I was preaching last Sunday, and the following is an adapted (and shortened!) version of the sermon I preached:
Christmas. As you will know, my advent series on my blog has meant that I had been very consciously waiting for it, and then it finally came - it happened, with all its promised excitement and joy, and then it finished. But can that really be it? All done and dusted? Christmas "over-and-out" for another year? Christmas day to me means waking up and getting excited - realising that there is something special about this day; it means exchanging gifts that bring joy and show that someone cares for you and you for them - using giving as a means of loving; and them it means going to church, being in God's family, where the gift is his love, shown through his people and poured out through their hearts. Christmas is all about that love. There is no way that God could show his love for us more than by making himself a powerless and vulnerable baby boy who would have a true experience of human lie and would die a terrible experience of human death. Death that would give us life, even though we definitely didn't deserve it. And that story lasts so much longer than one day, just for Christmas! That story has lasted over 2000 years and it's still going strong! And it's still very much needed too. In Colossians 3.14-15 Paul says, "Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which you were indeed called in the one body." Paul lists many virtues in the preceding verses; compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness... but then says that they are all bound together in love. And he follows that with this statement on PEACE. Peace is so desperately needed in our world. The terrors we have seen in recent months; countries against countries, groups of people against other groups of people, religions against religions; and so many people - so many lives - caught up in the middle of it. But we are called to let the peace of Christ lead us; guide us; decide what we choose to do in relation to other people. Of course, living in peace doesn't mean that the differences which often end up causing conflicts immediately disappear. But what it does mean is that, as Christians, we should love others and work together with them , despite their differences to us. Such love is not a feeling, but a decision to meet others' needs. If God loves us so much that he would come down to earth for us, even though compared to him, we were vile, that should give us the power and the confidence to love others too, though they may be different to us as well. Clothing ourselves in the love of God leads to peace between people, because it shows us that love is more important than the differences. Love is bigger. When we look around us at all the things going on in this world; the many conflicts I alluded to above; the flooding, here in our own country, as well as other natural disasters around the world, climate change becoming evermore prevalent; people dying from curable diseases that their countries can't afford to make available to them; and poverty preventing so many families from the security and safety of a home, food to eat, heat to keep warm by. I don't know about you, but when I think about it all, I cannot come up with a way to solve the problems. It's like this; as you know, I went paint-balling for the first time with some friends of mine recently, and I loved it! But I remember this one moment, just before I got shot in the leg 3 times. And I was standing behind a tree, looking forward, where what I was aiming for was behind a little house-style wall. But there was someone crouching in the window, firing at me too. And then someone else started firing at me from the right. And I couldn't be behind the tree in both directions, but there was nowhere else to go and nothing else to do. And I wasn't scared of being hit; that had happened many times already - there was a little sting but it didn't hurt that much! And yet my heart was beating with adrenaline because I couldn't work out a way to get out of this situation. I couldn't think of any way to change what was going to happen. I had no control. And when I look at the world sometimes, I get that feeling but so much stronger. I want to change it. I want to stop the conflicts, and the poverty, and the injustice, and the hatred, and the pain and the suffering. And I look up to God and I say, "HOW?! How do I change the world?" Because I can't think of anything. And I sink down as if I'm behind that tree, my heart pounding, scared that I'll never work it out; that I can't change anything. But I do not need to be afraid. Because God is a loving God, and God is a surprising God. The God who gave himself to die for me, is the God who will save the world again. The God who chose to interact with the world through all the people we remembered through Advent, will go on interacting through the people who follow him in this world. And the God of all hope and joy and peace and love will not abandon the world he came and died to save. People have often talked about the real meaning of Christmas, but this is the real application of Christmas. If we believe that God came down to earth because of his great love for us, then we must become carriers of that love to this hurting world. Christmas means that there is hope. That even if we feel pinned behind a tree, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for the inevitable, God is beside us, as if from nowhere and, surprising us as always, he finds a way to bring love and peace and joy to that situation too. It often seems hopeless, but so did that stable-cave with nowhere clean to lay the baby. So did the search for a child, in a city (Luke 2.41-52). So did Jesus, dying on a cross, blood dripping from the thorns in his head and a spear thrust in his side. But God was born, and God was found, and God rose again. All because of his love. So we are to bring that love into the hurt and horrors of the world - because his love changes hopeless situations and his love will change the world. So Christmas day may have been and gone for another year. But it does not end there; the Christmas story goes on and on; as long as there are people with God's love in their hearts, there will come peace, there will come joy, no matter how hopeless is may seem now. For love is more important. Love is bigger. Love binds all things together.
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AuthorI'm a recent Cambridge Theology graduate now studying for a Masters in Biblical Studies and blogging about all sorts of things! I'm interested in faith, Church, theology, social action, the great outdoors and being creative, and all of those things - along with many more - come through in my posts!
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