Today’s Scripture reading comes from Paul’s Letter to the Galatians --- Chapter 4: 4-7

“COME HOME TO A NEW CREATION”

Galatians 4:4-7

A sermon pr= eached by

Heather Spe= ncer

First Unite= d Methodist Church

Hot Springs, Arkansas

December 28= , 2008

Church, it is my testimony before you this morning that, before I went home for Christmas, I= had a perfectly good (or at least an adequate) sermon written for this Sunday – and then on the Friday night after Christmas was over (as the clock neared midnight) … I scrapped the whole thing and started writing and preparing this message that I stand before you this morning to deliver. The central message is the same, b= ut making it through Christmas this year gave me a new perspective on the message…and I want to share a little about that with you this morning.

When I tel= l you that I “Made it Through Christmas this year” – that is ex= actly what I mean. This is an odd t= hing to say about Christmas, I guess, but it is SO true for me this year. On some level in my mind, I was consciously aware that Christmas was this week. I mean, you can’t help but be= aware of that, right? – with all of the decorations, the Christmas songs playing, the sale advertisements, and the Salvation Army bell-ringers poste= d at seemingly every door of every store in town. How could anyone NOT know that Chr= istmas was this week? Right? –= And yet, despite the fact that I got dressed and ready to come to church for th= ree services on Christmas Eve, it somehow really did not occur to me that Chris= tmas was actually here until a lady said “Merry Christmas” to me rig= ht back there at that entrance to the sanctuary on Wednesday evening. When she wished me a Merry Christmas, it was like it suddenly dawned on me that it w= as Christmas! --- Somehow, in my= brain this year, it was possible for me to both consciously KNOW it was Christmas= and at the same time be totally in denial of that fact … or maybe I was s= omehow choosing to ignore and reject the fact that Christmas was already here. I don’t exactly know what al= l was going on in my brain this year, but I do know that THIS Christmas was unlike any other that I have experienced in my lifetime. I was TOTALLY Distracted this Chri= stmas – completely off-balance…I was seriously walking right in to Christmas in an absolute daze (or haze).

Many of yo= u may be aware of the fact that my father died this spring … so, this was my family’s first Christmas without dad there. And I just wonder, did anyone else= have a Christmas like this – a first (or maybe even a second, third, or thirteenth) Christmas without a certain someone that you love at the dinner table? Is there anyone else h= ere this morning who just flat-out had a hard time making it through Christmas because you were missing someone you love? Whether that person was missing bec= ause of death – or because they are serving in the military– or whet= her that someone was missing at Christmas because of broken relationships, or job duties, or because of a hospitalization… There are a whole host of reasons = why a family would going through Christmas without a beloved family member present … and when that is the case, it has the potential to leave the rest of the family feeling out-of-sync and off-balance, and without an accurate sen= se of time. Was this your experi= ence this Christmas?

I’ll tell = you what! Another thing that dist= racted me THIS Christmas holiday was all of the big, bad, ugly news about our econ= omy right now! Certainly, there were si= gns, billboards, and radio announcements galore to reminded us that “Jesus= is the Reason for the Season” – and yet this proclamation of the t= ruth was overshadowed by all of the news reports about the retailer’s cris= is, notifications of stores going out of business, announcements of manufacturi= ng plants closing down and hundreds (sometimes thousands) of people losing the= ir jobs. There may have been man= ger scenes in some store windows to remind us that the babe in the manger is wh= y we celebrate Christmas at all…but these same window displays were often overshadowed by the huge sale signs (50-80% OFF!) and they were often overs= hadowed by our excitement about the DEEP price cuts. --- Did any of you experience = this economy-related disorientation this Christmas? Did the “Reason for the Season” (Jesus Christ) somehow get lost in the shuffle this Christmas= in the midst of these desperate economic times?

And, I’m g= oing to tell you one more thing that was going on in MY world this Christmas that was distracting and disorienting me … and that was my own personal co= ming into contact with the suffering of others this holiday season. As a pastor, I come into contact wi= th the many faces of suffering in some rather intense ways week-after-week. Just in the last week-and-a-half a= lone, I sat and cried with a man who was sitting at the bedside of his dying wife – I met with a lady who came to the church for assistance with her electric bill (a lady who could neither hear nor speak) – I counseled= on the phone with a woman who is spending yet another Christmas without her son because he is in prison, and wrote a letter to her son to try and encourage= him as he faces yet another Christmas behind bars and separation from his famil= y. ---- Is there anyone else out there this morning that has been confronted w= ith the depth of human suffering this Christmas and been rattled by it? Did any of you find yourselves face-to-face with suffering this Christmas in the midst of all the merry wishes, and the caroling, and the talk of flying reindeer?

Well, that was s= ort-of a sad opening for the message this morning, and I apologize for that …= ; but I just wondered if there was anyone else out there this morning who had a h= ard time “Making it Through Christmas” this year? Really … I don’t need = to apologize for the opening to the message this morning because the struggles= I have mentioned are part of our daily human reality. I KNOW that I am not the only pers= on in this room who had a hard time making it through Christmas. Struggling, despair, loneliness, a= nd sickness … are all part of our daily lives and they seem to be magnif= ied this time of year. I KNOW tha= t I am not the only person in this room who had a hard time making it through Christmas because, statistically, this time of year (the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas) is the time of year when the suicide rate shoot= s through the roof! The holidays can be= SO TOUGH! -- It should have real= ly come as no surprise to me that I was walking right in to Christmas this yea= r in a daze!!!

Given the reality of our human condition, could any of us really expect NOT to feel disoriented and distracted - ESPECIALLY around the holidays?

With all t= hat we humans have to deal with and endure in a day’s time, it is no wonder = that we might be so distracted, exhausted, and grief-stricken that we lose track= of time – and forget (or, at least, don’t fully realize) that Christmas is here.

And here’s= a dose of irony for ya!!! --- For several WEEKS, I had been studying and reflecting upon this verse from Paul’s letter in which Paul tells his congregations that “when the fullness of time had come – God se= nt his Son into the world.” – Paul is telling them that God, the Almighty Creator of all that is, had chosen to take on flesh and to enter i= nto the created order- born as a baby boy in Bethlehem. --- I am telling you that, FOR WEEKS, I had been intensely reflecting upon = the significance of the birth of Christ and thinking through all that that birth means to each of us – still (even 2,000 years later)…and yet I walked in the doors of the church sanctuary on Christmas Eve (the night in which we celebrate the birth of Christ) and, on some level, I was totally o= blivious to the fact that Christmas was here. I was distracted and disoriented – I was overwhelmed with grief and was just going through the motions in a daze. ---

<= /span>And so, again, I just wonder whether there was anyone else who found themselves= so distracted and disoriented … so beaten-down or torn apart at Christmas this year – that it really did feel like it was all you could do just= to “make it through Christmas” this year?

<= /span>Hear the GOOD NEWS! Christmas HAS = COME … Christ HAS been born! When the fullness of time had come, God Sent His Son! God sent his Son BECAUSE of our gr= ief! God sent his Son BECAUSE of our disorientation, our despair, and our hopelessness. He sent his Son BECAUSE he knows w= hat a struggle it is to make it through the tough, emotional, and harrowing times in life.= --- At just the right time in the history of the world, God sent God’s greatest gift -- the gift of Love – His Son, Jesus Christ, to be born in Be= thlehem! That is how much God LOVES Creation! John’s gospel= tells us that, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son! And human beings are especially pr= ecious to God – because we are made in the image and likeness of God. So … when we hurt, when we s= truggle, and when we are lonely and afraid … we know that our God is a God who understands – We know that our God is a God who has felt what we feel because God entered our world and lived and suffered right alongside us = 230;

<= /span>As a matter of fact, the words “good news” don’t even begin = to cover it! This is the most am= azing, most terrific, most wonderful news in the entire history of the world. – The news that - at a specif= ic time in the world’s history, and in a specific place in our world, God intervened in human history and sent the Son to be born in a manger –= God became flesh and dwelt among us – and lived, died, and was resurrected for our sake – so that we might know exactly how loved we are!!! So that we might know exactly what= we are worth to our Father in Heaven!!! And so that we might have a light in t= he darkness…

<= /span>What I realized anew, all over again, after the hustle and bustle of Christmas D= ay was behind me = - was that it was because I DID (deep down inside – despite all the distractions) – I DID KNOW that it was Christmas … and that is = how I made it through this Christmas! Deep within me lives the conviction that Christ has been born and th= at all things are made new and that we have eternal hope in and through Christ – and it is that deep conviction within me that pulled me throughR= 30;

At Christmas, we= celebrate the birth of Christ … and it is THAT BIRTH that makes it possible for= us to make it through the Christmas season when times are tough. In the midst of grief, financial hardship, and in the face of human suffering … we who believe in Chri= st have hope and can keep our chin up because we know exactly how much God lov= es us.

The birth of Chr= ist is not only a major event in the history of the world that changed the world forever … the birth of Christ is the dawning of redeeming love on ear= th – the birth of Christ is how we know things will get better – i= t is the birth of Christ into our hearts that makes it possible for us to keep putting one foot in front of the other day after day when times are tough.<= /p>

Despair abounds = in this life, but we make it through because we have a Light up ahead of who is leading us through to the other side. We’ve got a Comforter by our side, and living within us, who l= eads us into a brighter tomorrow. = The Eternal God, our Hope and our R= efuge, has been sent into our world and, because of this action of God, we feel our worth. God has sent the Light= of the World into our midst, and that Light assures us we are not alone in our present suffering and gives us hope that things will look better in the future.

God gave us= hope in the midst of our despair –

and a light= in the midst of the darkness. –= ;

He gave us = his compassionate presence in the midst of our loneliness and isolation …=

This morning, I = am NOT distracted. I am in absolute = AWE of God’s Amazing Love shown to us in the birth of the Christ child ̷= 0; I’m AWED by God’s giving of His Son, our Savior, Jesus the Christ!

AMEN!