Sermon Dec. 20, 2009

THE JOURNEYS OF CHRISTMAS
Sermon by Judy Turner

There are some journeys that people have made that changed history: Columbus sailed across the ocean blue in 1492. Our ancestors made journeys across oceans to settle in the new world, and changed the history of future generations. American soldiers have travelled to foreign countries and fought to depose tryants, and changed the course of history. Or, even a single person making a simple journey across town on a bus can change history . In the 1950’s in Montgomer, Alabama, African-American Rosa Parks refused to surrender her seat to a white passenger and launched the Civil Rights Movement that has changed history in this country. But the greatest journey of all was the Christmas journey, the journey from heaven to earth, from there to Bethlehem. We know the story well in its earthly version, about Mary and Joseph and angels and shepherds. We know it so well some of us have become immune to its wonder. But this morning I read to you the Christmas story, not the earthly version, but the heavenly version. It comes from the Gospel of John, the first chapter, and it begins like this:

John 1:1-5, 14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. ..vs. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only who came from the Father full of grace and truth.

Pastor Leith Anderson reflects on this passage and says, “There you have it. That is the God’s eye view of Christmas describing the most amazing journey ever taken. It was the Christmas journey, the journey from heaven to earth. 'In the beginning was the “Word', that is a name for Jesus, the Son of God who created not only this earth and the universe, but heaven. He built heaven: 'through him all things were made.' Heaven was his home. He owned it. It is a perfect place, more magnificent than all the stars on a cloudless night, more magnificent than the most beautiful sunrise or sunset you have ever seen, or the most beautiful music you have ever heard, happier than the happiest days that any of us have experienced in all of life. That was home for Jesus, the Word. But the Christmas journey brought him from there to here. 'The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.' He moved to our world. He was born to one of us human beings, in one of our stables, in one of our villages, right here on earth."

Pastor Anderson continues and tells about visiting Manila in the Philippines and being taken to a garbage dump where thousands of people live. Shacks are constructed out of things other people have thrown away, and their children are sent out early every morning to scavenge for food out of other people’s garbage, so they can have family meals. People have been born there on the garbage dump, had their children, finished out their lives and died there without going any place else, even the city of Manila. Appalling! But what truly astonished Pastor Anderson was that there are Americans who also live on the garbage dump. They are American missionaries, Christians who have chosen to leave this country and go there to communicate the love of Jesus Christ to people who otherwise would never hear it or receive it. That is amazing! People would leave what we have to go and live on a garbage dump. Amazing, but not as amazing as the journey Jesus made from heaven to earth.

Jesus, the Son of God made that journey , and he knew what he was doing. He knew where he was going. He knew what the sacrifice would be. He journeyed from heaven to earth with the mission to save us, to rescue human beings from destruction. For the human beings he created in love had turned against God. Sin had entered the world, and like a cancer was destroying everybody and everything. But Jesus came to turn it around, to make it possible for us to turn back to God and be restored in His love, and then to become people through whom He could work to restore the entire creation. What an incredible choice Jesus made. I think if God had a consultant who was a modern business person, probably the advice would be to cut his losses and forget about this human race and start over someplace else. Except God so loved the world and us in it that he sent his One and Only Son from heaven to earth. And the good news is that God still so loves this broken, war-torn, environmentally devastated, unjust world as much today as the day Jesus came to die for it.

But what does that have to do with you and me and our busy, stressful, complicated, sometimes wonderful lives?

1. Jesus wants to be with us, wherever we are.
It tells us that Jesus is willing to come wherever we are to be with us. He wants to come right into the middle of the mess where we live. As a child I knew when company was coming. I did not like company the signs of company coming. My mother would get this stressed look on her face, out would come the vacuum cleaner and the mop, and I would try to find somewhere else to be because I knew she would get me involved in cleaning house for company. Or, I would try to talk my way out of the chores, saying, “We don’t want to be hypocrites, do we? We want them to think we live like this, everything clean and straightened up?” But I never prevailed and always was involved in the frenzy of cleaning the house for company. And now, well, if company is coming, out comes the vacuum cleaner and the mop. I have a different perspective on it now.

But sometimes we apply that kind of thinking to our spiritual lives, and that is a problem. We hold God at a distance, thinking that when we clean up our lives, then we’ll be ready or worthy to have Jesus come closer. When we get things straightened out and are less confused, then we’ll be ready for Jesus. When things settle down and we don’t have so much on our plate, then we’ll have room for Jesus. When we overcome our resentment, or heal from our grief, then Jesus can come. But the problem is that time never comes, and we push God further and further away, and we miss the love, the power, the healing that could be ours if we just humbly open wide the door of our hearts and say, “It’s a mess, Lord, but come in. I need you so much.” The message of the amazing Christmas journey is that God loves us so much, He wants to come right into the middle of our mess, our sadness, our struggles. He knows we can’t fix it, clean it up, heal, in our own power. He wants to come and do what only He can do.

2. Jesus will help us make whatever hard journey we need to make, whatever is our part in becoming whole and becoming the people we were created to be.
The hardest journey for us can be just a walk across a room to talk to someone we are alienated from, with the hope of restoring a broken friendship. The hardest journey can be going to fill out another job application, when we’ve been turned down so many times. The hardest journey can be taking a step we know God is inviting us to take, and we may even really want to take that step. But it’s a step into the unknown, and it’s so scarey. The hardest journey can be starting a conversation about Christ with someone whose heart is hard against God, but we know desperately needs God. What the amazing Christmas journey means is Jesus will take that step with us. He will give us the power to do the hard things that can make all the difference. He is absolutely committee to our having a full and abundant life, and He will help us make the journeys necessary to get there.

3. Jesus will lead us on our spiritual journeys home to God.
Whether we know it or not, we are on a spiritual journey. Each and every one of us, day by day in our minds and hearts and choices and actions are either moving toward God or away from God. If we have asked Christ into our lives, then our ultimate goal is oneness with Christ. Incredible as that seems, despite our failures and sins and detours, by the grace of God and by our repenting and continuing to say “yes” to God, we are getting there. As the scripture says, “Degree by degree we are being transformed into the image of Christ.” If we have not asked Jesus into our lives, what better day than today to discover what it means that Jesus came to make His home with us, so we can be at home forever with God. What better day than today to decide for God, to say “yes” to God, to take that next step on your spiritual journey?