Jesus born at K-Mart

Luke 2:1-14(15-20)

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for see-- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"

I have to admit that I love Christmas. Christmas is one of my favorite times of year. Not because of all the gifts and cards and chocolate cookies that get baked this time of year. I love Christmas because at this time of year everyone seems to be just a little bit nicer, a little bit smile-ier, a little bit more hopeful. We get into the Christmas Spirit this time of year…

I was reading about the Layaway Angels online the other day. In case you haven’t heard about this there are a number of people who have been going around to department stores, particularly K-Marts, and paying off the lay away balance on people’s accounts in time for Christmas. I don’t me just paying off a dollar or two here I mean paying in-full the entire account.

From the Daily Mail Online:

A Californian man is the latest layaway angel to embrace the spirit of Christmas charity by paying off $16,000 still owed to one shop for presents.

David Wilson, a car dealer from Laguna Beach, contacted the K-Mart in Costa Mesa…he asked the manager to tally up the balances on all the accounts with balances of $100 or less, then wrote a check for $15,919.61 to pay off the whole lot. The manager of the Costa Mesa K-Mart, Tricia Lawrence, then spent the whole weekend calling customers to let them know that they could come in and collect their presents.

‘The funniest thing is that I haven’t been called a liar so often in my life,’ she said…
Read more:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077521/Christmas-layaway-angel-David-Wilson-pays-16k-accounts-K-Mart-store.html#ixzz1hTMXbxHh

We don’t often expect miracles, or random acts of kindness but at Christmas we don the spirit of possibility. This weekend people all over the world will hear the Christmas story once again, a story in which angels brought “good news of great joy” to a young woman, her betrothed, her cousin’s husband, and some shepherds. They will listen once more to the song of the angels and the greetings of the Wise Men.

The story of that night became far more than a story. For over 2000 years many have been inspired to live and walk in the light of that story and its subject, Jesus: “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” [From John 1]

What Jesus’s birth reminds us is that God’s messengers are everywhere, in everyone who lives the message of the Jesus story, in anyone who finds a way to make light shine in the darkness.

Christmas reminds us why God came to us as a child weak and helpless. Because as we go through our regular everyday lives we don’t look for random acts of kindness, we don’t expect miracles but God reminds us that the best miracles, the greatest joy, the lights that shine brightest in the darkness are the ones unexpected. There is so much for us to be cynical and sad about in our world right about now; the economy, our job security, the environment, political gridlock, famine, war, heartache, broken relationships, loss…the list goes on and on. But at Christmas in the Child of Bethlehem we recognize God’s greatest miracle.

A few weeks ago one of our kids here asked me “Why did God come as a baby?” And I have to admit that I was at a loss for words for a little while. I could explain the incarnation and all that goes with it theologically but how do you make all that make sense for a 4 year old? So I said “God comes as a baby because everyone loves babies.”

And therein lies and eternal truth: God came as a baby because we love babies and needed a bundled miracle.

How many of you have held a new born baby? Whether it’s your child, grandchild, Godchild or a stranger’s baby you know the feeling you get when you hold a new born baby in your arms for the first time. They are so tiny, so frail, so fragile. But in that little squirming tangle of feet and fingers is a world of possibility, a long road ahead that is turned towards hope and love. You can’t help but smile when you hold a new born baby. You’ve been there, you know what I’m talking about. I remember holding my oldest niece for the first time. She was born premature and she was tiny. I was almost afraid to hold her in case I did something to hurt her. But once that little bundle found the nook of my arm it was over; your heart races, your breath quickens and smile breaks across your face because in that little tiny child is all the possibility in the world. I have seen the biggest, burliest of men reduced to tears the moment you put a baby in their hands.

As weak and helpless as they maybe, babies how the power of miracle; the power of possibility. That is why God came to us as a child, that is why we needed a savior that shared our life and our world because in a child we see possibility, we see hope, we see love made real. The coming of Christ into the world announces the wonderful news that God loves each one of us as if there were only one of us to love.

There is indeed something special about this season and how it inspires people to do good, to help others, to care for the poor, the weak and the sick. It is the season when we acknowledge that God draws near to the earth to be with and for all of us. It is the season when perhaps we understand most clearly that we are the new messengers, living God’s story in home and school, in work and world. Even at the layaway counter in K-Mart.

In that child of Bethlehem we are told in no uncertain terms that miracles happen! That God loves us deeply and dearly! That Christmas is not just a moment in time a few millennia ago but every day we draw breath. Christmas doesn’t end tomorrow. Christmas doesn’t end with Epiphany, or Lent, or Easter; Christmas is God’s continuing gift of God’s presence with us, and Christmas is our challenge to prepare room in our hearts, and in our lives.

And do you know why? Because as much as we hear about taking Christ out of Christmas what’s important is that Christ can’t take YOU out of Christmas… you are the reason there IS a Christmas- you’re the reason that Jesus was sent here the first place- because of God’s great love for you…because of God’s love for US! “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son!” For God so loved each one of us… because God loved, Jesus came to earth- bringing with him the foundations of everything he knows- love, joy, hope… and possibility.

And truly I tell you- that God loves you so very much- that tonight, and tomorrow and every single day that you are willing, (and even when you’re not willing…) when you’re singing carols, or heading back to work, or just watching the game you will be reminded that in you God sees infinite possibility and tremendous hope.

So as we pack up our ornaments for another year, fill the garage with boxes labeled “Christmas,” think about how your life in January and February can continue the work of Christmas. As you pull the tinsel off the tree and put away the Frosty the Snowman videos, imagine who is lost, who is hungry, who needs peace in March and April. When the shepherds are back with their flock in the box, remember their surprise and joy, and find someplace to offer the song of the angels to someone who needs it in June. As Santa Claus makes his way back to the North Pole, think of how you can carry the giving of Christmas to those in need of Christmas miracles in July and August. Christ is the Christmas baby for all seasons in you.

As Howard Thurman puts it this way in his poem “The Work of Christmas”:

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost,
To heal the broken,
To feed the hungry,
To release the prisoner,
To rebuild the nations,
To bring peace among brothers,
To make music in the heart.

So just remember…if we can find the love of God’s birth at the layaway counter in K-Mart how much more can it be found in you? Merry Christmas! Amen.

A Case for waiting for Christmas...

Since late September retail shops and department stores have been fahlalalalahing towards Christmas. The Christmas trees, the lights, the ornaments seemed to appear much earlier than usual this year. Even the city I live in, Brighton MI, has already put up their holiday décor along the highways and byways of the city. So ready or not here comes Christmas!

But I would make a case why we as people of faith should wait; why we should put the brakes on the mad dash towards Christmas. Yes I know this is not exactly the most popular of ideas, and I know it’s not going to catch on too soon, but I am an avid believer in keeping Advent the season of light, hope but more of all anticipation.

So here is my case for waiting for Christmas…

1. Anticipation is a good thing. Do you remember what it was like to be a child waiting for a birthday or family visit of Christmas? Your heart pounding, you palms sweating, bouncing off the walls waiting for the right moment. There was something exciting in being a child waiting to see what would come. For Christmas to have any real meaning in our lives we need a good dose of that excitement. The birth of Jesus for us should be a looked-for thing not a mad dash of shopping and busy-making. In Jesus’ birth we see the anticipation of Mary, the angels, the shepherds. We are called to join them in the longing and waiting.

2. In an era of instant everything being able to wait is a blessing. We live in an instant society; instant messaging, texting, fast food, and coffee just to name a few. We loathe having to wait on anything, we want it and we want it now! But the birth of any child involves waiting (ask any mom if you doubt me). No matter how anticipated, needed or wanted the Christ Child was Mary still had to be patient throughout the nine months leading up to his birth. Can we in our modern instant culture learn a lesson from first century peasant girl about the value of waiting…if only for a few weeks?

3. We lose something in jumping to quickly into Christmas. Scarcely had the candy been put away from Halloween before “Forsty the snow man” took up residence in department stores this year (actually his eyes of coal and carrot nose were showing up well before Halloween but who am I to judge). I think we lose something in jumping to quickly to Christmas because we tarnish the luster of the season if we run to it too soon. The lights aren’t as sparkly and the tinsel not as tinselly if we put them up in early September. Don’t get me wrong I LOVE Christmas music and the spirit that the season brings but if we point too much and too quickly to that season by the time Christmas rolls around most of us will be Bahumbuging rather than Merry Christmas-ing.

So in the end this year I plan on holding off on Christmas, at least for a little while. I plan on keeping Advent, spending time with Mary and Joseph and the unborn Jesus. I plan on anticipating and waiting and enjoying the journey because I know that in the end Christ will be born once again into our world and I don’t want to be so burnt out on Christmas that I miss him. 

Meditation: Christmas in October?

Christmas has come early…or so it would seem. It seems as though every year Christmas come earlier and earlier. I walked into a store a few days ago to the sight of Christmas trees, lights and brightly colored presents. I honestly thought I had stepped into a Christmas wonderland, all that was needed was a guy in a red suit, some pointy eared elves and carols.

I have to wonder what it means that in the middle of October, well before Halloween and Thanksgiving, our culture has rushed on to Christmas. Do we really care as a society about the meaning of Christmas or has it simply become a commercial holiday?

The temptation for many us as people of faith is to join in the cultural rush towards Christmas. We can quickly be deemed "Grinch" if we don't follow behind the march towards Christmas trees and glitter. But what do we lose? I think we lose the tremendous meaning of Christmas; we cheapen the fact that the Creator of the Universe, the One who spun the planets and gave color to daisies deemed us worthy of becoming one of us. To me that is an awesome feeling that God chose to spend time in our shoes, coming as a child.

What we are called to do is to wait. We live in a society of instant everything, but the message of the church is to wait. There is something special about the anticipation of what is to come, and that is part of the allure of Christmas.

How will you hold off the onset of Christmas this year? How will you live in that place of waiting and hoping and longing for the coming of God in Christ? How we answer these questions will make all the difference in our lives and in our world.

Prayer

Gracious and Holy God, I know you come among me in the helpless and the lonely; grant that I may see you present in our world not only in the journey towards Christmas but in every journey. May IO see in the face of others your face and may my actions be guided and directed solely by you. I make my prayer in the name of Jesus your child our Savior. Amen.