MINISTER,
Rev. Thomas O. Scarborough.
Christmas
Sermon.
Zahira,
a moment ago, read us a beautiful history of Santa Claus -- a true
history of St. Nicholas.
She
said, oh, people have done strange things
to him. The poet, Clement More, gave him a red nose, and eight tiny
reindeer.
Thomas Nast,
the illustrator, made him big and fat, and gave him a red suit
trimmed with fur.
Others have given him new names
-- Belsnickle, Kris Kringle, and Santa
Claus.
These
things that have been added
to the story have little to do with what Santa Claus was really all
about.
He was a bishop of the Church, who dressed up in disguise, to give
gifts to poor children.
And he did a lot of good besides.
And
what’s really important about
him, said the story, is that he had the mind of Christ.
Because of his gentle, selfless love,
he touched the whole world.
*
* * * * * * * * *
Now
when we speak of Christmas,
many things come to mind. There are Christmas trees and Christmas
pies, and holly and ivy and Christmas crackers. And all
these things, too,
are extras
that were added to the story.
So
perhaps I can begin this morning by naming two things today that do
in fact have a lot to do with Christmas -- that are not
just extras.
One
is the tradition of giving gifts
at Christmas time. It began, in fact, with the gifts that were
presented to the Christ
child. And today,
that first Christmas reminds us that God gave us the wonderful gift
of His Son,
to save His people from their sins. The angel said to Joseph, "You
shall call His name Jesus,
because
He will save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21). Jesus
means
"the Lord saves".
So
to remind
ourselves of God's great love
on that first Christmas, we give one another gifts
at Christmas time.
A
second thing that does
belong to Christmas is going to Church.
It is a day to worship
God for His love and mercy which He revealed through Jesus Christ.
*
* * * * * * * * *
This
morning I would like to focus on just one great truth about
Christmas.
That is that our whole Christian faith
is about God’s great gift of love.
And because this was a gift,
it all starts with God
-- never with us.
The Bible says: “This
is how God showed His love
among us: He sent His one and only Son
into the world, that we might live through Him.
-- This is love.
Not that we loved God
-- but that He loved us,
and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”
(1 John 4:10).
And
the Old
Testament says -- it was the Lord
who set His love
upon us. (Deuteronomy 7:7). It started with an act of God’s love.
This
is in fact the fundamental difference between the Christian faith,
and any other religion in the world.
The whole point of the other religions is how you can please God
through your own obedience,
or reach God through your own self-realization.
Millions of people are hoping that their obedience
will tip the scales in their favour
at the Judgement Day
-- and millions of people are devoting great effort to try to
approach God through self-realization.
And
this
is the kind of teaching that caused St. Paul to say no, no, no, no --
you can’t possibly
please God through the things that you do
-- you can’t possibly
approach
Him through your own poor soul.
If
you want to please Him even through one
thing that you do,
you need to be absolutely consistent, and become a slave to the law.
And as for self-realization -- he said you can forget
it, you will never find
it, because you are starting from a position of spiritual zero.
If there is no light in your soul at the start,
as the Bible teaches us -- you are not going to get very far at all.
Don’t try
it, because you are wasting your time.
People
have a yearning
for God. They have a deep desire to worship Him and know Him. And
what the Christian faith says -- what the Bible
says -- is that God, in His love and mercy
-- took the first step.
He needed
to take the first step, for us to know Him.
And so He sent His one and only Son.
The prophet Jeremiah prophesied: “No longer
will a man teach his neighbour,
or a man his brother,
saying ‘Know the Lord.’
because they will all know
Me, from the least of them to the greatest,
says the Lord.” (Jeremiah 31:34).
*
* * * * * * * * *
Now
the Bible also makes it clear that we need to receive
the Son, Jesus Christ. If you want spiritual life -- in fact in
order to have eternal
life -- you need to respond
to God’s gift of His Son.
Last
Sunday I mentioned that I had just written up my testimony,
for our book of testimony
that we are preparing. And I would encourage you to write up your
testimony. Many of us have a break over this Christmas time -- so do
take some time to write a testimony
-- a testimony to your salvation,
or to what the Lord has done
for you in a special way
-- and you can pass that on to Glenys or Gail or Nel.
I
found it very
useful writing up mine.
I was reminded of the things that were and are of central importance
to me as a Christian. And I was reminded that I
received Christ through repentance.
In fact I experienced a deep conviction of sin
-- so much so that I had a sense of dread
before God. It was an experience beyond the normal range of human
experience.
And
that is in fact how
one receives Jesus.
That is why John the Baptist
went around before the coming of Christ, and he said: “Prepare the
way
for the Lord ... Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
(Matthew 3:3, 8).
God
sent His Son as a gift
-- and all that we need to do is receive
Him. I
don’t need to struggle to find God.
I
don’t need fight with myself to obey long lists of laws and
regulations
-- or to struggle endlessly with self-realization.
God has provided everything
through Jesus Christ, and I just need to receive
Him -- to lay my whole life before Him, and receive
Him through repentance and faith.
And
when I receive
Him, I come to know God.
I come to know His love,
and I
receive a personal love for Him.
And God’s love for me
-- and my love for God
-- fills my whole life.
It is true.
It is the experience of millions of Christians the world over.
*
* * * * * * * * *
And
the day of our salvation is only the beginning.
We need to understand the fulness and the richness of this gift.
St. Paul said, “He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up
for us all -- how will He not also, along with Him, graciously give
us all
things.”
(Romans 8:32). Another Bible version says: “Is there anything
else
He wouldn’t gladly and freely do
for us?”
When
we receive Jesus as our Saviour, we become a part of God’s loving
plan
for our lives.
We receive power from His Holy Spirit. We receive the power to
change.
We receive trust and faith for the challenges of life. We receive a
thankfulness and gladness
in our life for all God’s blessings.
We receive forgiveness and cleansing for all our sins.
The
list is a very, very long
one. We receive everything,
because God decided to give us the gift
of His Son.
It all starts
through the generosity and love of God.
The
father of John the Baptist put it beautifully in what is called
Zechariah’s song
-- and with this I close -- just a few sentences from that song,
again. He said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, for He
has come and redeemed
His people.
... He has enabled
us to serve Him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness all our days ... He has given His
people the knowledge of salvation
-- the forgiveness of their sins -- because of His tender
mercy
-- to shine
on those living in darkness, and in the shadow of death.” (Luke
1:67-80).
Another
Bible version says: “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel; He
came and set His people free.
He set the power of salvation
in the centre of our lives
... So we can worship Him without a care in the world, made holy
before Him as long as we live.
-- [We have] the forgiveness of sins, through the heartfelt mercies
of our God.
God’s sunrise has broken in upon us, shining on those in darkness,
those sitting under the shadow of death.”
I’d
like to see this service this morning not only
as a service where we hear the message of Christmas -- but a service
where we declare our worship
for God for what He has done through His generosity and love.
A service through which we declare
our gratitude
to Him -- where we come before Him as a token of our praise.
AMEN.
