Christmas Musical 2022

Straight Outta Bethlehem

Well done kids, go ahead and head back to your seats.

What a fun way to tell the Christmas Story and my guess is that none of you will look at a Christmas angel the same way again. Disco Gloria.

It was so much fun to be a part of this production and I wanted to stop for a moment and recognise some people. First of all the couple that are the catalyst for all of this - the director Nancy Snyder and her technological wonder of a husband Brian who is back there in the tech booth. They have been after this day since back in the summer.

And the parents have been faithfully bringing their kids here every Wednesday night since September and there was such a great group of moms who stepped in whenever needed in support roles from costumes to snacks and everything in between so lets give them a round of applause as well.

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And while it is good to recognize the kids and adults that made it all happen, none of those involved do it for the recognition. We do it because of the incredible opportunity it is to play a part in declaring the greatest story every told…the story of Jesus coming down to earth to rescue us.

And even though the music styles and dance moves might not be historically accurate …the idea of telling the story of the coming of Jesus from the perspectives of a group of orphans is an appropriate one. In the time frame that the Bible was written in, being an orphan meant more than just not having your parents any more. It meant that you had no standing or position in any community because you lost your family heritage, your family name.

And despite God’s repeated commands to the contrary, orphans were often forgotten and left to fend for themselves. As such, most of them adopted the understanding that even God himself had forgotten them.

That was Blake’s attitude and expectation as he walked into this strange experience at the Bethlehem Inn. The orphans there were somehow hopeful that they were not forgotten. They believed that God was going to do something wonderful in their sleepy little town of Bethlehem…and He did.

Luke 2:4–7 (ESV)

4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, 5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And I know that we are very mixed group of people here today. Some of us are here each Sunday but many others are parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles neighbors and friends of the cast and crew. And I can imagine that in a group this size, many if not most of us have at one time felt like God may have forgotten about us.

With all the big important news-making issues in our world, how could God care about me and what is going on in my little world. The little issues that I have to deal with must seem small to the world power things that God must be concerned about...

But the point of this program is that the birth of Jesus proves that God has not forgotten about any of us. As the familiar verse says:

John 3:16–18 (ESV)

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. (it was a rescue plan that began in the manger) 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

By the end of our story Blake realized that his identity as an orphan no longer mattered in light of what had happened in that manger. The fact that God would send his own Son to rescue us means that we have a value to God beyond what we could imagine. If we believe…or put our faith and trust in Jesus…no matter what our family condition was before, we can become a child of God.

John 1:12-13 (ESV)

12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Because that baby born outside the Inn in Bethlehem grew up to be a man who lived the only perfect human life, full of grace and truth. But instead of accepting the reward for His perfect life, he offered the reward to us. He willingly went to the cross to die for us and He rose again and defeated the devil, sin and death once an for all. So that spiritual orphans like us can become children of God.

During Christmas, we celebrate Jesus’ first coming as a baby in a manger, but he is coming again. In John 14:18 he promises us

John 14:18 (ESV) 18 “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

And this is the good news that is worth singing and dancing about. If you have any questions about this and want to talk to someone then know that I would love to talk to you just grab my attention after the service and we can either talk or set up a time later to do so.

Right now I am going to pray for us and for the meal and then I will give you some instructions on how we will go from rows of chairs to a dining room.

Please pray with me.