Hi blogger friends. In order to change things up a bit, I'm going to post my sermon manuscript from the previous Sunday on Monday. I'll still share another blog post during the week. This is an experiment, so share your thoughts about me sharing my sermon manuscript in the comment section. You can also find the video of the sermon at vimeo.com/chainoflakes
Before I begin let me encourage you to get
out this brochure that is in the bulletin. I wrote a devotion for you on the
Incarnation. It’s an amazing concept. The Bible has a lot to say about it. In
the middle of this devotion is a place to take notes. On the back is a listing
of prayer requests.
Merry Christmas!
For the second year in a row we’re
celebrating Christmas in July at Chain of Lakes Church. Our faith community is
not the only group who is celebrating Christmas.
KTIS radio is celebrating Christmas in
July. I heard that mentioned as I drove
to church this morning. When I was out at Bunker Hills golf course a few weeks
ago they had flyers for Christmas in July.
Christmas in July is not new. And there
are all sorts of stories about how and why Christmas in July started
According to the magazine, Southern
Living, it’s believed that the first celebration of Christmas in July took
place on July 25, 1933 at an all-girls summer camp in Brevard, North Carolina. According to camp history, Christmas in July
came about as an occasion to exchange gifts, sing carols, and mark the end of
the summer season in an unconventional way.
Santa and Mrs. Claus would pull up in a
big red truck tossing candy to all the campers. Camp counselors would dress in
reindeer and elf costumes and would gather everyone into the lodge for secret
Santa.
There was a film done in 1940 called
Christmas in July around the story of a man who mistakenly believed he won a
$25,000 lottery and buys presents for his friends and family in July.
Celebrating Christmas in July can lead us
to ask the question, “why is Christmas celebrated in December.”
The Bible tells us that, right? Well the
Bible doesn’t tell us that. The birth story of Jesus is in two of the four
gospels—Matthew and Luke. And nowhere in those two gospels do we read that
Jesus was born on December 25. The dating of the death and resurrection of
Jesus is much more accurate as the Bible tells us that he was killed during
Passover and Passover is celebrated in the spring—in March or April.
Why December 25? There are a lot of
theories. And I don’t intend to wade
into a historical issue that not all people who make a living studying faith
have agree on.
You
could go on the Internet and google the question, “why is Christmas celebrated
on December 25” and find many different responses.
Some believe that the Annunciation—that is
when the angel Gabriel told Mary she would have a baby happened on March 25. Nine
months later is December 25.
Originally Christmas was celebrated on
January 6—the date that today is Epiphany.
One
theory is the church selected December 25 because there were pagan
festivals going on in December and to compete the Christians wanted a competing
celebration. Some believe that the date was chosen to be near the winter
solstice when more light was coming into the world.
Let me ask you another question? Why is
the celebration called Christmas? It’s in the Bible, right?
I pulled out my Concordance. A Concordance
has every word in the bible. This is the one that I have. It has every word in
the NRSV translation. I looked for Christmas.
And—it’s not there.
Why is it called Christmas? Christmas is
made up of two words—Christ. Christ is in the Bible. Christ is a term that
describes Jesus as the Messiah. The one who came into the world to save the
human race. The three letter word “mas” comes from mass. And that is a mass or
the worship celebrating Jesus as the Messiah.
I don’t bring up these questions to
cause us to question Christmas or whether Jesus was born. If you leave this place
with your faith diminished because Jesus was probably not born on December 25th,
then I have failed to communicate the point. Quite frankly if our faith is
diminished because the birth of Jesus is most likely not December 25 than I
wonder about the foundation of our faith.
The reality is Jesus was born on one of
365 dates. We don’t have a record of the date. People used their best judgment
to select a date. There is nothing malicious or devious in the selection of
that date. A tradition of December 25th was developed. Traditions
inform and help our faith. It’s essential to have a date where we celebrate the
birth of Jesus. And it’s also healthy to know the history of our traditions.
At Christmas I wouldn’t say “Happy
Birthday, Jesus.” I would say, thank you Jesus for coming into the world.
What is Christmas? It’s not a date.
It’s a story of the birth of Jesus. We can celebrate that story any date of the
year.
I believe that the birth of Jesus is one
of the greatest stories that has ever happened. God came into the world as a
baby. Think about it. God could have entered the world in any way that God
wanted. God chose to be born as a baby to a unwed mother. That was dangerous. IN
carrying a baby without being married, Mary could have been stoned to death.
God chose to be born in the room of a boarding house. It wasn’t the nicest health
health facility in Jerusalem. God chose to be born without any doctors or
nurses or midwives present. There was no epidural. God chose to be born in
Bethlehem. There was nothing special about Bethlehem. It was a town of two to
three thousand people when Jesus was born. King David had grown up there. It
was located a little more than five miles from Jerusalem.
The birth of Jesus was a threat to the
existing political order. Soon after Jesus was born King Herod had all the
children under two years who lived near Bethlehem killed.
God chose to enter into the world like
this?
If you know of someone who doubts God and
you’re having a conversation with that person, (and quite frankly I hope that
you’re having a conversation with a person who doesn’t completely believe at
least once a week) let the person know how God chose to enter the world. This
says a lot about God.
This is the incarnation—the entrance
of God into the world. The incarnation
is beautiful and true and relevant for our faith. And it impacts our lives right
now.
The gospel writer, John didn’t share
in his gospel a story about the birth of Jesus. But he did write about the
incarnation.
He started out his gospel by saying,
“In the beginning was the WORD.” This is called the Prologue to John—the first
eighteen verses. These verses are important for our faith. Let’s take a bit of
time to go deeper.
There is another chapter in the Bible that
starts out with the phrase “In the beginning.” Do you know what that is?
Genesis. In the beginning.
We might think of beginning to
indicate time. But I think that John was talking about something different than
time. I think he was talking about the story. We could paraphrase this verse to
say at the start of the story was the WORD. All parts of our story originate
from God.
What is the Word? The English word
for Word comes from the Greek word, “Logos.”
In the beginning or at the start of
the story was the LOGOS. What is the Logos?
Some people think that Logos is Jesus, but I don’t think that equating
Jesus with Logos quite makes the mark. I did a lot of reading about Logos this
week, and the best description that I came across came from Adam Hamilton. He
pastors Church of the Resurrection in Kansas City. We’re taking a group to go
to their leadership conference in September. He wrote
“The Word [or Logos][ is God’s
heart, God’s reasoning, God’s mind, God’s purposes, God’s character, God’s
creative power, and God’s desire to reveal himself to us.”
Adam
Hamilton “John, The Gospel of Light and Life” Page 16
A word that I came up for Logos this
week was life force. It’s the power of life.
In the beginning was the life force
Let’s go with life force.
The life force was with God and the life
force was God.
Later in this prologue John wrote,
“the life force became flesh and lived among us.”
This is the incarnation. The life force
took on flesh and lived among us. We call him Jesus.
Presbyterians have nine statements of
faith. They are part of the Book of Confessions. One of the statements of faith
is the Brief Statement of Faith. It entered the Book of Confessions in 1991. .
The Brief Statement of Faith beautifully
captured the humanity of Jesus—what we celebrate in the incarnation.
”We trust in Jesus Christ,
Fully human, fully God.
Jesus proclaimed the reign of God:
preaching good news to the poor
and release to the captives,
teaching by word and deed
and blessing the children,
healing the sick
and binding up the brokenhearted,
eating with outcasts,
forgiving sinners,
and calling all to repent and believe the gospel.”
Last week our daughter, Hannah, and I drove from Casselberry, Florida to Blaine. 1550 miles, 24 hours. This is a picture of when we started on our journey. We were still smiling then. Not everyone likes long-distance driving, but I do. I enjoyed the drive, and I cherished the time that I got to spend with Hannah.
The first day we drove was Friday; we made it to Nashville. We got to the hotel late—about 10:30 or so. We decided to take a break the next morning. Hannah wanted to see a bench that Taylor Swift used when she lived in Nashville. We found the bench. We used Tik Tok to find it—that’s another story.
We took some pictures at the bench.
The bench was in Centennial Park in
Nashville. While we were there, we saw a Parthenon. Who knew. I didn’t know.
What a great adventure. I learned later that in the early 20th century
the leaders of Nashville built a Parthenon in Nashville. They wanted Nashville
to be the Athens of the south. We walked over to the Parthenon. When we went
into the entrance someone gave us free tickets. Okay.
There’s not a life-force to Athena. You wouldn’t
worship Athena. Athena doesn’t understand you.
Jesus was the life-force that took on
flesh and dwelt among us.
Jesus understands us.
Have you encountered suffering this past
week. Maybe you are going through cancer treatment or you know of someone who
is going through cancer treatment. Jesus understands suffering. He was nailed
to a cross and bled to death
Have you been let down by someone this
week. Maybe someone in your family or a friend. You had hopes that something
was going to happen butt you were let down. Or maybe you consistently feel let
down by your friends or family. Jesus understands what it was like to be let
down. One of his closest friends—Judas—one of the twelve who we call apostles betrayed
Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Jesus understands what it means to be let
down.
Or maybe you disappointed someone this
week. Jesus understood what it was like to disappoint someone. You remember
when Jesus heard that his very close friend Lazarus was sick. Jesus went to the
location of Lazarus. By the time he arrived, Lazarus had died. And when he got
there people didn’t thank Jesus for coming. They expressed their
disappointment. Martha, a strong woman who could be a role model of assertiveness
for all genders, said “Lord if you have been here my brother would not have
died.” If you have disappointed someone
this week, Jesus understands you.
Jesus experienced great disappointment
himself. As he was dying on the cross, Jesus cried out to his Abba, Father. My
God, my god why have you forsaken me. Jesus was in terrible pain as he was
tortured. He was angry. It was the same anger that he expressed when he saw
injustice in the Temple and he turned over the tables. If you experience
disappointment, Jesus understands you.
This is the incarnation. This life force came
into the world and experienced what we do. He understands what we have.
I don’t know about you, but knowing that
there is a life force that understands me changes everything. I want to share
my life with him. I want to share my joys and happiness; my sadness and anger;
I want to share my complete self because Jesus understands us.
I wouldn’t feel this way about Athena or
any other god.
What is so powerful is this incarnation is
always available to all of us. Whether we are male/female/bi; whether we are
old, young adult or a child; whether we are hetero or LGTBQ. The incarnation is
for all of us.
I think of it as a gift. A Christmas gift.
Because of his incarnation every person has been given this gift. And our task
is to be delighted as children coming to the Christmas tree on Christmas
morning. Opening up this gift and enjoying what Jesus—fully God, fully human
has for us.
That’s worth celebrating every day of the
yar.
One more point about the incarnation. Let
me set up by sharing a story from my trip.
On the last day of the trip, annah and I
stopped at a restaurant in Rockford, Illinois for breakfast. The hotel where we
were staying wasn’t offering breakfast. And this restaurant had a gift shop. We
went. And Hannah found this journal. Hannah said to me,
“Dad you should buy this journal for our baby.”
Hannah is going to have a baby in October. We’re so excited about this baby. This
journal was entitled, “Grandpa tell me your memories.” Each day it has a
question where grandpa can write something for the baby. It’s a way to share
life. One of the questions this week was “share a memory involving a heat wave,
a drought or a flood.” I wrote a paragraph. Another question was how did you
celebrate birthdays in your family.
Every morning, at the end of my prayer
time I’m going to write my answer for the day’s question for my granddaughter. Before
she is even born, I get to share my life with her.
This is what Jesus has done. Another way
to say this is “in the beginning was the lifr force and the life force dwelt
among us, and I’ll share my life with you. There is no deception with Jesus; there
is no hiddenness to Jesus.; there are no secrets. Jesus wants to share himself
completely with us. This is so beautiful.
It’s a gift—it’s Christmas. It happens
every day. Today it’s Christmas in July.
Today we are going to publicly welcome
four more people who have joined Chain of Lakes. When people join they say Jesus
is our Lord and Savior. Athena is not our Lord, Jesus is our Lord.
Whatever happens to you on your journey, I
pray that you will always grasp this life force called Jesus. It’s always available
to us. And I pray that this faith community called Chain of Lakes Church will
be made up of people who have experienced this life force. A group of people
who without apology want to share this life force with others.
Merry Christmas!
If you have comments about this sermon or about putting this sermon on my blog, please share in the comment section. Thanks!
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