A line in Time Christmas Eve
It was almost as if someone had dragged a stick though the sand drawing a line that said that was then and this is now. There has never been an event in the history of man that has so defined human history as the birth of Jesus.
Because of that event we are all sitting here tonight. We’ve been talking about this during December, how that first Christmas; the birth of a child born to unknown couple in an obscure village 2000 years ago literally drew a line in time.
That single solitary event has shaped the world like no other event. It has shaped how the world is viewed and how people are viewed. This month, in most countries in the world, literally billions of people will gather to celebrate, to various degrees, the symbolic birth date of a child who was born to an unknown couple in an obscure village over 2000 years ago.
Even the most disinterested and antagonist will in some way acknowledge tomorrow as something special, even if it’s only as a paid day off. When folks replace Merry Christmas with Happy Holiday, they are acknowledging that it is something special. If it’s a holiday, then what are we celebrating?
When we use phrases like “the prodigal son” “turn the other cheek” and “The blind leading the blind” we are quoting the one who was born on that day two thousand years ago. When we teach our children values like “Do unto others” and speak of the “Golden Rule” we are sharing the teaching of the Christ Child. And as I have said before every time we write the date, even without adding the AD, Anno Domini, we are saying this happened this number of years since Jesus was born.
And sometimes it’s easy to see the big picture, to realize that the world was we know it exists with hospitals named after Saints because the child that was born 2000 years ago taught his followers to care for the sick. Relief agencies such as the Salvation Army, World Hope and Compassion touch the least of these in the world they do it in the name of Jesus because he taught his followers that we had an obligation to the poor. Most of the atheists who attack the church will even acknowledge that many of them received their education in universities that were started by followers of the God they deny.
The world today is what it is because of the birth of a child 2000 years ago in a stable located in an obscure village country considered insignificant by most of the known world.
But, Jesus didn’t come to change the world, he came to change people, the line that was drawn on that first Christmas would radically change the lives of people.
Of course the first people who were changed were those who were closest, Christmas changed Mary and Joseph’s World. How could their lives not be changed? The entire story is summed up in Matthew 1:18 This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit.
The couple was engaged, that’s normal. From the very foundation of time men and women have been choosing to spend their lives together in a socially and legally recognized union that we call marriage, and Mary and Joseph were no different. We don’t know how they met and we don’t know how old they were. What we do know is that they were engaged to be married, they weren’t yet married and Mary was a virgin. Everything is going well, just the way it was supposed to be going. They were probably planning for the big day and dreaming of their lives together. And then an angel shows up with an announcement that changes everything. Reminds me of John Lennon’s words “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”
Just imagine what the news meant to Mary and Joseph. People would never view them the same, to some they would always be that couple, who had to get married. And they would always feel the weight of the responsibility that God had entrusted them with. This is my son, he’s going to save the world, and I want you to take care of him, make sure that he stays safe and healthy and bring him up knowing about me.
And for thirty three years Mary marvelled at the son she called Jesus and the responsibility that was hers. And to be truthful she probably couldn’t comprehend the plan when she held her son before he was laid in a borrowed manger and still couldn’t comprehend the plan when she held her son before he was laid in a borrowed grave. But her words were words of trust in Luke 1:38 Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”
Because of the First Christmas the largest church in the world, a city in Russia and a four hundred year old village in Cape Breton all share the name of Jewish Fisherman. Christmas Changed Simon Peter’s World
How could Peter know that a chance encounter would change his world and change the world? It was very early in Christ’s ministry that we discover Peter doing what he had probably done every day of his adult life, he was fishing. When we think of fishing we either think sport fishing or being from the east coast large scale commercial fishing. This we neither, instead it would have been very similar to the fishing still done in developing countries around the world.
Two or three men, in an open boat throwing their net into the water and then pulling it back by hand. The hope was to catch enough to feed their family and some to sell. Peter and his brother Andrew were fishermen. They probably weren’t poor, but if they were like most fisherman they probably said they were. And the probably weren’t rich, they were just ordinary men working for a living to provide for their family. And we pick the story up in Matthew 4:18-20 One day as Jesus was walking along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers—Simon, also called Peter, and Andrew—throwing a net into the water, for they fished for a living. Jesus called out to them, “Come, follow me, and I will show you how to fish for people!” And they left their nets at once and followed him.
And if you know the Jesus story you know that over the next three years that Peter would become one of Jesus’ closest friends. It was Peter who first clued into the fact that Jesus was more than just a teacher or prophet. It was Peter who walked on the water with Jesus the night of the storm, it was Peter who said he would die for Jesus before he ever deserted him and it was Peter who denied Jesus the night Jesus needed him most. It was then he discovered the truth that Jesus isn’t looking for people who will die for him, he’s looking for people who will live for him.
And what did Jesus tell Peter? Matthew 16:18 Jesus said “Now I say to you that you are Peter (which means ‘rock’), and upon this rock I will build my church, and all the powers of hell will not conquer it.”
And He did. Because Jesus was born, Peter went from being a fisherman to the very foundation of the Church of Jesus Christ. He wasn’t rich and he wasn’t perfect but he was willing.
And because he was willing the church that would change the world had its beginning. From that unlikely beginning hospitals, orphanages, universities and relief agencies have changed how the poor, the sick and the disadvantaged were viewed.
We don’t even know her name, but you can be sure that she would never forget the name of Jesus. She had done what she had never thought she would be capable of doing, she broke her marriage vows and she got caught. The best that she could hope for would be a public divorce and humiliation. The worst case scenario would be that her husband would insist on her death, which he would be entitled to according to the laws of the day. But most of you know the story, it is told in John’s gospel and it’s where we get the phrase: Cast the first stone. And so symbolically the woman caught in adultery represents all of us. Christmas Changes Our World Jesus didn’t come so we could have Christmas, Jesus didn’t come so we could have a religion. When Joseph was struggling with what Mary had told him about the Angel’s message to her he too was visited by an angel who had this message for him in Matthew 1:20-21 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
And when Jesus defined his purpose and his mission he states in Luke 19:10 Jesus said “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost.” And that’s us, those who are lost.
Each of us is born with a longing for more, we know that there is something out there, even if we can’t name it or describe it. King Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:11 Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end. Did you catch that? God has planted eternity in the human heart. A desire to connect with our creator, to have a relationship with God, and that happens because he came as a child to bridge the chasm that exists between sinful man and a holy God.
Let’s go back to the story of the woman caught in adultery. Maybe you know the story? She is brought to Jesus by the religious leaders of the day for judgement. There didn’t seem to be any doubt concerning her guilt, the story says she was caught in the very act of adultery. And on that day when her guilt was beyond question Jesus offered her two gifts. You might remember the part where Jesus stooped down and began drawing in the dirt, perhaps chronicling the sins of her accusers and then he looks at them and says in John 8:7 “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” And they all walked away. And if we pick up the story in John 8:10-11 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I.”
Because there was a Christmas there was a Jesus to save this woman from the consequences of her actions.
And so the first gift Jesus offered the woman was forgiveness from her past. And that is a gift we all long for, whatever our past holds. But that wasn’t the greatest gift that was offered that day, because Jesus doesn’t stop there, he continues to say “. . . Go and sin no more.”
You see the greatest gift that Jesus offered the woman was the gift of a new future. And that is the gift that is still offered to us today.
The biggest mistake we can make is to see Christmas as a celebration of an isolated incident that happened 2000 years ago. You see the challenge isn’t to keep Christ in Christmas, it’s to get Christ out of Christmas and to allow him to change our lives and to change the world.
And when you realize that the child who was born to an unknown couple in an obscure village two thousand years ago truly is the son of God who, when you embrace the message that he taught and recognize that he died for you and rose from the dead, then you are understanding the difference that Christmas made, not just then but also right now. When you allow his grace to become a part of your life, It will be almost as if someone had dragged a stick though the sand drawing a line that said that was then and this is now. Because Christmas truly can be a line in time for you.
There may be PowerPoint available for this message, contact me at denn@cornerstonehfx.ca
