Christmas Eve 2021

Good evening, good to see you.

My name is Russ Masterson, the pastor here.

And so whether you're one of our regular folks, or I know a lot of you might be here through family and you're visiting, and you came, and some of you are really excited about that, and some of you are family and you got drug here, and you're not so excited, but we are excited you're here, and the thing that we are excited to say every single week, and even in the middle of that passage that Jin read for us, it said, uh, good news of great joy.

What is this?

What is this good news of great joy?

The sentence that we say every single week to summarize it is we're more broken than we originally thought, but we're more loved by God and Jesus than we could dare to dream.

That's what our church is about, that's what we sing about, that's what we talk about, learn about, that's what we grow in and rest in, and that's the good news.

So we heard the story read from Luke chapter 2, but I want to begin us in John chapter 1, verse 14.

Luke 2 · chapter mention John 1:14

And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

So there we have, there we have Christmas right there.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

And we have seen his glory, glory as the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now that word, word, the third word in that verse 14, word is the Greek word logos, meaning account or speech, and here referencing the Christ.

So if we put all this together, John is saying to us, God's account or God's speech to us about himself, is this Jesus for us to see?

So we may still have a thousand questions for God and about God and why this happened and that happened, and he's this, but this happened, this thing.

You may have a million questions, too many questions.

I have a lot of questions.

Like, sign me up for the line with the questions when I'm in heaven, right?

Like, I have questions.

But we don't have to wonder what God's heart is like for us.

Because we get to see Jesus in this way.

Our family, one of our favorite things during the Christmas season, like a lot of you guys, is to check the mail, right?

Because it's like finally something other than bills and junk.

It was you get Christmas cards, right?

You get some Christmas cards.

And some of you send us Christmas cards, and we look at your cards, and we get Christmas cards from you know family and friends from different parts of that live in different places.

Maybe we haven't seen them in a while, and we leave them on our kitchen island while we're eating, and we look at the cards, and slowly we kind of hang them up in a few doorways, and we look at the cards over and over again.

And maybe you receive some cards and you look at them, and you know, we're looking at sweet, just sweet families, like like we weren't all arguing two seconds before the picture was taken, right?

Like to get like you better smile, like to get the perfect shot.

And it's just a I mean, it's a great source through the Christmas season of just like love.

You're like, oh man, I love those people.

Like, I haven't seen them in a while, and I'm I love them.

A little jealousy, right?

A little jealousy because you're like, where are they at?

Like, where's that picture?

Like, how are they hiking in Tibet during the pandemic?

Like, how'd that how did that happen?

How'd they pull that off?

Or you're like, that'sn't that like six times at the beach this year, and like I don't like that, and then I'm a little jealous.

So a lot of love, a little jealousy, a little je I know, I know, a little jealousy, a lot of love, right?

A lot of love.

Here's the favorite, my favorite card this year.

You didn't win because this is not you.

So this is some friends of ours that live in Atlanta, and this is the rich family.

These are our friends who've been friends with these folks for like 20 years.

All their children, by the way, I know you were wondering that.

You're also counting.

Some of you are like, how many is that?

And you're like, is that a church?

No, it's not a church, it's not a community, not a neighborhood, just their family.

Seven children, there's two biological, there's five adopted.

And I can remember all the way back when Josiah, who's the oldest son there on the far left, I remember when Josiah was born.

I hadn't seen him in a while, it's been a while, and we got this card and sat on the kitchen island for a while.

I kept looking at it over and over because I love these people.

I mean, these are some of my best friends.

I love these people, but I hadn't seen Josiah in a while.

I'm like, that he like he became like a little man.

Like he's like a man boy, and you're like, ah, he seems like a little man boy.

He's dressed like his dad.

Like if you look at it, let's just start to analyze the card.

I hadn't told my friends that we're gonna do this at our church this week.

He's dressed like his dad.

Uh his nose and his smile, it's like his dad.

The way the skin folds, like around his mouth, it's like his dad.

His ears, and they kind of fold, they're kind of folded back, it's like his dad.

His hair is like his dad.

Right?

I mean, he just he just looks like his dad.

Right?

This is what John is saying.

This is what John is saying.

John's saying, Jesus is the account of God.

You're gonna have a lot of questions.

You keep having a lot of questions, of course.

But if you want to know what the Creator's like, his heart for you, we can look at Jesus.

What a gift.

What a gift.

This week I just I just wrote out, like just thinking about the New Testament.

What are some observations?

20 seconds.

I just wrote out observations of Jesus.

Here's what we know about Jesus: He comes into the world in humility in a manger and a barn.

Right?

So he's communicating right.

He comes right into our mess.

He's accessible.

He seeks the worn out, the weary, broken down.

He's always moved toward the prostitutes and the lepers and the marginalized.

He shares time with them and meals with them, the leper.

Anybody broken?

And then he's breaking religious rules and societal rules to do that, to love.

He wraps his arms around the weak, not the powerful.

He wraps his arms around the wrecked.

He speaks healing words to just broken and ruined bodies and lifeless hearts.

He hangs on a cross and welcomes the thief.

He dies on the cross and he forgives his murderers.

Wow.

I mean, what a what a compelling, astonishing, loving life that he's pouring out.

Right?

And it says that he came to save all and love all.

The question that this week I read as I was thinking about all this is from Priest Henri Nowen.

He said, Can I accept that I am worth looking for?

Can I accept that I am worth looking for?

That I might be one of those.

Okay, now in Matthew 1, verse 23, when Jesus is born, it's declared there, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, like we say.

Matthew 1:23

And Emmanuel means God with us, so not God against us, right?

And a lot of us will sign up for that right away.

You're like, yeah, I'm good on that.

God with us, not, you know, is against me.

But it doesn't even mean, so it's not even not God's sort of for us, once we're really for him.

That's really kind of common, Christian faith belief.

Like, like, oh, if I get my act together, then God will be for me.

If I'll meet him halfway, then that will cause him to be for me.

But the word Emmanuel is different than that.

The word of Emmanuel is like forcibly toward us.

It occurs three times in the Bible, here in Matthew, twice in Isaiah.

So in Isaiah 800 years before the birth of Jesus, in Isaiah 7 verse 14, the prophet says that Emmanuel will come to a virgin.

Isaiah 7:14

And then Isaiah 8.8, the prophet says that the people of God belong.

Belong to Emmanuel.

Oh, what a beautiful promise for us.

I mean, if you're anything like me, just looking for belonging.

Like who, like, where can I belong?

Like, who will give me that stamp of validation?

And you belong, and I belong to this Emmanuel, to God with us.

Now, here's the point of the sermon, just a one-point sermon today.

Amen.

Short sermons?

Anybody?

All right, here's the point.

The heart of God is for you.

I'm gonna just try to keep it simple.

The heart of God's for you, and he desires to be with you.

The heart of God is for you, and he desires to be with you.

The promise of Emmanuel is God's presence with us no matter our condition.

Beloved where you are.

That God's love could actually, God's love could actually go into messes that you think if somebody knew about this part, like this mistake, this sin, that thing back then, or the thing that you hadn't told anybody, or the thing nobody knows about, or that pain, or that wound, that shame, that guilt, like that God's love could actually come into that.

God could know all about it and still love you.

And still be with you.

Now, if we get that, we'll have real change, like from our heart outward.

If we get that.

That God is with us in that sort of way.

This past week, this hit me.

I was I'm re-watching The Office, you know, very important part of my daily life.

In the evening, I'll watch a couple episodes, watching them with my oldest daughter.

And uh we hit season two, the episode conflict resolution.

And you would guess that the source of Christmas inspiration came from Toby.

Here's a picture of Toby, if you don't remember.

This is his face all the way through the office.

Every episode, this is the face that he carries.

Just a fount of wisdom, Toby is.

You wouldn't have guessed it, but he is.

So the episode, if you don't remember, is Michael discovers the boss in the office.

Michael discovers that everybody's been going to Toby, the HR guy, and complaining about everybody else in the office.

And he's just filing away, just listening.

Just listening.

He's just being with these people.

Just present, listen, just present with them, listen, file it away.

And Michael discovers it, and he's like, no, no, no.

Michael begins to insert himself into every complaint, right?

Like Oscar starts with Oscar complaining about Angela, like there's a poster with a baby playing a saxophone, and it offends Oscar, and then uh Jim's complaining that Pam's planning her wedding, of course, you know, that.

You know, then Dwight's complaining uh about everything about Jim, and Michael just begins to insert himself into all this, and then everybody just hates each other, right?

By the end of it.

And Toby's wisdom, the very beginning of the episode, was just like, hey, just be with, just be with them.

And it's amazing what happens if you just listen to somebody.

Just be with them.

It's amazing what that kind of grace can do.

Of course, Michael, by the end of the episode, he thinks it's a self-revelation.

That same exact lesson that he deems is like so revelatory.

But of course, you already know this.

Because you love calling your grandmother.

Right?

Or that one friend.

You love calling that one friend that you know will actually listen to you.

And not just wait to give you advice, or wait to try to fix you, or wait to share like all their problems, or their views on the you know, new variant, or uh what news they watch, or if Die Hard's a Christmas movie or not, which it is.

It is.

Thank you, somebody right there.

It is right, they're not just waiting to say all that, they're actually just listening.

And you called and she was really present with you, and you shared your concern.

I mean, you shared it all, and and you finished, you know, all she said to you, all she said to you, she said, I'm so sorry.

Which I just never say, but it's not always wait to give advice.

I just can't wait to give advice, right?

I just can't wait.

And all she all she did for you is why you keep calling her.

That's why you keep calling her.

She said, I'm so sorry.

I love you.

I'm gonna pray for you.

Can I call you in a couple days just to check up on you?

You hung up the phone and she didn't fix your problem.

The problem's still there.

You're still there, and yet, because this has happened to you, something changed.

Right?

Something inside, like something inside kind of opened up a little bit, like it untangled a little bit, like a little like a little bit freer in some way.

Problem's still there.

But the grace of presence that is powerful.

It's powerful.

Loving presence is powerful when we experience it.

That's what this gift of Emmanuel is.

Listen to the first thing Jesus communicated to his followers after the resurrection, the first time he is present with them.

So this would be a right moment for me to ream a bunch of people who did not have their acts together and were not faithful to me, right?

Because if you remember, this is a cowardly bunch at this point.

Because Jesus has just died, and they they run, they hide, they deny, they're just they're hiding.

They are so afraid.

John 20, verse 19.

John 20:19

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, and this is where I would adjust.

Like, how dare you?

Right?

And he says, Peace be with you.

First words out of his mouth.

Peace be with you.

Martin Luther 400 years ago, about the birth of Jesus, says this.

This is what is meant by your king comes.

You do not seek him, but he seeks you.

You do not find him, he finds you.

You remember that New Testament verse?

At just the right time Christ came for us while we were still sinners?

I mean, that that's that's good news.

That's great joy.

I need that, like I need it, and I love it.

Like I need that, and I love that.

To be found, to be loved, to be loved in all my mess and all my pain and all my shame and my mistakes, and I know God is with me, even when I don't feel it, that's that's incredible.

Wherever you are, you are beloved because of Jesus for you.

That's how we're loved, and that's how we're changed, also.

Now, here's what Charles Spurgeon said about this idea of Emmanuel, this this name for this Jesus.

This glorious word Emmanuel means first that God in Christ is with us in very near association.

The Greek particle here, now don't let that kind of worry you and check out as you're bored.

Here's where it's where it hits us.

The Greek particle here is used, is very forcible and expresses the strongest form of with.

It is not merely an accompany with us, as another Greek word would signify, but with, together with, and sharing with.

This preposition is a close rivet, a firm bond, implying, if not declaring, close fellowship.

God is peculiar and closely with us.

Emmanuel's forcible language, when we sing that or we think of it, this name of Jesus, forcible loving language toward us.

It's his movement toward us, that loving pursuit, to be in relationship with us with firm bond and close fellowship.

So we're not talking about glue stick, like preschool glue stick barely holds two sheets of paper together.

That's not what we're talking about.

We're not talking about super glue.

We're not talking about gorilla glue.

I know about gorilla glue.

I've used gorilla glue, you've used it.

It's not what we're talking about.

It's a good glue, right?

You're going like, that's a good glue, that's good glue.

That's good stuff.

That's not what I'm talking about.

What we're talking about, because I researched this week, is D Lo adhesive.

It's an adhesives magazine.

If you're just looking for some thrilling holiday reading, you can just go online and read adhesives magazines.

Thrilling stuff.

DLo adhesives, because you're curious at this point, in 2019 wrote the Guinness Book of World Records for the firmest bond.

You can't buy it at Home Depot.

You can't handle it.

Okay?

You can't handle it.

It's on airplanes.

This is holding airplanes together type of stuff.

The glue, to break the record, held a 17 and a half ton truck.

Here's a picture of it.

17 and a half ton truck, this glue off the ground.

Off the ground.

Bonded to just a thin aluminum cylinder.

Held the truck up, just just the glue.

That kind of bond.

That's the beginning.

That's the beginning of an image.

That's the beginning of the image.

In Christ, God knows all of you.

And never leaves you.

He knows your deepest needs.

And is working to bring you to greater and greater peace.

God comes to you.

He loves you and pursues you.

Saves you.

He walks with you.

With a firm bond.

Let's pray to God.

God, thank you for your grace.

Thank you for your mercy to us.

May we know this Emmanuel in our hearts in greater and greater ways, a firm bond of relationship.

Of you to us.

May we know it beyond traditions and rituals.

May we know it in relationship with you.

That we are fully known and we are fully loved.

And when we think of this king that comes, may we think of this Emmanuel that forms and desires relationship with us.

Help us to trust you and rest in you in greater ways.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.