Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

All Sermons are © Copyrighted and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the express permission of the author.

Matthew and the other three Gospel writers (but especially Matthew) want us to understand that Jesus fulfilled everything that had come before. Jesus was the culmination of the Old Testament, the completion of God's word. All previous history had pointed forward to him, and all subsequent history would look back upon him. Jesus is, as Carl Michaelson called him, "the hinge of history."

Here, in his version of the Christmas story, for instance, Matthew starts by telling the simple story of a young Mary and an older Joseph, to whom she was pledged in marriage (arranged probably by her father for a price).  The action of the story takes place before they were actually wed. Mary turns up pregnant, and Joseph is decent about it -- decides not to humiliate her but simply to call the deal off -- quietly. Yet God reassures Joseph that this is a very special child. God tells him to go ahead and make Mary his wife.  Call the child Jesus.

In Fulfillment of Prophesy

And, at this point, Matthew inserts his fulfillment theology: "All this took place," he tells us, "to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel…God with us."  Nothing happens by chance in God's creation. It was a different world, when something that was true yesterday, was also true today, and could be counted on to be true tomorrow -- when it was possible to believe that a simple, mundane event such as an unexpected pregnancy could be part of a great cosmic plan -- when the words of a prophet five hundred years before could be just as present, just as urgent, just as real as words spoken at today's breakfast table.

When people had roots. When there was a context for our comings and goings. When life wasn't one disjointed, meaningless event after another, "a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing." Matthew is certain that Isaiah, and Jesus, and he and we are part of a plan. He is telling us how that plan unfolded in the coming of Jesus, how he fulfilled the word of God, and how we must fulfill the Word that was Jesus. All life and history is knitted together in the mind of God. One way we preserve such continuity is consciously to remember the past in traditions and rituals. And Christmas, of course, is the mother of all traditions. Much that we do at this time of year has it's roots in God's word, some does not.

Should We Be Ashamed At Christmas?

There are preachers who aren't happy until they have ruined their people's Christmases with tirades of guilt. "How can we enjoy all these things," they ask, "when others have so little?" Shame! I'm not like that. I like Christmas, all the lights and the mistletoe, and the baby Jesus, and the remembering, and the carols, and the love that comes down this time of year. It's not either/or. We can have Christmas and remember others, too. And when we do, Christmas is never better, never more meaningful.

Sticking Some Envelopes in the Christmas Tree

Dick Roth sent an E-Mail this week, with the best Christmas story I've seen this year. A woman tells the story. She begins talking about a tradition which began in her family ten Christmases ago, and has been continued, growing in meaning every year. If you go to her home at Christmastime, she says, you will see several small, white envelopes nestled in the branches of the Christmas tree. It started ten years ago, just before Christmas, when she and her husband took their son to a high school wrestling match. The opposing team was from the inner city, and the boys on that team were wrestling in shoes that were so ragged they seemed to be held together only by the laces. They had no head gear, no nice uniforms like our team. "Our boys, in their spiffy blue and gold, trounced the boys from the city, but neither my husband nor I could be happy about it."

Mike always hated the commercialism of Christmas, so that year I decided to do something different. I took some the money I had planned to spend on his gift, and bought shoes and headgear for those inner city kids, and on Christmas Eve I put an envelope in the tree, addressed to him, telling him what I had done. When he opened that envelope on Christmas morning, I've never seen him look so happy. We never said the act had to be repeated, or that anyone else should do it, but now every family member puts an envelope in the tree, addressed to someone else. Inside is a description of something that person has done for others, in the name of the recipient, to celebrate Christmas. And those envelopes, more than all the other "presents," are anticipated on Christmas morning. We open them one by one, and read them aloud, and it is the most important part of Christmas at our house."

Is Christmas Out of Place in a Traumatic Week?

It's been a traumatic week: military strikes in a far away place, a president impeached. No one comes away from either with any joy. Perhaps both had to be done. It seems so out of place at Christmas. Yet we should remember that the first Christmas seemed out of place. Mary and Joseph may have believed.  Surely they -- and a few shepherds and three wise men -- were the only ones who thought this little swaddling child, born in a stable, was the savior of the world. How could such a thing occur in such a way? Does God really have a plan? He does indeed, although we often fail to see it.

Unnoticed Events Can Be Most Important

A visitor from the backwoods of Kentucky arrived in the bustling new city of Washington, D.C. in the year 1809. There were only a few public buildings. All the roads were dirt. He found his congressman and said to him,

How I envy you, living where exciting things happen every day, where history is being made. Life is so boring back home. You know what was the most exciting thing that happened in our little town last year? Tom Lincoln's wife had a baby.

God was at work. God was at work in Jesus Christ, fulfilling his word to his people Israel. He is at work today, even in (perhaps especially in) the events that bring us no joy. There is a comfort in that, although at times it is a bitter comfort. Join Wholeheartedly In God's Plan for You

Moreover, God has a plan of fulfillment, so that his whole creation will someday be returned to the paradise it once was. And we are part of that plan. When we fight God's plan we are miserable, like cows "kicking against the goad," Jesus said When we discover God's plan and accept it for our lives we are happy. Do not wait until it is all laid out before you like a road map. Step forward. Go one mile. Test the waters of faith. This Christmas do something that just might be part of God's plan for you. Try something. Take a risk. Don't be a spiritual couch potato. Open yourself in love to someone, knowing that everyone who has ever done that has been hurt. Believe you are doing what God would have you do. If you aren't he will let you know. But chances are you will be, and (as the song says) "this could be the start of something big."