Jesus' Christmas Message

Before the service Darlene often fills the sanctuary with music, and this morning was especially suited to the mood. Come And Worship rang out as snowflakes fell outside, adding another blanket atop the drifts already accumulated there. This was followed by O Come All Ye Faithful.

It's the Fourth Sunday of Advent. And as Pastor Brad welcomed us he shared thoughts about home and that longing for home that is within us. How our hearts long for that "safe place" that is the essence of home.

Noted: Our Christmas Eve service will be Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

Drake led us in several Christmas hymns and then Brad lit the fourth Advent candle. Drake also sang a song for us while the offering was taken. Then we shared a time of prayer for the various and numerous needs in our world.

Before delivering the sermon our women's choir sang a special rendition of the classic Christmas hymn Silent Night.

Jesus' Christmas Message

I don't know how long you have to be away from home before you starting longing to be back home. Brad then asked us to break into small groups and discuss a tradition that is part of our family.

Home is an evocative word. Some of you can't wait to go home for the holidays. For some it is a painful experience though. There's a gap between the ideal and the reality.

Why does the idea of home touch us so much? Why do we get homesick? Why to we long for home?

Several reasons come to mind. Home is where our story begins. We get molded there. We begin to form our identity. In the Bible the home is where children are to learn about and love God. Home is supposed to be a place that is safe. A place of rest.

It is not O.K. when a home is not a safe place.

Brad cited several lines from Robert Frost's poem "The Death of the Hired Man" to illustrate how the idea of home is bound up with grace. In the poem, an undeserving old man, a former farmhand who had abandoned his work during haying season, has now returned to find a safe place to die. The farmer and his wife debate what to do, and one line tells so much of the story: ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.’

The old man did not deserve to have this place available to him. He had fled, had left his employer in the lurch. But the wife brings mercy into the equation. Home is a sanctuary of grace.

The first verses of the Bible are about a home God made for Adam and Eve, The Garden of Eden. What made this place home for the first couple? God was there.

After the Fall, because of sin man and woman were banished from this home.

The story of Moses is intertwined with the meaning of home. It begins as a story about exile. The people of Israel are slaves in Egypt. Moses himself for forty years lives on the backside of the desert seaprated from his people. After he returns to his people he leads them in the Exodus, then spends 40 more years wandering in the wilderness. His life ends with a visit to a mountaintop where he can see the Promised Land, his peoples' homeland, but is not permitted to enter.

Psalm 90 is written by this "homeless" man.... Verse one declares, "Lord, you have been our dwelling place (our Home) throughout all generations." In God's presence we are home. There is no safe place on this earth, only God.

Psalm 91 opens with this great statement along the same line: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." And Psalm 84 opens with this declaration: "How lovely is Your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty."

Our longing for home is an echo of our longing for God.

Our human problem is that we want God, but we still want to do things our own way. There is a sense in which we are all runaways, like the prodigal son. What the son doesn't know is that his father has been looking for him every day with a broken heart. God is ever saying this: "Won't you please come home."

Brad then digressed on how weddings took place in Jesus' day, highlighting most notably that between the (arranged) betrothal and the wedding, the groom's responsibility is to prepare a place for his bride, a home. In those days, however, that home was often a room attached to the family's.

This background was used to shed light on that familiar verse in John 14. "Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe in Me. In My father's house there are many mansions." This is the King James Version, but a better translation is "many rooms.'

Jesus was getting ready to go to the cross, but wanted them to know He was preparing a place for them, a place of safety, of belonging, of identity.

Paul wrote, "You have been bought with a price..." This is the bride price. We are the bride.

And finally, the culmination: Revelation 21.... Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

Jesus has indeed prepared a place for you.

The Best Part of Christmas

THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

"Good morning! I'm grateful you're here this morning," Brad said warmly on this frigid December morn.

Announcements
1.Please join us for the Christmas program today at 4:00 p.m.... Leonard will be making a meal and you're invited to bring a dozen Christmas cookies.
2. Youth group will be going to see the Hobbit this Wednesday. Be here at 6:00 p.m.
3. The food items and gifts we have gathered for our "adopted family"

Brad began the service by having all the young people come to the front to listen as he read the Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. The lighting of the third Advent candle followed.

Chuck, Ken and Darlene led us in worship, beginning first with All Is Well and Master of the Wind. We then joined in on a trio of Christmas hymns.

An offering was taken followed by a time of prayer.

The Best Part of Christmas

Brad began with Proverbs 19:21

The Roman kingdom was so extensive, the Caesar ruled the known world. He was known as the king of kings. And in 27 B.C. he was declared Caesar Augustus. It was glory in the highest and peace on earth... The Pax Romana created a network of safe roads. And at a moment of time, this king made a decree.

This decree set in motion seemingly insignificant events with incredibly significant ramifications. A poor family from a small town called Nazareth travelled over rough terrain to Bethlehem.

Interestingly, Brad asks which king really moved the world to make this happen. Was it Caesar? Or did another, higher King set this in motion?

Often, we ourselves live life as if we are kings, and forget that many times things have been set in motion by a higher King.

Brad then cited the story of Yertle the Turtle, a king who wanted to expand his glory because he would be king of all he could see. So he built a kingdom on the backs of his subjects. Literally. His vision continued to expand and made him feel marvelous, until one day the turtle on the bottom burped, a small little thing with big consequences. As a result the mud became all that king could see.

So it is with the Christmas story. Caesar was king over all the known world. The Roman empire stretched far and wide. Then one day, a little package came into the world. It was a very small thing, but the consequences for this world have continued far beyond the glory that was Rome.

We all have the same kingdom problem. We want to control our sphere, our kingdoms. When we get stressed about things not going the way we want, and even angry and frustrated. Often it is because another's will has crossed our will. But who's will is it?

"Many are the plans of a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that will prevail."

There went out a decree, but the Lord was the one who had His own plan, and God was up to something that would make the angels sing. Yes, the angels sang and the heavens rang, because God, the infinite God, wrapped Himself in swaddling clothing, and became finite, confined in the body of this little tiny baby.

He who occupied the entire universe would have to learn how to walk.

It's staggering to think of it... He created the universe, yet would now have to learn how to talk. He will get cuts and bleed, will get the flu in flu season.

In the incarnation the eternal God confined Himself to space and time. God would have to learn to wait.

The eternal God would also learn submission. He would have to learn how to obey others, His parents, authorities.

He went from king to living in poverty. He was a carpenter's assistant. The incarnation is a riches to rags story.

The angels watched as the God who knew perfection would experience being despised and rejected. He took on our worry, fear and loneliness. He took on our guilt and our sin. He took on His shoulders the sins of the world.

These weren't the best things though. These things were all wrapped up in the Incarnation. The Word became flesh. The Eternal came in time. The Infinite restricted himself to a body. Omnipotence became weakness. Perfection came to carry our sin. And yes, these were all amazing things. But what really amazed the angels, what really amped them... The best part is this.... He came for you. He came for you. He came knocking on your door one day... for you.

"And we beheld His glory."

This is what makes Christmas Christmas. "My peace," He said, "I give to you."