Christmas is Not Your Birthday 2. Giving Up On Perfect

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday: 2. Giving Up On Perfect

The Church of the Wayfarer

Norm Mowery, Pastor

December 8, 2013

     Luke 1:26-38

                Clay Berling has a sense of humor. In an effort a little more laughter he sent these epitaphs. He says that they are from actual tombstones.

Harry Edsel Smith

Looked up the elevator shaft to see if the

car was on the way down. It was.

In a Thurmont, Maryland, cemetery:

Here lies an Atheist, all dressed up

and no place to go.

Here lies Johnny Yeast.

Pardon him for not rising.

In a Uniontown, Pennsylvania, cemetery:

Here lies the body of Jonathan Blake,

stepped on the gas instead of the brake.

          I cannot begin the message today without reflecting on the life of Nelson Mandela, the iconic anti-apartheid leader and political prisoner who rose to the presidency of South Africa.

          I could give a whole message on his life but let me share a few of his quotes.

            “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

          “To be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.”

          “After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb.”

           “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.”

          “If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner.”

         

          And, a quote from Mandela’s jailer: “He was my prisoner, but he was my father.”

          It is amazing how the world has changed in our life time because of one person. Mandela may not have been perfect but he brought about powerful change.

          Let’s talk about change.

          I became aware of the fast pace of change in our world this past Friday when I saw a Tesla car parked outside of one of the finest hotels here in Carmel. A yellow electrical cord was strung from a hotel window, across the side walk to the opposite side of the car to charge it.

          I wonder. Will we soon have charging stations outside all hotels?

          Tesla’s are not perfect but they are bringing change to automobiles.

          Charles Kettering said, “The world hates change, yet it is the only thing that has brought progress.”

          Christmas traditions are changing, too.

          Some stores were open on Thanksgiving this year.

          I wonder when stores will start staying open on Christmas?

          I am aware of how my Christmas’s are changing.

          I don’t send near as many cards as I use to.

                   I wonder—will we soon be sending only email greetings?

          I don’t buy as many gifts as I use to.

                   I wonder—will we soon only be giving gift cards?

         

          The message today is: It is okay to give up on having a perfect Christmas.

          Christmas may have brought the unexpected to your life this year. But even in the midst of the unexpected, God shows up.

          Sickness, death, divorce, unemployment.

          Life gets messy. 

          In the midst of your mess, God shows up!

          No matter what you are struggling to overcome,

                   no matter what life issues have come our way,

                   God promises to show up.

          Christmas is God’s vivid reminder that amid the uncertainty,

                   God shows up to bring you peace purpose, joy, hope and wholeness.

          Your Christmas this year might not be perfect but Jesus birth was not a perfect experience for Mary either.

          Jesus was born in a stable.     

          Wherever there are animals there is dung. I know that first hand.

          And where there is dung, there are flies.

          Walking in the way of Jesus is neither safe nor predictable.

          Sometimes we have the idea that when we do right,

                   wrong is not supposed to show up.

          And if we are faithfully following Jesus,

                   then life isn’t supposed to get messy, but it does.

          The Gospel of Luke wants us to know how complicated Mary’s situation was. How emotionally prepared would a twelve to fifteen year old be for this life experience? No wonder the angel said to Mary, “Do not be afraid.”

          We have to understand the Immanuel event in the context of what Mary was experiencing at that moment.

          Miracles never happen outside the context of mystery and mess. The miracle of the incarnation was no exception.

          That is why it was important for the angel to say to Mary, “The Lord is with you.”

          The first premise of faith—

                             knowing that God is with you,

                             that you are favored,

                             and that God is the pursuer in the relationship,

                             regardless of circumstance—

                   begins right here.

          In our non-perfect world

                    In our non-perfect Christmas’s

                    We remember that God not only came to us but also is still here.

          Like Mary we are favored but not perfect.

          God’s favor cannot be earned.

                    God comes when we are doing everything wrong.

                    God comes when we are doing nothing.   

                    God comes whether we are being naughty or nice.

          Why?

                    Because God loves us and we are highly favored!—

                             Even as our children are highly favored by us as parents.

                    You are highly favored by God because you are God’s.

          But that does not mean bad things will never happen.

          God’s love and favor on us don’t mean that the path of faith is going to be neat and predictable. Bad things happen to good people.

          As I was writing this sermon I got the call from Jackie Wendland that Mark was in ICU. I was devastated. He’s my golfing buddy—one of my best friends.

          Good people go through pain.

          Nowhere does the Bible promise that a life of faith will always make sense or follow a predictable path.

          I have often wondered why God entrusted Mary with the responsibility of being the mother of the Savior of the world. She was an immature adolescent who would have probably failed a Bible exam.

          So why did God choose Mary? 

                    I believe that it is because Mary had proactive faith.

          A person with proactive faith doesn’t live in the paralysis of doubt and disillusionment.

          Instead, a person with proactive faith actively pursues God’s purpose and presence in the midst of any situation, even when doing so doesn’t make sense.

          I must admit that doubt is a reality for me at times.

                    What about you?

          I know that I am not alone in this.

          Mother Teresa’s decades-long battle with feeling God’s absence gives me hope. She spoke of the ‘darkness of faith,” referring to the almost forty-decade period of her ministry during which she felt an absence of God’s presence.

          At one point she said, “The silence and the emptiness is so great that I look and do not see, listen and do not hear.”

          God came to earth as a baby who was thrust into the experience of the oppressed refugees of the world.

          God came as the victim, not the victor, fully identifying with the marginalized—

          the child sold into slavery, the person in a concentration camp, the child infected with HIV, and the orphan in Darfur.

          Christmas is the story of this vulnerable God-turned man, who became a refugee in Africa.

          And God continues to show up in such places of pain.

          God never intended for you to handle life’s unexpected turns by yourself. The life of faith is developed and encouraged within the context of community.

          God shows up and speaks to us through others who have experienced similar struggles and come out on the other side.

          Life doesn’t always make sense.

          God uses our painful experiences to become the seed of hope for someone else’s miracle.

          Why did God choose Mary to be the mother of Jesus? Because God knew that even when life didn’t make sense, Mary would choose to continue to serve God.

          Last month was quite a month for me. It was difficult.

                   I made the decision to retire.

                   We made two round trips to Pennsylvania.

                   My mother died.

          There are all major life events.

          Through it all I am amazed at the peace I felt and I’m grateful for so much support.

          So when Christmas comes around during an imperfect season of life, and you just don’t feel like celebrating, remember:

          it’s not your birthday;

                    it’s Jesus birthday,

          and by celebrating Christmas,

                   we are celebrating someone else who suffered, too.

          Life is not about staying safe and living comfortably. The call to follow Jesus is a call to give your life to him—to join God’s mission.

          We were never promised a reward in this life.

          The real rewards are found in the joy and peace that we experience through serving others.

          Even in the midst of the unexpected, the messy, and the devastating, you can still fully expect God to show up.

          No matter what you are struggling to overcome God promises to show up.       This is truly what Christmas is all about:

                   in the midst of all our messes

          —poverty, genocide, environmental disasters, wars, terrorism, religious hate and bigotry, divorce, cancer and yes, even death—

          God shows up.

         

          Many of us are so stressed by trying to

                    --live right, eat right, think right, act right, speak right, parent right, exercise right, look right—trying to be perfect—

          that we've forgotten the joy of Christmas.

         
          'God is with us' means precisely what it says—that God has become part of the human family, warts and all ....
          We may well not be pimps or prostitutes,

                   or social outcasts or murderers,

                   but each of us is a tangle of ambiguity,

sometimes good, sometimes bad,

sometimes kind, sometimes mean,

sometimes faithful, sometimes faithless—

          and sometimes, perhaps, even wondering if the Christmas story is really true.

          A soldier was concluding sentry duty on Christmas morning in bombed out London when he came upon an orphanage. The soldier went inside just as the children were tumbling out of their beds. He noticed a little fellow standing alone in the corner so he approached the lad and asked, "And you, little guy, what do you want for Christmas?" The lad replied, "Will you hold me?"

          The soldier, with tears in his eyes, picked up the boy, nestled him in his arms, and held him close.

          Emmanuel means "God is with us." God is with us with open arms telling us that it is okay to give up on being perfect.

                                                          Prayer
          Compassionate God, as the days are getting shorter, we wait for the One who will come and redeem us. As we live in the joy of this season we remember there are also many for whom the holiday season isn’t one of good cheer.
          We pray for those who cannot see the light in the darkness, that they would find hope in the promise of the Christ child.

          We pray for those who grieve this Advent season, fearing the first Christmas after losing a beloved one, that they would know your comfort and find hope in the promise of the resurrection.

          We pray for those who struggle to feel joy because they’re mired in mounting bills and in despair for lack of employment, that they would have faith that you will provide.
          We pray for our military families whose tables have an empty seat this Christmas, that they would rely on you for strength and protection.
          We pray for those whose family dynamics make holidays not a time of festive joy but of stress and anger.

          We pray that through your grace, hearts can be softened, old hurts can be released and a door might be opened to reconciliation.

          We pray for Mark and Jackie Wendland and Bob and Nancy Schwartz.
          We lift our joys and give over our concerns, those we have spoken and those in our hearts, to your tender care. Amen.