Merry Christmas Sunrise! You know, I cannot think of a better place to be on a Christmas morning than here in God's house...Amen?! There is something special about being in church, spending a few moments celebrating the birth of our LORD and Saviour with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas morning so far. I know for many of you, the morning began much earlier than it usually does on a Sunday morning. What time did you get up? [Allow response]
In spite of the being up earlier than we may have liked, today is a special Christmas because we are here. It is not that often that we have the opportunity to combine our celebration of Christ birth and resurrection. Not only that, we also are able to witness the secular understanding of Christmas and our spiritual understanding. There is a difference.
Did you know that the way we normally celebrate Christmas is a relatively new concept? It has only been within the last two centuries that people have celebrated Christmas with the exchanging of presents and all of the other festivities.
Many of our early American ancestors actually loathed the idea of celebrating Christmas. It wasn't Christ's birth that they had a problem with, but instead it was all the revelry and feasting. They saw it as improper.
Yet, legend has it that in 1822, an Episcopal Bishop from Greenwich Village in New York City bought a large turkey to give to the needy on Christmas Eve. On his way to deliver the bird, he was inspired by his large, bearded Dutch sleigh driver. That night, he took his experience of the day and his knowledge of a godly man of the 4th century and penned these words:
'Twas the night before Christmas andall through the house; not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
Of course we know the author to be Clement Moore and his poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" which we know of today as, "The Night Before Christmas." What you may not know is that Moore did not intend the poem to be published. Yet somehow, it became widely known by Christmas 1823.
It was that poem that gave rise to who?
[Allow response]
Right! Santa Claus - the portly philanthropist of the North Pole who visits all the children of the world in the wee hours of Christmas morning, bringing toys and joy to them all. And that my friends, we experienced earlier in our homes.
But, as I said, this morning is special, because we are here in church, participating in a great celebration of the birth and resurrection of Jesus. This is a tradition that the church has carried out for almost two thousand years. As we look at the word itself:
Christmas, we see that it is actually a contraction of two words
Christ+Mass = the Mass of Christ (celebration of the Eucharist and Jesus birth.)
In each of these understandings though, there is a common thread that runs through. That is the giving of a gift. Of course we understand the exchange of Christmas presents with our loved ones and friends, but while we know this next part, somehow we tend to not appreciate enough that God has given us presents too. So, on the Christmas Sunday, we are going to look, just for a few moments at two of these gifts.
Now some may say, "Why would God want to give me anything?" If we are honest with ourselves, we probably would think that from time-to-time. Think hard about this for a moment. Have you ever looked at yourself and not been happy with what you saw? Not physically, but the real you? Sometimes, when we honestly look at ourselves, we aren't too happy with what we see. We stare at ourselves and the reflection reveals - a person who:
- often let's his/her selfish wants come before the needs of others
- neglects to tell their spouse, children, parents, siblings, ... how much they are loved
- seeks to take the easy way out of a difficult situation rather than the right way
- forgets to give thanks to God who brought him/her through hard times
- lies and steals to feed selfish desires
- relies more upon his/her own intellect and ingenuity than upon God
- is broken by sin
- separated from God
-...the list goes on...
It can cause us to wonder, "Why would God even want to give me anything?" Yet, God does. Because God sees something that we often miss
[Video clip from A Charlie Brown Christmas - Charlie Brown and Linus look for a Christmas tree and Charlie Brown picks the scrawny little tree]
So, here is the first gift:
God Values You
Think about that for a moment - God Values You! In spite of everything we do to mess up and to be most unlovable - God loves us and values us all the same! That is an awesome gift! But friends, it is a gift that is much greater than any understanding of love that we can imagine. Here is the extent of that gift of love:
John 3:16
16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
You are loved so much that God was willing to send Jesus, the Son of God, to die in our place so that we would never be separated from God again. That's the first gift.
Here's the second great gift from God:
John 1:12-13a
12 But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.
Now some may not see the church quite as a gift, but in it's purest form...how can it be anything but a gift from God?
[Video clip from A Charlie Brown Christmas - the gang fixing up the tree]
God's first gift is loving even a messed up person like you and me and saving us from our hell-bent desire of self-destruction. Then God gives us the second gift - family who loves us and helps to bring out the beauty that God sees in us. Brothers and sisters, those aren't gifts that you can buy from Wal-Mart, Belk's, Macy's, or Saks. Yet, they are gifts that are freely given to you by a God who knows you the best and loves you the most.
[Communion]
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