Our Story - Christmas Eve

Sharing a Story

The last time I went to Kentucky for class was almost 1 year ago, January of 2018. I traveled down with my friend David and we stayed at my Aunt and Uncle’s home near my seminary. For about a week we were in class from 8am until 5pm, working and learning.

While I loved being in the class room setting, I loved meeting new people even more. My professor was a South African woman. She was tall, with a heavy build. It’s always intimidating to meet a new professor, but I quickly learned that she was going to be graceful, informative and well versed in her course content. As we were all getting settled in she began to ask us basic questions to answer, “who are you.”

There were some students who said things like, “Hey, I’m Joe, I’m from Idaho and I’m taking this class because I have to.” Then there were students who expressed to all of us their entire life stories. While I chuckled at the time, I now look at it as inspiring, as they were willing to be really open with all of us.

Well, through sharing about myself and talking over break times, I met a new friend, Michael. Michael and I share very similar theological perspectives, interests in television shows, and sports! In fact, Michael lives in West Virginia and is about 2 or 3 hours away from Pittsburgh, and he happens to be a huge Pittsburgh sports teams fan, like me (except I prefer the Eagles over the Steelers). Through talking with each other about all of these, we really enjoyed being around each other.

So, over the course of this last year his wife, himself, Larissa, and I have met up in Pittsburgh a handful of times to watch Penguins and Pirates games, explore the city, and do what most pastors do when they are around each other, talk about theology, church doctrine and polity, and the state of our world. To us, this is amazing, to our spouses/significant other, it’s typically boring.

But, Michael and I have developed a friendship that has gone deeper than just a love for sports. We have leaned on each other during tough times, talked to each other about frustrations, and often pray for each other.

As I look over the short time span of our friendship, I realize that it all began because we shared our stories. Michael told me about him, and I told him about me. Through this simple action, and investment into one another’s lives, we became friends.

It all began with sharing our story to one another. Opening up to a stranger and being semi-vulnerable. Now, it is really easy to be vulnerable in a room filled with other students and pastors, but it too can be challenging.

Often times, when we share about ourselves, we shy away from certain details. We do not dive right into telling someone about our struggles, our pitfalls, our ailments. We do not typically tell others about our family business, what is heavy on our hearts, or how we are struggling to get by. Most of the time we put on this “happy face,” try to appear as though everything is wonderful and dandy, and we move on.

When asked to tell someone else about yourself, how many of you usually make a list of things to share. For example you say,

Your name

Where you are from

Whether or not you are married or single

A parent or not

What you do for work

What sort of hobbies do you have

After we are done saying these basic facts about ourselves, the other person who had heard it is formulating a thought about you, they are processing your story.

Biblical Story

Now, God has also told us a story. Instead of starting with the same list that I had mentioned before, He started His story with how our world was created. He began telling a story about the things within the world that He created. He told us a story about the people He created, how they acted, how they worshipped Him, how they despised Him, how they betrayed Him.

God has told us, in this story, what He had wanted us to do before, and what He wants us to do now. He has shared with us the cultures of people thousands of years ago. He has provided to us everything we will ever need to know, because it is His story.

What is interesting to me is the climax of the story, or at least what I believe to be the climax. The entirety of the Old Testament seems to be building up to something big. It informs us of laws, ways of life, traditions, thoughts, pains, victories. But, it too tells of a coming savior, of someone else who will come.

It goes and goes and goes and eventually we get to that “something big.” We are told about the coming of a baby, given to a woman by God. A baby that would one day save the world. Then, we hear about this baby’s life, his triumphant ministries, challenges to the law and religious leaders, his calmness, grace, love, forgiveness, work ethic, pure intentions, and never ending kindness. And, as all of this builds and builds, he repeatedly tells his friends “the Son of God will die, but will be raised three days later.”

Most everyone who heard this part of the story ignored it, denied it, despised it. They said , “there is no way,” or “what are you talking about?!” But, finally, the climax comes when he is arrested, wrongfully convicted, sentenced to death, risen from death, and ascended into heaven.

After all of that, the story calms, the universal church is built, and we are given more information about God’s story, His intentions, His commands, and His mercies.

All of this comes together in the form of our Holy Bible. It is God’s story, written for us, for guidance, direction, assistance, conviction, and help.

Our Story

We often read this story and think, “wow, this story by God is pretty cool.” Or, many of us say, “that seems like an interesting story, but I don’t have enough time to read it. You know, between working like everyone else, raising a family, watching 3 hours of Netflix, and then going to bed!”

But, what I find the most interesting is how we separate ourselves. We separate the events, feelings, emotions, and actions of the biblical characters from ourselves, put them in a different category and move on.

What we forget is that we are creatures. We are God’s very creation. We are just as much of a part of God’s creation as your dog is, the trees outside, and the water we drink. Yet, we still separate ourselves from His story. We look at ourselves as something different, something set aside, and we forget that God’s story is our story.

We, as Christians are just as much of a part of this story (the Bible) as the Christians and Jews before us. But, we have an advantage over many of them. We have God’s story, our story, written out for us and easily accessible.

Now, you may be hearing this and thinking “what in the world does this have to do with Christmas Eve and Jesus?” Well, here is how. Jesus’ miraculous birth was followed by a horrific death, an awe-filled resurrection, and an awesome ascension into heaven. We gather together to celebrate His birth, and need to recognize why His birth was so essential, so important.

Through His life, the baby’s life that we celebrate every year, we have been given peace, love, joy, hope. But even more, we have been given entry into God’s story. Through our accepting of Jesus, through our devotion to Him, we have entered into God’s great narrative. We have become an essential character. It has become OUR STORY.

Now, I mentioned before that we have an advantage because we can read and understand God’s story while also being in it. So, this means that we have the choice. We have the choice to be the people in His story who take advantage of our knowledge, stay on God’s good side, work for the salvation that was freely given to us, and share it with others. Or, we can ignore all of that, live how we want, act how we want, and be the characters in God’s story that disobey Him and cause pain, anguish, sorrow, and utter sadness.

I, for as long as I am alive, will strive to listen to His story, read His words, follow His commands, and guide others to do the same. I will fall, I will fail, I will succumb to temptation, I will sin. But through it all, I will try. I will try to avoid all of that and work tirelessly to do so.

Had it not been for God, His story, Jesus and His life, death, resurrection, and ascension, I would not have salvation. I would not have the promise of being with God when I die. I would not have the blessed assurance, because Jesus would not be mine.

However, that is not the case. It is not the case for me, and I pray it is not the case for you.

As we celebrate the birth of Jesus and fill ourselves with the joy of coming to church every once in a while, doing good things every so often, and trying to be a good person, let us realize that it is not enough. If we are not actively striving for a stronger relationship with God, for a stronger connection with the author of our story, we may slip away.

We may fall back into our old habits, hurts, hang-ups, and sins. We need to remember, through the birth of Jesus Christ, that God is still authoring our story. Every new day is a new chapter that is being recorded and written. And, we have a choice. We can either be the antagonists in our stories, or the protagonists. God gave us that choice, he even gave Jesus that choice, and we need to choose right.

So, I pray that as you hear this you are able to reflect on your own life. How is YOUR story playing out? Is God writing it with glee, or sorrow? Let this be a reminder to all of us that we can always do more. Let this be the start of a stronger commitment to God, our faith, and our activeness in God’s story.

Let us pray,