Live (December 27th)
Luke 2:45 – 11
1.) How many of you have a Christmas tree up in your house? How is your tree decorated? Do you put the same things on your tree each year? Do you add to your decorations? Do you do something different each year?
In looking on the internet about the history of the Christmas tree I discovered a variety of different traditions. One symbolism of the “evergreen” tree is that is never loses its needles, it is always green. That truth reminds us of the “everlasting” life of Jesus Christ. Was that a new truth to you? It seems that most people have trees and each person might have their own understanding of why we put the tree up at Christmas.
I want to thank Johnny and Jenn Karch for creating this tree and the decorations.
We are going to look at Luke 2:10 and 11 and each section of the scripture will be a different ornament. So we are going to put ornaments on this tree. I will need 8 people to place the ornaments on. So, let’s begin decorating with our scripture verses.
2.) “I Bring You.” This ornament reminds us that God is the initiator of love. God’s grace comes to us, we don’t seek God first, God seeks us. God starts, initiates and sees that grace comes to us.
“Good News.” This ornament tells us that God is in the Good News business. We never have to wonder about the news that comes from God. God does not condemn us, though God does allow us to experience guilt when we mess up. God will show us good news if we look for it. We enjoy good news and are glad when we can hear good news, not bad news.
“Of Great Joy.” This ornament reminds us that joy is not based on a happy feeling. We have the promise and assurance that God is with us. The days after Christmas might be days when happy feelings subside, emotions are low. This is normal when it comes to our experience. But joy is a quality that will last, and great joy is something that carries you a long time.
“That Will Be For All People.” This ornament reminds us that each person in this place is given a gift. God does not exclude anyone. Though we live in a world that excludes people based on all sorts of categories God does not exclude.
“Today.” This ornament reminds us of the wonderful gift of time we are given. We have this moment, today, to be fully alive. We no longer live in the past and the future has not been given to us. We have today. We need to seize it and live it. We might struggle with our past and we might be concerned about our future but we have today.
“A Savior.” This ornament reminds us that we need help, we need salvation, we need wholeness, we need grace, we need love, we need peace, we need joy, we need a Savior. We are sinners and need, as Rick Warren shared in the Purpose of Christmas, “to be saved from our past, for the future, by His grace.” This is a vital truth to hold in our heart.
“Has Been Born To You.” This ornament reminds us that God’s gift of love comes as a baby. We hold this truth and sing about the child born long ago for us. Our name is written on the gift of love.
“Christ the Lord.” This ornament tells us that Messiah, the one who was prophesied in ancient times has been born. His name is Jesus Christ. The Alpha and Omega, the King of Kings, the Lord of lords, Almighty God. Christ the Lord!
3.) Those are some great decorations! As you look at each of those ornaments which one is the one that catches your attention? Which one is inviting you to take a closer look and hold it in your heart? Focus on one of those ornaments today. Write that phrase or word down on the paper ornament. Share with the person next to you which phrase seems to speak to you most. (Have people share. Then go down the list and ask people to raise their ornament if that particular phrase spoke to them. Then ask the people which ornament do you think those who are not worshipping would need most in their lives?)
Relax and listen to two stories that happened.
4.) History records for us an interesting footnote. It was during the dark winter of 1864. At Petersburg, Virginia, the Confederate army of Robert E. Lee faced the Union divisions of General Ulysses S. Grant. The war was now three and a half years old and the glorious charge had long since given way to the muck and mud of trench warfare.
Late one evening one of Lee’s generals, Major General George Pickett, received word that his wife had given birth to a beautiful baby boy. Up and down the line the Southerners began building huge bonfires in celebration of the event. These fires did not go unnoticed in the Northern camps and soon a nervous Grant sent out a reconnaissance patrol to see what was going on.
The scouts returned with the message that Pickett had had a son and these were celebratory fires. It so happened that Grant and Pickett had been contemporaries at West Point and knew one another well, so to honor the occasion Grant, too, ordered that bonfires should be built.
What a peculiar night it was. For miles on both sides of the lines fires burned. No shots fired. No yelling back and forth. No war fought. Only light, celebrating the birth of a child. But it didn’t last forever. Soon the fires burned down and once again the darkness took over. The darkness of the night and the darkness of war.
The good news of Christmas is that in the midst of a great darkness there came a light, and the darkness was not able to overcome the light. It was not just a temporary flicker. It was an eternal flame. We need to remember that. There are times, in the events of the world and in the events of our own personal lives, that we feel that the light of the world will be snuffed out. But the Christmas story affirms that whatever happens, the light still shines. (Staff Writers, Sermons.com.)
6.) “For the Man Who Hated Christmas” by Nancy W. Gavin
It’s just a small, white envelope stuck among the branches of our Christmas tree. No name, no identification, no inscription. It has peeked through the branches of our tree for the past ten years or so.
It all began because my husband Mike hated Christmas–oh, not the true meaning of Christmas, but the commercial aspects of it–overspending… the frantic running around at the last minute to get a tie for Uncle Harry and the dusting powder for Grandma—the gifts given in desperation because you couldn’t think of anything else.
Knowing he felt this way, I decided one year to bypass the usual shirts, sweaters, ties and so forth. I reached for something special just for Mike. The inspiration came in an unusual way.
Our son Kevin, who was 12 that year, was wrestling at the junior level at the school he attended; and shortly before Christmas, there was a non-league match against a team sponsored by an inner-city church. These youngsters, dressed in sneakers so ragged that shoestrings seemed to be the only thing holding them together, presented a sharp contrast to our boys in their spiffy blue and gold uniforms and sparkling new wrestling shoes. As the match began, I was alarmed to see that the other team was wrestling without headgear, a kind of light helmet designed to protect a wrestler’s ears.
It was a luxury the ragtag team obviously could not afford. Well, we ended up walloping them. We took every weight class. And as each of their boys got up from the mat, he swaggered around in his tatters with false bravado, a kind of street pride that couldn’t acknowledge defeat.
Mike, seated beside me, shook his head sadly, “I wish just one of them could have won,” he said. “They have a lot of potential, but losing like this could take the heart right out of them.” Mike loved kids – all kids – and he knew them, having coached little league football, baseball and lacrosse. That’s when the idea for his present came. That afternoon, I went to a local sporting goods store and bought an assortment of wrestling headgear and shoes and sent them anonymously to the inner-city church.
On Christmas Eve, I placed the envelope on the tree, the note inside telling Mike what I had done and that this was his gift from me. His smile was the brightest thing about Christmas that year and in succeeding years. For each Christmas, I followed the tradition–one year sending a group of mentally handicapped youngsters to a hockey game, another year a check to a pair of elderly brothers whose home had burned to the ground the week before Christmas, and on and on.
The envelope became the highlight of our Christmas. It was always the last thing opened on Christmas morning and our children, ignoring their new toys, would stand with wide-eyed anticipation as their dad lifted the envelope from the tree to reveal its contents.
As the children grew, the toys gave way to more practical presents, but the envelope never lost its allure. The story doesn’t end there.
You see, we lost Mike last year due to dreaded cancer. When Christmas rolled around, I was still so wrapped in grief that I barely got the tree up. But Christmas Eve found me placing an envelope on the tree, and in the morning, it was joined by three more.
Each of our children, unbeknownst to the others, had placed an envelope on the tree for their dad. The tradition has grown and someday will expand even further with our grandchildren standing to take down the envelope.
Mike’s spirit, like the Christmas spirit will always be with us.
(This true story was originally published in the December 14, 1982 issue of Woman’s Day magazine. It was the first place winner of all the entries in the magazine’s “My Most Moving Holiday Tradition.”)
