Good morning Sunrise! Here we are, just two short weeks until Christmas Day. Can you believe that?! Man, when I was young, it seemed like it took forever to get from Thanksgiving to Christmas, but today, it's just two paychecks.
One of the ways that we are using this short time period of Advent here at Sunrise is in a series of messages called (I'll Have a) Blu-ray Christmas. In it, we are looking at some video clips from some of the Christmas movies that you are bound to see over the next couple of weeks and finding some of the biblical truths that they hold.
Before we get to that though, I want to share some interesting pieces of trivia about Christmas that I came across over the last few days. But in this season of festivities, let's make a bit of a game of it.
True or False:
- Scientists have diagnosed the cause of Rudolf's red nose - True (Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph's red nose may be the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.)
- Christmas was the first national holiday established. - False (Congress actually was in session on 12/25/1789. Didn't become an official national holiday until 1870)
- Black Friday is the busiest shopping day of the year - False (Friday and Saturday before Christmas are)
- The abbreviation 'Xmas' was created by a group of atheists who wanted to take Christ out of Christmas - False
- Two weeks before Christmas is most popular time for couples to break up - True (Xmas day is the least popular though)
- Highest suicide rates occur around Christmas - False
Some of these facts came as a surprise to me. Back when I was a paramedic, we were taught that Christmas that, nationally, the suicide rate soared at Christmas. But now I found out that that statistic has no basis whatsoever. This study conducted recently by NYU actually conluded that if anything, the suicide rate drops slightly during the Christmas holiday season.
So, if this study is true, then why would we continually believe otherwise? It is probably because of another statistic, a true one, associated with Christmas
- Christmas season is the most stressful time of the year
- Financial - 60% of American report yearly that spent considerably more on Christmas shopping than they had planned or saved for
- Time - Most people feel that they become overly busy during the season, with shopping, attending parties and get-togethers, school and church functions, while still trying to close up a year at work
- Family - Family expectations tend to overtly cause a great amount of stress - from making sure to visit as much family members as possible and to try to have a civil reunion with persons you have less and less in common with
- Bereavement - each year the chances of celebrating a major holiday without a loved one dramatically increases. Christmas is normally the holiday when the lost is most felt
- Looking back - Christmas, being one of the last holidays of the year, offers people a time to reflect on the past year and realize that most of the hopes, dreams, and goals went unrealized over the course of the year.
All of these factors, and others, add to a level of stress that is normally not experienced the other eleven months of the year. So, many people sink into a pit of desperation.
In Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, the main character, George Bailey, has such an experience. But instead of just showing a clip, I thought I might put it in a slightly different perspective.
(Video Clip 1 - collage of George in distress)
That's a different way to look at it, isn't it? But yet, that's exactly the way many people experience the Christmas season. The world says to be of good cheer, yet life says something totally different.
As I look at the advent candles lit today, especially the one lit for the first time today, I have to ask, "Where is the joy of Christmas?"
To find the answer, we need to look beyond the season of Christmas, beyond the manger, beyond Bethlehem, back some five centuries before the birth of Christ - back to a time of a prophet named Isaiah who spoke these words
Isaiah 61:1-2
1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor
[Prayer]
The prophet who spoke these words initially was addressing a group of God's people in Judah who had endured a long and harsh life of exile. Though they were now back in their homeland, they remain discouraged because their city of Jerusalem and the Temple are still in ruin. Their way of life, the life they longed to return to was in shambles. Though they were no longer enslaved and cast out, there was little to celebrate. Yet, in the midst of all of the desolation a prophet stands to say:
The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn,
Many of you will also recognize that Jesus announces his public ministry by quoting these same words in his hometown of Nazareth.
In each instance, this proclamation is a clarification of a call that is already underway. God was already in the process of restoration when the prophet and Jesus uttered them. Yet, in each instance, the prophet and Jesus were fulfilling their God-given call with God's Spirit present and active within them.
Now some may say, "That's great! But, I don't see what that's got to do with me though?" Let me try to paint a picture here: On the arch of an old Saxon church in England, there is a hand reaching up as if in supplication with the word "God" above it. But to one side of the hand are the words "I Can" and to the other "I Will."
You see, this call was not exclusive to the prophet, not to Jesus. It is our call as well. I know this because Jesus said,
John 14:12
12 I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Now, we read our focus scripture for the day in the NIV translation. But I want to look at part of it in the older version of King James
...the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek...
Preach good tidings...good tidings...where have you heard this phrase before?
[Allow responses]
Right! The announcement of Jesus birth to the shepherds. And who announced it?
[Allow responses]
Right! An Angel
(Video Clip 2 - Clarence introduces himself)
Here we see Clarence, the angel, the way Hollywood likes to portray angels. Clarence is on a mission to help George see the value of his life and in return earns his wings. But again, that's Hollywood's interpretation. As we see in the Bible, angels are much more. Yet, for today, we look at angels for one of their functions - as messengers from God.
One of the popular titles that some people bestow on others after they have done a good deed is something like this, "You're such an angel!" Have you heard someone say something like that before? Most of the time, if we are called an angel, we may quickly denounce it saying that we're no angels. But, friends, in a sense, we can be.
You see, as we live into our call to: preach the good news, bind up broken hearts, proclaim freedom, and release those in darkness, we become messengers from God! Because these are messages of and from God! It is not about our wisdom or from our understanding of situations. The Good News is never advice, or explanations of current events - it is the announcement of what God has done through the grace of Jesus Christ.
(Video Clip 3 - George pronounced rich)
In a time when many people feel a crippling level of stress and anxiety, God is sending messengers out to preach the Good News, to bind broken hearts, proclaim freedom, release those in darkness, and proclaim the year of God's favor. That, my friends, is the Joy of Christmas.
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