Hello,
Here’s a Christmas message….
Last night we ended our Christmas Eve worship service singing Silent Night
Silent Night, Holy Night all is calm, all is bright
Round yon virgin, mother and child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace….sleep in heavenly peace.
Listening to this lovely Christmas song, you and I might come to believe that that 1st Christmas was a lot different than this Christmas. That Christmas, a Christmas where everything was calm, where everything was bright. This Christmas:
· a Christmas where a truck is driven into a crowd gathered by a church,
·a Christmas where millions of people have lost their homes and many their lives in a bombed city,
·a Christmas where babies cry out for mothers who heroin has stolen away from them.
The world on this Christmas is far from calm….far from bright.
Fact is, though, even though the Christmas carol might lead us to think otherwise, our world and that world are really quite alike.
·Battles raged all around the world as the Roman Empire tried to expand and hold on to its territories,
·people lived in fear of being pulled out of their homes by angry soldiers who decried all restraint,
·babies cried out hopelessly for mothers who died in bringing them into the world.
Fact is, our world and that world are quite alike.
So today, Christmas day, if you feel like the world is a big mess, remember this: it was a big mess on that first Christmas day. And maybe that is the most important thing to remember about that first Christmas day…the world was a mess…and yet, …. And yet, God stepped into it. Today we hear these words from the Gospel of John, “No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.” In Jesus, we see as clearly as we can see, just what kind of God we have. We have a God who steps into messes.
We have a God who when things were falling apart,
·God didn’t fold…
·didn’t cash in his chips…
·didn’t cut his losses.
In Jesus, we see that we have a God that went all in. A God that totally invested everything that he had, his very self.
That might not be such a big deal if God was some minor investor…someone who although was very passionate about what he saw going on….didn’t really have the means to do anything about it. But that is not the case with God. Our Gospel lesson tells us today that this God of ours is not just a major investor….he is the only investor.
·He is the one who has created all things…things seen and things unseen.
·He is the one whose power put everything in motion, and he is the one whose power holds everything together.
·He is the one who brought light into being, and he is the one who no darkness can overcome.
And it is because of this, that we have a God who steps into messes, that you and I can do as was said of Jesus on that first Christmas day…sleep in heavenly peace. The world may indeed be rumbling and shaking, but on this Christmas day, feel the embrace of our God on you.
·Hear his sing his lullabye of grace and mercy softly, but powerfully in your ear.
·Rest in the strong arms of God, and as one whom God calls as his child see if you don’t feel peace….divine peace….heavenly peace welling up in you.
We can rest our heads on our pillows tonight and wake up to face the world with confidence, courage and strength …not because the world is all calm and bright… but because God will be with us, and we have a God who with all of his power and might steps into mess of this world and holds onto his children.
Sleep in heavenly peace.
Amen
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