More than Tradition

Some of you may of saw this on Facebook last week, but our family started a new tradition and it was Arika’s idea.

And it was an idea she had since we were in college and it was every Christmas our family was going to get a pair of matching pajamas.

And I always thought that this was an awful idea so I told her that I am not doing it.

But the issue was that she informed that if I say no she would get matching Christmas Pajamas for everyone in our family except me.

And I thought that was unfair, so here we are a picture of our family with matching pajamas for Christmas.

Liam was excited

I never thought I would be the person who would participate in a tradition like that.

But if I am honest I love Christmas traditions, there is something about the traditions we do that make the holiday special each year.

And I was looking at other traditions that are held throughout the world that are a little different or neat

In Germany they actually hide a pickle in the tree and you have to find the pickle in the morning before opening presents

In Dutchland they place there actual shoes by the fireplace and Santa fills their own shoes before Christmas instead of stockings (make sure you buy new shoes before Christmas)

And then my favorite Christmas tradition is in Venezuela people roller-skate to church on Christmas.

And so many people do it that in Venezuela’s capital Carcus, they actually close the roads around the time churches start there service.

And one thing that is so neat with each of these traditions there is a backstory that makes it special, (You proabably have traditions like this with your family) but a lot of times what happens is we do these traditions year after year and it looses the specialness and becomes a tribual thing that we just do.

And as we celebrate Christmas, I want us to lean in this evening and make this more then just a tradition, thats tribual, where we light candles, we sing beutiful songs and its magical.

But if you forget the reason that

But a time where we look at what is the meaning of Christ coming down, and what does it mean for me?

How does it change my life?

How does it make me more or less

So turn with me to

because this story tells one of the most signifigant events in history

It says:

(NIV)

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

So I am guessing you have heard this story before? But it really is an amazing story when you sit down and disect what is actually happening here.

Because it starts with this group of Shepard's who are sitting out in the field keeping watch over a their flock of sheep.

And what we need to understand is the shepards are rough figures.

They were consdered the outcast in this society

They did not have much money, they were often times people who did not have a great history, and had rough past

and what would happen is they would actually live in tents sometimes year round and live with the sheep.

So they did not smell great or have great manners either.

But you have this group of outcast who are not great people and they are out in the field at night and all of the sudden an angel comes out of no where and then later on it says a multitude of angels come out

and really if you look at the language it is military language, so its almost like its saying this army of angels are coming out

And you can almost picture what the Shepard's are thinking because here are these guys who are not the greatest people, and this army of angels comes and they are probably thinking ““This is it!” We were awful people and now here are these angels getting ready to finish us off!”

In fact the passage says they are terrified!

But then all of the sudden as they are t

But whats amazing is while the Shepard's were terrified the angel comes to them and says “Do not be afraid because in the town of David a savior is born to you and He is the Messiah, the Lord.

and the reason is because when you look at God who is perfect and then you look at us, we are pretty far off where we are not worthy

And if you are like me you read that and think why would the first people that get to know about the savior of the world being born be the Shepard's, the low lifes of society.

And the issue here is that

And really the reason is because thats who Jesus came for.

and it is actually easy to feel like the Shepard's in this passage where we have this feeling of we are going I am not worthy to have Jesus in my life.

and this is the hard part but we are not worthy, and unless something happens

He came for the peoples whose lives are messy

But what we cannot miss in this story is who we are in the story

Because we are the Shepard's,

I don’t know about you but sometimes life is messy, sometimes we make mistakes

and this is an issue because God created us perfect, but we have fallen short of who God has called us to be.

and what happens is now we have sin coating us

its coating our relationship with God, its coating our relationship with friends, family, and its coating our heart

its like if you go to cut down your own Christmas tree you get sap on your hands and it is impossible to get off.

Once we have sin in our life its there and what we know about sin is that it ultimately destorys our life

But here is the amazing news

But here is the amazing news because while we are the Shepards in this story, while the world in general in dark this group of angels come down and say “A Savior is born, He is the Messiah.

and this is a big deal because those words Savior and Messiah show that Jesus was not just a man, but he was the son of God who came to take away the sin of the world.

and He is the only one who can do that, because sin causes brokeness and hurt, but Christ coming changes our hearts where we no longer live in the brokeness and hurt, but we live in Christ.

But

This is amazing news

But ultimately we have to choose how we want to respond to this news

For Mary this first Christmas was not tribual, but it was something where she was able to witness the light of the world come down in the middle of a mess.

And I imagine Mary knew that the baby she was holding would change the world.

For the Shepards these messy people they heard this news and they went to see this news for themselves

Maybe for you this evening you have heard this story a million times, maybe even a similar message, but what if you did what the Shepard's did, this evening and you just said God I want to see this news for myself.

Maybe this evening you would want to say I am ready to come to Christ or take the first steps in that direction

But maybe today you are not in that boat maybe you have been a Christ follower for years and tonight you just need to respond like Mary.

because If you look it says that Mary treasured up all of this in her heart.

If you look it says that Mary treasured up all of this in her heart.

For Mary this first Christmas was not tribual, but it was something where she was able to witness the light of the world come down in the middle of a mess.

And I imagine Mary knew that the baby she was holding would change the world.

And this Christmas what we are celebrating is not presents, or great traditions, but we are celebrating the light of the world come down for us.

And this evening we are going to be finishing in an extremely meaningful way, because when you walked in you were probably handed a candle (if not raise your hand and someone will be bringing one to you).

But we are going to be lighting the candles and turning off the lights and there will be two people coming to light the candles and as your candle gets lit you can go ahead and turn to the person next to you in your row to light their candle

but when we do this its not just pretty, but it is a reminder that the light of the world has come down for us, for you

(Start turning off lights)

We are going to be finishing with three songs, which is quite a bit, but I want you to look at that light thats in front of you.

That represents the light of Christ come down for you.

I want you to ask yourself during these songs to ask yourself how am I going to respond to the light of Christ come down for me?

Pray