The four candles of the Advent
Wreath tell us we are under four weeks away from Christmas. During this season, called Advent, we prepare
our hearts to receive Jesus again. Every year at Christmas, we celebrate the
birth of God coming into the world in human form. We repeat the ancient story
because it never gets old. God loves us so much that God refused to stay far
away in some heavenly location. God chose to take human form and come to the
Earth to show us just how much God loves us.
Do you know, do you understand that
God sent Jesus for you? That’s what Christmas is all about. That the Christmas Miracle. Every year, as
followers of Jesus, we open ourselves up again, to make space for God’s miracle
to come into our lives.
We come to the manger, that humble
place where Jesus was born, and we join Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds and
the Magi, in being filled with awe.
What will you do to get ready? What will you do to make room for Jesus, the Miracle
and Surprise in your life for Jesus to break with a Christmas miracle?
I want to tell you a story today,
about a family who got a huge surprise from God. Zachariah and his wife
Elizabeth lived when Herod was the ruler over Judea. Zachariah was a priest. He
was doing his duties as one of the priests in his town, and his turn came to
have the honor of entering the holy of holies in the Temple. When he went in to
burn the incense, he got a big surprise. An angel came and spoke to him and
said: “You and Elizabeth are finally going to have the child you have been
waiting for all these years. She will have a son, and God is instructing you to
name the child John. John will be very special. He will herald God’s arrival in
the style and strength of Elijah, soften the hearts of parents to children, and
kindle devout understanding among hardened skeptics—he’ll get the people ready
for God.” (Luke 1:16-17).
Well, Zachariah thought that was
the craziest thing he had ever heard and he told the angel so. Because Elizabeth
was WAY too old to have a baby. The
angel of God does not take kindly to people who do not listen to God’s message.
And so the angel said to Zachariah, “Since you won’t believe, then you will not
be able to speak until the child is born.”
And sure enough, Zachariah lost his
voice. He had to use sign language to tell the people, who were impatiently
waiting for him to come out. He went home, and it was not long before Elizabeth
realized, at her very old age, that she was indeed pregnant!
God interrupted her ordinary life
with a miracle! As the story goes on,
the baby was born. Zachariah and Elizabeth say that the baby is to be named
John. This goes against tradition because there is no one names John in their
family line. Once the baby is named, Zachariah gets his voice back. God blesses
Zachariah for his faithfulness! The Angel said John becomes the one who will
prepare the way for Jesus. He is Jesus’ cousin.
Elizabeth is the cousin of Mary, the mother of Jesus. John would be John the Baptist, the one who
heralded the arrival of Jesus.
Now, what does this story tell us?
At any moment God can break into our bland, boring lives with a miracle too, do
you believe that? But we have to pay
attention. We have to be watching and waiting for the angels who may come to us
and tell us that God wants to do something for us. When Zachariah was in the
temple, he was watching and waiting for God. He was praying and he was
listening for God. Here’s the secret - We can’t hear God if we are so busy rushing
around all the time, if we are so busy that we can not make space for God.
That’s what advent is about – taking time to stop and pay attention for the
signs that Jesus wants to come into our lives.
But there is another level to the
Christmas miracle. God may just want us
to be the workers of miracles for one another. You see, we are followers of
Jesus now. We may be the only Jesus that some people see. We ARE the hands and
feet of Jesus in the world. And so God may be showing us situations where WE need
to ACT as God’s instruments of love in the world – to change the world. And in
this Christmas season – we need to pay attention to those signals too.
You see, when God sent Jesus into
the world, God was sending God’s love into the world in human form. But love
has always been in the world. God’s love is in every one of us. Each one of us
is a creation of God. God is love and God’s love is in each one of us. The
miracle is when that love breaks out, and when it grows through us and in us
and spills over into the world.
At Christmas, God feeds our natural
ability to love. Let me give you an example:
Did any of you see this picture on the internet this week? A
police officer in NY was walking on his regular beat in Times Square, and came
across a homeless man sitting on the street with no shoes. The officer,
Lawrence DePrimo, said he was wearing thick socks and boots and his feet were
cold. So he walked into the nearby shoe store and bought the homeless man some
boots and socks and gave them to him.
It just so happened that Jennifer
Foster of Florence, Ariz., was visiting Times Square with her husband. She
spotted the shoeless man asking for change. She snapped a photo of the good
deed and the thing went viral. Two million people have viewed picture on the
internet. It warmed our hearts. We want to see this kind of generosity. We want
to be like this 25 year old cop who still lives with his mom and spent $75 to
buy boots for a homeless man. Officer DePrimo said he still carries the receipt
in his bullet proof vest to remind himself of people in need. He wants to
remember that we want to help one another.
Here is another story. On Friday
night, for The Village’s monthly service project we went to Food for Thought.
Every Friday night they meet at a church in Oregon and make 350 peanut butter
and jelly sandwiches. They bag up chips and cookies and make sack lunches. Then
another group of folks goes down to a parking lot across the street from the
public library and passes them out on Saturday morning to people who are
hungry.
This was my first time to go help
on Friday night, we’ve gone many times on Saturday morning. We had 18 folks
from The Village help. The place was packed. Their web site says it usually
takes them 1 ½ to 2 hours to do the job. We were done in 45 minutes on Friday.
The leader said Friday was an anomaly. He said some weeks at 6:00 there are
four people there. They just never know how many folks will show up. He said
for us please to come back. Probably they had lots of folks because it’s
December and everyone wants to help near Christmas time. There were probably
lots of teens who needed to get in their service hours at the end of the
semester. It was a Christmas miracle. The love was everywhere. Pat said: “This
was the easiest service work I’ve ever done.” Earlier in the week she had been
teaching inner city kids how to kayak. That was not so easy.
Many people will be generous this
month. And I want to encourage you to be generous this month too. We have a
goal to raise $5000 for our “Hope for children Near and Far offering.” Our
offering will help provide job training for children at the Fairfield
Children’s Home in Zimbabwe who turn 18. Our offering will provide Christian
education for our own Village Kids right here. We have only raised $1150 toward
our goal so far, so we still have a long way to go. I hope you and your family
as you plan your Christmas gift giving are thinking about what you will give in
order to make our Christmas miracle happen right here with our offering.
As you prepare your heart to
celebrate Christmas I want you to ask yourself a question. Are you ready to
experience a miracle this Christmas? Zachariah and Elizabeth never could have
imagined that God would give them a child at their old ages. So the miracles
that God has in store for us, are probably so amazing we cannot even imagine
them. Are you open to God? Are you listening to God? Are you making space to
listen to God? Are you watching and
waiting for something wonderful and amazing that God wants to do? You just
don’t know how God might want to use you to make this world a better place for
yourself or someone else.
And when God blesses you, will you
use your gift to bless others? You see, Zachariah and Elizabeth received a
wonderful gift of a child but they had to share him with the world. They could
not keep him to themselves. God gives us many gifts, but God usually asks us to
use those gifts to bless others.
Christmas is just a little over
three weeks away. In this season of Advent, it’s our time to watch and prepare.
We just don’t know what God has in store for us. But I do know this. God’s love is coming into
our lives in a big way. God wants to bless us in a big way. And God wants us to
bless other people in a big way. The gift of Jesus is a miracle. And when we
receive Jesus he will use us to works miracles in this world. So friends, get
ready. Get ready to work some miracles. God blessed Zachariah and Elizabeth
with a miracle and God wants to do the same for us. So watch. And open
yourself. Expect God’s miracle. Be ready to be a blessing to this world, this
Christmas. It’s going to be amazing.
Amen.
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