Christmas is almost here! The
excitement is building and it is less than a week away when we will gather to
share Communion, light candles, and sing Silent
Night, Holy Night! In Christmas Eve worship, we will commemorate the day
GOD broke into our human history to tell us that His place is with us on earth
(Immanuel!) and we will know Him as Jesus, because He will save us from our
sins. (Matthew 1.18-25) Throughout this season of preparation for Christmas,
which we know as Advent, we have explored various aspects of how we can prepare
for, and experience anew, the miracle of Christmas!
Our December message series, Be Part of the CHRISTMAS Miracle, has
sought to explain the miracle as (1) GOD giving us His presence, even though we
do not deserve it; (2) GOD’s saving and changing us through His presence; and
(3) GOD inviting us to share the miracle with others so they may know of His
love and desire for transformation through salvation! In addition, we have
explored the miracle of generosity: GOD is generous and wants us to be made
into the likeness of Jesus and be generous, too. We understand generosity as
doing something for someone without any expectation of reciprocity, and giving
to someone who could never repay you.
It was during this message that we unveiled our Miracle in Missions offering, where we are hoping to collect
$10,000 to be used in mission and ministry across the world. So far we have only collected $1,745, less
than 20% of our goal, but you still have time to bring your offering to the
church either in worship this Sunday, Christmas Eve, or in our combined worship
celebration on December 30th at 10:55am.
This past Sunday, we explored the
Miracle of Celebration. Celebrations
are important! They are times when we rally together to celebrate something
significant that happens in life. The miracle of celebration is it forces us to
shift our focus off of self, where we are prone to want it to be, and refocus
where it needs to be…GOD! Christmastime is perfect for this, because we tend to
focus too much on our own wishes and dreams and not enough on the fact that
this life-changing event is all about GOD saving us and providing the hope we
need when life causes us to be discouraged. Then, when we come together to
celebrate, we find a synergy is developed with others with whom we are
celebrating. This is the essence of Christian community, and is an exclamation
point on the need to gather in worship for such high and holy times.
I don’t know about you, but the recent events at Sandy Hook
Elementary School in Newtown, CT dampened my celebrating spirit. I wept as I
watched the news coverage about the evil and hateful atrocities just a
week-and-a-half or so from Christmas. As I was praying, though, GOD reminded me
that our current understanding of Christmas as sleeping in heavenly peace, is really all about hope, because the peace we seek
is not our reality. It wasn’t the reality in
the world some 2,000 years ago, and it is not reality today. GOD didn’t look at
earth and realize that we had finally learned how to get along with each other
and decided it was time to come hang out. The world was dark, dirty, and messy,
yet in love, GOD decided to come anyway. We tend to think that we deserve
Christmas, making it all about us, but the reality is we did not then, and do
not today; still, GOD came to bring the light and show us the way! This being
the case, the beauty of Christmas arrives when we realize that the very night
the star pierced the darkness to declare that GOD’s home was now with His
people on earth was the moment when hope was truly born! This forces us to shift our focus off of self and
onto GOD so that we know we can celebrate – even when life seems so scary – the
fact that GOD truly is with us!
I want to leave you with a
beautiful passage from Scripture that reminds us how important it is to
celebrate GOD, even when life does not make much sense in the here-and-now. May
these words challenge and comfort you as you put the finishing touches on your
Christmas preparations so you may celebrate anew next Tuesday!
“Celebrate God all day, every day. I mean, revel in him! Make it as clear as you can to all you meet that
you’re on their side, working with them and not against them. Help them see
that the Master is about to arrive. He could show up any minute! Don’t fret or
worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries
into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of
God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you
down. It’s wonderful what happens when
Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” (Philippians 4.4-7, The
Message, emphases mine)
No comments:
Post a Comment