Conceiving a miracle
The scripture today talks about Jesus coming at a time we don’t
know, like a thief in the night, and a
lot of times we take that as “you better watch out!”, because you don’t
know when it’s coming. Like it’s a warning, like it’s a negative thing. It reminds
me of that awful song Santa Clause is coming to town. “He knows when you are sleeping, he knows
when you are awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness
sake!” and what’s the reason to be good in that song? To please Santa so that Santa
will bring gifts? So the only reason to
be good is to receive gifts? That sounds more like Old Testament theology.
Jesus brought a new covenant. He fulfilled the law. He brings forgiveness. He brings restoration.
That view of Santa in that song is not Christian. Jesus brings hope. Santa
Clause, once seen properly, is a good and powerful symbol of the Holy Spirit.
He wears red like that flame on that cross.
He comes to all the good little boys and girls and the bad ones too. He is
a symbol of unconditional love. The
coming of Santa Clause should not be a dread thing.
But what do we believe about Santa Clause and what are we
teaching. Have we confused the tradition of the church with the poem “T’was The
night before Christmas”? Let’s remember where the idea of Santa comes
from.
Do you know the story of St. Nicholas? He was a bishop of
Myra, which is a town on the Mediterranean Sea in what is now Turkey. He was an orphan and had a sizeable
inheritance from his parents. He got
word that a man in that town lost all his money. The man had three young daughters. The daughters wouldn’t be able to marry if
they didn’t have money for a dowry. If they didn’t marry, it was likely they
would have to live by working on the street.
When the first daughter came of age to be married Nicholas came and
tossed a bag of gold through the window of the man’s house. Providing enough for
a dowry. Nicholas did this when the next
two daughters came of age as well. It wasn’t
about toys and abundance. It was about
saving people from a life of suffering. It
was about compassion. It was about doing
the right thing with the gifts we already have.
As parents we let our children experience the joy of being
showered with unconditional love. We let
them experience grace and forgiveness. But
when they start to grow up, when they start come to that threshold of adulthood
and they start to figure things out, that’s when they are taught a new
lesson.
Tribal Initiation rites.
When _____________ discovered this, he told me I ruined the magic
of Christmas. And it can feel like that.
Until you mature into what God intends for us.
Just because there isn’t and actual guy that flies around in
a vehicle designed to glide across snow, visiting every house on the planet doesn’t
mean that that character doesn’t represent a truth. There is something real
that Santa represents. There is a Spirit
of God the moves people to do what is good and right. To offer unconditional
love.
So we look at the scripture today and we read about some who
are taken and some who are left behind. And that he will come at an unexpected
time. It’s not a thing of dread. It is a promise of hope. The admonition of scripture is that we should
be ready for it. We should open our
hearts and minds to the will of the Holy Spirit. We should prepare ourselves for the coming of
Christ into the world and into our lives in an unexpected and powerful
way.
Isaiah prophesied about a virgin who would give birth. Hope.
Our Christmas traditions in my family include gathering together
for a meal. And we eat the finest food. We celebrate together as we give each
other gifts. The food hasn’t always been the same. Our idea of fine food has changed
as we have had more resources available and as the ability to cook has grown in
the younger members of the family. Most
of our family traditions surrounding Christmas tend to focus on make us feel
good and comfortable. Even the act of gift giving. We take pleasure in seeing the joy on the
face of those we love when they receive a gift. But Jesus says “if you only give to those who
will repay you, what credit is that to you?” I am more than repaid when I see delight on my
child’s face. I get no credit for being generous to them. It’s a good thing but it doesn’t make me a
better person. One tradition that we
have is that we have our own advent wreath in our home. Every time we gather for lunch after church
on Sundays we light another candle on that wreath. And that focuses our attention on that baby
that we celebrate every year. We
celebrate that Jesus Christ is the center of it all.
Jesus came with a particular mission, to bring healing and
recovery of sight. We can’t forget that; we cannot ignore that during the
celebration of his birth. We ought to be
about his work. We ought to be focused on
what he came as a human being to do, because that was the beginning of his
earthly life. At Easter we talk about
his death and resurrection and what that means for our salvation, and that is
the pinnacle, the high point of the Christian year, but this is the other
one. This is the beginning of his
earthly and what he did on earth and what he set us to do after he was
gone.
We are fortunate to have been born in this place. I don’t
know if you have heard but there is a debate out there over the health care
system in the United States. You may
have even formed an opinion about the matter.
But think about this. Even if our
health care system is at its worst, would you rather trust your child’s health
care to that or to what they have in Africa? The truth is we have some of the
best health care in the world. We will
live longer. We will have food. But if
we were born in Africa it would be a different story.
Should the place of your birth determine whether you live or
die?
It doesn’t matter how good you are. It doesn’t matter how
many of the rules you follow in Africa you are more likely to die of Malaria
just because of where you were born.
What would Nicholas the bishop of Myra, The bishop who gave
his inheritance to that three young girls wouldn’t have to sell their bodies to
survive, The pastor bishop who’s legend has become the very symbol of
generosity, what would he do if he were placed in sub-Saharan Africa and saw
children dying of a preventable disease?
What would Jesus do in that place?
There are things that can be done there. Our denomination,
the United Methodist Church, is on the leading edge on the fight against
Malaria. Someone said this and I believe
this to be true. If you want to eliminate poverty in Africa, eliminate Malaria.
Sub Saharan Africa spends 12 billion a year dealing with the effects of
malaria. If we can eliminate malaria as
a problem that $12 billion gets spent in other ways, which will help to grow an
economy and advance a culture. Then a
people can begin to feed and take care of themselves.
Imagine no Malaria is the name of the initiative. Our bishop
has set a goal for the Michigan Area to raise 1.5 of the 75 million needed to
fund this initiative. That amounts to
$10 for every Methodist in the state. Why $10? $10 will purchase an insecticide
laden mosquito net or it will by 2 rounds of medication for someone diagnosed
with malaria or it will purchase 5 kits to test for malaria. In short $10 can save at least one life. Imagine no malaria will be our Christmas Eve
offering this year. We have a membership
list with 138 names on it. Look around there aren’t 138 people in the room. If
we are to reach our goal of $1,380- $10 for every member we will need to get
creative.
