 |
 |
||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
January 2005
February 2005
March 2005
April 2005
May 2005
June 2005
July 2005
August 2005
September 2005
October 2005
November 2005
December 2005
|
Christmas Eve In the Name of our new born savior, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen! On this holy night, we begin our celebration of another Christmas. But as we do, I would like to invite you to think back through the years - and think about the most memorable Christmas that you can ever remember. What made it special for you? Was it because you had a big planned reunion which you had been getting ready for weeks? Was it because you received a big or expensive gift that you had set your heart on? What made the most memorable Christmas that you ever had REALLY special for you?! If any of you are like me (and I feel that many of you are in this respect), what made your most memorable Christmas special was because you encountered an UNEXPECTED joy! Something that you had not planned on! Something which was a total surprise! Perhaps it was the arrival of someone whom you had not at all expected to see. Perhaps it was receiving a gift which you had never dared to even dream about. Perhaps your most special Christmas was at a time when you were very poor or very lonely, and someone came and unexpectedly blessed you with his or her friendship and help. Or on the other hand, perhaps it was YOU who was able to give someone unexpected joy....and their joy became YOURS as well! UNEXPECTED JOY!! TOTALLY UNEXPECTED JOY!! This would probably be a good title for that first Christmas! Because the circumstances were certainly not conducive for ANY kind of joy at all! The people in Bethlehem at that time were feeling anything but joyful as they were forced to register for the Roman census and pay their taxes. The regular inhabitants of that town surely were frustrated from having to put up with the occupying Roman soldiers and hearing the constant and continual complaints of the hordes of visitors. There was no joy in Mudville... and certainly none in that little town of Bethlehem during that first Christmas! There also was little joy surrounding the birth of Jesus himself. Joseph as an anxious father must have been beside himself with worry. And Mary, a young woman of probably no more than fifteen years of age, had to give birth in circumstances which today would be regarded as intolerable! She had no friends and family around to support her. Her "labor and delivery" room was a cave which housed cattle and donkeys. The place was filled with ripe odors which would make just about anyone gag! It was cold. There were no anesthestics. She gave birth in the dead of night, in thick darkness. And once Jesus was born, there was nothing to clothe him with except some strips of cloth...and no place to lay him except in an animal feeding trough. I can imagine both Mary and Joseph thinking..."This isn't the way it is supposed to be!" Both had separately seen angelic visions that this new born child was to be the Messiah who would save his people from their sins...and that he would be great, and would be called the Son of the Most High, and that the Lord God would give to him the throne of his ancestor David, and that he would reign over the house of Jacob forever, and that of his kingdom there would be no end! But now these visions and the great promises which were proclaimed in them seemed far away indeed. Instead, there was no room in the inn! Mother and child were having to cope with terrible circumstances that bordered on intolerable. And no one was there to help support Joseph, who surely was STRESSED OUT from bearing all of the weight of responsibility to provide for his wife to be and her baby - and obviously not doing a very good job of it! Next, the Christmas story shifts to some shepherds in the fields just outside of Bethlehem. They also were not feeling very joyful. To begin with, they were COLD - the temperature drops dramatically at night in that semi-desert region. They were also coping with poverty - shepherds never had much wealth. They were scorned by and avoided by other more "respectable" citizens. To put it bluntly, they were like HOMELESS people whom we sometimes encounter...shabby, smelly, ill-dressed, destitute, and social outcasts. It was to these shepherds that God's angels came to announce the birth of Jesus Christ. Why them? Perhaps because Jesus as the Messiah was the "Son of David"...and DAVID himself had started out in life as a shepherd! But whatever, suddenly, UNEXPECTEDLY..."out of the blue" (or "out of the night"!) these poor shepherds were filled with great joy!! The angels' announcement was God's great surprise to them! Next, they went to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger. In turn, these shepherds became a source of UNEXPECTED JOY to Mary and Joseph! For God used THEM to show Mary and Joseph that His promises were true! Who would ever have thought that SHEPHERDS of all people would be the ones to gladden the hearts of Jesus' mother and adopted father? Think of times in your own lives when God has given you JOY in unexpected ways. Perhaps it was not through a vision of angels from heaven. But perhaps it WAS when someone came to you just at the moment when you needed it most. Or perhaps it was when YOU were able to help someone in a special way. In these and other ways, the drama of that first Christmas is reenacted again and again. Somehow, God comes into our lives even during the worst of times and shows His love. Know that He is with us - perhaps not in the great and spectacular ways we would expect, but He is with us in the little ways, the humble ways,...yes, the unexpected ways! Friends, this is what Christmas is about! For the birth of Jesus means that God has completely become a part of our world. He is EMMANUEL - God with us! He is with us still if we will only open our eyes and hearts to see. Even in the humblest of circumstances - even in the midst of stress, worry, and depression (as the Holy Family and the shepherds certainly were), GOD IS THERE and will give us joy if we will but receive it! We are never alone! We are never forsaken! Through Jesus, God says to each of us; "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age!" "Lo, I am with you not only during the fun and happy times, I am with you ALWAYS!" "Even in a dirty, smelly, stable! Even in the sheep fields in the middle of a cold night." "Even during your most difficult and most lonely circumstances." Through the infant Jesus, God says to each of us, "This is my love for you forever!" This, my Christian friends, is what gives us JOY! Unexpected, perhaps, but real and everlasting JOY!!" May we take the JOY of this holy night into whatever may be awaiting us in the days and weeks ahead. Merry Christmas, everyone! Amen! -------------------- George R. Karres, Pella Lutheran Church 418 W. Main Street Sidney, MT 59270
|
||||
