Christmas at Paul's

Christmas at Paul’s

December 29, 2024
Philippians 2:1-11, Galatians 2:20

Adopt the attitude that was in Christ Jesus:

Though he was in the form of God,
      he did not consider being equal with God some
      thing to exploit.
But he emptied himself
      by taking the form of a slave
      and by becoming like human beings.
When he found himself in the form of a human,
      he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the   
      point of death, even death on a cross.

Philippians 2:5-8

_______________

Christmas Day is over and for many, the decorations have already been put away.  We’ve enjoyed four Christmas feasts at the home’s of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John and now it’s time for everyone to go home. 

I find it strange how much effort goes into Christmas preparation and how quickly we seem to want to move on without taking time to enjoy it.  When a new baby is born, we don’t ooh and ahh over it for a day or two and then leave it behind at the hospital.  We take the child home and our lives are never the same.

So how about just one more stop on our Christmas tour, at Paul’s house.  “Paul?” you might ask.  What does he have to do with Christmas.  He didn’t even encounter Jesus until after the resurrection.  Paul missed didn’t just miss the birthday party, he missed Jesus’ whole life. 

Perhaps, and yet, Paul writes one of the earliest hymns of the church in Philippians 2 that may be one of the most important Christmas songs in history.  Christ was in the form of God and yet did not consider being equal with God something to exploit.  But he emptied himself by taking the form of a slave and by becoming like human beings.  He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For someone who didn’t even bring a gift to the baby shower, Paul seems to have a pretty solid grasp of exactly what God is up to in the birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Paul understands that Christmas isn’t really about the details of Jesus’ birth at all.  It’s about incarnation.  It’s about God becoming flesh to dwell among us.  No, more than that… it’s about God humbling Godself even to the point of death.  It’s about a God who doesn’t just become one of us and hide away in a royal palace, but who actually suffers with us and identifies with the grief, the pain and the agony of being human. 

Bringing a baby home changes things.  It is usually joyful in many ways, but it is also hard.  There is pain not only in childbirth, but in raising a child, in watching the child struggle and hurt throughout their own lives, in letting the child go, and in learning to walk alongside him or her in a new way as adults. 

Paul says that the attitude of humility in Christ should be our attitude.  In essence, he’s telling us that we can’t just show up for the party and leave the baby laying in the manger while we go back to our ordinary lives.  The incarnation of Jesus changes us.  Through Jesus, God shows us exactly what humanity is supposed to look like, how we are supposed to live, to serve, and to love one another as Christ loved us. 

Paul’s house may not be decorated like the others, but for Paul, Christmas never ends.  The baby doesn’t stay in the manger, and he doesn’t stay a baby.  Jesus makes his home among us.  Jesus grows with us and in us. 

And so we must grow too. 

As Christ becomes like us, so we must become like him. 

Listen to full sermon here

Craig J. Sefa

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Christmas at John's

Christmas at John’s

December 22, 2024
John 1:1-5, 14

In the beginning was the Word
    and the Word was with God
    and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
    and without the Word
    nothing came into being.
What came into being
    through the Word was life,
    and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light…

 John 1:1-5

_______________

Of the four gospel writers, John appears to be the poet and artist of the group.  Christmas at his house is no doubt filled with the most creative décor and an elaborate feast.  Technically, like Mark, John doesn’t tell the story of Jesus’ birth at all.  Unlike Mark, however, the beginning of the good news for John is not in Jesus’ active ministry, or in his birth like Luke, or even in his ancestral line like Matthew.  No, the beginning of the good news for John is the beginning of all creation.

The Word was with God and the Word was God and everything that came into being came through the Word… and now John tells us that this very word through which all things were made, has put on flesh and dwells among us. 

In 2010, I tried to wrap my head around what this cosmic truth must have felt like for Mary, and what it means for us as we gaze at the baby in the manger.  Below is the first verse and chorus of the song that came to me:

Here I am, face to face with a faceless God
Gazing deep into the eyes of the all-seeing one

 How can i hold you when I'm wrapped in your arms?
How can i feed the bread of life?
How can this baby have known me in the womb?
How can the angel's words be true?

All of my life, I've tried so hard to believe
In a God so high above, I wondered could you hear me
But now you're here, wrapped in my flesh and bone
And I'm still tryin' O Lord, so hard to believe

For John, it’s not enough that Jesus is Israel’s Messiah or even the Savior of the World.  Jesus is the fullness of the Word that spoke light into the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.  Jesus embodies the Word of Life that spoke all of creation into existence.   John takes seriously the words of the Psalmist who writes, “The heavens declare the majesty of God and the skies proclaim the work of God’s hands” (Psalm 19:1). 

Poetry and art exist to express something deeper than what ordinary words can say.  It is the language of the soul.  John portrays Jesus as the language of God’s heart and soul.  The words of the prophets and the angels were not enough for the people to stay in love with God.  Now it’s time for God to speak directly.  But God doesn’t speak in the language of laws or declarations or doctrinal standards. 

No, God speaks the language of love wrapped in flesh… the pinnacle of God’s creation, humanity itself, now showing us what God’s love really means… a love beyond words, a love beyond actions, a love that gives God’s whole self fully for the sake of the world.

 Listen to full sermon here 

Craig J. Sefa

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Christmas at Luke's

Christmas at Luke’s

December 15, 2024
Luke 2:1-14

Nearby shepherds were living in the fields, guarding their sheep at night. The Lord’s angel stood before them, the Lord’s glory shone around them, and they were terrified.

The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city. He is Christ the Lord. This is a sign for you: you will find a newborn baby wrapped snugly and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great assembly of the heavenly forces was with the angel praising God. They said, “Glory to God in heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors.”

 Luke 2:8-14

_______________

Let’s just be honest.  When it comes to Christmas, Luke’s house is messy.  Mark didn’t even decorate and Matthew stuck to a deeply traditional family gathering with guests worthy of the royal occasion.  Luke, on the other hand, will invite anybody to the party, even filthy shepherds on night watch. 

One can imagine Luke at the grocery store that morning handing out invitations to every cashier and bagger, and then there’s one for the lady at the drive thru window and one for the mail carrier and the garbage collector.  Oh, and don’t forget the homeless guy under the bridge and the drunken crowd with no place to go after last call at the bar.  Any chance we can get a special day pass for the local convicts while we’re at it?

“Hey, there’s a new baby at the little run down shack at the end of the dirt road!  Actually he’s in the shed in the back yard in an old cattle trough, but never mind that.   Everybody come see!” 

Matthew needs to make sure his Jewish audience recognizes God’s faithfulness to them and their ancestors, but Luke has no such concern.  His primary audience already stands outside the religious “members only” club.  Of course there are Gentiles in Matthew like the magi, and there are Jews in Luke, like Simeon and Ana, and possibly even the shepherds (we don’t know).  It’s not that Matthew is excluding outsiders or that Luke is being dismissive of the insiders.  It’s the same message, the same invitation, just for a different audience.

The angel said, “Don’t be afraid! Look! I bring good news to you—wonderful, joyous news for all people. Your savior is born today in David’s city.”  This is exactly what Luke wants to make clear.  Jesus has come for ALL people.  He’s not just a “Christian” Savior or a “Jewish” Savior.  He’s not just the Savior for people of a particular nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, or political affiliation.  He’s not just the Savior for the wealthy or powerful.  He’s not just the Savior for those who are clean and have their lives all put together.  He’s not just the Savior for those who are considered “respectable” in society.  He is YOUR Savior too!

We love to sing “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine and “Jesus loves me, this I know,” but are we as willing to look in the face of the one we don’t want around and say “Jesus is yours too… Jesus loves you too”?

As we move from one gospel account to the next, the scope of the incarnation just keeps expanding.  Christ comes to establish the Kingdom of God on earth.  This Kingdom comes through the Jews and the son of David AND this Kingdom is wonderful, joyous news for ALL people.  I wonder, who else might Luke be telling you to invite for Christmas this year?

 Listen to full sermon here

Craig J. Sefa

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Christmas at Matthew's

Christmas at Matthew’s

December 8, 2024
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15, 19-23

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly.  As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  

Matthew 1:18-20

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Overall, Matthew draws heavily on Mark’s account of Jesus life, death and resurrection, but as we saw last week, Mark doesn’t give Matthew much to work with when it comes to Jesus’ birth.  We don’t know Matthew’s source material for the first few chapters, but we do know that he is very intentional about the way he frames the story.  Matthew relies heavily on the hope of Israel’s prophets and he even begins his story with a genealogy tracing Jesus’ family lineage through Abraham and David. 

Christmas at Matthew’s house is a great big family reunion, but when we look closely at the genealogy, we find that he even invites a few of the “black sheep” that some would rather not see at the reunion.  Outsiders ranging from Rahab to the Magi get a seat and Matthew’s table, but it is clearly still Israel’s table. 

At the end of the day it is Joseph, son of David, who is addressed first by the angel.  Joseph must fully embrace Jesus as his own son, to adopt him as a legal part of David’s household, despite the questionable circumstances around his conception.  

I can only imagine how Joseph must have felt being addressed as a “son of David.”  As an ordinary craftsman, his “royal” lineage did not carry much weight.  King Herod was on the throne and he was little more than a puppet of the Roman Empire.  There was no “son of David” waiting in the wings to save Israel from their oppressors this time.  The idea that Joseph would be in line for the throne must have seemed as laughable to him as the idea of having a child in her extremely old age seemed to Sarah. 

But this is precisely Matthew’s point.  He builds on Mark’s emphasis that this Jesus is indeed the son of God and will usher in God’s kingdom, but Matthew also knows that for his people, none of Jesus’ signs or wonders will mean much without some serious credentials in the Messianic bloodline. 

While Christmas for Mark is all about Jesus’ messianic activity through his life, death and resurrection, Matthew’s Christmas is all about family.  Who is Jesus’ family?  Where does he come from?  Can he truly be the one we have waited for? From the genealogy to the announcement to Joseph and even to the foreign astrologers who see the sign of a new king in Israel, everything about Matthew’s Christmas story points to this simple truth, that Jesus is indeed the heir to David’s throne. 

The Jewish people have gotten a bad wrap in history and even in the gospels as they are often made scapegoats for Jesus’ death.  Matthew reminds us, however, that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel.  Gentile Christians are not a replacement for the Jews.  Instead we see God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled, that through him and the nation of Israel, all nations would feast together on God’s Holy Mountain and God, Emmanuel, would come and dine with us.

Listen to the full sermon here

Craig J. Sefa

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Christmas at Mark's

Christmas at Mark’s

December 1, 2024
Mark 1:1-11

The beginning of the good news about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, happened just as it was written about in the prophecy of Isaiah:

Look, I am sending my messenger before you.
He will prepare your way,
a voice shouting in the wilderness:
        “Prepare the way for the Lord;
        make his paths straight.

Mark 1:1-3

_______________

Wait, what… how is this the beginning of the good news?  What’s going on here Mark?  Where’s the angel chorus, the miraculous birth, the shepherds in the field and the wise men from afar?  Where’s the manger and that “sweet little Jesus boy” we love to sing about this time of year?

The first time we see Jesus in Mark’s gospel is at his baptism, sometime around age 30.  As comedian Mark Lowery says, “God is in the house, isn’t somebody keeping a journal!” 

Christmas at Mark’s house must have been a little… well… non-existent.  If the four gospel writers were neighbors, it appears Mark would be the Scrooge of the crew… no tree, no lights, no presents, no cookies.  For 30 years Jesus has been walking around and Mark doesn’t even seem to know he was born until he shows up at the river where some strange prophet eating locusts and wearing camels hair is calling the people to repentance in preparation for the coming kingdom of God. 

What’s more, Mark’s is actually the earliest gospel account we have, likely dating to more than 30 years after Jesus’ death and at least 10 to 15 years before Matthew’s version of the story (25 to 30 years before Luke or John).  Could you imagine waiting that long for the next iPhone or Android upgrade?  The world was clearly a lot slower back then.

The bottom line is this, for roughly the first 85 years from the time of Jesus’s birth, there was no written account of the Christmas story at all.  Mark is the first that we know of to record anything about Jesus’ life and teachings and he starts recording only 3 years before the end.  It would seem he came a little late to the party.

On the other hand, birthdays were really not very significant in the ancient world.  Birth narratives in Rome were often more mythological accounts written much later to glorify the divine significance of a person’s life, especially someone like an emperor who they would have called the “son of God.”  But we’ll save that for another gospel.  For now, what in the world can we learn about Christmas from Mark?

The beginning of the good news, Mark declares, is not in a manger in Bethlehem, but in the preparation of people’s hearts for the Kingdom of God that was proclaimed centuries before by the prophet Isaiah.  It’s ironic that Mark, the shortest and most high-paced of all the gospels, is the one that looking back, actually calls us to slow down.  Of course his original audience would not have had the Christmas story in any form, but for us, it is a reminder not to rush too fast into Christmas.  First we must prepare our hearts and change our lives.  Christmas is not the beginning of the good news, it’s just one small part of the Kingdom of God breaking into our reality. 

Mark’s question is simply this… “Are you ready?”

Listen to the full sermon here

Craig J. Sefa

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