The beginning of Christmas.
Mark 1 - 1 - 8
Ever got a puncture and found that the jack handle is missing?
Ever tried to undo a nut and found you don’t have the correct spanner ?
Ever set out to bake a cake and found you don’t have any eggs?
I once turned up at a track meeting only to find I’d left my shorts at home -
pity I left it until I was removing my track pants before I found out!
If you are one of those people who have all your spanners hanging on the correct shapes in the garage or never lose your car keys you’ll find it hard to relate to all this.
The Boy Scouts have a saying - Be prepared.
Somehow you get the impression that a cousin of Jesus - John the Baptist -
was a little different.
There are some people - who - if you invited them to a society function you’d find it a little awkward to have them around - John was like that - John wore clothing made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.
He was a man of the desert - he ate the food of the desert and he wore clothes from the desert..
Mark when he started writing his gospel missed out the birth of Jesus and talked about John the Baptist.
Yet as we approach Christmas - there is an important message from John the Baptist that is a vital Christmas message.
Let’s read together this morning the opening lines of Mark’s gospel read verse 1ff.
The beginning of the gospel - about Jesus Christ, the son of God. etc.
Prepare the way for the Lord make straight paths for him.
In the opening verse of Mark we learn three incredible facts about Christmas and in verse 3 we receive a very important instruction about how, in response to these facts, we are to approach Christmas and indeed all of Christian life.
Have you noticed how Christians, if they are not careful, can be spoilsports?
it is true that we need to return to the original Christmas message - but there is much else about Christmas that we can also enjoy:-
Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh was once invited to a party by Owl - the conversation went like this:-
"Eeyore," said Owl, "Christopher robin is giving a party."
"Very interesting" said Eeyore, "I suppose they will be sending me down the odd bits which got trodden on. Kind and Thoughtful. Not at all, don’t mention it."
"there is an invitation for you."
"What’s that like?"
"An Invitation!"
"Yes, I heard you. Who dropped it?"
"This isn’t anything to eat, it’s asking you to the party. To-morrow."
Eeyore shook his head slowly.
"You mean little piglet. the little fellow with the excited ears. That’s piglet. I’ll tell him."
"No, No!" said Owl, getting quite fussy. "It’s you!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I’m sure. Christopher Robin said ’All of them! Tell all of them.’"
"All of them." except Eeyore?"
"All of them." said Owl sulkily.
"Ah!" said Eeyore. "A mistake, no doubt, but still, I shall come. Only don’t blame me if it rains."
There is nothing wrong with good fun.
There is nothing wrong with Christmas trees and tinsel and angels on trees and a childs delight at the unwrapping of gifts and striped candy and battery powered toys and feasts and laughter and sparkling eyes and pensive memories - All those things that make Christmas special should not be swept away in some puritanical purge.
But the question is how can they move from being no more than a passing experience to being an expression of a profound reality..
The opening line of Mark is The beginning of the Gospel - Gospel translated means literally good news -
The beginning of the good news is how it reads -
Our task at Christmas is not to chop down the tree of celebration - rather it is to rediscover the cause of celebration - What is this good news?
If we want to understand How Jesus is good news we need to look at some real life applications.
for Jesus to be good news we need to get beneath the layers of indifference to real people with real issues.
In Jesus’ life itself you can’t help but see evidence of good News - as a result of what he was doing huge crowds followed him around - You simply don’t attract huge crowds of 5,000 and more in what today would be regarded sparsely populated areas - unless there is something special going on.
Jesus in his earthly ministry spoke of an incredible hope and gave ample physical and spiritual evidence that what he was holding out was more than words but a tangible reality.
When you back up what you are saying by healing lepers, raising the dead and delivering people from demonic oppression then people are going to take notice. The good news will spread and you will gather a crowd.
The good news is often understood best when people are delivered from their abject misery bought about by the fatal mistake made in Genesis chapter one by Adam And Eve.
Loren Cunningham tells of YWAM’s work among Vietnamese and Cambodian boat people in Hong Kong - he went to look at the mess that these people were living in - He said - "The smell came first. The brown stench of raw human waste hit us before we entered the place. As we walked in the main entrance, into an inner passageway, we found the source. The lower floor of the building was eight inches deep in human excrement and waste water. Officials pointed to broken sewer pipes - there wasn’t enough money to hire a plumber to tackle the huge mess.
The camp designed to hold 900 was housing 8000. Each room held wall-to-wall bunks, three high, with several families living in each tier. When he was in the camp Loren Cunningham spoke of looking into the eyes of a Khemer Rouge soldier. The young mans eyes were vacant, gaping, portholes into hell itself. he might have been one of those who had murdered babies - But Jesus had died for this man too. Cunningham spoke to 1200 of the khmer rouge and two dozen of the men risked their lives to come forward to pray.
Within weeks we had people in the refugee camps. They did what even the refugees had been unwilling to do: shoveled out all the human waste, repaired the broken sewage pipes, and fixed the toilets. The refugees marveled. here were young people paying their own way to come and do a job no one else would consider.. The Ywamers had their attention all right Time after time they were given the opening they had hoped for. They were asked why they had come.
What Jesus had to offer was real good news because the people saw a tangible difference to their world.
But you don’t need to be in a refugee camp for that to happen -
Chuck Colsen shares how as part of the most powerful government in the world he also discovered this good news;-
One grey overcast evening, I sought out my friend tom Phillips. He read aloud the chapter on pride from C.S.Lewis’s Mere Christianity. That one chapter ripped through the protective armour in which I had unknowingly encased myself for the past 42 years./ Of course, I had not known God. How could I? I had been concerned with myself. I had done this and that, I had achieved, I had succeeded. In those brief moments while Tom read, I saw myself as I had never done before. And the picture was ugly.
"Would you like to pray together Chuck?’ Tom asked, closing his bible.
Startled, I emerged from my deep thoughts. "Sure -- I guess I would -- fine" I’d never prayed with anyone before except when someone said grace before a meal. Tom bowed his head. ’Lord,’ he began, ’we pray for Chuck and his family, that you might open his heart and show him the light and the way.’
As tom prayed, something began to flow into me -- a kind of energy. Then came a wave of emotion which nearly brought tears. I fought them back. It sounded as if Tom were speaking directly and personally to God, almost as if He were sitting beside us. Later outside in the darkness, the iron grip I’d kept upon my emotions began to relax. Tears welled up in my eyes as I groped in the darkness for the right key to start my car. Angrily I brushed them away and started the engine.
As I drove out of Tom’s drive, the tears flowed uncontrollably, I was crying so hard I pulled to the side of the road.
I forgot about Machismo, about pretenses, about fears of being weak. And as I did, I began to experience a wonderful feeling of release. Then came the strange sensation that water was not only running down my cheeks, but surging through my whole body as well, cleansing and cooling as it went. They weren’t tears of sadness and remorse, nor joy - but tears of relief.
And then I prayed my first real prayer. "God, I don’t know how to find You, but I’m going to try! I’m not much the way I am now, but I want to give myself to you. I didn’t know how to say more, so I repeated over and over the words take me.
These two examples, the one among Vietnamese refugees and the other from a hardened Politician highlight the effect of the Good news Jesus has bought us.
if you truly want to celebrate Christmas - you need not only to know this gospel we are referring to you need to have experienced it as well.
Let’s go back to Marks gospel chapter 1 and verse 1
The beginning of the gospel about Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
The Gospel is the good news - Jesus Christ is the one whom the good news is about.
You know whenever you mention a name that is well known to you your mind conjures up an image.
If I had mentioned Jenny Shipley to folk in this parish say six months ago a particular image may have come to your mind. Because she was our prime Minister that image may well have been negative. But I spoke to folk who had been to hear her personally at Calvin Church in Gore recently and they generally were positively inclined towards her.
Why because the news media impression was set aside and they had the opportunity to hear her and to meet her for themselves. The result - generally a favourable impression.
Just as the media might represent a politician so Jesus Christ is represented by all kinds of people - some of them give a very lopsided and distorted view of Jesus. Undoubtedly you and I have been guilty of that as well as others. To the degree though that a thoroughly opposite view of Jesus may be gained. Talk to someone about Jesus and they might say boring - Why?
Because someone has portrayed Jesus in a boring way. it is not that Jesus is boring it is just that their way of conveying Jesus is boring.
We need to rediscover Jesus Christ.
All kinds of people use them - but how can these two words add meaning to our Christmas celebration?
I can tell you all kinds of things about Jesus like:
"Jesus Christ, Son of God."
"Jesus" - the Savior
"Christ" -the Divinely appointed Prophet, Priest, and King of men
but let’s take a moment of reflection - as we consider the name of Jesus.
Play the tape -
Jesus - what a beautiful name.
John the Baptist came and proclaimed to the people of Israel that Jesus was coming -
He raised out there in the wilderness a sense of expectation and excitement -
The early part of this sermon announced that we have exciting Good news - and talked about the importance of being prepared.
We find that that Good news comes in the name of Jesus Christ the son of God.
When John the Baptist comes he not only acts as a Herald an announcer that Jesus is coming he also says - Prepare the way for the Lord - he says Get ready!
How do we get ready?
John uses the word repent.
Good news is only good news if we are ready for it -
John’s call to repent is delivered out in the wilderness in a stark way to the people of his day.
People knew the message was important so they flocked to him.
When they came he spoke frankly and sharply - and he marked their turning from their sinful ways to God and his ways by baptising them in the Jordan river.
What is it that keeps Jesus at a distance in your life - is their some pattern of comfort or selfishness that prevents you growing? - is there a pattern of sinful behavior that if it was written up on the overhead projector here you would feel uncomfortable about?
Have you just got tardy with prayer or bible readings?
Are you in denial about something -?
Whatever prevents you celebrating the good news about Jesus - it is that thing that god calls you to bring into his light this Christmas.
He wants us to bring about radical change in our lives. On the whole, the world deals with increasing darkness by plugging in more artificial lights
God wants to shine real light into your life.
This morning he holds out a hand of hope to you and asks that you would give him that thing that prevents you celebrating the good news about Jesus as fully as you should.
As we pray this morning you may wish to be brave enough to recognise what areas need changed and to ask God to help you bring about those changes that need made.
You can do this because God loves you with an everlasting love.
Llet us pray.
jgullick@xtra.co.nz? contact us.
