Clearing Up The Mess!

SERMON OUTLINE:

• Mess

• Message

• Messiah

SERMON BODY:

Ill:

• A few years ago (30/1/06).

• A visitor to a British museum destroyed a set of priceless 300-year-old Chinese vases,

• The accident happened when he tripped up on his shoelace,

• The Daily Telegraph reports.

• “The three Qing vases, dating from the late 17th or early 18th century,

• Had stood on a windowsill at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge for at least 40 years.

• Their prominent position made them among its best-known artefacts,”

• The culprit, was a man called Nick Flynn in his 40s,

• Who attributed the accident to a "Norman Wisdom moment!”

• Steve Baxter, who was another visitor at the museum and saw the accident,

• And was quoted as saying:

"We watched the man fall as if in slow motion. He landed in the middle of the vases and they splintered into a million pieces." "He was still sitting there stunned when museum staff appeared. Everyone stood around in silence, as if in shock. Then the man started talking. He kept pointing to his shoelace and saying, ’There it is; that’s the culprit!’”

• TRANSITION: I have to smile at that story,

• Because I know that, that sort of thing could so easily have happened to me.

• I also like the fact he blamed something else,

• Not my fault, but my shoelaces!

• It is such a human reaction, not wanting to take the blame!

• When interviewed the museum's assistant director Margaret Greeves.

• "They are in very, very small pieces but we are determined to put them back together,"

• When I read that story, I thought to myself,

• Now there is an illustration that will help me explain the message of Christmas.

• We know that Mr. Flynn's clumsy frame was 6ft tall, and weighed 13st,

• Two thousand years ago on a hill outside Bethlehem, near Jerusalem,

• Were a bunch of ‘unmeasured shepherds.’

• How tall they were or how heavy they were we do not know,

• What we do know is that in their day and in their culture,

• Shepherds were seen in negative terms.

Ill:

• I grew up in times before political correctness,

• When we used to tell Irish jokes,

• Now this sort of thing happened all over Europe,

• The Germans told jokes about the Polish,

• Norwegians told jokes about Swedish,

• Moldovans they told jokes about the Romanians etc.

• The idea is you picked on a group or nation of people,

• And stereotype them as being stupid or thick.

• TRANSITION: Now I am glad to say that we don’t do that anymore,

• But at the time of Jesus the stereotype for humor was shepherds.

• Shepherding was a low paid job,

• And it was normally given to the runt of the family,

• Because no-one else wanted to do it!

• Shepherding meant you worked unsociable hours,

• e.g., “They were ‘keeping watch over their flocks at night’”

• Shepherds were also considered to be ‘unclean’.

• This meant that they could not go to worship at the temple

• Utley (2004) said, “The rabbis considered them to be religious outcasts,

• And their testimony was not admissible in court.”

So, for God to announce to a bunch of nobodies the birth of a somebody was big news!

Ill:

• Let’s watch (Lumo Video) & read (NIV) the narrative.

• YouTube: https://youtu.be/aj8ts15QZSU

• TRANSITION: I want to summarize the Christmas story under three simple headings.

• Based on verses 8-10 of the Shepherd narrative,

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’”

(1). The Mess.

“a Saviour has been born to you.”

• You only need a saviour, a rescuer if you are in trouble or in danger.

• i.e., No lifeboat crew ever went out on a mission,

• To rescue someone who was enjoying a nice sail on tranquil waters!

• You only need a saviour, a rescuer if you are in trouble or in danger.

Our world is in a mess…

• A few weeks ago, we had COP 26,

• Where the UK hosted the 26th UN Climate Change Conference,

• Our politicians along with the Greta Thunberg’s of the world,

• All agreed on one thing, the world needs saving!

• Professor Dame Sarah Gilbert was one of the scientists,

• One of the creators of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine,

• Warned recently that another pandemic could be more contagious and deadly than Covid.

“This will not be the last time a virus threatens our lives and our livelihoods. The truth is, the next one could be worse. It could be more contagious, or more lethal, or both.”