3^rd February 2010

Revd Rob Tann, Minister of Unity Hill, Port Lincoln (3 January 2010)

Christmas was a week ago, and today marks the start of a New Year of ministry and worship. Great possibilities are before us and the future can be faced with optimism, especially if we closely follow Jesus and look to what He has planned for us. Even so, I'd like to enter 2010 with one final look back to last week. Signs of Christmas still surround us... signs that can be used to take us forward into God's tomorrow.
We know from Luke's Gospel that when Jesus was born in Bethlehem Mary & Joseph had struggled to find accommodation after their journey from Nazareth. Eventually the new-born Son of God was laid in a manger - a food trough - as His first bed. Over the years the Christmas story has been romanticised somewhat. Instead of focusing on the homeless situation the Holy Family found them selves in we have instead created nativity scenes with animals and shepherds and wise men gathered around a very serene Mary and quietly proud Joseph. Songs like "Away in a manger" have become Christmas favourites.
Just over twenty years ago leading British song writer, Graham Kendrick, wrote a beautiful Christmas song about accepting the true Jesus... not just peering into a nativity scene and admiring the Baby in the manger.
Kendrick's song is called "The Christmas Child" and this is what it says...
Hear the sound of people singing,
the bells are ringing, for the Christmas Child.
In the streets the lights are glowing,
but there is no knowing, of the Christmas Child.
Refrain... Oh, let this child be born in your heart
tonight, tonight...
Then comes a very poignant second verse...
Will our wars go on forever, and will peace be never
at Christmastime?
If we keep him in the manger, then there is no danger
from the Christmas Child. Graham Kendrick - Copyright © 1988 Make Way Music,
Did you get that last line? "If we keep Him in the manger, then there is no danger from the Christmas Child..."
Many people love Baby Jesus. Christmas cards are cute. Nativity scenes are pretty and they can help us remember the birth of Jesus even if they do lack accuracy. Carols about the Baby lying on the straw while the ox and ass are standing by are sentimental and quite tranquil. Yet reality is missing - instead they make Christmas ‘nice'... easier to share in...
If you take the cute Baby Jesus out of the manger and instead listen to Jesus the Son of God - Jesus the Man - then you are likely to be confronted by your sin and the need to receive the Father's love and grace.
A response is needed to the Man that you can avoid with the Baby.
As we enter a New Year we are in great need of Jesus the Man, not the Baby in the manger. Our lives cannot remain the same past Christmas. With a New Year upon us we must move past the stable scenes. We all need to meet Jesus the Son of God for the New Year rather than hold onto the Baby in the Manger...
Change in the way we see things... change in the way we think and act... change in the way we approach people... and change in the ways we deal with difficult situations can help us begin a New Year with confidence. Babies are cute but a crucified man is horrendous. That's why Kendrick wrote, "There is no danger if we leave Him in the manger."
On the night that He was betrayed, some thirty-three years after the first Christmas, Jesus sat around a table with His closest mates. They had shared the sacred Passover meal together and He had offered them the Bread and the Cup, but He referred to them as His body and blood. What did all that mean?
Jesus was sombre that night and as He spoke to them he used words and phrases that the disciples hadn't heard Him use before. It obviously confused them. Jesus spoke of leaving them, but then said they'd follow Him later. Jesus said He'd be gone but then he would come back for them. Jesus told them that they should know where to follow Him, and He said that the world would see Him no more, but they would see Him. I can imagine a lot of blank faces in that room until Thomas asked for some more detail - obviously feeling unclear about this teaching... this deeply emotional and confusing time.
"Lord," Thomas said, "We don't know where you are going - how can we know the way?"
Jesus replied in that profound passage so well-known to the Church. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life - No-one comes to the Father except by Me."
Those men sharing the Passover meal with Jesus had never spent time thinking about what we know as Christmas. I doubt Jesus had ever talked in depth about His birth and boyhood with them. The Gospel writers would later link their Hebrew scriptures to the three years many of them had experienced with Jesus and they would see that the Word of God had become a reality in their lifetime... they had been with the Messiah, with Jesus.
From our childhood we have so often sung "Away in a manger, no crib for a bed..." Today, however, I want you to think of the words differently... Try this -
"The Way in a manger..."
• Here, lying on a bed of straw is ‘The Way, the Truth and the Life'.
• Here, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a stone food trough, is the One later wrapped in burial cloths lying in a stone tomb.
• Here, His story told in legend and fantasy illuminated by fairy lights is the Truth illuminated by the glory of God.
But for us today, with 2000 years of teaching and spiritual insight behind us, we should be more able to grasp the link... the union... between the Baby in the manger and the Man - the Lord, crucified then raised from the dead...
• The Way in a manger...
• The Truth surrounded by legend...
• The Life that conquered death...
Christmas 2009 has finished. The New Year has started. Many in the community around us are facing changes with transfers and job changes and new homes and schools and many new faces to meet in 2010 - people that may become new friends. For some that can be an unsettling time - a time of stress rather than just excitement. That's where our faith in Jesus; The Way, the Truth, and the Life comes into play.
The New Year is a time when we can all place fresh trust in God, fresh faith in our Lord, and we can step boldly into the future because Jesus is ‘The Way'...
I encourage you to think again about one Christmas carol that is a favourite of many... but I suggest that you change that first line...
"The Way in a Manger, no crib for a bed..."
Ask yourself...
• Have I left Him there...?
• Will I follow Jesus into this New Year?
• Will I trust in Him like never before?
• Will I see God's new tomorrow unfold - my hope, my future, revealed?
• Will I be ready to explore all that God has in store for me in 2010?
There is no danger - but there is also no new life - if you leave Him in the manger...the Christmas Child.