ITSS CHRISTMAS EVE 1998 & 2018 Micah 5:2-5a
I.
ITSS A.
There I was – “What should I preach about this year – What would be really meaningful?”
B.
Then, a little voice whispered in my ear, 1.
“ITSS”
2.
ITSS? Do you mean, “KISS, Keep it simple stupid?” I said back to the voice I was hearing.
3.
“No!!” said the voice. “I – T- S – S.”
4.
I-T-S-S… What’s that stand for?
5.
“It’s the story stupid.” -- ITSS
6.
“Oh, I get it – It’s the story.”
II. What we really come for on Christmas Eve is the story. A.
The story of a world waiting and hoping and expecting a messiah to come and rescue them from a world of pain and suffering.
B.
The story of how God entered our world.
C.
That’s what the people really come for – the story.
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III. So, what’s so special about this story? A.
Is it just a fanciful fairytale about miracles and angels? Something the Grimm brothers would have concocted?
B.
Is it an adventure story? – Like Raiders of the Lost Arc?
C.
1.
Adversity and
2.
danger and
3.
great escapes
Or something more like a daytime soap opera with a young pregnant girl traveling with an older man who swears he’s not to blame.
IV. Well, it is the story of a young couple overcoming overwhelming odds. A.
Alienated from society because of an unexplainable pregnancy. 1.
You can hear Mary trying to explain it to her Dad. “But Daddy really -- God did it! – You gotta believe me.”
2.
Do you think you could have passed that story off on your parents. 2
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3. B.
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How many people buy it now?
It’s a story of a young couple who are forced to leave their home and travel a great distance on foot; mind you there is no donkey mentioned in the scriptures. 1.
They were forced to take this journey by the 1st century equivalent of the IRS; just to go fill out some stupid papers.
2.
That sounds like a government bureaucracy. Yes, somethings never change, except that this government bureaucracy also included an occupying foreign army.
C.
It’s a story of a young couple who in the final hours of a pregnancy in a faraway town can’t even find a place to stay.
D.
Then – if things hadn’t gone bad enough, she goes into labor in a barn
E.
1.
full of animals
2.
full of bacteria,
3.
and stench and … well if you’ve been in a barn you can guess what else.
You can hear Joseph – “Ah Mary do you have to do it now?” 3
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F.
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And then – if things aren’t bad enough -they find out that the King – THE KING for heaven’s sake -- is out to get them and kill the baby because he thinks their new baby is going to overthrow him. Something to do with a star report. [Mind you that back in 1998 when I first delivered this sermon, that was a side reference to Ken Star’s report on President Clinton. I suppose now it would be the Mueller Report, but that really wouldn’t make any sense in this sermon, so --- anyway back to the sermon.]
G. Now this young couple, they can’t even go back home – H.
They’ve got to escape like wanted criminals into a foreign land, like refugees escaping violence and death threats in their homeland.
I.
What a bummer. Too bad there’s nothing in our contemporary world to relate to this.
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V. It’s also a story of miracles A.
B.
To start with there’s the conception – 1.
What’s a good hero if he’s not born of a virgin.
2.
Jesus had Hercules to contend with.
3.
Years earlier, Hercules was born of a virgin, impregnated by Zeus and declared a Son of God. So, the Greeks and the Romans in the region believed this story a bit easier than the Jews who really didn’t have any virgin births in their religious stories.
4.
If Jesus was to compete with good ole’ Herc, and, for that matter, with the Roman Emperor, who was also called the Son of God, he better have the right credentials.
5.
Of course, as we well know, the evangelists Luke and Matthew, writing to a Hellenistic audience, sensitive to this issue, were kind enough to give those credentials to Jesus.
Then there’s the angels – glor…..ia. 1.
Angels, angels everywhere.
2.
Today we’d be taking about an alien invasion.
3.
The X-files or the Black Mirror would have a special Christmas Program. 5
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C.
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Then there’s the miracle of the birth – 1.
That Jesus survived a brutal journey and a birth in an un-sanitized barn; that alone was a miracle. You would think that the Son of God would a least get a private birthing room.
2.
And then, that the entire cosmos conspired to advertise his birth to a paranoid murderous king by providing him with a special star; that didn’t make it any easier.
VI. But this is not a story to be ridiculed or poohpoohed, because it is a story that reminds us of some of those times in our own lives that have seemed rather miraculous. A.
B.
Times when messengers from God have come to us. 1.
Perhaps in the form of a stranger, or scarier yet – in the form of your in-laws.
2.
Yup – Got to remember the Bible even tells us that God once spoke through the mouth of a jack ass.
3.
Angels, God’s messengers, come in all shapes and sizes.
The story reminds us of the kinds of things that have happened in our lives that could 6
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only have happened because of God’s love and involvement.
VII. This story is also special because it is a story of hope. A.
We get involved in the story and we hope for the survival of this little family.
B.
We hope that Herod won’t kill the child.
C.
We hope that this child will survive and lead us to a new and better world.
D.
We hope that this person will be able to show us a love so profound and deep that it will last an eternity.
VIII. It’s a story of promises fulfilled. A.
From the prophets Isaiah & Micah we hear promises of God’s love and salvation. 1.
God will send us a messiah
2.
A new ruler
3.
A savior
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B.
C.
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In the birth of Jesus we have: 1.
Promises of God’s Love Revealed
2.
Promises of God’s Love Incarnated; embodied in Jesus.
3.
Promises of the rebirth of God’s love in our lives made real.
So, we come to hear the promises made to us and to see again and again how God fulfilled them.
IX. We come again and again for the story. A.
The same OLD story year after year.
B.
What is so special about this story? 1.
Whether the fantastic details are factual or not, the story radiates truth and profundity.
2.
The story reveals and rekindles in us the knowledge that God is with us. - Emmanuel
3.
That God does save us. – as the name Jesus connotes.
4.
That God has not left us alone to float aimlessly in a massive cosmic abyss but has come into our lives and is here to stay.
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X. The Christmas story is not some insignificant yarn. No, NO, NO. The Christmas story is at the very foundation of our faith. A.
It calls us 1.
From our busy-ness
2.
From our lethargy
3.
From our ordinariness
4.
It calls us from what might otherwise be an insignificant life buried beneath the weight of eons of time and lost in the immensity of an infinite cosmos.
B.
It calls us to believe – TO BELIEVE.
C.
The Christmas story calls us to believe in a God who cares about us. For this is the very foundation of our faith, that through Jesus we know – we know -there is a God, and God does love us.
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D.
It doesn’t just call us to believe in some Cosmic Entity – some First Cause – some pantheistic conglomeration of all that is.
E.
It calls us to believe in a God who cares for us so much that this God found a way to enter our lives and communicate that love to us.
XI. The Christmas Story tells it all. A.
The creation
B.
The love
C.
The salvation
XII. And so, I learned with some humility; A.
that it’s not to hear my pontificating, that you come.
B.
It’s not for my profound words of wisdom that you are here.
C.
Nope! God lowered me from the heights of my bloated ego and informed me that, on Christmas Eve, “It’s the story stupid. It’s the story.” Joy to the World – God loves us! AMEN. 10
