Christmas Eve 2017

Last week I asked one of my little girls what her favorite part of Christmas was.

And mind you, there are a handful of really good things to say.

There's a handful of good answers, right?

There's Christmas lights, there's Christmas parties, there's no school, there's cousins in from out of town, there's watching Home Alone for the first time, which is an incredible marking moment for a kid.

But she never hesitated.

She never hesitated.

She didn't even look up at me, really.

She just kept on doing what she was doing, and she she did a smile appear on her face, and she gleefully responded, getting gifts.

And it was almost like, come on, Dad.

Like, like that was an easy one.

Why would you even need, why would you even need to ask that?

And you remember it, right?

I mean, you remember whether in your house it was down the end of the hall and you turned left or right or down the stairs and you turned into the den or split level, down the stairs, turned another set of stairs, and there was a pile of gifts.

And you didn't have to spend your allowance for this pile of gifts.

You didn't owe anybody for this pile of gifts.

And you never once said, Oh, this is too much.

You never turned to your mom and dad and said, It's just too much, mom.

It's too much.

I think y'all went overboard, right?

Children don't say that.

Children don't ever say, Oh, you don't have to get me anything.

My birthday's coming up next week.

You don't have to get me anything.

Never heard a child say that?

Not in the language.

See?

He knows.

He knows it.

Has anyone ever gotten you a gift?

Like a like a really lavish gift.

And you receive the gift, and then you immediately respond, you shouldn't have.

Why would we do that?

Like why do we say that?

I mean, I I've said that.

Why do we do that?

Because there's something about receiving a lavish gift from someone that can make us feel incredibly uncomfortable.

And it does something to us as adults that it never does to a child, and that is that it takes away our control and it takes away our pride of capability.

And that's why you say, oh, you shouldn't have.

Rather than, this is amazing.

Now in Luke chapter 1, we find a Jewish girl.

Luke 1 · chapter mention

She's about 13 or 14 years old.

Then this angel comes to her and says, Greetings, oh favored one.

The Lord is with you.

And she's poor.

This girl's poor.

She's a nobody.

She's probably thinking, I'm favored?

Me?

Like I'm nobody.

And this is the brilliance of the incarnation into humanity.

God does know who she is.

God does know this condition.

And God reaches into humanity, not through power and capability.

He reaches into humanity through poverty and vulnerability.

See, he reaches into who you truly are under the pretending.

It's why in Star Wars 7, forgive me, I'm one movie behind.

I know some of you are so offended that I didn't get to it in the last week.

Just stick with me.

In Star Wars VII, catch you up to speed, the resistance, the good guys, the people of the light, they fight without mask.

Right?

And then there's the other guys, the first order.

These are the people of the darkness, and they fight with helmets and masks on.

And one of the most powerful scenes in Star Wars 7 is when Han Solo finds his prodigal son Kylo, who has turned evil, and they're on this exposed, suspended bridge, and Han Solo goes out to him and says, Take off that mask.

You don't need it.

Come home.

We miss you.

So the angel says to Mary, not in Star Wars.

Back to Luke.

The angel says to Mary, don't be afraid.

Don't be afraid.

You are favored.

You will bear a son.

You'll call him Jesus.

And he'll be the son of the Most High.

And that's where we get our text for today, the fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve.

I'll reread what Katie read for us, Luke 1, 34 through 38.

I'll jump in at 34.

And Mary said to the angel, How will this be since I am a virgin?

Right?

So no mask here, just raw, humble, open spirit.

She knows how things work.

How can this be?

And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy the Son of God.

And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

For nothing will be impossible with God.

And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word.

And the angel departed from her.

So point number one, we've got three points tonight.

Point number one, we are receivers, then perhaps givers, but even then primarily always receivers.

Okay, that's point number one.

That's kind of long.

We are receivers, then perhaps givers, but even then always primarily receivers.

Mary responded, Behold, I'm the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.

Right?

As if to say, okay, I'll receive.

I read this week an Advent devotion written by a theologian from Duke University, Will Willemond.

He says, This of the first Christmas.

There we, it's talking about like you and me, there we are portrayed not as the givers we wish we were, but as the receivers we are.

Luke and Matthew go to great lengths to demonstrate that we, with our power and generosity, competence and capabilities had little to do with God's work in Jesus.

It's buried in the story.

Over and over and over again, we are the receivers.

The thing in us that's uncomfortable with something like this, this type of lavish giving of God to us, is that our desire for control and to be capable is removed.

It's stripped away.

And this is our sin, our desire to add something into this equation.

Certainly, I need to do something.

And God's going, no, no, no, my grace is that big, my sufficiency is that much.

Jesus is that sufficient for you.

Listen, in Christ, you are already the beloved.

That is settled because of God's love for you.

Known in the Christ's child, and then in Christ's death for you, and then in Christ's resurrection.

All of our sin was put upon Him.

All of it was put upon Him, and all of His righteousness is put upon us.

So we are free from relying upon our own capability and control as to feel justified.

Listen, grace disarms you.

And grace is radical, and it puts you in a state of receiving, and this scares us.

But then you realize that the entire time you're being freed.

Point number two.

As receivers, we always live in the reach of God, never in our reach of God.

As receivers, we always live in the reach of God, never in our reach of God.

Monday morning I woke up.

I woke up to my four-year-old.

She got nestled up to my side in the bed, and my arm was kind of up around her, and then my massive bicep here was her pillow, it's not big, trust me.

Not much there.

And she was settled in.

Five minutes later, another daughter showed up on the other side of her.

So it was me, four-year-old, another daughter, and my arms kind of stayed where it was, wrapped around the four-year-old.

And the four-year-old turned, looked up to me, and she said, put your arm down, Dan.

You know, for the other girl, needed this massive forearm that I have out here for a pillow.

Right?

And it was as if to say, like, none of this counts if your arm is not down reaching out.

None of this will count.

None of this snuggling fest we have going on here.

And one thing I've learned, being a parent, and I am imperfectly learning this, is my role to reach for my girls never ends.

This is the thing that love does.

Love reaches.

By definition, love reaches.

Love always reaches, and it does not reach halfway.

It reaches fully into messes and shame and into death itself.

And that's where it redeems.

I know some of you are probably asking questions like, is there more to this, like to life than the day-to-day grind that I'm living in, that this feeling of being stuck?

Will this hurt that I feel ever go away?

Can I be absolved of my sin, that big thing that I keep replaying in my mind, or maybe the accumulation of the scorecard that you play in your mind over and over and over and over again?

Will that ever go away?

Or will this shame that defines me, that I let define me, will that ever go away?

As a pastor, I can say, I don't know, I don't know.

Eventually, eventually, but I don't know when that will connect for you.

But I do know, I do know that it's true for you.

That absolution, that redemption, that's fully yours.

And I do know a good place to start is by asking whether you will take off your mask and receive the love of a father asking you to exist in a world and the belovedness that has already been given to you rather than to exist in some way always trying to earn your belovedness.

See, it's into your world of imperfection that God arrives.

This is the way it's always been from the garden to the manger to the cross.

Take off that mask.

You don't need it, right?

Han Solo.

Saving message of Christmas from Han Solo.

Take off that mask.

You don't need it.

And here's the thing, it gets even more radical.

And God's unconditional love, no matter what happens, whether you take off the mask or not, he still loves you.

Jesus is still supreme and still sufficient.

This truth is actually the very thing that can turn a doubtful, cold heart warm and break it open.

Last point, point number three.

God revealed himself in a low estate because we exist in a low estate.

God revealed himself in a low estate because we exist in a low estate.

Earlier this year, my wife Christy and I, we were at a wedding in Atlanta, a real nice, fancy, schmancy country club.

And we were standing out on the front lawn, the kind of front lawn where you look down and you go, is that grass?

Is that grass real?

You know, I've been down, you're like, oh, that's real.

That's amazing.

That's amazing that that grass can be real.

I mean, everything's manicured.

We're looking back at this manor home termed country club, and beautiful people all mingling about with their drinks.

And Christy, she turned to me and she said, Do you feel like you belong here?

Right?

And that's the kind of thing that generates a really good conversation right away because then I remember, does anybody truly feel like they belong here is the question.

I mean, it's a pretty high standard to keep up with, a place like that.

Right?

The status, the income, the moral image.

I don't I don't feel like I'm successful to enough to be somewhere like that.

I definitely don't have the net worth to be somewhere like that.

I barely have the wardrobe to show up to a place like that.

Maybe if my truck is washed, I feel like I can drive in and not be embarrassed, right?

My moral and spiritual record, probably not.

Motives?

Definitely not.

So, yeah, to exist there, I sort of feel like I gotta wear a mask a little bit.

And I suspect, I could be wrong, I suspect everybody else feels the same way.

No, I didn't go around asking.

But a little bit of a party killer.

You know, I mean, excuse me, sir, do you feel worthy to be here?

Like in the shame-filled parts of the core of your being.

Not a good wedding conversation.

Now there's another place I go to regularly.

There's no community, but I don't have to wear a mask there.

I love.

And no judgment, please.

I just go ahead.

Will you just don't judge me on this?

I love going to the quick trip and getting two corn dogs.

I love it.

I do, I confess it, I say it, I speak it out.

I love it.

And it's no country club.

I mean, they specialize in rolled food, food that rolls.

That's pretty much.

Can we roll it?

Okay, we'll we'll serve that.

What's really clear in the scriptures is God shows up in a world of like quick trip, not country club.

It's a couple of unmarried teenagers.

A scandalous pregnancy, a smelly stable, rank animals and shepherds.

And see, this is good news.

This is good news for my friends dining at the country club, and this is good news for my friends picking up some corn dogs at quick trip.

This is good news because we all truly exist in a low estate.

It's just whether we will live as receivers before God or whether we will continue in the illusion that we are perfect or even capable of such a thing.

So, my brothers and sisters, Ephesians 1, 7 through 10, in him, not us, him, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us, and all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Amen and amen.

Let's pray together.

God, thank you for your grace to us and mercy to us that as we are receivers in a low estate, you meet us in a low estate.

You have always met us in a low estate.

We remember how you came to Adam and Eve as they had sinned and hid from you.

And then we see your incarnation into this world not in power and capability, but in fragility, poverty, vulnerability.

Showing us your heart to meet us always in our mess, always in our low estate.

Thank you that you are sufficient and you are enough for all of who we are, for all of our shame and all of our sin.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.