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“Christmas
Faith”
a Christmas Eve Homily
by
Thomas L. Jenkins
Text: Luke 2:1-20
“But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
My prayer for us, this evening, is that as we hear once again about the
nature of God testified to us by the gospel of Luke, that we may seek to
experience something very similar to Mary with regards to her faith,
treasuring up all which has happened and pondering what has been told to
her, in her heart.
When we look for where and what God is doing in our lives, as we seek to
understand where we are in our journey of faith, and desire to have a
true perception of the real presence of Christ in our lives, let us make
this the most important part of our lives and then let us meditate on
events of God in our lives, for the rest of our life here.
When we have silent times during a day, now and then, what a blessing it
is to sit down and remember all the times in our lives where God has
shown His presence to us in certain ways, through answering prayers that
we have had, or reached out to us and ministered to us in very difficult
times that we were going through.
God was being born into this world through the virgin birth of Mary.
Joseph was being obedient to the legal census ordered by Caesar
Augustus. And to have to
travel close to a hundred miles by walking and carrying his wife on a
donkey couldn’t have been more stressful to the two of them.
Mary was at the final time of her pregnancy and she has to pass
through deserts and wilderness on a donkey for four or five days.
How awful that must have been.
Then, when she moves into the real time of baby’s birth there is no
room for her in the local inn at Bethlehem.
Joseph has to find a place for her in a barn.
Can we even imagine the frustration and pain they must have been
experiencing?
There was no room for them in the inn, so God was born into this world
in a barn and wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger—that is a feeding
trough. There was no room
for God in the acceptable place in this world, but God found a way in.
This is true about God. And
it has similar applications in our lives.
When we are going through very difficult, painful, stressful
times in our lives, where we might not even spend the kind of time we
should with God in private prayer and fellowship, God still finds a way
into our lives even if there is not room where it might seem acceptable.
Not matter what we are going through; no matter how painful it might be,
God finds His place in our lives.
An angel then appears to some shepherds and tells them not to be afraid,
that he has a message from God for them, that their savior has been
born, he is the Christ, the one anointed and empowered by God, who is
now the Lord over all humanity. After
hearing this, they then see a chorus of angels singing for God, “Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is
pleased.
I wish I could promise us that we would all have some similar experience
in this life. But I cannot
promise that. I can promise
that when Christ comes again we will experience something ever more
impressive than this.
There is however, an application of this whole process and the nature of
God that is being revealed to us in this passage, that we may have faith
in—Christmas faith.
Let’s go back to looking at it from Mary’s experience.
These shepherds believe what they have seen and heard, take off
to Bethlehem, find Mary, Joseph and the new born baby, worship the child
and tell their story and God’s wonderful message to Mary.
Mary has been through a painful time and the blessing of having a baby. Her baby is healthy, and yet she is still in a barn.
The angel Gabriel has appeared to her and told her that she was
going to give birth to a baby conceived by the Holy Spirit.
She didn’t fully understand it.
Who could? But, she
responded to Gabriel, “I belong
to God, let it be done to me according to your word.”
Mary did not fully understand all that God was doing in her life.
But she said, understood, and believed that she belonged to God
and so whatever God wanted let God do it.
We have already seen that God found His way into this world by Mary,
even when things didn’t seem to be going the way Mary and Joseph would
have wanted them. And now, after this, God has sent the shepherds to Mary to
share with Mary more about God’s truth, God’s gospel, God’s will
in her life through Christ. And
she takes it in and treasures it in her heart….taking time to ponder
it and meditate upon it.
Here is the Christmas faith that we may truly have all year and all our
lives. As we have already heard, even in our most difficult times,
God will find a way to reach us in our lives.
And then, according to God’s timing, according to God’s plan,
according to what God knows is best for us, God will send someone into
our lives who will share even more of God’s good news as it applies to
where we are in our faith. God
will send messengers into your life who have experienced God in unique
ways, and one of the main reasons God did it in their lives was to share
it with you.
Christmas faith: take time
to look back on all God has already done in your life.
And realize by this that God loves you in Jesus Christ.
You are the child of God and the brother or sister of your
savior, Christ the Lord. And
know this, in God’s timing, no matter where you are and what you are
going through in your life; God is going to send someone into your life
to share God’s reality in such a way that it will be something you can
treasure and take into your heart to think about for years to come.
Let us pray…
Amen
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