Andy at Israel - The Journey Begins

click here for an overview of the tour and the organization I will be going with

While I began this blog (Andy at Faith) as a way of sharing my sermons with others, today I am going to be adding to this and begin writing about my upcoming trip to the Holy Land (Andy at Israel).

In August, I came home from a week of vacation to a congregation that had been very busy while I was away.  After preaching a summer sermon series called "The Way - Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus," and exploring what we can learn from the different locations Jesus traveled to during his ministry, a wonderful woman came up with the idea of sending me to the Holy Land to see these locations for myself.  The idea spread and the next Sunday while I was away they announced the idea to the church and took donations.  They had enough money by the end of the day to send me to Israel, so after some plotting with my sister, the plans were set and when I arrived home and finished preaching the following Sunday they completely surprised me with an 8 day tour of Israel.  In one month I will be walking in the footsteps of Jesus.

I have often shared that one of the regrets of my life was not taking this trip when my grandmother invited me to go with her more than 25 years ago.  I was young and foolish and missed out on a trip of a lifetime... but Faith Church is helping me redeem that moment and make the trip myself.  I will not only be thinking of my grandmother during this trip, but the people of Faith Church and so I wanted to try and find a way to share the experience with them.  That is why I am am turning here to share about my journey.  It is my hope that each day I will be able to share a picture and some thoughts about where we walked that day.  Let's hope I can work through all the technology to make that happen!

Today the trip seems more real than ever because I received my itinerary, name badge and luggage tag.  So at long last... here is the list of dates and places I will be visiting.

January 28 - Travel Day leaving from JFK in New York at 11:50 PM

January 29 - Arrive in Tel-Aviv and check into the Royal Plaza Hotel in Tiberias

January 30 - Boat ride on the Sea of Galilee, Mt of Beatitudes, Capernaum, Peter's house and ancient synagogue and the Baptismal site.

January 31 - Cana, Nazareth, Meggido, Caesarea and check in at the Olive Tree Hotel in Jerusalem.

February 1 - Qumran, Jericho, and the Mt of Olives

February 2 - Bethlehem, Shepherd's field, Garden of Gethsemane, Mt Zion, Upper room and night tour of Jerusalem.

February 3 - Masada and the Dead Sea

February 4 - Western Wall, Teaching Steps, Pool of Bethseda, Via Dolorasa, Church of the Holy Sepulchre and an evening at the Israel Museum and Dead Sea Scroll tour.

February 5 - Ein Kerem and the Garden Tomb and back to the Tel-Aviv Airport for a flight home.  

February 6 - Arrive in New York at 6:00 AM.

I haven't read the study guide or the Bargil Pixner books my sister bought when she took this trip and told me I should read before I go but I will and as I do I will share in more detail about the places I will be visiting and what I hope to see or experience.

There are no words to adequately express my gratitude to Faith Church for making this all possible.  I hope that by taking you with me (so to say) you will be able to share in the blessing you have given to me.  

What a way to begin the New Year!

Shalom!

3 Words for the New Year

What three words will guide you in the new year?  We asked this on our facebook page and got these responses:
Jesus – Mercy – Grace
Pray – Love Sing
Passion – Courage – Faith
Seek God First
Know God Better

All of these are good ones and I want to encourage you to think about this question and ask God to give you 3 words for this year.  I also want to offer three words from an ancient story, the story of the Magi or wisemen who visited Jesus after his birth.  Their story is in Matthew 2:1-12.

While our first word isn’t actually found in Matthew, it is the word that started the entire journey of the Magi - LOOK.  Are we willing to look up and consider all that God is doing in the world and in our lives and are we willing to look around at the people God has placed in our lives to see what we can learn from them and how God might be calling us to make our journey in life and faith with them.  That is the story of the Magi. They looked up into the sky and when they saw a new star they began to ask themselves, what is God doing.  Why has God placed a start there – what does this mean?  The Magi observed the world around them.  Some scholars believe they were astrologers which in those days would have been a combination astronomer or scientist and philosopher.  So they looked up to the heavens and saw the bigger picture of their world and life and thought about what God was doing.

They looked up and probably the most important thing we can do in the New Year is look up – look up to God so that we can see not just who He is but what he is doing in our world and in our lives.  God is still moving and if we will take the time to look for him – we will find him.  My hope is that this year we will look at what God is doing not just here but around the world.  I hope we will consider what God is doing in Sierra Leone and Penn State and Faith Church and see how we can part of God’s plan to bring all those resources and needs together.  My hope is we will look to see how God is moving in our community so we can help offer healing and hope to those in need.  For example, if you have been looking at Allegheny Street recently you might have noticed a new food bank going in and the Faith Centre expanding.  Maybe God is calling you to be part of helping this ministry and begin doing some new things.

Starting next week we will also be looking to God in hopes of discovering God’s will for our own lives.  What is God’s message for me?  Does God have 3 unique words for us this year and how can those words and God’s word lead and guide us into God’s will.  I’ll leave that for next month – but let’s just say that January will be a time for us to be looking up to God.

The Magi didn’t just look up, they also looked around.  They looked at each other and asked themselves, what does this mean?   They turned to each other for help and guidance and support in their journey and we need to learn the importance of looking around at those God has placed in our lives.  God does not call us to take this journey in life alone and so we need to identify those who can help us and love us along the way.  Who do you need to look at and work on building a better relationship with?  Maybe it is your spouse, or your children – if it is then please find ways to look at them, to really look at them and see who they are, their longing and needs and desires.  Maybe you need to look at the people you work with or the people in your small group of Bible study and see if there are ways God can accomplish more of his will by building stronger and more faith centered relationships.  We all need to look around at the people God has placed in our lives and not just appreciate them but work on strengthening our relationships with them.

So looking at God and the people God has placed in our lives is a great place to start, but it is not enough to just LOOK we also have to MOVE.  The Magi moved.  They physically moved making a trip to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem.  The moved on what they learned about the star and what they felt God was doing in their lives.  They learned about the new king to be born, knew he would be powerful so moved to find him and worship him.  To experience what God wants for us in life then we also need to move, both physically and mentally.

Physically, God has created us to move.  We were created to walk and run and stretch so it is important for us to do these things in the New Year.  One of the words many people use to guide them at the beginning of each year is the word exercise.  People commit to getting healthy by starting a running or walking plan, joining the Y or buying the latest exercise craze that you see all over TV right now.  It’s good to move and I’m glad to hear that our healthy steps group is going to be meeting each week to walk around the halls before their meeting time.  If we will move a little bit more every day – we will feel better physically and emotionally.  When I started running I noticed that I not only felt better physically by losing some weight and getting stronger – but I felt better emotionally.  It’s why I continue to run, because I haven’t found anything that relieves stress as well as running.

So we need to move physically as we are able to, but we also need to move mentally and by that I mean we need to move our brain and study and learn new things and explore new areas of interests.  The Magi did this, they didn’t just look up and see a star, they studied and consulted their books to learn about this new king that star pointed to.  Not a bad idea for us in the New Year.  Maybe we need to move our brains and study this book (Bible) so we can learn about our king (Jesus).

As we begin the New Year can we begin a reading plan for God’s word?  And it’s ok to start slow – don’t commit to reading the Bible through in a year, commit to reading one of the gospels and the go from there.  Since we started with Matthew 2 today, maybe we should just keep reading through the gospel of Matthew.  Our Men’s Bible study has been studying Matthew and I think I can say for all of us – it has been an exciting experience because we have been learning new things and learning them together.  And that is a key word – together.

We will move better physically and mentally if we will move together.  We will exercise more if we will do it with others and we will study more and learn more if we will move our brains and learn together.  The Magi moved together.  They didn’t send one man to check out this new king, they travelled together and there is value when we travel in life and faith together.  In fact, God created us to travel in life and faith together which is why we need to look at those God has put around us.

There is something specific I hope that we as Faith Church will study this year and that is the country, people and church of Sierra Leone.  I hope we will study and learn about the people and community of Pa Loko and their needs and how we can best help them.  I hope will invite people from Sierra Leone, maybe students at PSU, to come and share about their nation and customs and history.  I hope we will learn what they eat, how they live, what they celebrate and what their homes and families are like.  I hope this will be an exciting journey of faith and knowledge that we will move in together.

So the Magi looked up and around and they moved physically and mentally and this all led them to Jesus.  They found the child in Bethlehem and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh and then it says they returned to their country by another route.  They went home a different way – they changed course and that is our third word for the New Year – CHANGE.  The Magi were changed by their visit with Jesus.  Their experience with Jesus changed their hearts and it changed their lives.  Are we willing to have our hearts and lives changed by Jesus?  If we are then there are two things we can do to help change take place and the first is to worship God.

The Magi worshipped Jesus.  They didn’t just gave him gifts it says they worshipped him and it was this worship, this bowing of their hearts and lives to Jesus that changed them.  The best place for us to change our hearts is in worship.  When we worship Jesus, we not only bow our hearts but our will to his and when we give Jesus the gifts of our hands and lives, we are changed.  Worship changes us because it is during worship that we surrender our lives to God and ask him to shape us.  The prophet Isaiah said, O Lord, you are our Father.  We are the clay, you are the potter (Isaiah 64:8).  So God shapes us and molds our hearts but he can only do that if we are willing to be the clay in God’s hands.  When we surrender ourselves to God in worship – God is able to change us and mold us into who and what he wants us to be.

So God changes our hearts during worship and he changes our lives when we are willing to serve God and others in a real hands-on way.  In my own life, it has been serving God and people that has done the most to change me.  During seminary it wasn’t sitting in any class learning things that changed me, it was going to serve in a church and a nursing home and the elderly poor in Durham.  Those times changed me and sent me in the new direction of being a local pastor.  In Altoona what changed us as a church was serving the needs of the children God sent our way, in Lewisburg what changed us was serving college students at Bucknell.

My hope is that what will change us as a church in the New Year will be all the different ways we will serve both individually and corporately.  God will change us as we serve at the new food bank and reach out to those who have needs in our community.  God will change us as together we seek to serve the people of Sierra Leone by building working relationships with people around the world who will partner with us.  God will change us as we serve the children, youth and families that God brings into our church family each year and as we strengthen our efforts to serve the seniors at home and in care facilities.  Through worship and service God changes us and I hope we will allow this word to guide us in the New Year.

It’s amazing to me how an ancient story can provide three words that can still guide and direct us into this year.

Look up to God and look around at the people God has placed in your life.  Move physically to get healthy and move mentally to learn and grow.  Change your heart through worship and your life through service.  If this can be our focus in 2014 – it will be a happy, healthy, faithful and faith-filled new year.

Next Steps
3 Words for the New Year

What words will guide you in 2014?

Here are 3 words to consider from the Magi’s story found in Matthew 2:1-12.

1. LOOK  up to God and around at others.
• Read the Bible each day of 2014.
• Take 5 minutes each day to pray.
• Attend worship in January to Discover God’s Will.
• Identify 1 person to give thanks for.  Now tell them.
• Identify 1 person who needs you.  Go support them.
• Identify a team to grow in life and faith.  Invite them.


2. MOVE  Physically and Mentally.
• Commit to walking, running, biking or yoga in 2014.
• Create an exercise plan and find a partner to join you.
• Set aside time to study, read and learn new things.
• Choose 3 books/topics you want to learn more about and invite someone to learn with you.
• Learn about Sierra Leone with Faith Church.


3. CHANGE  your heart and your life.
• Surrender to God in worship each week of 2014.
• Take part in one service project each month.
• Share your experiences with others.

The Time Is Now

I’m curious, how many of you had your Christmas shopping done before Thanksgiving?

How many of you had it done by the time Black Friday was over?

How many of you finished last week?

How many of you are going to be hitting the Weis store tonight hoping to find that perfect gift?

I hate to say it… that would be me.

I am not a very timely shopper.  It takes me forever to buy anything because I am convinced I will be able find it in the next store for less, or I’ll be able to get it on Amazon and they might ship it for free.  Or I’ll wait for it to go on sale because at some point in time everything goes on sale.  No matter what I think, the end result is I end up at Weis on Christmas Eve looking for the perfect gift and yes, I have already been there today!

I wish I could learn my lesson from year to year and not wait so long to buy gifts or send our cards but each year it’s the same thing, I wait and in the end I not only miss out on the gift, but I also miss out on the gift of the season which is peace.  If you are like me and always seem to be waiting for another day and putting off to tomorrow what could be done today, then let me take you back to part of the Christmas story that I often overlook, look at Luke 2: 15-16.  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.”  So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.

Did you hear it… after the shepherds got the news that a messiah had been born it says they hurried off.  The shepherds didn’t wait.  They didn’t wait until morning to go look for the child even though the morning light would be better for them to travel and less intimidating for a young family to welcome visitors.  They didn’t wait until their job took them back into the city of Bethlehem at the end of the week or month.  They didn’t wait.  It says they went with haste and maybe that is the lesson we need to learn tonight – don’t wait.  

The time is now.  Tonight is the night for us to accept the gift of life that God offer us in Jesus and for us to do that we need to keep following the example of the shepherds.  If we want to take this moment to find Jesus, then there are three things the shepherds did that we need to do and the first one is to stop making excuses about not looking for Jesus.  Too many times we put off turning to God or looking for Jesus to be a part of our lives because we don’t think we are worthy of God’s love and grace.  The shepherds didn’t do that.  They didn’t make any excuses.  There was no discussion about how they were the lowest of the low in Israel and how even if they found this Messiah they wouldn’t be able to get close to him because people considered them unclean.  They didn’t talk about how they weren’t educated enough, smart enough, rich enough, talented enough or good enough to go and find Jesus – they just went.  They didn’t make any excuses and neither can we.

Too often we don’t turn to God and reach out to Jesus because we don’t think God wants anything to do with us.   After all I’ve done, after all I haven’t done, after all my failures, all my mistakes, all my sin why should I bother searching for Jesus because God can’t possible love me.  Too often these are the thoughts that keep us from God and what we fail to remember when we make those excuses is the truth that God loves us unconditionally.  That the first people told to go and find Jesus were a group of shepherds tells us that God came for all of us.  He came for you and me no matter what we have done or not done.  In fact, Romans 8 says there is nothing that can keep God from loving us - Romans 8:35, 37-39.  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?     No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord

There is nothing that can keep God from us so if we will hurry off and search for Jesus – we will find him.  The time is now.  No more excuses and no more waiting for another day, tonight is the night for us to turn our hearts and lives toward God.  The shepherds didn’t make excuses and they didn’t wait for another day, and neither should we.  Think about what would have happened if the shepherds had waited until the morning, or the next week to go find Jesus, they would have missed him all together.

What was the sign to the shepherds that they had found the right child in Bethlehem?  The Messiah was going to be the one lying in a manger.  Now I can’t believe Mary and Joseph used the manger as a crib for very long, maybe only that first night, so if the shepherds had waited – they would have missed the opportunity of finding Jesus at all.  If we wait to turn to God we might miss the opportunity as well.  God is calling us now, tonight and God has worked out all the details of our lives for us to find him in this moment and if we wait, we might miss out on the experience of seeing Jesus.  The time is now to start looking for God and turning to Jesus, we can’t wait.  

Now once the shepherds decided to go, they went and searched through stables and dug around in mangers to find Jesus, now why did they do this?  Why look in mangers?  It was because the angel told them to.  They were following the instructions given to them and this is the second lesson we need to learn from the shepherds.  If we want to find Jesus then the best thing we can do is turn to and trust in God’s word.   If we want to find Jesus and experience the love and grace of God then the best place to find it is right here because this is where we hear about God’s love and forgiveness offered to us through Jesus.  

In 2 Corinthians 5 it says, in Christ God is reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us.  In other words, God forgives our sin through the child the shepherds found lying in a manger and it is this forgiveness that brings us back into a relationship with God.  We also find in God’s word the timeless message of love and salvation.  John 3:16 says, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.  God’s love not only sent Jesus to save the world on that first Christmas, but God’s love through Jesus still saves us and offers us life on this Christmas.  When we search for Jesus in God’s word, we will find him because God’s word is living and active and the message we find here shapes our hearts and lives and brings us life.  

So the time is now for us to stop making excuses and search for Jesus in the message of love and peace we find in God’s word, but there is one more thing we need to do if we want to follow the example of the shepherds.  Even though it is not recorded in Luke 2, I have to believe that once the shepherds found Jesus lying in the manger – they reached out to touch him.  Maybe they asked Mary if they could hold him.  The reason I think this is because for most of us it is our natural inclination when we see a child to want to hold him or at least reach out and touch her little fingers, toes or face.  For those of you who are parents, you know the greatest feeling in the world is holding your child and it may not even matter how old they are.

Now think about what is involved in holding a child.  The first thing you have to do is let go of everything else you are holding on to so you can take the child in your arms.  You can’t hold a cup of coffee and take hold of a child.  You can’t keep working and take hold of a child – you have to let go and for us to take hold of Jesus we have to be willing to let go of what we are holding on to.   Maybe we need to let go of pride and ego and this crazy idea that we don’t need anyone or anything to help us make it in life.  Maybe we need to let go of all our good works and possessions that we think will save us.  Maybe we need to let go of our sin that we often use as a way of keeping God and others from us.  Whatever it is that we are holding on to tonight we need to let it go of so we can grab hold of God.

The second thing we have to do in order to hold a child is allow him or her to get close to us.  Unless there is some kind of diaper malfunction, we don’t hold a child out here (at arm’s length) we hold them right here, next to our hearts.  We allow them to get close to us.  We become vulnerable with them and draw them in and this is how we need to hold Jesus.  We need to let Jesus get close to us and see us for who we really are.  We need to get real with God and show him all there is to us and allow his love and grace to bring healing, hope and peace to all of who we are.  If we are willing to do this – we will find all the fullness and power of life.

When I was in seminary there was a year I went through a difficult semester emotionally and spiritually.  I was just empty.  My sister and her family who had been living close to me in NC had moved to Atlanta so I was also feeling alone and the pain of loneliness, doubt and fear was real.  During my spring break I travelled to Atlanta to be with my family and I met my sister, niece and nephew at a rest stop outside of the city.  When my niece, who was maybe 3 or 4 at the time, saw me in the parking lot, she ran up and practically jumped into my arms and when I was able to draw her close – I felt hope and healing begin.  I think this is how it is with God.  When we are open to God and draw Jesus close he draws us close and in his embrace we find life.  We find healing for whatever is breaking our hearts and the grace and love that fills up those empty areas of our life.

I believe the shepherds didn’t just look at Jesus but looked at Mary and Joseph and asked them, can we hold him in our arms?  I imagine them tenderly holding Jesus and finding in that embrace the love of God that brings salvation, healing and eternal life.  The reason I believe the shepherds got to experience this is because when they left the stable it says they returned to the fields changed.  They were filled with such passion and power that their testimony about Jesus amazed people.  So something happened at the manger that changed the shepherds and I believe it was the power and love of God.  When they allowed God to get close to them – God filled them with hope and peace and a new life.

Tonight it’s our turn.  The time is now.  Something can happen at the manger if we will stop making excuses and allow the power and love of God to change us.  Something can happen if we will allow God to get close and fill our hearts and lives.  The time is now.  Tonight is the night we need to drop whatever we are holding on to and get real with God and allow him to love us and forgive us.  Don’t wait for another day.  Don’t wait for a better deal, the time is now for us to look for, find and hold on to Jesus. This is the moment of salvation, this is the moment we can find life.  

The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time for Reconciliation

Today we come to the end of the angel’s message given to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born.  All month we have been looking at how this message holds for us the purpose of Christmas and why God sent Jesus into this world.  The first week we heard that Christmas needs to be a time for reflection and I hope that you have been able to go through this season awake, alert and aware of God’s presence with us.   The second week we heard that this is a time for celebration because the angels said their message was good news and great joy.  That good news is that God loves us and that God is always with us.  Last week we heard that Christmas should be a time for salvation because the child born was the one who saves us from our sin.  Today we come to the last purpose of Christmas and it’s something the world has never known and yet every heart and soul longs for.  Let’s look at Luke 2:13-14.  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men and women.

Peace on earth.  Jesus didn’t just come to bring salvation and reconcile us to God, he came to reconcile and restore our relationships with one another, but our world has never known this kind of peace.  There has never been a time when the world hasn’t experienced some kind of armed conflict between nations or people.  According to some estimates, there are over 60 countries and close to 500 militia or separatists groups at war today.  We might only hear about a few of these conflicts like in Syria and Afghanistan, but across the world - people are at war.  Today when I woke up and turned on the news the first story was about Americans killed due to the fighting in South Sudan.  There is no peace on earth.

But we don’t have to look around the globe to see that this is true; we see conflict taking place right here.  We may not be fighting a military war in our nation, but we are fighting political and economic battles everywhere we turn and the divide between us is growing.  Politics has become so divisive that we can’t talk to each other anymore.  Whether it is economic or social issues, just this week we have seen people go at each other and the cynical nature of our culture actually encourages us to not only disagree with people but to put to demonize them instead of listening to them.  So there is no peace in our nation or our community or neighborhood and the sad truth is that there is also not much peace in our homes.

With so many families and marriages struggling to stay together we know that conflict in our homes is strong and while we are good at lashing out at those we love and getting defensive with one another, we aren’t as good at offering grace and asking for forgiveness which helps us find peace.  What we need to remember is that our fighting at home will spread to where we work, where we worship and where we shop and play which means that everywhere we go we will feel tension, conflict and discord.

If one of the purposes of Jesus coming into our world was to bring peace on earth, to reconcile us with one another in ways that are significant and lasting, then why has the world not experienced it in the last 2000 years?  If the birth of Jesus is supposed to bring peace to our relationships with spouses, children, parents, coworkers, friends and neighbors, then why are we not experiencing it?  The answer may not be as complicated as we think - look at James 4:1-2.

So conflict comes because we want something and don’t get it and what we want is our own way.  War starts because I don’t get my way and I am not about to let you get your way and neither one of us is going to budge so we fight.  We fight at home, at work, at school, at church, in the community and everywhere we go.  There is no peace on earth because we are still living selfish, self-centered lives and don’t want to give up control.  There is no peace on earth because sin is still in control – we are still in control.

Last week we saw that sin is living our lives with ourselves in the center (the word SIN shows us this) and this way of life not only destroys our relationship with God but it destroys our relationships with everyone else.  Jesus came to save us from this way of life by forgiving us and it is this salvation that heals our relationship with God, but that is just the beginning.  Salvation is where we start, but it can’t be where we stop.  If we just experience peace with God but don’t allow God’s peace to flow through us into our relationships with others, then we will not experience true reconciliation and there will be no peace on earth.  

So the first step to peace on earth is making peace with God.  In fact, let me say this clearly – there will be no peace on earth without first making peace with God.  Peace with God is where all other peace comes from and this peace comes to us from Jesus.
 2 Corinthians 5:19 - In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sin against us.  In other words, through Jesus, God not only forgives us but makes peace with us and draws us close to him. This is what happened on the night Jesus was born.

Let’s go back to the story of Jesus birth in Luke 2.  The message that the angels gave that night was to a group of shepherds.   Now shepherds were not highly regarded.  Because we often see the Shepherds of Bethlehem through the faces of children dressed up in bathrooms with towels on their heads, we forget that they were actually pretty shady men who couldn’t be trusted.  Shepherds were not able to testify in a court of law because no one thought that they were capable of telling the truth.  Not only that, because of their job they were considered ritually unclean, which meant they were not able to worship or take part in the life of the church.  They were outcasts.  They were not close to God in any way, shape or form, and yet on the night Jesus was born God drew them in.  God made peace with them which tells us that God wants to make peace with all of us.

Jesus came into this world to draw us close and as we read through the gospels, we see that the entire life of Jesus was a testimony to this work.  Jesus drew children closer to God.  He drew women closer to God.  Jesus reached out to prostitutes and tax collectors and told them they were loved and accepted by God.  Jesus came to bring peace with God to all people and he came to restore us into a relationship with God and draw us close to him no matter who we are.  So peace with God is possible when we ask Jesus to come to us and forgive us but this just the first step towards peace on earth.

The second step is to experience the ongoing peace of God and this comes when we are willing to surrender ourselves and submit our hearts and lives to God daily.  Look again at James 4:1-2.  The conflict in our lives and world comes from our own selfish desire and those desires come because we don’t ask God or turn to God the way we should.  James answer to this problem is found in 4:7a – Submit yourselves, therefore to God.  The peace of God flows into our lives when we are willing to fully surrender ourselves to God each and every day.  It’s not a once and done decision, it is a daily – moment by moment – decision to trust God and rely upon His power and spirit to bring direction and strength to our lives.  It’s only when we surrender to God daily that the peace of God is able to not just flow into us but through us.

A great illustration of how this works comes from Paul who talks about the fruit of God’s spirit.  In Galatians 5 Paul says that fruit of God’s spirit is love, joy, PEACE, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Now fruit grows on a branch because the branch has stayed connected to the vine.  A branch doesn’t really do anything to produce fruit – it just has to stay connected to the vine and allow the fruit to develop.  The same is true with us.  The peace of God grows in us as we stay connected to the vine – which is Jesus Christ.  Jesus said, I am the vine and you are the branches.  Abide in me and I will abide in you.  So the more we trust God and love him, the more God’s peace is able to flow in us and then through us.  So for there to be peace on earth we not only need to accept the salvation Jesus offers so we are at peace WITH God, we need to stay connected to Jesus every day so that the peace OF God is able to flow through us.  But it doesn’t stop there.

For there to be peace on earth we also have to intentionally work for God’s peace here and now.  Do you know what the shepherds did after they found Jesus and experienced for themselves peace?  They went out and shared this good news with others.  They allowed God’s peace to enter into the world by telling people all they had seen and experienced.  So we need to work for peace in our world.  We need to be peacemakers or as it says in 2 Corinthians 5 we need to be ambassadors of Christ who have been given the message and the ministry of reconciliation.

We need to start working for peace right where we are.  We need to work on our own personal relationship with God and make sure we are always at peace with God by staying connected to God through prayer, worship and the reading and reflection of God’s word and then from here we can work out into our most personal relationships.  This would be our relationships our spouses, children, parents and siblings.  We need to work for peace in our homes and among our families which means asking for forgiveness when it is needed and extending grace and mercy to others before they ask.  Working for peace with those we love means taking the time to listen to one another and serve one another sacrificially and tenderly even when no one has asked for it

From our homes we need to turn and look at our relationships with friends and coworkers.  Are there ways we can work for peace and seek reconciliation among those we live and work with?  It might mean putting aside our agenda, wants and needs so we can focus on the needs of others.  It might mean reaching out to those who are hurting and offering comfort and strength.  Sometimes reconciliation and peace is simply saying, look – I’m here for you and I want you to know that.

If we can’t restore relationships with those we love and care about the most then I’m not sure we will find much success in building peace with those we disagree and struggle with – but we need to try.  One simple way to reconcile relationships with people we are at odds with is to serve them regardless of what they have said or done.  There was a man in a previous church I served who didn’t like me very much.  In fact, he told me I was doing the work of the devil.  Now this man wasn’t in good health and was not able to get to church so Jack, a leader of the church, took communion to his home on a regular basis.  One month Jack asked if I would come along when he went to serve communion and I said of course.  Needless to say… it started off a little awkward, but I prayed with this man and for him and we shared communion together and I can honestly say that what we experienced in that moment was peace on earth – or at least peace at his kitchen table.  When we are willing to set aside what might be good for us and reach out to others in love and grace – we are peacemakers in our world and I believe that this kind of peace spreads.

As we work for peace in our homes, churches and communities and people experience it – they then take God’s peace to their homes, work and neighborhoods and extend it to others and then…  who knows?  Maybe there can be peace on earth.  What I do know is that it has to start somewhere – so why not with us.  When the angels said that God’s peace had to come to earth it was not a general announcement for all the people to hear, it was a message given to a single group of shepherds, who then shared it with the people of Bethlehem, who then shared it with their family and friends who in time shared it with others.  So God’s plan isn’t to bring peace on earth in one large decree from on high but from the hearts and lives of people who are at peace with Him and daily experience and share this peace with others.  

So this is a time of reconciliation.  The purpose of Christmas is to bring peace.  Where do you need God’s peace today?  Maybe you need to find peace with God and ask Jesus to be your savior and draw you close.  Maybe you need to experience the peace of God and surrender your heart fully to him.  Maybe you need to offer peace to others and become a peacemaker in your marriage or with your kids.  Maybe you need to work for reconciliation at your job or in the community.  Wherever we are today – the angels remind us that the purpose of Christmas is peace.  Peace in our hearts, peace in our relationships and yes, peace on earth.  It is possible.


Next Steps
The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time for Reconciliation

For there to be Peace on Earth we must experience
Peace with God
Peace of God
Peace with others

1. Make peace with God by asking God to forgive your sins.  While this was our focus last week, asking God for forgiveness should be an ongoing prayer of our hearts.
We are reconciled to God through Christ. (2 Cor. 5:18)


2. Experience the peace of God by staying connected to God through worship, prayer and the reading of God’s word.  Consider being part of a Sunday School class, Bible study or small group in the new year.  Jesus said, “if you remain in me and I remain in you, you will bear much fruit” (and one of the fruits of God’s spirit is peace).  (John 15:5)


3. Work at establishing peace with others.  With whom do you need to reconcile?  What broken relationship needs God’s peace?  Who needs your forgiveness and who do you need to ask to forgive you?  Make plans to seek this kind of peace by Christmas!


4. How can you become a peacemaker in your family?  At work?  In your school or your children’s school?  How can we work for peace in our community, nation and world?  Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God.  (Matthew 5:9)

The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time for Salvation

I’ll be honest; it is about this time every year that I need someone to save me.  You see, I have waited too long to order Christmas gifts on line and have them delivered in time for Christmas so that is not an option.  But I really don’t like going to the mall to buy gifts – so that’s not a good option.  I’m stuck - I need a savior, a shopping savior.  Maybe you feel like you need some kind of savior too.  Maybe you are already over your credit limit and yet still have gifts to buy so you need a financial savior.  Maybe you have committed to being in too many places at the same time and find yourself doubled booked from now until Christmas so you need a scheduling savior.  Maybe you are feeling isolated, alone and depressed in this season of the year and need an emotional savior.  My guess is that we could all use a little salvation right now and we are in luck because salvation is one of the purposes of Christmas.

This Advent season we have been looking at the message that the angels gave to the shepherds on the night Jesus was born because this message holds for us the purpose of Christmas.  Today we hear the angels say clearly that the birth of Jesus is all about salvation.  Luke 2:11.  This is part of the good news that we celebrate – God’s love has sent us, you and I, a Savior.  That’s what the angels said.  To YOU is born this day in the city of David a Savior.  God has given you and me a savior and he is here to help save us from whatever it is we are struggling with.

If we are worried about our finances – God has given us a Savior- he won’t pay our bills but he will help us find the real value in life.  If we are stressed about our schedule and the pace of our life – God has given us a Savior.  He can’t give us more hours in a day or days in a week, but he can help us prioritize what we have going on so we make the most out of our time.  If we are feeling isolated and alone – God has given us a Savior who has promised to be with us, that’s part of the good news we heard last week.  So the purpose of Christmas, the purpose of Jesus, is to bring salvation and we are not just saved FROM something but we are saved BY something and FOR something. Let’s start by looking at what we are saved FROM.
To put it bluntly, what God saves us from is ourselves. The biggest problems we face in life don’t come from other people, the circumstances that surround us, the government that directs us or the society that shapes us.  The biggest problem we face is us.  By our very nature we are selfish and self-centered and that is the root of all our problems.  And it has always been this.

Adam and Eve were placed in paradise and told they could eat from every tree in the garden except one, the tree of knowledge of good and evil.  Having almost everything wasn’t enough for them, they wanted one more thing.  Selfish ambition and pride took over and they wanted to take control of their situation and do what they wanted to do and not what God asked them to do  Adam and Eve’s problem wasn’t the circumstances around them or even the serpents cunning words to them, it was their own selfishness.

Adam and Eve took God out of the center of their hearts and lives and placed their own selfish ambition and greed in its place.  They wanted to be in control and call the shots so they placed themselves in the center of their world and every time we do that it creates problems because we will get things wrong.  We make wrong choices, we head in the wrong direction and we treat people the wrong way and when we miss the mark like this it is called sin.  In fact, that is what sin means, missing the mark.  God calls us to live one way but we choose to live another and when we head off in our own direction and stray from the path God has for us we have problems.

So sin is basically living our lives with ourselves in the center and the word “sin” even shows us this.  I’m not sure I have ever noticed this before, but Rick Warren points this out in his book, The Purpose of Christmas.  Look at the word SIN- what is at the center?  It’s an I.  When I place myself in the center of my world things begin to fall apart and here’s why.  When we have a me-first attitude we immediately cut ourselves off from other people.  We stop thinking about the people around us and what they need and how we can live with them and only think about ourselves.  Selfish people aren’t interested in relationships – they are only interested in getting what they want and doing their own thing.  Selfish people aren’t interested in solving problems or helping others, they only want to know what is in it for them.

So sin cuts us off from others, but it also cuts us off from God.  When we place ourselves in the center of our lives and try to do everything on our own then we have left no room for God in our lives.  God simply can’t get close enough to give us peace or provide any direction.  When we live life our way, we cut off a relationship with God and separate ourselves from the life God wants for us.  So sin cuts us off from others and it cuts us off from God and if you think about it, this is what creates all the problems in our life and in our world.

If you were with us last week you heard that God’s love for us is personal and universal, which means that God loves each one of us and every person in the world.  Now there is a reason God’s love is personal and universal and it’s because sin is also personal and universal.  Each one of us is a sinner and every person in the world is a sinner, look at Ecclesiastes 7:20.  There is not a righteous person on earth who does what is right and never sins.  And Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

I know it’s not popular to talk about sin and no one likes to hear about it this time of year, but we know this is true.  We are sinners.  We can look at our own lives and see that we don’t measure up to our standards let alone God’s.  I don’t know about you, but I can find a dozen or more places in my life where I could have been more patient, kind, loving, faithful and forgiving.  We not only know that we are sinners but we know that our sin has consequences.  Every day we experience the brokenness that comes with our sin.  Our relationships aren’t what we want them to be because of our sin.  Because we feel cut off from God and others we try to fill that void with food, drugs and material possessions.  We think these things will make us feel better and fill the emptiness, but they won’t and we know it.  We know that our problem is something else, something deeper and more spiritual, but we just can’t seem to do anything about it.  And that’s just it, we can’t do anything about it.

We cannot overcome sin on our own – we need a Savior.  We can try to live the perfect life, we can try with all our strength and power to do everything the right way, God’s way, but we will fail.  The Apostle Paul was one of the most faithful and dedicated servants of God and if anyone was going to give it their all and live a perfect life it would have been Paul, but this is what he said:
I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do, I do not do and what I hate, I do…  
I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.  For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do – this I keep doing...  
In my inner being I delight in God’s law but I see another law at work in my body. 

So we all struggle with sin and we cannot overcome it on our own which is what Paul finally says, what a wretched man I am, who will save me from this body of death?  Paul knew he couldn’t do this on his own and that he needed a savior and the truth is that we all need a savior.  We all need to be saved from our sin and God sent us this savior in Jesus.  That’s the message of the angels,  for unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

So we are saved from sin and self, but how does this salvation work?  Well in Ephesians 2:8 it says we are saved BY grace through faith.  Let’s be clear, God doesn’t save us because we have earned it or because we deserve it, God saves us because he loves us.  God forgives our sin because he loves us and all we have to do to experience this salvation and the freedom it brings is to believe this and accept it.  Jesus said that the work we are to do is to believe in him so we just need to believe that through Jesus God has forgiven us.  In Acts 16 two of the early leaders of the Church, Paul and Silas, were asked point blank, What must we do to be saved?  Their answer was Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nothing has changed in 2000 years.  We are still saved by God’s grace when we believe that through Jesus God forgives our sin.  On the cross when Jesus said, it is finished, he wasn’t talking about his life, he was talking about our sin.  In his death, our debt has been paid – our sin has been forgiven.  Those final words, it is finished, is just one word in Greek - tetelestai which was the word that was written on a bill when it was paid in full.  So if our sin is a debt that has to be paid to God, it was paid by Jesus.  Our sin has been forgiven and all we need to do is believe this and accept it.  We experience salvation, which is the freedom that comes with forgiveness, when we stop trying to earn it and just accept what Jesus has done for us.

So we are saved FROM ourselves and our sin and we are saved BY God’s grace through Jesus but we are also saved FOR a purpose, look at Ephesians 1:4.  Before the creation of the world God chose us to be with him and God created us to be someone, so we are saved FOR a purpose.  Look at Jeremiah 29:11.  God has plans for us and he knows what they are and he shares them with us when we allow Him to come close and dwell in the center of our hearts.

In January we are going to explore how we can discover God’s will, but for now let’s just hear and accept that God has a purpose for us.  It may not be to become the next Mother Teressa or Billy Graham, God may just want to use us in the job we have today and the church he has placed us in, but God does have a purpose of us and when we are free from sin and place God back in the center of our lives we begin to discover what that purpose is.

So the purpose of Christmas is salvation.  The angels tell us this and Jesus showed us this.  As Jesus was hanging on the cross people shouted to him, if you are the Messiah, come down from the cross.  Save yourself.  But Jesus didn’t save himself because he knew his purpose wasn’t to save himself but us.  Christ was born to save.  The purpose of Christmas is salvation, our salvation, so let us believe this, accept it and celebrate the freedom and life that Jesus brings.

Next Steps

We are saved:
FROM our self and sin, BY God’s grace, FOR God’s purpose.

1.  Which part of this salvation speaks to you the most and why?

2. Jesus is our Savior:
• What do you need to be saved from today?  (Worry, Fear, Debt, Addictions, Loneliness…)
• In what ways have you put yourself at the center of your life?
• Confess this sin to God.

3. In what ways have you tried to earn your salvation?  
• How can you change this way of thinking and simply accept God’s grace.
• Pray a simple prayer asking Jesus to be your Savior. (There are no set words, just ask Jesus to forgive you and set you free.  He will – it’s why he was born!)
• Celebrate God’s grace and love in one special way this week.

4. What would you say is God’s purpose for your life?
• Ask a trusted friend or family member what they believe God’s purpose is for your life.
• Ask God to show you His purpose for your life.

5.  Our January Sermon Series will be, Discovering God’s Will.  Commit now to being in worship as together we will explore valuable resources in this process.

The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time for Celebration

Last Sunday during the children’s message, LeAnn Showers encouraged families to think about creating an advent tradition of doing devotions together as a family and lighting the candles of an advent wreath.  The Showers family did that last Sunday as they gathered for dinner and when they lit the first candle of the advent wreath, their twin girls, Molly and Megan began to sing.  They didn’t sing jingle bells or hark they herald angel’s sing, they started singing…Happy Birthday to you… You see, in their world, when you light candles at the table it’s for a birthday party.  Maybe kids understand more than we do about the real purpose of Christmas because Christmas really is a birthday party where we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  So having a party where we light candles, have a cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus might be exactly how we should celebrate this season.  Maybe that is the family tradition we should think about celebrating.

We do a lot of celebrating in this season.  We celebrate at parties and lunches; we celebrate with family, friends and coworkers.  We celebrate by eating and drinking and giving gifts.  We celebrate by singing songs, decorating trees and houses and sending out cards.  We celebrate a lot, but what exactly are we celebrating?  While we are celebrating the birth of Jesus, the truth is that we are celebrating so much more than just a birthday.  According to the message that the angels gave the shepherds on the night Jesus was born, we are celebrating good news that causes great joy - Luke 2:10.

The birth of Jesus was to be a time of celebration because what was taking place that night was good news and good news needs to be celebrated.  But what is this good news?  What is it, exactly, that we are celebrating?  The first good thing we are celebrating in the birth of Jesus is that God loves us.  The reason God sent Jesus into this world is because he loves us and he wants us to know that and he wants us to love him in return.  Jesus is the one who tells us this in John 3:16.  God loved us so much that he came here in the person of Jesus to forgive us and to save us so that we can have the opportunity to live with God and love him forever.

So it is God’s love that we celebrate in Christmas but there is a lot to celebrate in that love.  The first thing we celebrate is that God’s love is unconditional.  God doesn’t love us because we are good or because we have lived faithful and obedient lives - not at all.  We haven’t done anything to deserve God’s love; in fact, Jesus came into a world that was filled with division, brokenness and failure.  The prophet Isaiah said, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you.  Jesus came into a world that was filled with think and deep darkness.  There was distrust and injustice.  People didn’t care about one another or listen to one another or help one another the way God intended.  Families were struggling, relationships were being torn apart, people stopped finding meaning in their faith and the institutions of the church and government were crumbling and letting people down.  That was the world Jesus came into.  Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

Things haven’t changed much in 2,000 years.  There is still deep darkness we live in today and we struggle to see God let alone live for Him, but the love of God does not dependent upon our faithfulness.  The love of God does not depend upon our good works or good thoughts.  The love of God doesn’t depend on how well we follow Jesus or how often we pray or how much we read our Bible or how well we treat others, those things are all important, but none of that is why God loves us.  God loves us because He just does.  We are his children, we have been created in God’s image and so He just loves us.  

So we celebrate that God’s love is unconditional and we celebrate that it is unchanging.  There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing that can do to make God love us less.  Look at Romans 8:35, 37-39.  Nothing can separate us from the love of God.  My failure doesn’t separate me from the love God has for me.  My faithfulness doesn’t make God’s love increase and my doubts and failures don’t make God’s love decrease.  God’s love is unchanging.  It is steady and constant and always there for us and that is what we celebrate in Jesus and in Christmas.

So God’s love is unconditional and unchanging, but it is also personal and universal.  Let’s look again at the message of the angels.  I bring YOU good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  I bring YOU good news.  This good news is for you.  This love of God that is unconditional and unchanging is for you.  God’s love is personal.  God loves you.  God loves me.  God’s love isn’t just for someone else, it is for us and we need to celebrate that.

Sometimes it’s easy to believe that God loves the person next to you (well, maybe that’s easy to believe) but I want us to hear something else this morning.  I want us to hear that God’s love is for us - personally.  I want you to do something for me, I want everyone to just say their name out loud.  On the count of three…   Great, now I want you to say your name, but then add on these 3 words: God loves you.  On the count of three…  Did you hear that?  God really does love you.  Say that to yourself this week.  Tell yourself every day that God loves you.

Celebrate that reality, but don’t let the celebration end there.  Find one other person this week that you can share this message with.  Write them a note.  Send a card in the mail.  Write down their name and tell them that God loves them.  Send them a postcard invitation to worship with us on Christmas Eve with the message, God loves you and He wants to celebrate His birthday with you.  Celebrate that God’s love is personal and for each and everyone one of us and then remember that it is universal.

The angels said, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for ALL the people., not a few, not just the people of Israel, but for all the people.  John 3:16 said, God so loved the world that he gave his son.  God’s love is universal which means God loves your neighbor, your coworker, your crazy uncle, that person who cuts you off in traffic, steals your parking space at the mall or drives you crazy with all their holiday shopping, planning and decorating.  God loves those we disagree with socially, economically and politically.  God even loves those that we think are way outside the bounds of God’s love.

Someone in our lifetime who showed us this truth was Nelson Mandela.  After serving 27 years of a lifetime sentence in a South African prison, Nelson Mandela was released in 1990 and instead of lashing out against those who put him in prison and deepening the racial divide and hatred of his country, he loved them and worked with F.W. de Klerk, the president of the opposition party, to bring an end to the racial divide of South Africa.  He helped show us that God’s love is universal.

More than ever this truth needs to be lift up and celebrate today.  There is too much division and strife between people locally, nationally and globally.  We make those we disagree with into our enemies and question their integrity and value.  In time, these divisions cause us to question whether or not God can really love these people which means we are questioning the purpose of Christmas which is that we celebrate the good news that God’s love is universal, for all the people.  

What would our family, community and world look like if we really saw people as deeply loved and cared for by God?  What would our lives look like if we shared this message with people who we disagree with and consider our enemy?  Can we celebrate God’s love this week by sharing with someone we may completely disagree with that God loves them?  Maybe that note softens their heart so they can experience God’s love more.  Maybe reaching out that way just softens our heart so we can experience and celebrate God’s love more.

So we celebrate God’s love for us in the birth of Jesus, but that is not all we celebrate, we also celebrate God’s presence with us.  In Jesus, God is with us.  We believe that Jesus is God in the flesh.  We don’t know how it happened.  We don’t know the physiological dimensions of it all and we never will, but we believe that God came to be with us in the flesh and blood of a man named Jesus and we call this the incarnation.  What this means is that God walked on this planet and knew what it was like to be hungry and alone as well as satisfied and surrounded by loved ones.  God knows what it’s like to be disappointed and let down as well as to be inspired and lifted up.  God knows what we are going through and he feels our pain and our joy.  While politicians often say this – God means it because he came in the person of Jesus to be with us.  

God not only knows what we are going through but he has promised to go through all things with us.  God said, do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.  When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.

No matter what we are going through – God is with us.  A friend reminded me this week that God likes to hang out with us right in the middle of our mess.  So if you are feeling like a river is sweeping over you in this busyness of this season or like a fire is sucking the oxygen and the joy and passion from your life, understand that God is with you.  He is right by our side and his love and strength is here to help us through.  God is with us but we have to be awake and alert and aware enough see this, which is why time of reflection is part of the purpose of Christmas.

So Christmas is to be a time where we celebrate God’s love for us and God’s presence with us, but God is not just with us, God is for us.  Too often when we think of God being with us we think he is there to scold us and remind us that we have failed and made a mess of things, but that is not God.  God is not against us, God is for us.  God celebrates us and cheers us on.  Have you ever cheered for your child or friend in some kind of a game or event?  Maybe it was watching them in a musical or concert; maybe it was watching them on the pitcher’s mound or the soccer field.  What did that experience of being a cheerleader feel like?  Sometimes we are nervous because we want them to do well.  Sometimes our hearts break because they didn’t do as well as they wanted.  Sometimes we just shout and cheer because they passed their own expectations as well as everyone else’s.

Being for someone is full of emotion and love and passion and that is how God feels when he thinks of us.  I think God is excited for us when we step out in faith wanting to do our best.  I think He cries with us when our plans don’t work out very well and I think God whoops and hollers when we do well.  In fact, the bible tells us that God whoops and hollers, look at Zephaniah 3:17.

He will exalt over you with loud whoops and hollers.  Ok it doesn’t say that, but for some people loud singing sounds like whoops and hollers – right?  The singer and songwriter Dennis Jernigan rewrote this passage of Zephaniah this way; God cannot contain himself at the thought of you.  With the greatest of joy he spins around wildly in anticipation over you and has placed you above all other creations and given you the highest place in His priories.  In fact he shouts and sings in triumph, joyfully proclaiming the gladness of his heart in a song of rejoicing, all because of you.  My favorite image here is where he says God spins around wildly in anticipation over us.  It makes me think of the pure joy a dog has when a member of the family comes home and their little bodies just can’t contain the joy.  That’s what we have in God - someone who can’t contain himself at the thought of us and cheers us on at all times and in all places because he is for us.  That is something to celebrate.

The purpose of Christmas was to share with the world the message that God loves us and God is with us and God is for us – each and every one of us and each and every person in this world.  I don’t know about you, but when I think about this, when I really grab hold of what this means for me and for our world, I want to celebrate.
 
Next Steps
The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time to Celebrate

1.  Celebrate God’s love being unconditional and unchanging by reflecting on the following Scriptures:
• Psalm 136:23-26
• Isaiah 43:4-5,  49:15-18,  54:10
• Jeremiah 31:3
• Luke 15:3-32
• Romans 8:31-39
• Ephesians 3:14-21
• 1 John 4:16-21

2. Celebrate God’s love being personal by beginning each day with this phrase: ________________(your name here),  God loves you!
 
3. Celebrate God’s love being universal by sending a card to someone that needs to know God loves them.  Consider sharing this message with someone you might completely disagree with but needs to hear this message.

4. Celebrate that God is with you by taking time to reflect on God’s presence in the midst of the busyness, chaos and “mess” of this season.

5. Celebrate that God is for you and cheering you on by choosing one person you can be for and cheer on this week.  (As we stand with and for others we will sense God’s presence with and for us.)

6. Plan a Birthday Party for Jesus and include family, friends, coworkers, neighbors and those who are alone and forgotten.  Make it a real CELEBRATION!

The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time for Reflection

He thought that Christmas had become over-commercialized.  He was surrounded by people who could only talk about Christmas parties, Christmas presents, Christmas cards, Christmas cookies Christmas trees and Christmas decorations and so in a last cry of desperation he said…(Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?)

That was almost 50 years ago and yet the question is just as relevant today.  What is Christmas all about?  Is it really just about the trees and lights and decorations?  Is it just about the presents and gifts and going into debt?  Is it about the cookies and the candy and the figgy pudding (whatever that is)?  What is Christmas all about and where do we go to find the answer?

When Charlie Brown asked this question it was his friend Linus who said, I can tell you Charlie Brown what Christmas is all about, and this is what he said…
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.   And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.   And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.   For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.   And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.   And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. (Luke 2:8-14 KJV)

And that is what Christmas is all about.  The purpose of Christmas was not hidden from the world; it was announced by nothing less than a heavenly host of angels with the full glory of God shining round about them.  The purpose of Christmas was announced in song and voice and with a heaven and earth shattering power that terrified a group of hardened shepherds.  While the message we hear today may not come with that same heaven and earth shattering power, just like that night in Bethlehem, it is not hidden from us.  The purpose of Christmas is not hard to find because it is revealed to anyone and everyone who is willing to listen.

For the next four weeks we are going to rediscover the purpose of Christmas by listening to the message of the angels, but before we can do this we have to first commit ourselves to taking time to reflect on all that we will see and hear and experience.  But our lives are pretty busy and the holiday season is just beginning so times of reflection won’t just happen, we have to make them happen and we can do this by being awake, alert and aware of all that is going on.

The shepherds of Bethlehem were awake that night which is why they heard the message in the first place.  They were awake because it was their job to be awake.  Luke tells us that they were living in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night and keeping watch at night was their job.  Being a shepherd was not an easy job and there was not a lot of down time.  There were no days off and no paid vacations.  During the day you had to make sure your sheep didn’t wander off and get lost or injured, but then at night you still had to work because it was at night that the sheep were the most vulnerable.  Wild animals would attack at night when the sheep were sleeping which meant the shepherds were still working when they were keeping watch over their flock by night.

So when the angels first appeared it wasn’t to a group of sleeping shepherds, they were awake and if we are going to rediscover the purpose of Christmas than we also need to be awake.  We need to wake up because God still wants to speak to us and God still wants us to know his heart which means God is still working to reveal his heart and mind and love to us and it is right here for us if we will wake up.  We need to open our eyes and the eyes of our heart in this season if we want to receive the fullness of God and understand the purpose of Jesus.

So what does it mean for to wake up?  It means making the decision to turn back to God.  Just as waking up in the morning is making the decision to get out of bed and begin the day, so is waking up to God.  We have to make the decision to turn to God and tune our eyes and ears and hearts to God.  Waking up means making the decision to start walking with, listening to and looking for God in our lives and in our world.  It is a daily task, a moment by moment living of life where we look for the presence of God.  

Waking up to God may mean making the commitment to be in worship for the next three weeks so that we can hear the rest of the angels’ message.  It may mean joining a Sunday School class to discuss in more depth what the angels have said and what it means for our lives.  Waking up may mean setting aside time each day to read God’s word and quiet ourselves in prayer.

Finding this kind of time in our busy schedules won’t just happen – we have to make it happen.  If we want to wake up from our spiritual slumber and stop spiritually sleeping through life then we have to decide today to watch and pray.  We need to say, OK God, here is when I am going to pray each day.  Here is when I will read your word, here is when I will worship you and study with others, here is when I will serve you and how I will do it.  We not only need to set aside this time to be with God, but I want to encourage us to do this with our families as well.

My parents are here today and I remember when I was young we would gather every Sunday afternoon during Advent and have our own little worship service.  We had our own Advent wreath and each week we would light a candle, read some scripture and a short mediation.  We would pray and even sing a song.  My sister said she remembers each week one of us would get to pick the Christmas Carol and then one of us would play it on our little magnus organ.

This is not me, but that is a classic picture from the 1970’s of what we looked like and what our organ looked liked

Singing is what I remember the most because my Dad has a really low voice and would sing an octave below all the rest of us – I’m sure we sounded great.  There may have been times when I didn’t want to do this I can only imagine the chore it must have been for my parents to bring us all together – but looking back, those times were special.  They helped teach me that Christmas wasn’t just about gifts and trees and candy but about the gift of Jesus and the love of God coming into our world and into our lives.

So it’s time for us to wake up and this season is a great time to do it, but it’s not enough to just be awake; we also have to be alert.  The shepherds of Bethlehem were alert and the reason we know this is because Luke tells us they were keeping watch.  They were looking for danger and they had their ears tuned to the sounds around them.  To keep watch and to listen carefully – to be alert – the shepherds had to do one thing that we don’t do very well, they had to be still.  They had to stop moving, stop talking maybe even stop thinking so much about so many things so they could really listen.  For many of us, being still is hard.

Our lives are lived at an out–of-control pace.  We work impossible hours to try and make ends meet, we feel pulled in a dozen different directions as we care for our children on one and our parents on the other.  We try to cram too much into 24 hours a day and 7 days a week and when we do find a few minutes of down time we fill it with sports, news and entertainment.  We have forgotten how to be still and the consequence of this is that we are never really alert.

This is not a problem unique to our current generation and culture.  Just because we have 24 news, sports and social media competing for attention doesn’t mean that we are the only ones who have ever struggled with being still – all through the Bible God had to call people to be still.  Look at Psalm 46:10-11, or Psalm 131 that we heard last week, or Exodus 14:14 or Nehemiah 8:11.  So many times God has told us that we need to quiet ourselves and be still so that we can experience His presence.  So it’s not enough to just be awake and make the decision to turn to God, we also have to be alert which means slowing down our over-scheduled lives in order to find the peace and quiet we need to hear God.
Stopping to quiet our hearts and minds really can help us hear God.  I was talking to a mother of an 8 year old boy recently whose Grandfather died not long ago and one night while her son was saying grace before dinner he suddenly stopped talking and was quiet.  After a few moments he said, wow, that was the first time I heard God speaking to me.  Somewhat overwhelmed, the mom said, what did God say?  He replied, God told me that Pap is ok.  God still wants to speak to us, I’m just not sure we are awake and alert enough to hear what He’s saying, but if we can be still, if we can stop all our running around and quiet our hearts and minds and voices – maybe we will hear God’s message and in this season rediscover the purpose of Christmas.

So to reflect on the message of the angels we have to be awake and alert but we also have to aware of what is going on around us and for me this means being willing to act on what we hear and see.  This is what the shepherds did, the shepherds didn’t just stop what they were doing and listen to the angels – they acted on the good news that they heard.  Look at Luke 2:15-16a:  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.  So they hurried off..  The shepherds discovered the purpose of Christmas because they were aware that this message was for them and did something about it.  If we want to rediscover the purpose of Christmas then we also need to act on what we hear because this message is for us.

During the month of December, if we hear that this is a time of great joy, then we need to choose to live with joy.  If we hear that there is salvation available for us in Jesus, then we need to accept this gift and allow it change our lives.  If we hear that Christ has come to bring peace on earth then we need to work for peace.  We will explore these ideas in the weeks to come, but let’s be clear from the beginning that this journey of discovery is not just an intellectual exercise for our minds and it’s not an emotional experience for our hearts, the purpose of Christmas will include our hands and feet and voices as well.  The Shepherds walked to Bethlehem, they reached out to touch or maybe hold the baby they found and on their way back the told others what they had experienced.  They used the feet and hands and voices and as we reflect on the message of the angels we also need to be aware that is it for us and calls us to use our feet and hands and voices.  

Rediscovering the purpose of Christmas begins with God calling us to make this a time of reflection because nothing happens unless we are awake, alert and aware of God’s presence and love.
 
Next Steps
The Purpose of Christmas ~ A Time To Reflect

1.  Awake – Make the decision today to turn back to God.
• Commit 10 minutes each day of December to prayer, set aside that time now & place it on your calendar
• Choose material to read and reflect on this month
• Commit to being in worship each week in December
• Do a family Advent devotion each week (materials are available at the Connection Table)


2. Alert – Be still and quiet
• Which event or activity can you say no to this month
• One day a week take your 10 minutes of prayer to just be quiet and listen
• Reread the following scriptures that call us to be still Psalm 46:10, Psalm 131, Exodus 14:14 and Nehemiah 8:11
• Cut out ALL phones and media for one day, or one hour a day


3.  Aware:  Act on what you hear from God.
• Ask others to join you on this journey of re-discovery (postcards for the Advent Series and Christmas Eve are available in the lobby)
• Find ways for you and your family to serve God through this season (the Christmas Dinner gives you many different opportunities)
• Choose to be filled with JOY during this season
• Commit to offering PEACE and forgiveness to others.
• Spend one less gift on you and family and plan on how to GIVE one more gift to a person in need.