Sermon Tone Analysis

12.24.2021

- 5pm and 11pm

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Patient Faith

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They waited.

For 500 years, nearly double the history of our nation, Israel waited in captivity, exile, and silence from their God.

Every year they would light candles.

They would pray to God.

They would do their best to survive another day under the ruling forces around them, the outside cultures working their way in, and they would wait.

They had no Billy Graham's or Dwight Moody's.

There was no Alan Hirsch or Andy Stanley for Joseph and Mary to go to hear from God.

The priests had sold out to the Romans and the Scribes and Pharisees were so focused on fixing everyone that they had left out the possibility of God showing up to lead.

Their whole world was so focused on getting power, they were willing to kill each other to gain and keep it, one family, one tribe against another.

There was no prophet like Moses to speak to them on God's behalf, no shepherd-king like David to guide and provide for them.

They were on their own.

Yet even after 500 years, they did not lose hope.

Mary and Joseph inherited that patient faith and persistent hope from the community that raised her: family, friends, and neighbors.

They were taught the scriptures in a way to recognize an angel when they saw one, not to think angels were from "once upon a time in a land far away".

They had faith without sight so that they could recognize the sight of faith when it came knocking on their doors and showing up in their dreams.

They would celebrate the birth of Christ, the Messiah, and king patiently.

They knew full well that it would take 9 months of pregnancy before the birth of Jesus, and that it would take years after He was born before He was big enough and old enough to rescue them from the darkness they lived in.

Long before the savior was on the throne, Mary and Joseph invited Him into their home.

Not just a baby.

Not even just the Son of God.

Their savior.

Mary and Joseph, a couple who were nobody enough to get a room in Bethlehem, who could pass invisibly anywhere in the Middle East, Northern Africa, or the Roman Empire did not think they could just hide away until God saved the world.

Nor did they think they had enough encounters with angels to expect that they were good enough, they didn't need to be saved.

They knew that the brokenness of the world had made its way into their home and they needed to invite Jesus into their home, their family, because they too needed a Savior.

We need a Savior too and tonight we are inviting Jesus into our church together and we want you to take Him home with you.

Angels and Shepherds

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The shepherds were minding their own business, which was where everyone wanted them to be anyway.

Out of sight and out of mind.

I grew up in a farming community and spent many days in my dad's small engine repair shop.

The locals would come in and share the daily gossip while picking up their chainsaw and lawnmower supplies.

This time of year it was snow blowers.

You could always tell when the farmers came in, especially the pig farmers.

You could almost smell them before they got through the door.

It wasn't a surprise either because you could smell their farms from half a mile away, just driving down the highway.

It was the smell of those who tended livestock.

There was never any room at the inn for shepherds.

Everyone knew they slept outdoors with their animals, and they could stay outside with them all the time unless they were in their own house.

No one invited a shepherd home.

Like Mary and Joseph, they were invisible people, and they could have traveled anywhere in the Roman Empire and blended into the background as animal handlers.

The shepherds knew that they were part of the heartbeat of society and culture in Israel, especially regarding sacrifices made at the Temple in Jerusalem, but they also knew they were replaceable.

People wanted the sheep, not the shepherds.

It was the most unlikely of gatherings.

The highest of the high and the lowest of the low.

The angels, the ministers of heaven, who served in the presence of God Almighty, came to these unclean shepherds.

And so it was that those who never got invited to the party were visited by the messengers of heaven with a special invitation: the Messiah, the promised Son of God was born and they were invited to the birth.

A Birthday

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What was that birthday party like?

Well, up until the past couple of centuries, births took place in the home, with the family gathered around to help during these traumatic moments.

It was not clean and sterile like hospital births today.

It was dangerous at the best of times, but especially far from home and family to take care of new mothers and their babies.

In the palaces of ancient times, newborn princesses and especially princes might be taken from the mother's arms and presented to a courtyard full of royal family members, decorated leaders, and other very important people.

Many of you, in fact, have a near-perfect image in your mind of what the birth of a newborn king might have looked like in the ancient world.

It is the opening scene of Disney's The Lion King, where the prophet monkey anoints the head of baby Simba and presents him to the members of his kingdom.

The current king and queen, the new father and mother, look on with pride and joy.

The whole kingdom rejoices.

This was the small earthly honor that Jesus deserved.

Look at how He was received on the night of His birth.

The courtyard of heaven came to worship Him.

They brought shepherds as the important guests.

Poor Mary and Joseph were doing their best to just have this baby that did not belong to them.

They had no prophet (monkey or otherwise) to lift Jesus up when the angels showed up and they started smelling the shepherds approaching.

There was no family tradition they had to lean on at that time.

It was one more day trusting in God, one day at a time, with surprises around every corner.

That night, those who walked in darkness saw a light.

It was small, but they had waited 500 years to see it.

They could wait a few more years for this child to grow into the one who would save them all from the darkness of sin and death.

Even though the light of Jesus remained a small child though, the shepherds courageously shared what they had received in Bethlehem with all those in the dark world around them.

Bringing it Home

Darkness has a place in our home.

Sin and death are not strangers to our families.

We don't like to talk about it, but it is true.

It is also true that, as much as we like treating this room in this building as God's house, things get awkward when God steps onto the scene.

We can throw up our hands in exasperation and say we don't have control over our lives as we fall back into the darkness.

But the darkness around us does not mean we are without hope.

It only shows that we need a savior.

We are not the light ourselves.

We are vessels, and we get to choose what we carry: darkness or light, death or salvation.

There is a savior and He has come into the world for you.

He invites you into His presence, His love, and His light.

We don't have to wait for Christ to grow up to become our savior but we need the same patient, persistent faith to allow Christ to grow that light in us, and the courageous love to share that salvation with those in the darkness around us.

As we gather at Christ's table, let us confess our need for the light of Christ, receive the saving, sustaining, and redeeming grace He brings us, and share it with those all around us.

PRAYER OF CONFESSION and PARDON

Merciful God, we confess that often we find darkness more comfortable than light.

We confess that we find your good news frightening and unsettling,

especially when we consider its demands as well as its promises.

We confess that Christmas has become more to us than the birthday of the Christ,

partly because we do not want a Christ-Child in our lives or in our world.

Forgive us, break us, bend us, remake us.

Give us the courage to lay ourselves open to the wonder and healing of your coming.

Be born again into our world, be born again into our hearts and lives.

Hear now our silent and personal confessions as we prepare ourselves for your nativity.

The true light that enlightens all has come into the world.

That light shines on in the darkness, and the darkness has never been able to put it out.

This is the good news: God has heard our confession.

God has forgiven our sin.

Thanks be to God!

THE GREAT THANKSGIVING

FOR CHRISTMAS EVE, DAY, OR SEASON