New Clothes for Christmas

December 30, 2012 1st Sunday after Christmas Colossians 3:12-17 Luke 2:41-52 Year C New Clothes for Christmas The two best things about christmas Our scriptures for today remind us of the two best things about Christmas – Christmas break and getting a chance to wear our new clothes for Christmas. As a child, everybody gets new clothes for Christmas. Colossians 3 reminds us that if we are followers of Christ, we too should get a new set of clothes- and that it is time to take off our old ones and put on the new ones. For many families, with school aged children, Christmas break is a time of traveling to see relatives. The holidays are a time when you get to see cousins that you only see once a year. It is a time when some of the rules are suspended, you get to stay up late and spend time having fun. And since you are with family, your parents are not watching you as closely as usual. The Jesus family vacation It was the same for Jesus family. Passover was the time for family vacation. If you were able, you travelled to Jerusalem to be at the temple for the holidays. Remember Joseph’s family was in Jerusalem, even though they settled in Galilee. So it was not strange for the family to take the 65 mile trip back to their hometown for the holidays. And back then, the only way to get there was to walk. They walked as a family – the women and children in front, the men in the back because they would walk faster. They would meet up at night to camp and to sleep. A twelve year old in transition It would not have been hard to lose a 12 year old boy in that situation. He was in transition. It was at twelve, that boys no longer spent time with their mothers, they were to travel with the men. It was at this age, that they were considered a child of the promise. And they were expected to start to learn what it meant to be a person of faith. Mary thought that he was a being a man for the first time, and was with the men. Joseph thought that he was still young enough to be with his mother and his younger cousins. Only to discover that he was taken his role as the son of god seriously, and was spending time in his father’s house, doing his heavenly father’s business. The story is careful to point out that his parents took their faith very seriously, and even though Jesus know that he has a purpose from heaven, he did not disrespect his parents. He was connected to both heaven and earth. Why don’t we hear about Jesus childhood? Last week – we just welcomed the newborn Jesus into the world, and the next week in his life, he is 12 years old. Next week, we will go back to the another story of Jesus childhood. But then the next week he is over 30 years old. There are stories of Jesus childhood What you may not know is that there are hundreds of stories out there about the childhood of Jesus. There is a story which says that even in the manger, Jesus is able to speak and proclaims that he is the son of God. When the family escape to Egypt there is a story that a man is turned into a donkey – and when Mary puts the baby jesus on the back of the the donkey he turns back into a man. There is a story of Jesus at 7, a young boy teases him and Jesus uses his superpowers to kill the boy, he is playing with some clay and fashions some birds and turns them into real birds, there is the story of Joseph having to constantly yell at the young half God. Half man for using his powers to punish anyone he doesn’t like. I think I have told you the story of two robbers robbing the holy family on their way to Egypt and Mary prophesising that they would die on the cross with Jesus. These stories all lack integrity Why haven’t we heard of these stories? Because they are not stories of the Jesus we know and love. Many of these stories circulated but they never passed the test to be included in the bible. There are many stories of Jesus life that we have never heard. They don’t have the integrity of this one story of Jesus childhood. Jesus was fully human and fully divine. Jesus fit comfortably into the life of his family, as any child should, and Jesus demonstrated love, honor and respect in everything that he did. Even as a child, he was someone we could look up to and follow his ways. A Jesus who kills little children and punishes people for being sinners is not the Jesus that we know. That is why we have never heard any of these other stories. We are expected to grow from following Jesus When we look at the life of Jesus, as we go through the Christian year, half of it is a journey through the life, times and resurrection of Jesus. And half of it is a chance for us to live the lessons that Jesus taught us. Scripture has one requirement of us- that as we watch Jesus grow into the messiah of the world, that we also grow. Not just grow up – but grow in Jesus. In Luke, Jesus says that he must be in his father’s house. Luke 52 says that Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor. As you h Have gone through the journey of advent and Christmas – how have you grown as a person? How have you grown in your faith? How have you become stronger in Christ then you were before? All of us should be able to answer that question. Because if we have not grown, then we have missed the point of Christmas. We have all been given a present If you look at Colossians chapter 3 – you will see that Paul is telling us that each and everyone of us has a present from Christ under the tree. it is a new set of clothes. I want to take us a little farther back in Colossians. We read starting as verse 12. But let us take a look starting at verse 5. 5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b]7 You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8 But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9 Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11 Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. 12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. In Christ you are clothed in new clothes In the olden days when you were baptized, the bishop would call you into the water and tell you to take off your clothes, your were baptized (in a white slip I hope) and given a new white robe. Paul says that when we have Christ is our lives, it is time to take off your old self and put on a new self. He ways that you need to be clothed in the virtues of God. Compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. If you read the old testament, you will see that all of these qualities have been attributed to God. And thus any story about the son of God would have these values also. Paul says that when we have Christ in our lives – that we are a new person, because we see life through the eyes of Christ and not someone else. When we have Christ in our lives we grow as a person, with each season, with each day. John D. Rockefeller is clothed in new life The very first person to reach the status of billionaire was a man who knew how to set goals and follow through. At the age of 23, he had become a millionaire, by the age of 50 a billionaire. Every decision, attitude, and relationship was tailored to create his personal power and wealth. But three years later at the age of 53 he became ill. His entire body became racked with pain and he lost all the hair on his head. In complete agony, the world’s only billionaire could buy anything he wanted, but he could only digest milk and crackers. An associate wrote, "He could not sleep, would not smile and nothing in life meant anything to him." His personal, highly skilled physicians predicted he would die within a year. That year passed agonizingly slow. As he approached death he awoke one morning with the vague remembrances of a dream. He could barely recall the dream but knew it had something to do with not being able to take any of his successes with him into the next world. The man who could control the business world suddenly realized he was not in in control of his own life. He was left with a choice. He called his attorneys, accountants, and managers and announced that he wanted to channel his assets to hospitals, research, and mission work. On that day John D. Rockefeller established his foundation. This new direction eventually led to the discovery of penicillin, cures for current strains of malaria, tuberculosis and diphtheria. The list of discoveries resulting from his choice is enormous. But perhaps the most amazing part of Rockefeller’s story is that the moment he began to give back a portion of all that he had earned, his body’s chemistry was altered so significantly that he got better. It looked as if he would die at 53 but he lived to be 98. We too need to put on new clothes Rockefeller was a devoted Christian – was a faithful member of Erie Baptist church for the rest of his life. It was when he realized that it was time for him to be a new man in Christ that he started to change. It was when he realized that being clothed in Christ, means not just putting on new clothes, it means living a new life. it means following Christ example and living Christ. There is something under the Christmas tree for all of us. The Christ that we were preparing for has come into our lives. It is time for us to know that not only did we get what we hoped for, we need to live what we hoped for. We are to live that change we were expecting. Let love be the umpire of your life Our present is a full wardrobe of love. We have the compassion, humility, kindness and patience, but love is the key to everything in Christ. The greek literally says – let love be the umpire for everything that you do. The test of living in love There is one test for your life to determine if you are living in Christ. When you are going on about the daily event in your life- can you do what you are doing and still call on the name of Jesus? The words that come out of your mouth – can you say them, and use the name of jesus in the same sentence? If not then you are still living in the old life. It is a new day… a new time….new clothes….it is time for new way of being. Let us pray……