Christmas Reflections

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Last night I was with a family from Living Word. As I was talking with the father, their daughter texted him with a question about a physics problem from her high school physics class. The father and I pondered the question together. Since I have a degree in physics dating back to my 1970s college years, I thought about the problem but couldn’t come up with the correct answer.

Her father, who didn’t have a degree in physics, but uses basic physics principles and formulas in his job, came up with the correct answer quickly.

I am reminded of the similarities between this experience and the Christian life. There are some people who were immersed in the Christian faith years ago but haven’t practiced the faith on a regular basis in their adult years – just like my experience with physics. Then there are people who have practiced their Christian faith over the years on a regular basis – they are like the father who had the ready answer for his daughter’s physics question.

Past knowledge of the Bible is a great thing, but ongoing experience with the Scriptures, with prayer, with worship and with the Sacraments is an even more valuable tool. When the challenging questions of life present themselves, the person who has an ongoing relationship with God is in many ways more prepared to answer life’s questions and deal with life’s experiences that the person who has lost touch with his/her faith over the years.

This Christmas we are reminded that Jesus was born for all of us – those who are regular in the practice of their faith as well as those who haven’t been close to God or frequent in worship. The Good News is that Jesus is God in the flesh who died on Calvary for all people regardless of Bible reading habits, worship participation, communion attendance, or prayer activity. We are saved by God’s grace through our faith in Jesus Christ, not by anything else.

This Christmas there will be worshipers among us who are regular in worship and there will be worshipers among us who may not have been in church since December 24, 2010! We celebrate together the great gift that God has given us in His Son Jesus Christ. And we pray that the Holy Spirit will touch them in a way that encourages them to be more active in their faith life so that when they face the tough questions in life, they would be prepared to give an appropriate answer.

Remember: Our Christmas Eve worship services are at 4:00, 6:00, and 10:00 pm. Our Christmas Day worship service is at 10:00 am. Sometimes Christmas Day tends to be overlooked as a worship option. I would encourage you to consider it as one of your Christmas options this year. It is a very quiet and reflective service filled with the joy of Jesus Christ!

Mulligans

Golfers are familiar with the term ‘Mulligan.’ It refers to a shot that is replayed when the original shot was not so good. Though mulligans are not approved for serious golf, such as tournaments and outings, they are quite common among friendly play. I’ve been known to take a mulligan or two from time to time on the golf course.

Last night (Dec 7) I preached a sermon on Simeon’s prayer that I would like to have a mulligan for. The sermon was long on illustration and short on substance. If fact, when LuJean and I were talking about it later that night, we agreed that the children’s message about God keeping his promises had more meaning to it than the sermon.

No doubt there are times when each of us would enjoy having a mulligan in life. There are those moments that we would like to have back. There are those moments when a ‘do over’ would be beneficial.

The good news is that God does something wonderful for us through the cross of Christ: God forgives those regrettable moments.

And sometimes God even gives us a chance for a ‘do over’ in life.

I may re-preach last night’s sermon on a future occasion. There are a number of things I would like to say about God’s love for us in Jesus Christ that didn’t get said. There are a number of points I would like to make about the life of Jesus that Simeon held in his arms – points that didn’t get made. But, whether or not I ever re-preach last night’s sermon, I know that I will preach again. And I will learn from last night and strive to do better next time.

Such is the blessing of forgiveness in Christ - the past is erased as though it never happened!

Such is the blessing of a mulligan – it is an opportunity to do better with the next shot!

Please join me in prayer: Gracious Father, thank you for forgiving the wrong in our lives and for the opportunity to improve upon the past. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Advent Lessons from an Apple Tree and a U2 Singer

An Apple Tree: Gladys has always had a little apple orchard at her home. But this year there was a huge harvest of apples. The branches hung heavy, and some were cracking with the weight of abundance. Never, in many years, had anyone seen such a harvest.

When asked why, she explained that last year there was a late frost in the spring, and all the buds froze. When that happens, Gladys said, an apple tree does a miraculous thing: It stores up its energy in thousands of small bumps, or nodules, called scions (pronounced "see-ons"). All that energy pulsates through that network of scions until the spring of the following year, and then, BAM! You have an exploding riot of buds, as an apple tree unleashes all that stored up energy.

In a spiritual sense, sometimes the harsh frosts of this life—cancer, divorce, bankruptcy, trauma, grief, depression—cause our hearts to freeze. But at the core of the Christian faith we also live with an incredible promise: in and through Christ, there will be an abundant harvest in our lives. God's power is pulsating under the gnarly bark of this world and even our bodies.

A U2 Singer: After returning home from a long tour, Bono, the lead singer for U2, returned to Dublin and attended a Christmas Eve service. At some point in that service, Bono grasped the truth at the heart of the Christmas story: in Jesus, God became a human being. With tears streaming down his face, Bono realized,

The idea that God, if there is a force of Love and Logic in the universe, that it would seek to explain itself is amazing enough. That it would seek to explain itself by becoming a child born in poverty … and straw, a child, I just thought, "Wow!" Just the poetry … I saw the genius of picking a particular point in time and deciding to turn on this … Love needs to find a form, intimacy needs to be whispered … Love has to become an action or something concrete. It would have to happen. There must be an incarnation. Love must be made flesh.

Both illustrations are adapted from “PreachingToday.com. The first is from Keith Mannes, Highland Church, McBain, Michigan and the second is Quoted in Matt Woodley, The Gospel of Matthew: God With Us (InterVarsity Press, 2011), p. 28-29