A Word From Pastor Mike - Beginnings

The following was Mike's Christmas Eve Sermon this year but it is an important year round.  I think as you read, especially the last part of the sermon, you'll see that this is a great sermon for a New Year as well.

"In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered."  Luke 2:1

This is the beginning of the Christmas Story.  It is one of the world's great stories, Luke 2:1-20.  It's a great piece of writing.  It's got a little bit of everything:

a) Historical Figures - Augustus, Quirinius

b) Travel - Nazareth to Bethlehem, small town to small town

c) Humble Couple - Mary and Joseph - teenagers?

d) A Birth in Trying Circumstances - birth in a cow barn

e) The Natural and the Supernatural - shephers/sheep, angels

f) Announcement/A Sign - good news

g) Music - Glory to God in the Highest

h) Going in Haste - running shepherds (funny?)

i) Mary Pondering - Why am I a part of this great thing God is      doing?

j) Shepherds Praising God!

The Christmas story is short and compact.  It gets a lot of information out in just a few sentences.  This is the beginning of the Jesus story, of the Christian Faith.  "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered."

Author Stephen King wrost, "A first line of a story should say: Listen. Come in here.  You want to know about this."  God works through stories to call us to faith.  God wants to draw us in with the first line.  Listen.  You'll want to know more about this.

Consider how the Bible starts, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."  Wow!  You talk about jumping in with both feet!  Does that get your attention?

Here is some more of the world's great writing, Psalm 23.  "The Lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want."  This is telling us that God is guiding our lives, providing our needs.  God is closely involved in your existence, like a shepherd with his sheep.  Does that get your attention?

1 Corinthians 13 is an ode to love.  It begins, "If I speak in the tongues of mean and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol."  Every beginning needs a good ending.  This is how 1 Corinthians ends, "So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love."  Does that get your attention?

The gospel, the good news about Jesus, has a surprising beginning, a humble couple, travel, birth, angels, shepherds.  What is not said here is said in John's gospel, "The Word (Jesus/God) became flesh and dwelt among us" or the paraphrase, "God took on human flesh and pitched his tent with us."

God is one of us.  In the life of Jesus, God experienced life as we know it, life with its joys and disappointments, with friends and enemies, eating, sleeping, working, birth and death.  God as one of us, that's a strange beginning.  It gets your attention.

The Christmas Story is a beginning.  It's a start.  There is something special about a new beginning, a new year, a new job, a new opportunity, a new season.  All these things give a sense of excitement.

Here is a story of new beginnings...  

In 1973 Ed Ryder was sentenced to life in prison for a murder he didn't commit.  (Does that first sentence get your attention?)  Ed Ryder was a 22 year old petty thief and sometimes heroin user.  He was in jail, in a holding cell, when three other men in the cell decided to get revenge on another man who had insulted them.  Ed Ryder was lumped in with the other men who had committed the murder.  Two of the other men later admitted that Ed Ryder had nothing to do with it.  How long did it take then for Ed Ryder to be set free?  5 years?  10 years?  Try 20 years!

When Ed was in prison he dreamed of playing trumpet in his own jazz band.  He never let go of hope.  He always believed he would get a new beginning.  In September of 1993 Ed Ryder was set free from his prison.  He started his own jazz band!  He was able to begin again.

The Jesus story has a beginning but it is also about beginnings for others.  When Jesus grew up, he started his ministry by reading from the book of Isaiah.  "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me... to bring good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, recovery of sight to the blind and letting the oppressed go free to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

The good news of the gospel is that you and I get a new beginning with God.  Jesus lets people start over.

Jesus didn't give up on people.  He said to the woman caught in adultery, "Neither do I condemn you.  Go and sin no more in this way."  You get a new beginning.

He said to the leper kicked out of society, "Be made clean."  You have a new beginning.

There was a paralyzed man let down through a roof.  Jesus said, "Your sins are forgiven.  Take up your mat and walk."  You have a new beginning.

Jesus didn't give up on Peter, poor impetuous Peter.  Peter wanted to straighten Jesus out of his ministry.  He wanted to walk on water.  He wanted to take on the Romans.  He denied Jesus.  After the resurrection Jesus came to Peter and told him he could start again.  He gave him a new beginning.

The Christian faith is all about new beginnings.  We are sinful.  We fall short of God's glory.  We miss the mark.  We make bad choices.  We need new beginnings.  We need to know that God doesn't give up on us.  He doesn't!

Every day is a new day.  It's a chance to begin again with God.  No one is too far away from God.  He gets our attention with a story, a story about a beginning.

Every beginning needs an ending.  Here's the end of the Christmas Story... "And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them."

What is this story about for us?

There was a beginning to the life of Jesus on earth.

A savior and Lord was born for us.  That means Jesus saves us from our sins and teaches us through his Spirit and Word how to live a life that pleases God.

Jesus had a beginning.  He is the King of New Beginnings.  God has not given up on you.  You are not too far away from God.  God knows all about your life.  He loves you and he wants you to begin again with him.

This story, this day, this faith is God's gift to you.  Be a shepherd.  Glorify and praise God.  Let that be the beginning and the end of your faith story with God.

Happy Day of Forgiveness!

Merry Christmas.

Happy Day of Forgiveness.

Luke 2: 1-20 (New International Version (NIV)

The Birth of Jesus

2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while^[a] Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to their own town to register.

⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.
⁸ And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.⁹ An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. ¹¹ Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah,the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
¹³ Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest heaven,
    and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

¹⁶ So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.¹⁷ When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Merry Christmas!

Christ our Savior is Born

 

Silent night, holy night
All is calm and all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace

Silent night, holy night
Shepherds quake at the sight
Glories stream from Heaven afar
Heavenly hosts sing halleluia
Christ the savior is born
Christ our savior is born

Silent night, holy night
Son of God
Love's pure light
Radiant beams from thy holy face
With the dawn of redeeming grace
Jesus Lord at thy birth
Jesus Lord at thy birth

Halleluia!
Halleluia!
Halleluia!

Christ the Savior is born

Merry Christmas, My Friends.

Let's Make a New Holiday - Santamas!

I have a GREAT idea!  Let's advocate for a new holiday and let's call it Santamas!  We can make it be about a chubby guy in a red suit that has reindeer to help him fly all around the world, delivering presents.  He can only deliver presents to children who earn them through their good behavior.

It will be FUN!  We can say that he slides down our chimneys.  Maybe we can make up that he has elves to help him make toys for children!  He can live far, far away... how about the North Pole?  He can be all about candy canes and we can focus on getting lots and lots of presents from him!

This new holiday can be appropriate for everyone as it will be quite secular.  We'll be able sing about Santa in our schools!  It will be so cool! We can make it clear that it is just for fun; that the story is just a story, loosely based on nice man who lived and died long ago.

THEN...

Let's celebrate another holiday, called Christmas!  We can focus it on Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God!  We can read about his birth from the Bible, including reading that his birth was prophesied centuries before it occurred.  We can imagine how it was for his mother, Mary, when she found out she was going to be mother to God's Son, and that her son would be The Savior. We can talk about multitudes of angels declaring his birth! It will be so exciting! Imagine the glorious songs we can sing in our churches, homes and even out caroling to shut-ins. Doesn't it just give you goose-bumps?

We can let our children know that it is a real story.

The story will be about giving, rather than getting.

It will be a story of joy and peace and hope.  

It will be just what the world needs.

It will be all about HIM.

It will be holy.

Eternal God, before Your Throne

Eternal God, before your throne we bend,

Your grace to seek, your holy name to bless;

Our grateful hearts in humble praise ascend

To you whose ways are truth and righteousness.

With all the host of heaven we adore

Your matchless holy love forevermore!

Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior and our friend,

Whom angels praise before the throne on high:

How vast your love, to love us to the end

And on the cruel cross to bleed and die!

O blest Redeemer, hear your children pray;

O Lamb of God, take all our sins away!

O Holy Spirit, truth and peace divine,

Descend to us in all your saving pow'r,

And kindle flames of love and faith to shine

Within our yearning hearts this sacred hour!

Make plain the Father's will, the Savior's love,

And fit us all to dwell with you above.

Text:  Ernest E. Ryden,, born 1886

Tune: Carl W. Landahl, 1908-1961