Thank-mas 2024

Well welcome to Thank-mas 2024. Many of you hopefully remember our supper last year at Thanksgiving. Well, we ended up with a lot in a short time so we changed the timing around. But here we are!

We called it Thank-mas because we’re about in the middle between Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Hence… Thank-mas.

Can we give a big thank-you to all of our people in the kitchen?

I think these two celebrations go very well together. As we are thankful to God for His many blessings, we remember and celebrate the greatest gift of all: Jesus Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 15 56, Paul tells us in short about a problem facing humanity.

1 Corinthians 15:56 ESV

The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.

God has a law - it’s the law for humanity. His law tells us how to live right with Him. It tells us how to stay out of the trouble that comes from sin. It’s a good law, and as the Creator and law-maker, it’s God’s prerogative to set up laws for us as people.

Problem: We broke that law. Now, if you break a law in our society, you might receive a fine, or some sort of punishment. Jail time, whatever. The punishment for breaking God’s law is death. Not just physical death - although that’s part of it - but spiritual death: hell. God is perfect, and cannot be around sin. So for those who do not accept Christ and give Him their lives, the cost for their sin is their lives and eternity away from God and His goodness.

This is what Paul is talking about here. In other words: the Law of God shows us that we are sinful - we broke God’s law. We can’t keep God’s law - instead we break the Law-maker’s law and in doing so set ourselves on a path of sin and death. That’s the power of death: each of us are sinners and each of us experience death.

Good thing Paul doesn’t stop there:​

1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV

But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

For anyone who puts their faith in Christ there is victory. It’s the same sort of victory one might have in a life and death court case. To have victory in the case also means having victory over the death penalty associated with it. Christ did that. By being born, living here on earth, and then dying for you and me and coming back to life, He paid this price that was over every single head of humanity. He made a way to God. Instead of us being on a path for hell - stuck in the muck of sin, God says that by faith in Jesus, we can be saved of the sting of death and sin, set free from sinful behaviour, and made into new people who are filled with joy, with life, and with hope for today and tomorrow.

Christmas time is a time to spend with family, friends, and hopefully lots of food. Haha, maybe this meal is the start of your month-long goal to eat at as many Christmas meals as possible. But, please remember why this holiday exists at all. It’s because Someone loved you so much that He decided to become human, be born as a baby in a manger, and then grow up to die for you. It’s that One - Jesus - who gives you victory over sin, and saves you from an eternal death. Paul talks about in 1 Cor 15 the whole idea of ressurection - literally it’s the promise of new life - free from evil within ourselves and this world, and with hope in the face of death. The sting of death is gone because now, instead of death being scary you’ve got all of heaven waiting for you on the other side.

So, here’s the thing: our aim tonight is to physically feed you. Seriously, there’s lots of food -please eat! But, it’s also to spiritually feed you. Christmas is about - ultimately - our salvation, and this gift from God to be set free from something that has plagued humanity pretty much since the world began. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to really think through why this holiday exists, and take time to spend with God, because He really did send His Son so that He could have you back. And yes, He really did defeat evil, and sin, and death, so that you can live a life of hope and freedom.

pray

Christmas eve