Merry Christmas from Pastor Kevin

December 24, 2022

On one hand, I am critical of the way Christmas has become, like all holidays, a tool businesses use to convince us to spend money. Christmas seems to have turned into an extension of Black Friday, a time when capitalism runs amuck, and when we spend money we don’t have on gifts people don’t really want or need. And yet I can’t seem to pull away from the routine. I love Christmas time. I love getting and giving gifts. It is all deeply tied to fond memories from childhood of excitement and family experiences.

The true Christmas story though is so much more meaningful. A Creator God, all powerful and all knowing, became what he created in the ultimate act of love. Not out of lust or chaos as the Greeks envision. No, this God, the real one, acted out of real love, the kind of love that was willing to suffer and sacrifice himself for his creation.

The true Christmas saw this almighty God of love become vulnerable, born into poverty, not with a palace but a barn or more likely a cave. He spent his early years as a refugee, an alien crossing boarder into Egypt, his family fleeing death threats from Herod. When Jesus’ family returned home, he grew up in Nazareth, a backwater town that was the punchline of jokes. “A Nazarene and a Samaritan walked into a bar…” You haven’t heard that one? How about this one… “What good can come from Nazareth?”  Jesus was powerfully nerdy, not in the way nerds today have become rich and powerful, but in the way that his peers most likely scoffed at. At age 12 he missed the bus ride home because he was in the temple having deep discussions with the teachers. What. A. Nerd.

I love the gifts and good food and fun times with family. But after the gifts are opened and everyone gets back to work or school, we are left with the poverty that we had before Christmas, and sometimes more of it.

While Christmas today is often an exercise in covering up and ignoring our poverty, in our finances, in our relationships, in our emotional health, and in our faith, the true story of Jesus’ birth is that the God who made us became poor so that we could be rich in all the ways that matter most. Before Christmas, Jesus sat on a throne. He was the most powerful being in existence. Not begrudgingly, or hesitantly, but willingly stepped off the throne and into a feeding trough as a helpless baby for one reason, that people living in darkness of every kind could see a flesh and blood God and find the path to hope and life that we all long for.

This Christmas if you know that your life is a mess, and lets be honest, we all have different kinds of mess, there is good news. Christmas is for you. Jesus came into the world as a mess, so that you would know that he came for you. Take some time this Christmas to speak directly to the living Jesus and offer your mess to him. He has seen it all, he is not surprised by anything. As we allow Jesus to walk with us, we find hope, and joy, and purpose for life even in the mess.

Merry Christmas