More Than Bread

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I don't care who you are, or how little, invisible or unneeded you feel.  You are not unimportant to God.  You matter and He knows you.  Jesus  once said, "He's numbered the hairs of your head." It's not because He has a hair obsession, He has a you-obsession.  If you feel like you are living in the margins of life, He is so close. He's attracted to the margins. He lives and loves in the margins. If you are seeking Jesus, you might want to check out the margins. 

Mother Theresa described her ministry strategy as going out and looking for the dying, the cripple, the lonely, the unwanted, the unloved, "Jesus in disguise." What if Jesus in need, is actually the star that will lead us to Jesus in disguise, Immanuel God with us?

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I've been reading the Gospel Christmas stories since I was a kid (and that's a long time). I've been preaching the Gospel Christmas stories for 35+ years, the same ol stories! And yet to be honest, they never get old. What we celebrate at Christmas is so wondrously holy. And even though there isn’t a single gospel Christmas story that I haven’t heard and preached on multiple times, one of the things that I love about scripture is the way the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to speak a fresh word to us.

I'm praying the Spirit will use the story of Joseph, just an ordinary Joe, to do that for each of us.

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Our broken Christmas tree...I'm not talking about a crooked Fraser Fir; or a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We're talking genealogy; family tree. Jesus's family tree is laid out in Matthew 1:1-17. Be honest, when you read Matthew's Christmas story, you start at vs 18. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows..." If you are like me, more than once you've skipped the first 17 verses. I mean Luke has a genealogy but he doesn't lead with it, it's buried in chapter 3. Matthew goes right to it. And the people that he lists, it's a who's who of who you wouldn't expect.

But that broken Christmas tree is a promise of hope. No matter what's in your past, your past cannot steal God's future. There is hope!

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What's the message of Christmas? Back when our kids were still kids, we used to ring the Salvation Army bell together. I remember one Christmas down at the Corner Room, just watching the people go by...teenagers with shaved heads and nose rings...a yuppie
and his significant other...college students of every shape, size and color...a jogger...a few young men going into to get an early start...a younger guy who was obviously homeless... a family going in to have supper at the corner room.  

And I just thought, does God really know all those people by  name?  By heart? Do they really matter to him?  Yes. They do. People matter to God. You matter  to God. That's why God is with us. That's the promise of Christmas. I can summarize it in four words.

People matter to God.

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I wonder sometimes, if a lot of us like Christmas Jesus, more than we love grown-up Jesus? And so Christmas might be our once a year opportunity to think about this sweet cuddly baby Jesus who isn't old enough  to know our minds, or strong enough to change our ways, or holy enough to convict our hearts. But I believe that we miss the true story of Christmas, if we don't let the baby grow up!

In Psalm 23, David describes the grown-up Jesus as a Shepherd. And he declares this truth, "If the Lord is my shepherd, I will lack nothing." Now that's a counter-cultural Christmas message, but if it's true, then all I want, really want for Christmas...is Jesus. 

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Isaiah 64 is a lament. A lament is a prayer that cries out to God in desperation for His presence. It is a prayer that pounds on the locked gates of heaven. It is a prayer of deep pain, intense frustration and confusion about the absence of God.  And yet a lament is not just the hopeless cry of a discouraged people, or a frustrated venting. A lament is a profound statement of faith in God. A lament hurls it's hurt to God with the conviction of faith and the expectancy of hope that God can do something. That because God is God, all is not lost; so we need not give up. 
   
 In fact a lament is less like the surrender of hope and more like a fight with God, for more God. And, if you think about it, perhaps more than any other type of
prayer that could be associated with Christmas, a lament is a Christmas prayer!

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Christmas is a global, timeless, eternal story, but for a moment, I want to step back from that big overarching story being written through all time and space, that includes all of humanity and I want to talk about your story. Let's talk about your personal story. That's one thing I love about Christmas. When Christ was born, God got personal. And Christmas is a good time to ponder our place in God’s Christmas story.

But to do that, we have to recognize the stories we tell ourselves; that little running narrative that goes on in your mind as you go through your day. Like sometimes we look at chapters of our lives (especially the hard ones) and we begin to think,  "That’s my whole story. That’s the story of my life." And we rehearse a narrative.  In this episode, I want to talk about the stories we tell ourselves in light of the most true story of Christmas.

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It was the birth of a baby. Don't get me wrong. I love babies. But if you are going to change the world, don't send a baby. Right? Until we take into account the ripple effect. It's almost easier to watch it than it is to explain it. We’ve all done it. You’ve taken a rock and thrown it into the water and you watched the circles rippling outward from the point of impact. Long after the stone is gone from sight, the effect of its presence ripples beyond it's source. Christmas is a grand illustration of the ripple effect. Such a small beginning, but oh, what a ripple. The ripples of Christmas have continued for thousands of years. Just imagine; what if Jesus never came? 

But He did. And the ripples of heaven dropping into the ocean of earth, changed the world forever. Changed my world forever!

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Jesus the light of the world, the light of life has come! Isn't that the story of Christmas? 
But here's the most amazing part of the Christmas story of light. He invites us to join him. As I was studying Isaiah 9 this week, I had this thought. Here it is. When I think of the Isaiah's Christmas vision of Jesus. I'm reminded that Jesus is the Mighty God, and I am not. Jesus is our Prince of Peace, and you are not. Jesus is Immanuel, "God with us, we are not." Jesus is the Savior of the World, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, you, me? Nope, we are not. We're none of that.

But light of the world? Jesus is and we are. We are the light of the world. Perhaps we never get closer to Christmas than when we live as a light in the darkness. That's why I love Paul's declaration in Philippians 2 as he calls us to shine like stars in the sky!

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The ultimate goal of this podcast is that we would grow to love the one who is called the WORD of God and that as God covers us in His love, we would become a bit more like Jesus. If we keep going to scripture to listen and learn but we never lean into it. We never apply it. We never let it change us, then it’s been a colossal waste of my time and yours. But if you’re looking for some Words from God that will challenge you to change and be a bit more like Jesus, Philippians 2 is not a bad place to start. 

But be warned, being like Jesus requires surrender!