Unwrapped 4

Music

I want to begin with listening to a song: “I’ll Be Home For Christmas” by Pentatonix. (put lyrics on screen)

The lyrics from this song can do one of two things to you during this holiday season. Either 1. they remind us of the people we love and how we will (hopefully) get to see them and celebrate the holiday with them. Or 2. it can remind us that some of those people we love may not be with us this Christmas for a wide range of reasons. It can also remind us that we’re not meant to be lonely - especially on Christmas. But, who are we supposed to share this time of year with?

POLL: Who do you celebrate the holidays with? Raise your hand if celebrate the holidays with:

The whole entire family.

My friends (they’re basically family)

Just the family members in my house.

No one. Or we don’t celebrate.

If you spend the holidays with your family, let’s talk about that for a second. You know you’e supposed to love them, but sometimes family can be hard to like, right? It can be stressful to be around some of them, especially if they spend the night, share your bathroom, or even use your toothbrush (by accident or on purpose - both have happened to me). It’s easy to think, “I can’t wait for these people to go home!”

I know that I’ve felt that way. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my family, all sides of my family. But sometimes they’re just a lot. Sometimes they’re just too much. And then other times it can be hard to not be there with them. I’ll tell you that a few years ago when I was an intern in California, it was hard for me because I didn’t think that I was going to get to be home for the holidays with my family. As it turned out, I was blessed to be able to be with them. But then last year was the first year in pretty well my whole life that I was not with my family on Christmas Eve. It was weird, and it threw me all off. I felt wrong. And I thought about how frustrating some of my family can be, especially one uncle in particular, but all of a sudden I missed them.

There are a lot of reasons why you might feel lonely this Christmas. Maybe…the holidays with your family aren’t exactly happy. Maybe people constantly fight or argue. Maybe you feel like all the people that you’ll see for the holidays don’t really know you or care about you very much. Maybe you wish you could spend the holiday with someone else. Or someone that you’ve spent every holiday with for years has passed and is no longer with you.

Perhaps none of that is the case for you. Maybe the relationships in your life are all pretty healthy, you love your family, and everything is going great and you’re looking forward to the holiday with them. That’s awesome if that’s the case. But even if you aren’t physically alone during the season, there are still reasons you may feel alone. The holidays are a very difficult time for many people.

Maybe you feel a little lonely right now because there’s something in your life that’s messy - something that’s making you anxious, sad, or insecure. Sometimes we don’t show people how messy things are in our lives, but chances are, there’s something going on that we’re not sure what to do with on our own.

In this series, we’ve talked about what this season of Advent is all about. We’ve talked about the high anticipation and preparation for someone (and not some-thing) really special, and that someone being Jesus. We’ve talked about how God calls us in some of the most unexpected and unique ways and that those are worth celebrating. And this holiday season, God doesn’t want us to live our messy lives alone but He has given us people that want to share in that messiness because we all have it. We are all sinners and no person has a perfect life. Especially during the holiday season.

Scripture -

Fortunately, Scripture is filled with stories of people whose lives were a little messy (to say the least). But even though their lives were messy, they were able to experience and be used by God in incredible ways. Someone who might be able to relate is Joseph. We know him as Jesus’ earthly father and the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus. When we meet Joseph in the book of Matthew, we find a hard-working guy who’s engaged to this girl, Mary. Then he finds out (pretty quickly) that Mary is pregnant and he’s not the father. (insert clip of Maury saying “YOU ARE NOT THE FATHER”)

We learn from Scripture that the child appeared miraculously through the Holy Spirit. Mary told Joseph the whole story, but…well it’s not really a believable story, is it? If someone were to try to use that explanation on you, I’m guessing you’d be skeptical too. I for sure would be.

This was an especially big deal back then, because Mary could have been put to death is people didn’t believe her story. That’s a bit different from today. Today you would be shamed for it, but back then, it was literally punishable by death. So, Joseph, being a pretty good guy, decided he would quietly divorce her in hopes of keeping the pregnancy a secret. It wasn’t until an Angel appeared to Joseph to tell him that God had a plan. What Mary said was part of a plan. It will all be okay. that he finally got over it.

Not only does the angel say that the baby’s name will be Jesus, meaning “He will save His people from their sins,” but that He will also be known as “Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”

God Is With Us

This is huge. Don’t underestimate how big of a deal that is. Because of Jesus, for the very first time, God’s presence could really be with His people in a tangible and physical way. See, God’s presence had been with His people before but always in different ways. Up to this point, all throughout the Old Testament, God’s presence appeared to His people through fire, smoke, great winds, a voice, and other interesting ways.

But all of a sudden, for the first time since the Garden of Eden, God was physically walking among His people. For God to be with His people, was huge.

Scripture -

Read together

I love this passage. I love this passage because Jesus says something that doesn’t make a lot of sense to his disciples at the time. They don’t get it. Even though they’ve been told time and time again, they don’t get that soon Jesus will die. But though He died, He is with us. Jesus promised that the Father would send us a helper. The spirit of Truth. The Holy Spirit, who dwells inside each of us. See, back then, the people constantly felt that they needed to physically see God to know that He was with them. To know that they were in His presence. That’s why God frequently met the Israelites through physical means. Through the burning bush, through the pillars of smoke by day and fire by night. Through the storms and clouds. When they saw that, they knew God was with them. Now because of what Jesus has said and what He has done for us, we don’t need to have those physical signs because we know that the Holy Spirit dwells within each of us.

The presence of God is always with us. This holiday season, like I said earlier, there are lots of people that are going to feel alone. It’s just the truth. But I want all of you to know that you don’t need to feel alone because God’s presence is with you. He is with you always. He is with us when things are going great and we feel great, but He is with us even in our darkest hour.

Reflection

Maybe this Advent season, you’re struggling with feeling alone because:

You’re struggling with something personally and you don’t know where or how to get help.

You have a friend who is struggling and you’re not sure what to do.

You feel your life is a mess and you could really use some piece.

You’re morning a loss and it still hurts.

Even if you’re unsure about what the next step is for you and the situation that you’re in, you can at least know that you’re not alone. “Immanuel” means Jesus is always with us, even in our most desperate hour. He might not show up in the way we expect Him to show up. He might not give us the exact solution or plan that we were hoping for, but His presence will always lead us to something far better than what we could ever design for ourselves.

And that’s what this Advent season is all about. It’s about the preparation and waiting for His arrival. His arrival that He came to walk with us, be with us, talk with us, and to suffer for us. That we know He came and yes He physically suffered, died, and rose again, but that He is still with us each and every day.