Sermon Christmas Carols Evening
Text: Luke 2:8-12 – Expect the
unexpected.
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good
news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a
Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign
to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
We all feel quite inadequate at times
when it comes to helping people’s problems.
When you walk the city streets and
you see the homeless person sleeping on the footpath – or when you’re driving
and you see the collectors at the lights and try not to make eye contact – can
your donation really help them?
Or maybe you feel guilty because you
say you can’t afford to give them anything but you’re on your way out to a
restaurant.
Or when you help out a charity by
sending a donation and they keep contacting you or pass on your details to
other charities who then start to ask you as well.
You feel like not giving anymore
because you don’t want to receive all those requests.
When we match all the problems in the
world or even the problems in our local area, we can feel as if there’s really
not much we can do – and sadly it means we end up doing nothing.
And then we have all the world’s
problems and wonder what we can do about it.
Wars – drugs – global warming – to
name only a few that are daily in our headlines.
The Christmas story really is a very
strange story when you think about it.
It is the announcement of the Prince
of Peace coming in the midst of a very violent world.
The announcement of the Prince of
Peace however contradicts our assumptions of what would need to happen if
someone were to bring peace to our world.
If you were God, would you really
have sent the Prince of Peace in the form of a fragile child?
Would you use an unwed young mother
to bear this Prince of Peace?
Would you allow this Prince to be
born in a barn?
The Shepherds are told by the angels
to go and see how God is going to solve all their problems – all the problems
of their people – all the problems of the world – how?
This will be a sign to you: You will
find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
The Christmas story is full of people
who weren’t expecting God to come to earth as a baby.
Mary wasn’t expecting to have a baby
who would be the Son of God
When Joseph was told that Mary was
pregnant – he wasn’t expecting that!
No one was expecting God to send a
baby.
When King Herod was asked by some
passing Wisemen from the East about a new born king – he wasn’t expecting that!
A baby king would have to be born of
a King – and he was the reigning King.
The Wisemen came bringing special
gifts for a prince – but they didn’t arrive at a palace as they might have expected.
They knelt before Mary’s baby with
all humility and worshipped him – they saw the Prince of Heaven sitting in
Mary’s lap – they weren’t expecting that!
The Christmas story really is an
unusual story, an unexpected way for God to react to the people and the
world.
Evil is a very powerful existence in
the world which goes back to the days of Adam and Eve when they chose to eat
from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
God could send angel warriors to deal
with evil, just as Jesus said when he was arrested and Peter want to respond
with violence:
Don't you realize that I could ask my
Father for thousands of angels to protect us, and he would send them instantly?
But no, God sent his son – not as a
warrior prince but as a baby whose mother will be a peasant girl who will give
birth to him in a stable.
No one was expecting that.
Why did God choose this unexpected
plan to save the world?
God is all wise and all-knowing and
he chooses a plan that places the Prince of heaven in the arms of a teenage
girl who had no child rearing experience and no family in Bethlehem to help
her.
He will be so small, tender, and
vulnerable.
Why did God choose this plan above
any other plan?
For God there was only one plan that
would work.
It was a plan that grew out of his
love for all people.
The way God chose to rescue us from
our own destruction was to send his son to become human just like us.
No one expected that!
But that’s how God works.
God of the unexpected.
Jesus’ numbers grew but also
opposition to his teaching grew.
His enemies had him arrested,
tortured and he died on a cross.
And just like before, his disciples
didn’t expect that!
Before he dies he doesn’t curse his
enemies but cries out for all to hear, “Father forgive them”. No one expected
that!
Women will go to the tomb where Jesus
is buried and they are greeted by angels who tell them that Jesus has risen
from the dead.
The disciples didn’t believe them
because they weren’t expecting that!
But this is the plan of God to save
the world – from Jesus’ birth at Christmas, to his death at Easter and then to
the glorious Resurrection on Easter Sunday.
No one expected God to save humanity
from the violence and trouble of the world by placing his own Son as a victim
of the violence and trouble in the world.
God’s ways are always unexpected from the
moment of Jesus’ birth to his death and resurrection.
The angels who announced the birth of
Jesus to Mary and Joseph and then to the shepherds excitedly told about the
good news that brings great joy to all people.
The Saviour is coming into the world,
his name is ‘Jesus’ because he will save people from sin and death and give
eternal life to all who trust in him.
Christmas shows us that God does some
very unexpected things and works in some very unexpected ways.
In the same way, expect God to work
in unexpected ways in your life.
Maybe God will challenge you with new
directions in your life;
Maybe give you peace and hope in what
seems to be a hopeless situation:
Maybe he will challenge you to
restore a relationship;
Maybe he will challenge you to reach
out to a person you would never have reached out before;
Christmas is a time where the
unexpected happens.
It’s where God turns hopelessness
into hope.
It’s where God turns despair into
Joy.
It’s where God defeats evil with good
through the birth of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
May God bless you Christmas time
again this year as you celebrate God’s love revealed in a baby wrapped in
cloths lying in a manger.
No comments:
Post a Comment