For those not familiar with an Anglican Service; there are four Scripture Readings before the Sermon. The Scripture Readings for this day were: Isaiah 9:2-7; Psalm 96; Titus 2: 11-14 and Luke 2: 1-20.
Can you hear it?
There is a buzz in the air.
Maybe you can feel it.
As the song states, " In the air there is a feeling of Christmas."
It permeates everything tonight...... Everything.
This is the time of year when nostalgia runs deep, and nobody dares act like Scrooge .... and complain about it.
Christmas Eve ... is indeed .... a very special time.
Barbara Brown Taylor puts it this way... she says Christmas Eve is the time ......"when the membrane between heaven and earth is so thin you can almost see through it. Tonight is the night .... we measure all time against."
The church’s sanctuary, so beautifully decorated for the season, has become a waiting room.
We find ourselves pacing the floor nervously until we get news the baby is born.
That is where we are this night.
That waiting, in itself, comes in many different forms.
Truth be told, there has not been a Christmas -- not even the first one -- that went off exactly like everyone .... had planned.
But that does not -- that cannot -- deny the heart of the story; namely, ... that on this one night, ....God chose to come .... in human flesh.
Heaven came down and glory filled our souls. (Pause)
The renowned theologian, Karl Barth, was asked to be a guest lecturer at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
At the end of a captivating closing lecture, ...... the president of the seminary announced that Dr. Barth .... was not well ....and was quite tired,
And though he thought that Dr. Barth would like to be open for questions, he should not be expected to handle the strain.
Then he said, "Therefore, I will ask just one question on behalf of all of us."
He turned to the renowned theologian .... and asked, ....."Of all the theological insights you have ever had, ..... which do you consider to be the greatest of them all?
It was the perfect question .... for a man who had written literally tens of thousands of pages of some of the most sophisticated theology ever put into
print.
The students held pencils right up against their writing pads, ready to take down verbatim .... the premier insight .... of this great theologian.
Karl Barth closed his tired eyes, and he thought for a moment, and then he half smiled, ..... opened his eyes, and said to those young Seminarians:
"The greatest theological insight that I have ever had is this: ......... "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Beloved, I submit to you that the Gospel of Jesus Christ ..... is the greatest love story .... ever written!
I wish with all my heart .... that everyone would read the Gospel in that light.
I wish with all my heart ... that everyone would know and experience the love of our Lord and Savior.
"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so."
Beloved ...... The Birth of Christ .... Christmas is a classic love story.
And in all relationships of love, there must be that first meeting.... That first encounter.
When I was a child, I remember asking "what if I had been born to another set of parents?
What would my life had been like?
Well if I had....I would never have known the love of the parents that God gave me.
I would never have known the joys and frustrations of being the older brother.
Occasionally I find myself asking those curious "what if "questions.
"What if I had gone to another college?
What if I had moved out of the state?
If I had...Lee and I .... Our lives .... might have never crossed paths... never had that first meeting...
And if not we might never have known this wonderful love we share together."
Beloved...., I submit to you, that Christmas is a crossing of paths...
Christmas is where we find the Christ of God .... intersecting with humanity!
Christmas is our first best meeting with the God who has desired us from the very beginning.
I submit to you ..... If not for Christmas we might never have known the intensity of the love .... that God has for each of us. (Pause)
Mary and Joseph, far from home, a peasant mother giving birth...
They laid him in the manger and they watched his little face, .... and they listened for his breathing, ..... just as every new parent does.
Christ was born into our world .... One who embodied this love that God has for us...
He Loves us....Not some of the time, .... Not when it is convenient, ..... but in every moment .... (Slow) of every single day...
It is the birth of that love into our world .... that we celebrate this night!
And this crossing of paths, .....this intersection of the divine and the human, .... took place in a remote, speck of a dust village .... called Bethlehem of Judea?
In that time and place ..... One would be born into our world .....that became the light of the world.
This is the night when God sent out a love letter of cosmic proportions.
This is the night .... when Christ entered the world fully God and fully human.
We find that those gathered in his name ....even us .... here tonight.... fall within the embrace of that love, A love relationship that is so powerful and so deep:
BIBLE "That neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." END Romans 8:38 (Pause)
Since September 11th, we have been speaking a lot about love and about peace, in our world, in our country and in our lives.
So many believe that true peace and true love is just over the next horizon.
In a Peanuts comic strip Lucy is speaking with Linus at the base of a hill.
She says, "Someday I am going over that hill ..... and find the answer to my dreams.... Someday I am going over that hill .... and find hope and fulfillment.
I think, ..... for me, ..... all the answers to life lie.... beyond these clouds .... and over the grassy slopes of that hill!"
Linus removes his thumb from his mouth,..... points toward the hill, .....and responds: "Perhaps there is another little kid on the other side of that hill ...... who is looking this way ..... and thinking that all the answers to life ..... lie on this side of the hill."
Lucy looks at Linus, then turns toward the hill and yells, ..... "Forget it, kid!"
Are you searching for peace?
Are you searching for love?
Does it seem like life’s answers are just out of reach, .... just over the next hill.
Let me share with you today, ......(Slow) you can find peace... true peace and love in Jesus.
He has come into our world, he has brought a Peace that the world cannot give.
A peace that passes all understanding. A peace given to you by Jesus himself.
Remember our Lords words: BIBLE "Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." END John 14:27
Jesus promises that if you will trust Him, He will give you .... A peace that cannot be taken away....A peace that passes all understanding. (Pause)
The angels declared it on that Christmas Day "Glory to God, peace on earth, good will toward men..."
I would like close by telling you a story about a nativity pageant that like life itself, did not go quite as planned...
The youth group at a certain church were performing a manger scene.
Joseph and Mary ..... and all the other characters .... were ready and in their places.
They did their parts with seriousness and commitment, ..... looking as pious as they possibly could.
And then it came time for the shepherds to enter.
Dressed in flannel bathrobes and toweled head gear, .....
The shepherds proceeded to the altar steps where Mary and Joseph looked earnestly at the straw ....Which contained a single naked light bulb that played the part of the glowing newborn Jesus.
With his back to the congregation, one of the shepherds said to the little boy playing Joseph, ...
In a very loud whisper for all the cast to hear, "Well, Joe, when you gonna pass out cigars?"
The solemn spell of that occasion was not simply broken by his remark, it exploded.
Mary and Josephs cover was completely destroyed as it became impossible to hold back the bursts of laughter.
The chief angel, standing on a chair behind them shook so hard in laughter .....
That she fell off her chair and took the curtain back drop and all the rest of the props down with her.
She just kept rolling around on the floor ... holding her stomach because she was laughing so hard.
The whole set was in shambles.
Amazingly.... The only thing that did not go to pieces .... was that light bulb in the manger. ... it never stopped shining.
My dear friends in Christ, that baby in the manger is the light of our world, ....even when our world is in shambles...
For in that baby the Divine and the human cross paths.
Jesus is our living, breathing sign of the immeasurable love that God has had for all of us from the very beginning.
Christmas is the living promise that we are never ever alone.
No matter where we are in life, No matter in what condition we find ourselves,
No matter how far we might stray, or how unfaithful we are, God in all his love, will continue to pursue!
(Slow) It is a love that never stops shining.
Amen and Amen!
Help: I retired in November 2017 and am attempting to supplement my income by sharing on Sermoncentral. If this Message has been helpful to you, please consider a nominal gift: Send to The Rev. Jeff Smead 11725 Regent Park Drive Chardon Ohio 44024. Blessed To Be A Blessing.
Dear Reader: So I can better help you, if this Message was not helpful and you rated it low, Please let me know what it lacked or why it was not helpful. You can search by contributor Smead (Constructive Criticism is very helpful) and contact me there. Blessings Jeff
