I'm working on my Christmas Eve message, based on Luke 2:10. Lend a hand?
We give a lot of gifts this time of year, at the office, to friends, at church, and of course to family members.
Most of our gifts aren't really gifts, of course. They're honors or obligations. At the office we give gifts becuae it's expected. Among friends, we sometimes give give them because they've been given to us. Even among family members, we play the delicate game of ensuring that everybody gets gifts of equal value or in the same amount. The great problem of Christmas is to ensure that our gifts are all fair.
Yet a gift, by its nature, is not fair. It is not deserved, and it carries no duty to return the favor. God's gift to us is exactly that--undesereved, completely free, and absolutely without obligation. God forgives us because he loves us.
Here's the challenge for Christmas Eve. How do I communicate the fact that God's gift is compeletly free to people (I'm including myself) who are used to dealing with obligations?
How do I convince otherwise self-sufficient people that they cannot swap gifts with God--because they're emptyhanded?
What story or illustration might help people see that sin is a problem in their lives that they are powerless to fix?
How can I encourage people to see that accepting God's love frees them (rather than putting them somehow deeper in debt)?
I would like people to leave on Christmas Eve (a communion service) feeling that they are forgiven, loved, and free. What can I say to them that will communciate that message?
Your thoughts?
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3 comments:
"Here's the challenge for Christmas Eve. How do I communicate the fact that God's gift is compeletly free to people (I'm including myself) who are used to dealing with obligations?"
gift (gft)
n.
1. Something that is bestowed voluntarily and without compensation.
A true gift given requires nothing but once giving makes you feel like giving something back.
That's so true. God gives without obligation--but by recieving the gift we are changed.
I do have a little story that represents a free gift:
The Christmas of 2006 we were homeless. We didn't have keys. Not to a car,
not to a home. We'd flown halfway around the world, leaving behind a
ministry we toiled over. Much, particularly in our hearts, lay in ruins.
Some friends had a camp, and on that camp stood a barn. In the corner of the
barn was a tiny apartment, flanked by this caboose and hundreds of acres of
Texas pasture. We'd never been there before, so we followed directions at
night, making plenty of wrong turns.
When we found the place, we drove a borrowed car over the cattle guard
toward what would be our home for a month. String lights illuminated a small
porch, a window and a door in the corner of an aluminum-sided barn. We
hefted large pieces of luggage to the apartment.
And when we opened the door, Love welcomed us.
The place, usually completely unfurnished in the winter, was decked out with
just the right amount of beds, couches and tables. The pantry was full. We
had dishes and garbage cans, and cups and forks and food. But even more, we
had a Christmas tree. Friends had hijacked the place, decorating it for
Christmas. Cookies preened on the table.
I will never, ever forget that Christmas. We had so little. We felt the
painful burden of failure. But we were loved, so terribly and wonderfully
loved.
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