This Week's Light Service Sermon

Light Service Sermons for the Month
The Voices of Christmas
The Voice of Christmas Present
DATE: December 12, 1999
TEXT: Luke 4:16-21

This Christmas, what do you hear? What do you see? Do you see the masses and the messes at the mall? Do you see the crowded congestion all around? Or do you see something more?
And what do you hear? Do you hear your child or grandchild screaming "Po-kee-monnnn!" What do you hear?
Today we're going to see and hear something that will give us the joy and the peace that we all deeply desire this Christmas. It will reignite us with a sense of purpose for our lives. Before we talk about what we see and hear, lets' pray together.
(PRAYER)
Sleepy little Nazareth. This small town where everything was happening as it had been happening for years and years before. People gathered (as they gathered every week on the Sabbath) to pray, to worship, to hear God's word. Jesus, a young man from this little sleepy town, stood up, grabbed the scroll and from the book of Isaiah he began to read. "The Lord's spirit has come to me because he has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor. The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners, to give sight to the blind, to free everyone who suffers and to say, "This is the year the Lord has chosen." As he put down the scroll he said, "Today this has been fulfilled in your sight. If you want to see what God looks like, look at me! If you want t hear God's voice, listen to me!" The people could not believe what their eyes were seeing. They could not believe what their ears were hearing! They said one another, "Could this really be Jesus, the son of Joseph! This, a carpenter from our hometown? Is this the young man who claims to be the long-awaited Messiah?" The more Jesus spoke, the more angry the crowd became and the more they covered their ears and their eyes. They grew furious and they even tried to stone him.
How could these people be so blind? How could they be so deaf to not hear the good news that God wanted to speak to them through Jesus? We can wonder. We can wonder--if we lived in this little town would we do the same? We can wonder if the residents of this small town (where everything happened as it had happened for years and years before) had grown blind and deaf because their rituals and their traditions kept them from seeing something new?
Lest we become too harsh on them, I think it's good to remember that we all have a little creature of habit in each of us, don't we? It's there from the time we're born. We too get caught up in certain rituals, routines and traditions. At Christmas we celebrate lots and lots of rituals and traditions that are wonderful. There are just certain things that have to be done, certain cookies that have to be baked, certain fudge that has to be made, certain ornaments that have to be put on the tree.
But is it possible that sometimes we use those rituals and routines in our lives to protect ourselves from the world around us? Ritual and traditions can create kind of an invisible barrier that keeps us safe and secure and comfortable. As we do, our life becomes dull, and overly routine and boring. We can lose our sense of purpose. We can lose the sense of focus and direction and joy in our lives. Our life can become a ho-hum, humdrum, ba humbug existence.
There's a true story about a woman who on Christmas Eve heard a knock on her door. She raced to the door and opened it. There carolers had gathered to sing some Christmas carols for her. The woman stood in her bathrobe with curlers in her hair. She snapped, "I'm sorry, you're going to have to carol for somebody else, I'm too busy. I'm not finished with cooking dinner. I haven't finished wrapping presents. I have family coming over soon. You'll have to go away!" And she slammed the door shut.
Unfortunately, this woman didn't realize that these weren't just any carolers. These carolers included Bing Crosby and his family.
Sometimes we get caught in the rush, when we hear the wrong voices, when we see the wrong pictures and when we then form these invisible barriers around our lives to protect ourselves, we miss out on the wonder and the beauty that God wants to give to us.
The good news today is that Christmas is all about God breaking into our ho-hum, humdrum, ba humbug world! God is in the business of disrupting that which keeps us locked in, closed in, and bound. Jesus came as a little baby and disrupted the routines. Who was ready?
King Herod certainly wasn't. The shepherds were shocked. The Inn Keepers certainly weren't ready. Yet Jesus came. The angels pronounced and the shepherds heard that the savior had come!
This same Jesus spoke these words we hear today. He spoke these wonderful words of promise to give us a sense of purpose, to break us out of our ho-hum, bahumbug life, to give us a new sense of direction. I'd like to focus for a minute on these promises that God shares with us through his word.
1) He says, "God has chosen me to tell the good news to the poor." What wonderful words! It's no coincidence that this time of year we think about giving and sharing with the poor. Because God has always been and always will be in the business of helping give good news to the poor, the physically poor and the spiritually poor.
Perhaps today you feel like your tank is little bit empty. Spiritually you feel a little dry. Of course, you know Christmas should be a time of rejoicing and celebration, but something inside feels so dry. Jesus comes to you today and says, "Yes, I have good news for you. I'm here to fill your tank. I'm here to meet your deepest spiritual need." That's good news.
2) "The Lord has sent me to announce freedom for prisoners." I doubt Jesus will be going around this Christmas unlocking prison doors literally. But the worst prison of all is the prison right here in my heart and your heart. The prison of fear--I can't step out beyond these boundaries that I've set up for myself. The prison of guilt--there's something in my past that cannot be forgiven. The prison of shame--there's something in me that's inherently wrong. Those prisons can lock us up and keep us from experiencing the joy that God intends.
Good news today. Your Lord says to you, "I come to set you free. I come to forgive. I come to help you to let go of that fear and to trust in me. I will be with you."
3) "I come to give sight to the blind." Jesus spent much of his ministry healing the physically blind. But Jesus also said that the most devastating blindness is spiritual blindness. You can physically see, but if you are spiritually blind, you miss out on what God is doing in this world and what God wants to do in your life.
One of my favorite Christmas stories is the opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors." This young boy, Amahl, who was handicapped, walked with a cane and was partially blind, lived in a poor home. One night he heard a knock on the door from three visitors. As they entered his home, he listened to their story. They said they were going to see a king. The rest of the family wouldn't believe this story but Amahl did. He followed them to the manger of Jesus. He saw the sight. He met Jesus face to face. Even though he was still physically blind, spiritually he saw. He saw what no one else in his family saw.
Jesus Christ wants to open up our eyes today to see what he's doing in this world. Something so terrific. Something so wonderful! We can't pass it up. He says I come to give sight to the blind. To free everyone who suffers.
Maybe this is a suffering time for you. Maybe this is a time when life is at low ebb. Jesus doesn't promise to take all our problems away, but he does promise to be there for you in the midst of that suffering, in the midst of your pain to say, "This is the year the Lord has chosen." In other words Jesus is saying, "This is the time in your life when I want to do something great!" Jesus says, "Don't' worry if you think the best years are past. Today, this day, right now I want to do something great in your heart and your life. Watch for it! Listen for it! It's there!"
Today I want to take a moment together to listen to what God is saying to us. I'd like us to listen together to a beautiful song, a song you all know, think about the message of this song. Think about what God wants you to see and hear today.
(Song "Do You Hear What I Hear?")
What do you see? Do you see the star dancing in the night? Do you see the baby quietly breaking into our world? Do you see a savior Jesus who wants to warm up to you? What do you hear? Do you hear the crowds and congestion? Or do you hear something more? Do you hear him say, "I come to be your friend? I come to forgive you. I come to hear you. I come to set you free from that which binds you. I come to bring good news to you who are spiritually poor. I come to say to you that this is the time of your life that I want to do something great." Do you hear him? Do you see him? He's there. May God grant faith to each and every one of us. To open our eyes, to open our ears, to believe in our heart that He has come.
AMEN