Good morning, Friends!
We’ve already had a lot of Christmas activities and music this morning. It’s all good, and it’s all fun, but I don’t want to wear you out and run overtime today.
I do want to talk about Christmas. Or, to put it more accurately, I want to talk with you about what Christmas is all about. To get started, I’m going to read a short, familiar passage of Scripture.
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to take away our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.
1 John 4:7-21
OK, here’s my question for today.
What is the most important thing? What do we need to do?
We need to hope. Always believe that God is here. No matter how dark the world seems to be getting, always believe that God is light, and that light can overcome the darkness. The light is still shining, and it always will be. The darkness will never put it out.
Hope that God can make a way, when it seems like there is no way. I saw one of those pictures on Facebook this week – “God didn’t remove the Red Sea; God parted it. Sometimes God doesn’t remove our problems. He makes a way through them.”
Another thing that’s really important is faith.
Faith – that was the story of Mary last week. Mary believed in the word the angel said to her. Mary could have been thinking, “What am I going to say to my husband? What am I going to say to my family? This is the worst thing that ever could have happened to me!”
But Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior. From now on, people everywhere will call me blessed. Let this happen, just as the Lord has said!”
Faith means believing in God, even when we can’t see the road ahead. Faith means not giving up, in all the things you’ve heard about God. Faith is believing that God’s life is stronger even than death. Faith isn’t just words; faith is putting our trust in God.
God will lead us. God will make a way. God will lift us up. God is with us. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Even when my enemies are all lined up and set to attack, God spreads a banquet before me.
When I’m feeling dry and used up and hurt and empty, God will let me lack for nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside peaceful waters. He restores my soul. That’s faith.
Today, the message of Christmas is that God is love.
Many of you know the Bible verse that says that “God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, so that whoever believes in Him will not die, but have everlasting life. God didn’t send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that through Him the whole world might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)
God loves us. God loves you all so very much. We make mistakes. We fall short of the glory God intends for us. But even when we fall flat and fail, God still loves us.
Love has been God’s plan from the very beginning. There is no one who is outside the circle of God’s love.
The old song says, “Red and yellow, black and white, we are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.” All the children. Every last one.
People ask, “What’s the most important thing I should be doing? What do I have to do to be saved?”
Some people say the answer is, “Be baptized!” Actually, Jesus didn’t baptize anyone.
Like John the Baptist, Jesus said, “Turn your life around. You’re heading in the wrong direction. Turn around. Give up your old way, the way of death. Take the way that leads to life instead.”
But baptism is only a symbol, an outward ceremony, that a person has made that inner decision to change their life.. It’s saying, “I want to live in Jesus’ way, not my old way.”
Quakers say that what matters isn’t the outward ceremony; what matters is changing your life. Unless you change your life, baptism doesn’t mean anything. It’s no change at all. The real change is in your heart, in your mind, and in your way of life.
People ask, “What’s the most important thing I should be doing? What do I have to do to be saved?”
In the Bible, the answer Jesus gave was, “Give to the poor. Give food to the hungry, and drink to the thirsty. If someone asks for your shirt, give them your coat as well. If you see someone hurt and broken by the side of the road, stop and help them. Go the extra mile. Look after their needs.”
Give as much as you can, and a little bit more. Give cheerfully – God loves joyful giving! There’s always something you can give. even if it’s just a cup of cold water. Even if all you can give is a listening ear. Even if all you can give is a prayer or a word of encouragement.
God has given us so much, even when we don’t deserve it. That’s what grace means. And what God has given us so much, we need to give back, to pay it forward, to share whatever we can.
In Bible study this week, we read the part where Paul says, “Whatever you plant, that’s what you’ll harvest. If you plant sparingly, you won’t harvest very much. God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, you will have everything you need. You will abound in every good work. Through your giving, other people will give thanks to God!”
That’s why we do all the gifts at Christmas. Christmas gifts are a reminder of the gift God gave to the whole world, and to every one of us. Sometimes, giving is the most important thing we can do.
For some people – for a lot of people – the most important thing they need to do is simply to be healed. That’s why all those healing stories are there in the Bible. Jesus healed so many people. There’s no record that Jesus ever turned anyone away who came to him in faith.
Jesus never asked anyone, “Are you worthy? Do you deserve to be healed?” He never asked, “What mistake did you make, what sin did you or your parents commit?”
He just healed people. He made them well again. In that moment, that was the most important thing for them.
Today’s reading reminds us that the most important thing is always to love. “Love one another. Love comes from God.”
Jesus himself said, “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another, the same way I have loved you. You are my friends, if you do what I tell you. Love one another.” (John 15)
Today’s reading goes on to say, “This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
Love came down at Christmas. Love came to be here, to share our life. to be one of us. Love came down at Christmas, in Jesus, to show us the way.