WHY WE NEED CHRISTMAS

Sermon Summary (12/24/) “Why We Need Christmas” (Lk 2:1-15)

I’m going to begin by answering the title question, “Why we need Christmas?”  Normally, you would have to wait at least half way through the message to get the answer, but the answer is so important, I’m going to give it to you now.  Here it is: “We need Christmas because Jesus is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart.” (repeat)

Why do we miss that? Why do we not see that? We cannot see the need for Jesus until we see ourselves, until we see our human condition.

People in New York City cannot imagine how a 13 year old stabbed and killed a beautiful young college freshmen, Tessa Majors.  How can one of their own, a 13 year old take a life.  Do you suppose he had gone to church? Had been in Sunday School since a young age? That his friends had learned right and wrong from the stories of Jesus?  Probably not.

As I was writing this, I received a call from a friend asking how I was doing?  He knows that Christmas is a difficult time for those in grief and that Jesus is the only answer to my deepest longings.  I thank my God for the caller.

You see, the Christmas story really begins in Genesis, in the garden, with the giving of free will.  God gave us the ability to choose and instructions and a conscience to know right from wrong, but it is the human condition that even when we know things that cause harm to ourselves or others, we choose to do the harmful thing anyway. 

Jesus, in the story of the Good Shepherd, tells us that there are false shepherds, imposters that care only for themselves.  But Jesus is the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep.  Jesus concludes by saying, “I come that you have life and it to the full.”  Other translations say, “life and it abundantly.”  Isn’t that what we want for our children, our grandchildren, “live abundantly”? 

John Wesley was asked, “How do we avoid the wrath to come?”  I had always thought of “the wrath to come” as the judgment, but there is “wrath” in this life, too.  John Wesley gathered those followers of Jesus into small groups to look over one another in love who would ask “how is it with your soul” and “what temptations have you faced and how have you dealt with them?”  And he gave them three rules to follow: “First do no harm (it is almost impossible to undo the consequences of harm.  You can be forgiven, yes, but the consequences remain).  Second, to good.  And third, stay in love with God (pray, read the bible, worship God.) 

We read in the papers every day of shattering actions that crush our Christmases because of bad choices.  Isn’t the gift of good choices the very best gift we can give ourselves, our children and our grandchildren.  “I come that you have life and it abundantly.”  Jesus is the answer to the deepest longings of the human heart in this world and the next.

We need to hear the angels proclaim the “Good news of Great Joy.”  We need to believe the shepherds.  We need to say, “Yes,” and to unwrap the gift of Christmas.  Jesus is the answer to our deepest longings.