Be the Boss of Christmas

December 17, 2017 Isaiah 61:1-11 Be the Boss of Christmas Third Sunday of Advent Children’s Sermon Light the third candle of joy – what is joy. Best joy is a surprise when you are not expecting it, when look for it, don’t find it – sneaks up on you – see joy, give joy to someone else. Isaiah 61Common English Bible (CEB) Joyful proclamations 61 The LORD God’s spirit is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners, 2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor and a day of vindication for our God, to comfort all who mourn, 3 to provide for Zion’s mourners, to give them a crown in place of ashes, oil of joy in place of mourning, a mantle of praise in place of discouragement. They will be called Oaks of Righteousness, planted by the LORD to glorify himself. 4 They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore formerly deserted places; they will renew ruined cities, places deserted in generations past. 5 Foreigners will stay and shepherd your sheep, and strangers will be your farmers and vinedressers. 6 You will be called The Priests of the LORD; Ministers of Our God, they will say about you. You will feed on the wealth of nations, and fatten[a] yourself on their riches. 7 Instead of shame, their[b] portion will be double; instead of disgrace, they will rejoice over their share. They will possess a double portion in their land; everlasting joy will be theirs. 8 I, the LORD, love justice; I hate robbery and dishonesty.[c] I will faithfully give them their wage, and make with them an enduring covenant. 9 Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their descendants among the peoples. All who see them will recognize that they are a people blessed by the LORD. 10 I surely rejoice in the LORD; my heart is joyful because of my God, because he has clothed me with clothes of victory, wrapped me in a robe of righteousness like a bridegroom in a priestly crown, and like a bride adorned in jewelry. 11 As the earth puts out its growth, and as a garden grows its seeds, so the LORD God will grow righteousness and praise before all the nations. Footnotes: a. Isaiah 61:6 Heb uncertain b. Isaiah 61:7 Or your c. Isaiah 61:8 Heb manuscripts, LXX, Syr, Tg; MT robbery with an entirely burned offering Common English Bible (CEB) Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible We all know that if you want to send a letter to Santa that you send it to the North Pole. I used to look forward to the post office keeping all of those letters and letting people come in and answer those letters and the post office would deliver the packages to children for free. Today the only post office that continues the program is the main post office in downtown Chicago. But suppose you had a serious problem and you needed to get a letter to God, where would you send it. The post office in Jerusalem reports that they get countless letters that have been addressed to God. They get so many letters, they don’t know what to do with them. One day, one of the post office employees opened one of these letters. It was a request for $250 in order to get a much needed operation. The employee shows the letter to his colleagues, and being that he was a good jew and went to synagogue every week, he told all of his colleagues – they were the people of God and God was depending on them to help the needy, so they had an obligation to help this person who asked God for help. His colleagues were luke warm on being religious, so they were luke warm in responding to the letter. He was only able to collect $198 from them. Thinking that was better than nothing, he sent it to the person in need with a letter signed God. The clerk was superexcited when he saw that the person sent a thank you note. The note said, thank you God for coming through when I needed you, but next time you send help, do not use the post office, they are a bunch of crooks. I know that you sent the full $250, but when I opened the envelope it only contained $198. The crooks at the post office stole the rest. It is important for us to realize – that we are indeed the people of God- called to serve those in need. This week I wanted us to stay with the prophecy in Isaiah. Someone gets up and announces that the spirit of the Lord is upon me to help those in need. Physical need as well as Spiritual needs. But the person can only meet those needs with the Lord’s help and the Lord’s favor. This prophecy of the one whom God sends helping others goes back to an earlier prophecy if Isaiah 42-51. This prophecy speaks of a leader chosen by God stepping up and saving the people, but sacrificing himself. This person is called the suffering servant. They call this person the messiah – the one sent by God. Isaiah 61 says that this person has been anointed by God and appointed by God to help those who are not able to help themselves. If you fast forward a few thousand years – if you read Luke 4 – Jesus stands in front of the synagogue and announces these exact words – The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This are the first words in his ministry – that he is the one they have been waiting for, he is the Lord’s anointed – the messiah. The time has come for the prophecy to be fulfilled. Today there are more than 2.2 billion people who consider themselves followers of this brave soul who stood up and fulfilled the prophecy, that is one third of all of the people on the planet. Today more than 1.6 billion people all over the world celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the most commonly celebrated holiday in the world. Many of the people who celebrate Christmas are not even Christian, but they love the holiday. I went to Thailand at the end of January, my tour guide told me to not be surprised when I still found Christmas decorations up in a primarily Buddhist country. Over 60% of all of our Christmas decorations come from one area in China. I am told that you will find Christmas decorations up all year in the Phillipines. Many people who have never seen a heavy set pale man with white hair and a beard – love Santa Claus. And they are very clear what Christmas means. But the story of Christmas does not start in a manger in Nazareth. It starts with a vision of a roman Emporer. In 300 - the emporer Constantine was not a really religious person, but his mother was a Christian. One day he is in battle and he prayed to Jesus to help him win. He promised that if he won, then he would make the whole roman empire Christian. He saw a vision that the greek letters chi and ro appeared on the sun- the first letters of Christ. He took that to mean that Christ was with him. He won the battle. In order to get the masses of people to become Christian, he took holidays that they already celebrated and made them Christian. Christmas was a secular holiday, before it become a church holiday. People celebrated the winter solstice with family time and feasting and gift giving. And all of the things we associate with Christmas. Mary named her baby Joshua – meaning God saves. The Romans named her baby Jesus. As a matter of fact, Mary’s name is Miriam. Her baby was probably born sometime between the spring and before the fall. We like to say that Jesus is the reason for the season. But in reality the winter solstice is the reason for the season. There are 24 different holidays from 7 different religions celebrated between November and January. The winter solstice is not a joke, it really affects our spirit. The church went along with the reclaiming of the holiday, because they felt it was a perfect chance for the gentiles to learn about the prophecy of Jesus the messiah. And apparently they were right. Cultures all over the world have embraced that story of a couple in Nazareth giving birth to a child in a lonely manger. Stories of that baby growing up and declaring that the spirit of the Lord was upon him have shown up in so many unexpected places. There are stories of missionaries telling tribes deep in South America about Jesus – and they exclaimed that they met that man – who came to their village to tell them that the spirit was upon him to help the needy. They had their own religious practices – but they had to follow that man. Historians have found evidence of a mysterious man traveling to the native Americans – telling them that the spirit of the Lord was upon him to help others. So when they hear the story of Jesus – they respond – they know this man. They are more than happy to follow his lead and continue his work. Leonard Sweet – a pastor says that in our lives there are actually 3 advents – the spirit of the Lord comes into the world 3 times. First at the first Christmas as a baby, second as a messiah that we recognize in our hearts, and one day he will return. So every year it is important for us to prepare for Jesus to come into our hearts in a new way, with a better understanding. Jesus comes into the world when we are able to follow his lead. We all know that there is holy Christmas within the church, and there is a secular Christmas in the world. A lot of us get mad when we see Xmas – saying that is the world trying to x Christ our of Christmas. Not realizing that in Greek, X is the first letter of Christ. It is the first letter of Constantine’s vision that the spirit of Christ would spread throughout the world. On facebook a priest talked about whether we should say merry Christmas or happy holidays. I appreciated the fact that he said that Jesus probably does not really care which one we say. Christmas is a perfect opportunity for us to introduce Christ to a whole new generation of people. It is our chance to tell the story of the prophecy fulfilled, of God coming into our lives as a little baby and spreading joy, it is a perfect road to lead them to God’s love in a way that they can understand. I think that it is nice for us to remember advent and preparing our spirits – but it is so much more important for us to get out in the world to be the boss of Christmas. That is why we sing Christmas carols – if someone who never heard of Christ can come to church and hear a familiar song – we have a chance to tell them about a man named Jesus, who was anointed and appointed to bring peace to the land. So I have a challenge for us this year – let us all be the boss of Christmas. If we believe in the story, let us not be afraid to tell the story. If we follow that strange man – let the spirit of the lord be upon us. I have flyers out there that are going to go in the recycling bin. Take one, invite someone to come to hear the story and to feel the spirit on Christmas eve. There was a lady who waited until Christmas eve to send out her Christmas cards. She was in such a hurry to get them out, she didn’t even read them. Until after she sent them. The card said – expect a gift from me soon. 49 of her friends were expecting a gift from her. That gift is the spirit of the Lord, the lord’s favor, and a man , a man named Jesus who came to save the world. Amen. Extra illustrations…. Extending Christ’s Love Some of you may be familiar with a story Fred Craddock once told about Dr. Oswald Golter. Dr. Golter was a missionary to China more than 60 years ago. After World War II he was asked to leave that country. So his missionary society wired him a ticket and Dr. Golter made his way to India to catch a ship home to America. While he was there he noticed that there were many Jews living in the area--in attics and sheds and barns. They were there because India was one of the few countries in the world that welcomed the Jews following the War. And Dr. Golter was excited to see them and went around and greeted them. It was Christmastime and he said to them “Merry Christmas to you!” And they said “We’re Jews.” “Well, I know,” said Dr. Golter, “but Merry Christmas anyway.” “I tell you,” they responded, “we’re Jews. We don’t mark Christmas.” “I know” he said, “but if you did, what would you want for Christmas?” “Well if we did,” they replied, “then we probably would want some fine German pastries.” So Dr. Golter found a shop that sold fine German pastries, cashed in his ticket home and bought up boxes and boxes of pastry. He took it back to the barns and attics and sheds and handed it out to the Jews saying, “Merry Christmas to you. Merry Christmas.” That story was told in the presence of Dr. Golter years later at a seminary where he was invited to speak. As he got up to the microphone a young seminarian stood up and said to Dr. Golter, “I can’t believe you did that. Those people aren’t Christians. They don’t even believe in Jesus Christ!” Dr. Golter nodded his head and said, “I know.” Then he added, “But I do. I do.” King Duncan, www.Sermons.com Did you catch that? Jesus left off the part about “the day of vengeance of our God . . .” Do you suppose that was an accident or could this be part of his mission to correct how humanity sees God? Could this have anything to do with the fact that Jesus taught us to call God “Daddy”? Unless you had a very warped father which does sometimes happen it’s very difficult to reconcile “Daddy” and “the vengeance of God.” Could it be that Christ’s coming was partially for the purpose of resetting our understanding of who God is? I heard about two children who were talking about the Bible. One of them was quite upset about some of the atrocities that are found in the Old Testament. The other of them, a little girl, thought for a moment and then said, “Those things must have happened before God became a Christian.” Well, in a sense, that’s true. How can you fear the vengeance of God who wraps Himself up in a babe in a manger? Our lesson for this third Sunday of Advent is from Isaiah, but our understanding of this passage is from Christ himself. We are living in the year of the Lord’s favor. We are living in the light of the star of Bethlehem. The message of Advent and Christmas is and will always be Good News for the poor, for the disadvantaged, for the marginalized, for the oppressed, for the captive in short for all humankind. A new thing came into the world with Jesus. Welcome, my friend, to the year of the Lord’s favor. And somehow, there comes a time when we know that the stories of the Bible are no more incredible than the stories of ourselves, or the stories of our fates, or the stories of our successes and failures. Either God is who he claims to be: the Creator of the Universe who won't let our world destroy itself; Father of the hopeless and the helpless and the harmless; Lover of the best that's in us, and even of our worst . . . Either God is that, as the Bible says, or we're left to other gods who are far less kind, and far more cruel. And here's the leap of faith. The angels shout the messages in the skies. But they leave it up to the shepherds to decide what to do with it. And so with us. Everyone celebrates Christmas. But not everyone celebrates it in the same way. And wherever we find ourselves connected to God in all of this, the Spirit has flown our hearts over the hurdle of unbelief, and false belief, and even misbelief, and we've found our way to Bethlehem. Harry Emerson Fosdick once said that a person's best memories, when life is closing, will be those memories of moments when we said yes to God. Maybe they'll never write a song about it, like they did when Armstrong stepped out on the surface of the moon. But my guess is that if those best memories come to you, the music in your own heart will sound an awful lot like Christmas carols. I read recently about a woman who had waited till the last minute to send Christmas cards. She rushed into a store and bought a package of 50 cards without really looking at them. Still in a big hurry she addressed 49 of the 50 and signed them without reading the message inside. On Christmas Day, when things had quieted down somewhat she chanced to run upon the leftover card and finally read the message she had sent to 49 of her friends. Much to her dismay, it read like this: "This card is just to say A little gift is on the way." Suddenly she realized that 49 of her friends were expecting a gift from her, a gift that would never come.