        Worry?

·        Shame?

·        Embarrassment?

·        Complete submission to the perfect will of God? Yes, eventually.  (Luke 1:38)

 

Joseph was the man to whom Mary was betrothed.  Did you ever wonder how Joseph reacted?

o       Upset?  His initial reaction was to be upset and to “wonder” what had happened!

o       Suspicion?  He almost “put her away” in a discreet home for unwed mothers.

o       Doubt?  It took another angel to change his mind and be willing to go ahead and marry Mary.  (Matt.1: 18-25)

o       Worry?

o       Fear?

o       Commitment?

o       Following a course he could not completely understand, to fulfill a purpose he had not planned and could not control?

How do you suppose Jesus felt?  Have you ever tried to sleep on a bed of straw?  How would it be to be the Creator and become a part of your own creation?

 

Did you ever wonder why the shepherds were chosen to be the first to see him?  Have you ever “wondered” that they were the first ones to be beckoned to his crib?  If we had been arranging this event, whom would we have chosen to tell?

·        Herod, the King of Judea

·        Caesar, the Emperor of Rome

·        Other V.I.P.s

We would have arranged CNN coverage and full-page ads in all the major newspapers!  We would have announced this “wonder-full” birth and made it a media event.

God did it differently.  The Messiah came quietly.  He wasn’t known or recognized when he arrived.  The people God told were the most insignificant, unimportant people that could be found.

·        The poorest of the land

·        The most insignificant people in society

·        People who were dirty, smelly, who spent most of their time with sheep

Do you ever wonder how the shepherds felt?

·        How did they react to that voice from the skies?

·        How did they react to the host of angels?

·        How often do singing angels appears in the skies over the Judean desert?

 

Do you ever WONDER?

Did you ever wonder how the creator of the universe could become a creature?

Do you REALLY understand the miracle?  Do you understand what it took for the creator of the universe to become part of his creation?

·        Before he was a man, he was a little boy.

·        Before a little boy, he was a toddler.

·        Before a toddler, he was an infant.

·        Before an infant, he was a fetus in his mother’s womb.

    • Before a fetus, he was a fertilized egg.
    • Before that, there was no human “Jesus” at all, just the eternal SON, the WORD of God, existing from all eternity in union with the Father and the Holy Spirit!

 

Are you sure you REALLY understand the miracle?

Are you lost in WONDER yet?

 

DID YOU EVER WONDER WHAT A MESS YOU WOULD BE IN RIGHT NOW IF HE HAD NOT DONE THIS?

·        What would the world be like if we took the Incarnation out of the picture?

·        Consider history, without Jesus Christ, without God among us.

·        How would the world be different?

·        How would YOUR life be different?

 

People worry about taking Jesus out of Christmas, taking Jesus out of our schools.  Let’s try this:  Let’s try taking Jesus out of history!

·        What would be different?

·        How would YOU be different?

·        How would your life change?

·        How would the world around you changed?

 

Some take Jesus out of history in another way:  they treat Jesus like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny:

·        A nice, warm fuzzy mythical creature who is not real, and therefore not a threat to our own wills.

·        A nebulous story-book Jesus who is nice to think of, but won’t cause us to confront our own sins, and change our way of living.

·        This Jesus will never change anything or anyone!

 

What kind of Jesus do you know?

 

Some people worry, “what would happen if a UFO landed, if aliens walked among us?”  UFOs?!!

What would happen if GOD landed, if HE walked among us?  Guess What!  He has!  (John 1:10-12)

·        We live in world opposed to the will and purposes of God, in territory occupied and controlled by the enemies of God (the world).

·        The true KING has landed in our midst, he is walking among us.

·        Do we recognize him?

·        Or do we think he “just a nice Bible story”?

The world in which we live is a world at war with God.  We are at war with the one who made all things and by whom all things hold together.  The king has come, and we have done pretty much all we can do to hide this fact.

Wonder – astonishment, amazement; wonder can also be doubt.

The king is calling together the largest army in history to defeat the enemies of God!

·        1/3 of the world’s population today is Christian.

·        But 2/3 is NOT.  And they are doing everything in their power to destroy the Christian faith, to kill it, in exchange for something else:

·        For a religion or a philosophy that denies Jesus ever came.

·        Or a religion or philosophy that denies he is who he is.

We don’t like the way God does things.  We’d rather do things our own way.  Most of us act as if we know better than God – a LOT of the time!  Only Jesus could say, all the time,

“I have come to do your will, O God.”  (Hebrews 10:7)

It is easier to worship the baby in the manger than to worship and obey the man he became!

It is easier to observe holidays that to observe the commandments!

The story of history is the story of mankind’s rebellion against God.  They (we) rebel for one reason only – they (we) don’t like the rules God has made!

God set His people free from Egypt; when he told them the way to live – they didn’t listen.

Our job is to spread the gospel.  Most of the results of Christ’s life happened after His ascension.  The accomplishments of Jesus Christ have been through His church.  The Christian faith is growing by leaps and bounds, mostly in the global south.

 

·        But we don’t have to run off to Africa, or Asia, or Tim-Buck-Tu to spread the message of the gospel. 

·        We live in America.

·        All we have to do is go next door!

The gospel message is just as important as ever, and it is just as unpopular as ever.  Christ comes to us as a gift which we receive.  He calls us to bear Christ out into the nations.  The wonder of the Incarnation, the miracle of Christmas, is that it gives us what we could not get for ourselves.  It puts us back into a right relationship with God.

The most amazing thing about the gospel is the resistance of so much of the world to the gospel message.  “Thanks, God, but I’d rather do it myself, my own way.”

 

·        Where do you stand on the issues of life that mean the most?

·        Where do you stand on the gospel of Jesus Christ?

·        How has the coming of Jesus Christ changed your life?

·        Or has it changed it at all?

 

BANNER:

·        The Manger

·        The cross

·        The Spirit descending at Pentecost.

 

You see, from God’s point of view, it’s all ONE EVENT, it all has the same meaning:

·        God has come down among us.

·        God has invaded our lives.

·        Are we fighting him?

·        Or are we lost in WONDER at the gift he has given us?

If you have made that personal commitment to Jesus Christ, if you have that strong personal relationship with Him, then nourish it.  What are you doing to grow in it, to develop that relationship?

If you do NOT yet have that special relationship, if he is not yet a REAL PERSON in your life, then ask him in NOW.

 

THIS IS WHAT CHRISTMAS MEANS:

We have been invaded

  • By Grace OF God,
    • By the Love of God,
      • By the Son of God come down among us,
        • WHO LOVED US SO MUCH THAT HE WAS UNWILLING TO LEAVE US TO OUR OWN DEVICES.

 

"How many observe Christ's birthday!  How few, his precepts!  O! 'Tis much easier to keep Holidays, than Commandments."—

Benjamin Franklin

 

Where do you stand in relationship to Christ Jesus, God With Us?

On your private opinions?

Or on the Revelation of God, come down to earth, in Christ Jesus, that HE IS WHO HE IS.

 

Oh, the wonder of it all.

·        Come and adore the Christ Child:

·        Come and get lost in the wonder of it all.

·        Dig deeper into your faith.

·        Stand in awe before the manger, for God has landed in our midst!

 

Interpretation and suggestions are by Ruth Holmes, who is solely responsible for them.  Don’t blame Fr. Spencer!)

 

 

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