Christmas Eve 2020

Well, good evening and Merry Christmas.

Welcome to Orchard Hill's socially distanced Christmas Eve services.

That's something I didn't think I would ever say, but there have been a lot of things this year that probably many of us didn't think would happen or we didn't think that we would say.

In fact, if I were to ask you tonight, what word would you use to describe the last year?

What word would you choose?

Now, there's one that's way too easy, or maybe three or four, but it's the same idea.

If you said virus or corona or pandemic, okay, let's take that one off the table.

It's a little too easy.

I want you to pick something that's a little more personal, something that speaks more to your experience of the last year.

I saw an article, and the article asked this question, and it gave some of the answers of the readers.

Some of the readers said that what they felt this last year was an incredible sense of loss.

Some of them it was one small loss after another after another, and for some it was a large loss.

Another thing that some people felt was the sense of chaos.

Some people talked about the year being relentless, some talked about it being surreal, some talked about it being exhausting.

I know for me, one of the words that I thought of when I heard that question was the idea of it being frustrating.

Or the way that I had some just internal sadness during this year.

But there's one word that I didn't see in this list, and I don't know if you would feel this, but I would guess that many people have had the emotion of fear during the last year.

Maybe we haven't spoken about it, and maybe it wasn't a fear of your own personal health, but maybe it was a fear of a global economy and how that would impact you, or the loss of a job, or personal income, or maybe the health of a loved one.

But my guess is there's been fear for at least some of us here.

And certainly part of the Christmas story is this account of the angel coming to the shepherd to announce Jesus' birth and saying the words that are enshrined in music and Christmas plays over and over, and it's these words don't be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy.

Today in the city of David, a Savior's been born to you.

And what Luke does in chapter 2, verse 10, where he gives us these words, is he records for all posterity this idea that the angel says that being afraid is unnecessary because of Jesus' birth.

Now, I don't know how that strikes you, but if I were an angel, uh shepherd in some foreign land in a middle of a desert, and some divine being appears to me, I'd probably think, I have good reason to be afraid.

But it wasn't just that moment that gave the shepherds reason to be afraid.

They also had reason to be afraid because in their culture, in their day, they lived with violence, they lived with injustice.

They experienced the abuse of power and oppression.

You see, their world doesn't sound all that different from some of the world that we experience.

And it hasn't just been the coronavirus over the last year.

There were racial tensions, there were political tensions, there were economic tremors, there were all of these things that could lead us to say, this is a world in which I have good reason to be afraid.

So how does a baby that was born some 2,000 years ago never commanded an army, never wrote a book, never attended a university, how does that baby make it so that you and I don't need to be afraid?

Well, some have taken this and they've said, well, we have kind of a guarantee from God, kind of this idea almost in a sentimental sense, that we don't need to be afraid because God has said, you don't need to be afraid.

And what people will do is they'll say something like this, and that is there's 365 times in the Bible where we're told not to be afraid.

That's one time for every day, so you don't need to be afraid.

It will all work out.

God's got this.

You ever hear anybody say this kind of thing?

And I'm not saying it's not true, but what I'm saying is that it isn't always helpful because even if you say there's one for every day of the year, you know, and I know that there are some things that happen that are really hard.

And you have reason to say, I'm concerned about this, I'm not comfortable with this direction.

And I think we need to have a corollary to do not be afraid.

This is mine, this isn't in the Bible, this is for free tonight.

And that is don't be stupid.

Because sometimes people will use this idea of don't be afraid as a license to do all kinds of dumb things.

I mean, you wouldn't say God's got this, I'm gonna swim in shark-infested waters.

We would say to you, don't be stupid, don't jump into shark-infested waters.

For some people, it isn't so much this sentimental idea that it will all work out.

For other people, it's this miraculous idea of saying, if I believe, if I trust enough, then God will do something on my behalf and my circumstances will work out.

But the problem with this again is that sometimes if we read our Bible, it has a habit of confronting some of our ideas in such a way that we may turn around and say, this idea may not be right.

In Hebrews chapter 11, where we read about all of these great moments of faith where people had faith and God did miraculous things, and you'd expect it to build to a crescendo, but instead, let me read to you how the chapter actually ends.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

This is Hebrews 11, verse 36, and following.

Hebrews 11:36

It says, Some faced jeers and flogging and even chains and imprisonment.

They were put to death by stoning, they were sawed into, they were killed by the sword, they went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, mistreated.

The world was not worthy of them.

They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the grounds.

These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised.

Do you see what that says?

Not that everyone who believes gets everything, but sometimes people believe and they don't get exactly what they had hoped for, and yet their faith is commended.

Now, I'm guessing some of you are saying, this is not encouraging for Christmas.

I was hoping you'd just say, don't be afraid, it will all work out.

But I want you to see that ultimately what the Bible does is something much more profound, much better than simply giving us a sentimental or a hope-filled kind of miraculous idea that we know full well isn't a guarantee.

And for some of us, maybe it isn't this sentimental idea or this kind of miraculous idea.

For some of us, our uh our issue is just simply living in a world in which we say, I prefer not to think about it.

I prefer just to live my life here and now and not think about all of the hard things, difficult things that could go wrong.

And I'm just going to get out of my life all that I can right here and now.

And so we're busy thinking about next year and thinking about the vacation we can take, the acquisition that we can make, the experience we can have.

Maybe we're thinking about the show we might be able to find and binge watch on Netflix, or how our football team will do at the end of the year.

Or maybe we've got some some grand hope about spending some time with somebody and watching Netflix and chilling with them and think that that will make us happy.

And what we're doing when we go down this path is what we're we're doing is we're saying, I just don't want to think about the bad things that can happen.

I'm just going to embrace the here and now.

But what this year has done for most of us is it's poked a little hole in that veneer.

And it's told us that there are things beyond our control that can take our lives and take them in a direction we don't want.

And this is an experience that many of us had this year, but every year some of us have it.

Because there are different moments, different experiences that we all have that bring this about.

And so here's why I say that the Bible is actually more real and much more assuring than simply these kinds of answers for fear, not.

Because the Bible speaks about something much grander that's going on than Jesus' birth.

The Bible doesn't begin with a birth of Jesus in some distant land.

It begins with creation and God creating Adam and Eve and their decision to eat from the tree in the middle of the garden that was forbidden leads to what uh theologians have called the fall.

In other words, humanity, people entered into sin, and it was the serpent in the garden that tempted them and led them toward it.

And throughout the pages of the Bible, you see this clash between the serpent, or it's named in different ways, and then you come to the end of the Bible in Revelation chapter 12, and we see this battle again, but this time the image is a little different.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

Here's what we see in Roman, or in Revelation chapter 12, verse 1.

Revelation 12:1

It says, A great sign appeared in heaven, and a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of 12 stars on her head.

So here you have a woman, and scholars, wherever they land on how Revelation is written or what it's about, generally agree that this stands for all of humanity, the mother of humanity.

Sometimes they might refer to it as the people of God.

But they say, here stands the woman, and then in verse 3, we read about another figure in this battle.

Then another sign appeared in heaven, an enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its head.

And so what you have here in Revelation 12 is you have a cosmic battle going on, a figurative battle between all of humanity and this dragon.

And if you read through the pages of scripture, what you see is that there's always a battle where some entity or evil is trying to take human beings and destroy them and get them entangled with sin and destruction.

And often what this will be is it will be pitting bad things in our lives in such a way that we say, this is what I ultimately want, even though I know it's not good for me.

But sometimes what happens is the dragon masquerades as an angel of light.

Meaning that sometimes what happens is the dragon will take some of the best things and use them so that we say, since I can't have that, I won't even try anything.

Some of us know how this works when it comes to dieting.

Some of us are saying at the beginning of the year I'm gonna do something different.

Anybody know how that works?

And usually it works like this.

Maybe I'll have less sugar next year.

But what happens for some of us is we say, well, if I can't like do a complete no-sugar diet, then I'll just go ahead and indulge in all the sugar I want anyway.

That sometimes is how that lives for us.

And then sometimes what happens is we end up saying, if I just have something that's good, then it's good enough.

There was a pastor, a man named Donald Gray Barnhouse, who pastored a well-known church in Philadelphia for years, 10th Presbyterian Church.

And he once put it this way: he says, What would things really look like if Satan ever took over a city?

In other words, if the dragon or the serpent ever took over a city.

And then he said this: He said, Bars would be closed, pornography would vanish, pristine streets with tidy pedestrians who smiled at one another would return, there would be no swearing, children would say, Yes, sir, and yes, ma'am.

I'm not sure exactly where he's getting that part, but and then he says this, and churches would be full every Sunday, but Christ would not be preached.

And here's what he's saying, and that is the dragon, in a sense, has a couple of strategies: destroy and kill and steal, but also to masquerade as an angel of light and to get everyone's attention away from this fact, and that is that God has created a world in which his rule is superior.

And here's where we see this in Revelation chapter 12, the third character in this little drama.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

And I won't take time to read much of this, but it says this verse 5: She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule the nations with an iron scepter.

Who's the male child?

It's Jesus.

And the imagery here is pointing to this idea that Jesus will give the ultimate victory.

So here's why you and I don't need to be afraid if we know Jesus as our Savior, and that is we have ultimate victory, which means it's deeper than simply saying, I want to not be afraid in my circumstances.

I don't want to be afraid that I'll lose my job or have a health scare, or I may not date the person I want to, or somebody may leave me.

I have something that's deeper, more profound to hang on to.

Sometimes the Bible uses another image for this same idea, and that's the image of light.

In Matthew chapter 4, we get a quoting of Isaiah chapter 9, and it says, This, the people living in darkness have seen a great light.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention Isaiah 9 · chapter mention

On those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned.

See, one of the reasons that light is used in Christmas images, and even in secular and sacred collisions of Christmas images, you get all of these lights.

The festival of lights is because it's an image of God saying, Jesus has brought light into the darkness.

He has created a scenario in which he will ultimately win.

I think it was St.

Augustine who once said that Jesus was like a mouse or putting bait on a mouse trap when he went to the cross.

And the rat, Satan, fell for it.

Now there's an analogy here today that is obvious in some ways, and that is we are living in the time of a global pandemic.

And I know even to bring that up, there will be some of you who will say, uh oh, here comes a political thing.

This is not political.

But here's what happens in a global pandemic, and that is there's a universal problem.

And I know there are some who will say, well, this is all created by one political party, but you know, this is happening in other countries in the world too, okay?

This is this is universal.

There is an issue that exists.

But here's where we are today, and that is a vaccine has been developed, and it has now been delivered, and so we live with the hope that maybe next year there will be some normalcy that will return to our world.

And so we have this belief that there's a potential that this pandemic can be defeated.

And you heard in the song O Holy Night, beautifully sung by a mother and a daughter here just a few moments ago.

A weary world rejoices because there's a thrill of hope, because Jesus has come.

Light has come into the world.

We have hope.

But what's true with the vaccine and with COVID is also true in a sense spiritually, and that is there will be many who will say, I don't need it, I don't want it.

And again, I don't really care if you want or think the vaccine is good or bad.

The point I'm making is this, and that is that in when it comes to our spiritual lives, there's no escaping the reality, the universal reality of sin.

The Bible's clear about that.

But Jesus provides for anyone who comes to him a chance to be on the victorious side.

And that is a deeper reason not to be afraid than some sentimental wishing, hoping, circumstance-dependent kind of faith.

And all you need to do, all I need to do to be a part of that is embrace the reality that there's darkness not just out there, but in here, and Jesus came to be the substitute, the savior, the light of the world, my light, so that I could experience the victory with him.

You know, Christians have always been a part of bringing light to this world.

It's true in science, it's true in healthcare and arts and literature, it's true in academia, it's true in the area of mercy and justice.

And that's because there's a belief that Jesus has brought about the victory and it's there for all who share in it.

In science, you just think of these names who were inspired by their Christian faith: Pascal, Copernicus, Newton, Galileo, Francis Collins.

In healthcare, just think about all of the hospitals that are named after saints and arts and literature.

It's the names like Rembrandt, Bach, Dorothy Sayers, Dostoevsky, T.

S.

Elliott, Flannery O'Connor.

In the academic world, most of the Ivy League schools were founded by Christians for the sake of saying we want to bring the best of education along with our Christian faith to the world, even if many of those have drifted from that ideal.

And when it comes to mercy and justice, names like William Wilberforce, Hannah Moore, Dorothy Day, George Mueller, Martin Luther King Jr.

were all inspired by their faith.

And here's my very simple point, and that is that Jesus brings victory, and when you and I embrace it, it allows us to say, not just, I get to share in that, but I get to help bring light, bring this to the world that I live in.

You know, this year in many ways has pulled back the veil for many of us and caused us to really ask the question about what's important with how we're living.

For some of us, maybe this year hasn't done that.

Because some of you, you've been able to work from home, your income has stayed unchanged, and this year's been great for you because you haven't had to go and see anybody you haven't wanted to see all year long.

But for most of us, most of us, what it's done is it made us realize just how much weight we put in things that we can't control.

And that's why it's such good news that Jesus came into this world and why an angel could say, Don't be afraid, a light has dawned.

I bring you good news of great joy.

And you can share in it today by acknowledging that darkness is in you and you need that light.

Jesus Christ.

Father, thank you for just how your word points us to this ultimate victory.

And I pray that you would allow each of us who's gathered here tonight to not be afraid because we know who this male child is, the light of the world.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.