I am really going to be up-front about this... I am plagiarizing the following words from our pastor's sermon today. I think there is an exception to the plagiarizing rules if you pull something from a sermon. I think you actually get double Christian points for this. Triple, if you give the pastor credit. Quadruple if you follow up with the plan of salvation. Quintuple of you use the a Campus Crusade Bridge tract. Sextuple if you take the person to Chick-Fil-A after.
Enough tuplings and ruplings? Okay.
Anyway, back to the plagiarizing triple Christian points.
Here is what our pastor said...roughly (and adding many of my own words to his thoughts.)
Christmas is about the fact that we'll never be good enough. (Think about it.) Never, no matter how hard we try,
or how clean our house is
or how often we bite our tongues when we really want to say the snarky thing
or how often we go to church
or even if we are Sunday School teachers
AND Awana leaders
or how heavenly our chocolate cake is
or how often we read our Bible
or how much we say "Amen" and "hallelujah"
or how sweet our kids are...
Christmas is about the fact that we'll never be good enough.
(That would be really depressing, except...)
That's why we're still waiting...Waiting on Christmas.
Because we'll never be good enough, we wait. We wait for the little baby Jesus on Christmas morning, to enter the world humbly and quietly, hidden away in a barn with his unassuming parents. The angels woke the shepherds and sang His praises. As He grew, people around him started noticing He was something special. Even the church leaders were amazed by the stories He told, the miracles He performed. People followed Him everywhere, hanging on to every word He spoke, positioning themselves nearby for personal miracles. And like every civilization before and since, the leaders decided to take him out when their power was threatened. They killed him, and silenced His influence. Well...for 3 days they did. Because, just like He told them, He arose from the dead. He came back to Earth to fulfill the prophecies, to show Himself to his disciples, to charge them to go out and tell others His Good News. And then He went back to Heaven to watch, and wait.
The next time Jesus comes, it will not be quiet, and it will not be humble. It will not be hidden away in a barn in Bethlehem.
It will be with a SHOUT! A shout the entire world will hear. And the call of a trumpet, summoning all of the saints who believe.
So, here we wait. In our human weakness and inadequacies. We may forget we are weak and inadequate. We may even think we are powerful and more intelligent than anyone we know. We may even act arrogant or distracted for a time.
But, in the end, when the shout comes, those whose hearts are believing--are waiting--for Christmas will once and for all--meet Christmas. Meet Him in the air.
And right there in the air, all arrogance will melt, all weakness and inadequacy will slip off, all thoughts of knowledge and power will vanish. Christmas will be the only thought, the praises singing out of our lips.
So, this year, as you're waiting (or racing around like a crazy person...like me) for Christmas...as we sing the beautiful old Christmas carols in church...as we drop coins into red buckets...as we watch our children perform in Christmas programs at church, and (rolling my eyes) holiday programs at school...and as we wish the cashiers at Walmart and even Target a "Merry Christmas"...
May we remember that Christmas isn't a season. Christmas is a person! And He came, and will come again, because we will never be good enough.
