Sermon Tone Analysis

*Enniscorthy Christian Fellowship – 24th December 2006*

*What do you want for Christmas?*

Several years ago a Washington D.C. television reporter was working on an assignment called “The Spirit of Christmas.”

He telephoned the British Embassy and asked to speak to the British ambassador.

\\ \\ “Ambassador,” the reporter said, “you have been very kind to us through the year and we would like to include you in a special Christmas news segment we’re going to run.

Tell me, what would you like for Christmas?”

\\ \\ The ambassador replied, “I am very touched by your offer, but I must decline to accept any gift.”

\\ \\ “Oh please,” said the reporter, “you really have been very helpful to us, so won’t you please tell me what you would especially like for Christmas?”

\\ \\ Again the ambassador refused, but the reporter persisted, and the ambassador finally gave in.

“All right then, if you insist.

This Christmas I would like a jar of mint jelly.”

\\ \\ Having forgotten about the conversation, the ambassador was surprised when several weeks later, on Christmas Eve, he turned on the evening news and heard the same reporter introducing a segment on “The Spirit of Christmas.”

\\ \\ "We recently interviewed three visiting ambassadors and asked them what they would like for Christmas.

These three diplomats each gave revealing answers when they pondered what they would most like during this Christmas season of goodwill.

\\ \\ "The German ambassador said: “I would like to see a peaceful and prosperous decade ahead for the newly liberated German people, and all citizens of the planet.

May God bless us all during this historic period of change.”

\\ \\ "The Swiss ambassador responded: “May the Spirit of Christmas last throughout the year.

It is my dream that our world leaders will be guided toward a common goal of peaceful coexistence.

This is my wish this Christmas season.”

\\ \\ And then we asked the British ambassador who said, “I would like a jar of mint jelly.”"

*What do you want for Christmas?*

I’m sure this guy felt rather foolish.

To want mint jelly instead of something much more important!

And yet, maybe this Christmas we could make this same mistake.

Hopefully tomorrow we’ll all get presents carefully chosen and wrapped by people who love us.

But if you could ask for anything, what would you really ask for this Christmas?

God wants to give us a gift that really matters.

You won’t find it in Argos or in Dunnes.

A gift that doesn’t come with a price tag measured in Euro – its more costly than that.

It

\\  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

comes wrapped, not in Christmas paper, but in strips of cloth.

It comes in a person – Jesus!  Let’s think about this gift of Jesus for a bit – I hope we’ll all agree that this is what we really need this Christmas!

*1.

**God’s Presence in our Poverty – Immanuel*

Lets read from Matthew’s gospel.

“The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”

Matthew 1v23

 

The first aspect of God’s Christmas gift is the gift of his presence.

Jesus came as our Immanuel: God with us.

As we heard in that song from Kevin just before communion:                       “Mary… did you know your baby boy has trod where angels trod?

When you kissed your little baby,

You kissed the face of God.”

What an amazing gift!

The God of the universe.

The creator and sustainer of this vast world came and lived as a human being on earth!

 

*a)                      **God came Near*

Max Lucado writes in his book, “When God came Near”: "As moments go, [the moment of the incarnation] appeared no different than any other… But in reality, that particular moment was like none other.

A spectacular thing occurred.

God became a man.

While the creatures of earth walked unaware, Divinity arrived.

Heaven opened herself and placed her most precious one in a human womb."

Christmas is that God came near.

As John writes: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

John 1v14

 

Because of Christmas the guesswork is over.

No longer do we need to wonder what God is like.

We don’t need to guess at God heart.

We don’t need to speculate about what God thinks of us.

John goes on: “No-one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”

John 1v18.

Jesus has shown us God’s heart, God’s character, God’s love for us, God’s commitment to us.

Jesus is God with us.

Immanuel.

*b)                      **Not a Flying visit!*

And Jesus wants to come and be our Immanuel today!

He wants to be God with us - today!

The angels at that first Christmas, they came to people – but their’s was only ‘a flying visit’!

They appeared.

Gave their wonderful message, and then went.

Jesus came to stick around!

He “made his dwelling among us.”

John 1v14.

And Jesus wants to come to stay in our lives!

The final words of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel are this: “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Matthew 28v20.

Because of Christmas, we can have God’s presence forever.

So that we’re never on our own!

\\  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*c)                       **In the poverty of our circumstances*

But the most shocking thing is this: God didn’t come into this world with pomp and ceremony.

This was no celebrity birth.

He didn’t come to riches and luxury.

But the Son of God chose to come into this world in desperate poverty.

The poverty of a humble working-class family, that could only afford the poorest of offerings at his consecration (Luke 2v25, Leviticus 12v8)!

The poverty of a borrowed feeding trough.

*i) **Immanuel to the poor and needy*

If God had only come into the best of circumstances, then perhaps we might be afraid our lives are too messed up, too difficult, too poor for God to be present!

But Jesus came as our Immanuel to the poor and needy.

To those who had no hope other than God!

All through his life Jesus came to the poor and needy:

·                     He reached out and touched the man full of leprosy to be Immanuel to him.

·                     He spoke to the woman at Sychar’s well, the one whose life was a catalogue of failed relationships!

·                     He spent time with prostitutes.

He was known as the friend of sinners!

Christmas says to us today, “It doesn’t matter how bad or messed up our circumstances are – Jesus wants to be Immanuel for us!

He wants to get involved in our lives, in the mess, the difficulties, to go through the struggles with us!”

If we have accepted the gift of Jesus, then all the issues we face in our life;  the times when we think we can’t go on, that no-one understands.

Jesus, our Immanuel, is with us.

Maybe we don’t feel him.

Maybe we wonder why he doesn’t do things differently.

But because of Christmas we know that God cares, that he understands, that he goes through it with us – because Jesus is our Immanuel: “I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”