Sorry for the delay! Here’s Jon’s Christmas Eve sermon, completing his Advent series with a reading from Luke 1-2.
Christmas Eve
With candles flickering, there really quite small light, reminding us, assuring us “The (really very bright) light shines in the darkness…”. With the songs we’ve been singing still ringing, at least in our hearts, a celebration tune this day deserves. And with the warmth and deep joy of a people who have gathered for one reason, to proclaim “a child has been born for us, a son has been given to us.” I want you to listen to the way one of the earliest Christians tells of this most amazing event, this unprecedented God-act that acts still:
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and he said, “Greetings favored one, the Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid Mary for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will over shadow you, therefore the child to be born will be holy, he will called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren for nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
… (now)
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that the whole world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
That’s how it happened, that’s how it went, that’s how Luke, one of those earliest Christ followers, proclaimed, “a child has been born for us…”
Maybe you noticed, Mary asked a question, a question I want you to be able to ask. And her question is then greeted with an angel response I wouldn’t want you to miss, a faith question with a Christmas answer.
The question Mary asked was, “How can this be?”
Seems to me like a fairly pertinent question in light of Mary’s circumstances. She was after all just a young girl. Though she was engaged, she and her fiancée had not yet consummated their marriage relationship making conception, at the very least a little difficult. And as if all of that weren’t enough she was from Nazareth, Nazareth like “the other side of the tracks,” Nazareth, nothing good comes from Nazareth, Mary was from Nazareth. And to this unlikely candidate an angel shows up, and the angel shows up talking big, talking about God, and kingdoms, and forever, the angel shows up telling her “Mary you will bear the Son of God.” And with the heat of an angel lamp shining directly on her, and with the weight of a God decree weighing on her she asks a really good question:
How can this be? I am a virgin.
How can this be? the circumstances of my life don’t leave that open as a possibility, I’m a virgin.
How can this be?
I want you to be able to ask Mary’s question. It’s not a question born from a lack of faith in the God who promises, but rather it’s a question born out of faith in the midst of some circumstances that appear to proclaim a very different story. The question cracks open the door of possibility hanging on the hinges of faith in the middle of craziness, “really? How? How can this be?”
How can this be? How is it God that you’re going to accomplish this amazing thing in me, through me, for me? I’m for it God, I’m for you God, I’m looking around though and not really seeing that as a likelihood.
Just out of curiosity, and I don’t mean to get too personal on Christmas Eve, have you ever found yourself asking that question? When the circumstances in your life are crazy, overwhelming, frustrating, everything about them seem to shout louder than any God promise you’ve ever heard. And because you believe, or would like to believe, but you just can’t see, you find yourself asking, “How can this be?”
How can this be?
The story of Christ’s birth includes a question, a question I want you to feel very free to ask when life is hard, when pain is present, when the circumstances rise against you and all the evidence stacks up against God making good on his promises and all you’re left with is, “How …”
The question is expectant, the question is hopeful, the question implies belief in a God who accomplishes things that otherwise don’t appear likely to be accomplished.
I was chatting with a dear, dear friend the other day. I won’t give you his name, it really doesn’t matter, it could be anyone of you really. By all appearances he’s got a good life, nice job, not worried about losing it, nice wife, they love each other, plenty of friends and family to fill up a Christmas season. A storm has been brewing in his family, a storm he saw on the horizon of his life but underestimated its strength. One of his daughters, whose grown now with a family of her own, has been distant, difficult, hard to be with. He wanted to head off the storm before it hit them unsuspecting so he called his dear daughter, asked if they could talk, wanted to apologize if he had done something he hadn’t realized and express a few hurts that he had known himself that she had caused. They got together and the storm began to rage, his daughter, said not once, not twice, but three times, “My family hates me.” “My family hates me.” “My family hates me.” He couldn’t believe his ears, surely that’s not what she thinks, that’s not how she feels. To hear the little one he raised, whom he cried with, cried for, whom he nourished and nurtured and upheld in his prayers for so long now says, “My family hates me.” His heart sank and mind went spinning.
Their conversation went on for a while longer, it didn’t get much easier from its painful beginning. But he left that conversation asking:
How can this be?
Not only, “how did we get here – how can this be?” but how are the promises of God going to show up in the middle of these circumstances – how can this be?
How is the God who promises good to him going to make good for him on that promise with his daughter? How can this be?
How is the God of reconciliation going to make reconciliation a reality for him and his family? How can this be?
The question gives us permission to be honest with ourselves not all is as we’d like it to be, not all is how we think it should be, and the God promises we’re waiting for don’t line up all that well with the circumstances we’re living in, but we ask anyway, we ask in faith, we ask believing “How can this be?”
Because, with Christ’s birth as a prime example, God isn’t bound by your circumstances, God isn’t confined to what you see as possible, God isn’t limited to the five senses that we depend on to define our existence.
I want to give you permission to ask that question. Christ’s birth gives us permission.
So what is it, what is it for you, what are the circumstances in which you need to ask the question, “How can this be?”
Is it a situation like my dear friends, family storm is brewing, family relationships are breaking and rather than throwing in the towel, giving up, and giving in, you’re going to wait on God and ask “How can this be?”
Is it something entirely different, something I can only guess, you’re an alcoholic and no matter how many times you say to yourself, “that’s the last one,” there’s always another one, rather quitting on breaking the addiction, wait on God and ask, “How can this be?”
You’re the Navy wife and the fatigue of sending a husband off to war every few months for several months is getting really old, and you’re thinking about shutting down, calling it a marriage, before you call it anything, wait on God and ask “How can this be?”
Do you see what I’m saying? Christmas gives us permission to be honest about our circumstances and still believe in a God of promises.
That’s the question Mary asks, now listen to the response her question receives.
It’s an angel response, it’s a beautiful response, it goes like this:
Nothing will be impossible with God.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
Nothing. Name it, imagine it, nothing will be impossible with God.
Mary asks, quite appropriately I’d say, “How can this be? I’m a virgin.” And the angel says,
The holy spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you, therefore the child will be holy, and will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
Christmas assures us, despite the circumstances, whatever the circumstances may be, despite what I can see as a possible, nothing is impossible with God.
So wake up tomorrow, open your gifts, have fun, celebrate time together, eat some coffee cake, you know, do it all right, and let each moment of that day tomorrow stand as one colossally glorious God reminder, “Nothing will be impossible with God.”
And the most amazing thing, I think about this God promise, it’s not meant just for you personally, but its meant for all of us together. Christmas is more than a private promise, Christmas is universe shaking, stratosphere stunning, world promise God will make good on his salvation intentions. God will not leave this world spinning in the darkness of its own chaos, God will not sit back saying to himself in glory, “ooh that’s too bad for them.”
Remember the angel was talking big, the angel was talking larger than just you and me and our own circumstances, the angel said, This child, this one will be a king, and “Of his kingdom there will be no end.” Christmas is about something large and grand and expansive that includes you personally but is always so much more than just merely you personally.
And nothing will be impossible with God. God will accomplish peace on earth. God will accomplish reconciliation in the world. God will make happen the redemption he intends for his good creation.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
God in Christ will send injustice on the run, oppression will no longer have a room, abuse doesn’t get to sit at the dinner table in God’s kingdom.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
God in Christ will break the systems of sin that chain us, make sure the hungry child has a meal, and provide a bottomless well full of water for all those who are thirsty.
Nothing will be impossible with God.
Be careful though we can tend to misuse this promise. We can tend take it to mean any one of us can leap tall buildings in a single bound, see through walls into the future, avoid difficult by wishing it away, because nothing is impossible with God. Don’t misuse the promise by misunderstanding its context. The angel responded to Mary, “Nothing is impossible with God” so far as it relates to God accomplishing his salvation intentions for the world and the people he loves. And God is always making good on that promise:
When his people were down and out and pushed under the heavy arm of an angry Pharoah in Egypt Moses made the waters part so God’s people might find freedom, nothing is impossible with God.
When the Baal prophets were laughing at silly little Elijah, mocking God and putting him to a God competition, fire came down from heaven, Elijah won the day, nothing will be impossible with God.
And finally, in the fullness of time, when God’s heart ached endlessly because of the sin that exists in the world he loves, he took on flesh in Jesus Christ, so that anyone, anywhere can be freed from the grip of sin and the burden of guilt and set free in the land of grace, nothing will be impossible with God.
God’s promise is connected with God’s purpose, to redeem and restore and make new.
I don’t know about you but the folks who shared a few minutes ago were pretty brave and their willingness to share was quite moving.
I listen to Alice speak of her beloved Unc and my heart begins to melt. And I think how does she do it, how does she make it through a day without the love her lifetime, how does she endure the grief that never really gets any easier, and then I remember, oh yeah, nothing is impossible with God.
I listen to Doug acknowledge the unspeakable pain that comes from losing a son, and I think “no, how can that happen? How can you make it another day?” And then I remember, oh year, Nothing is impossible with God.
I listen to Tony, and Tracy in the middle of financial challenge, and another deployment goodbye, and I wonder how, how do they do it, how do they make it, how do they get through a day, and then I remember, oh year, nothing will be impossible with God.
God who broke into the world impossibly, through some young virgin girl, from some backwater town, breaks in still doing the impossible. Christmas assures us you can’t name a circumstance, you can’t find a situation, you can’t imagine a moment that forces God to throw up his hands in defeat. God’s salvation purposes will be realized, nothing will be impossible with God.
Let’s pray.
Seems strange to me that with the dangers fraught with living, accidents, disease, natural disasters, we still develop and cling to our behavorial troubles so tightly. I know people like that. They can’t stand that the object of their love has another interest than constant attendance to their whims so they use the kind of emotional blackmail the daughter used on her parent spoken of in the sermon to validate themselves (and more often than not exploit dad’s wealth for dissipation). They find their assurances in the number of ulcers they cause, the number of dark clouds they have formed in otherwise happy skies. They hate themselves so they punish their loved ones. And there are more and more of those whose appetites are the prime motivators in their lives and they will use anyone, anything to maintain that consumptive habit no matter how expesnsive it is to others who won’t let their baby starve and die of exposure while they squander your cash on expensive parts for their their hobby truck and beer for their “friends”. They have no deep thoughts or complicated psyches, they just want what they want and they will do what they have to to get it no matter the emotional or monetary cost to the loved ones they use like sanitary paper. First they use up their loved ones. Then they start treating everyone around them like he owns them, and they pull away, and then he preys on the public. The nasty little souls are astute, and their spiritual handlers are inscrutibly diabolical. They can twist an honest soul into a knot, especially the dedicated soul of a parent or parent figure.
Soon they exhaust their loved ones who go numb, retreat into a shell of their former selves, grieving, like a simmering cauldron, forever. Every night ends in grief, every morning resumes the attritive, losing game of endurance. We maintain, we must, for others, but, “Oh yeah, life goes on… long after the thrill of living is gone…” (Rock song of decades past-by Mellencamp)
There comes a time when you notice you resent the kid so much, you haven’t prayed for him. Has the Holy Spirit abandonned moving you to pray on his behalf, or are you just getting weary?… So the little demon haunt even invades and permeates your relationship with God.
Your loved one is The Devil’s leverage. You fall back into the land of Yesterday’s wrongs, and animated situations raise up out of the mucky ground like a Satanic resurrection…. The light goes out of your life as if a swarm of Lucifer’s Locusts cut off the sun in every direction from horizon to horizon preperatory to consuming every fruit and green thing left in yolur heart. Anger begins a burn, and every night you beat it out like Smokey the Bear with his shovel putting out spot fires to save his forest. “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger”, “Vengeance is mine says the Lord,” but then there are just more and more spot fires, and your dreams are consumed by bittersweet visions of the aftermath of personal victories you know you could have if you but reach out and take hold of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Hate forms a stronghold that consumes more and more of the resources of you life. It is the only way you can feel like somebody. In charge of your destiny. It validates you. And you become your son in all your glory, only you develope a hard-bitteen bitterness that only the mature can know.
“Who will rescue me from this body of sin and death?”
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