Episode Transcript
This morning, I'm going to begin a Christmas message series
that's called.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hope has a Name.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
There's a name, because Christmas is not just nostalgia or
hot chocolate or pretending you like fruitcake.
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It's more than that.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
There's more to it. It is about hope. But hope
that is in the context of that which is real, gritty,
honest hope that has a name.
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And I would submit that the name of that hope
is Jesus. It is Jesus. Think about it.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Without Jesus, there would not be a Christmas, regardless of
how you celebrate it, whether it's Christmas, Christmas or just
a holiday. You wouldn't even have the holiday if it
wasn't for this birth.
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This birth, it's the only reason.
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That Christmas exists.
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Because of this person we call Jesus. But like for
us to be real. As they say, sometimes.
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And oftentimes especially around Christmas, hope can.
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Feel far away, far away. Perhaps the year didn't go
well as good as you thought it would go.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
Maybe life feels that you were stuck on repeat mode,
just the same old stuff, the same old six and seven.
You want to feel hopeful, but your heart feels like
it's running on a depleted, battery.
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Worn out, And that is exactly where Mary was when
Hope showed up. Let's put it into that context.
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She responded, said, you know, the angel went to her
and said this, said, greetings you, who are highly.
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Favored the Lord, it is with you.
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And Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered
what kind of greeting.
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Might this be? Well, here are some things I would
like for us to consider.
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If hope seems far away to you, If hope seems
far away, and then all of a sudden you find
that you have that moment in which there is an
invitation that you believe might possibly take you to a
better place than you are right now.
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Hope often starts in the ordinary. And here's what I
mean by that. Mary. She wasn't she wasn't famous. She
was a teenager in an over town. I don't know
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about you, but whenever I travel.
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To other cities, larger cities, and I say.
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I'm from Pewaukee, people go what.
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Or They've never heard of mcwannago or Walla Tusa. And
that's the kind of place that Nazareth was. No One
really cared much about what what could come good from.
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A place like that. Nazareth was the kind of place
in the scriptures that talks about it. It says, can
anything good come from that place?
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We want to hear from Chicago or New York or
LA but Pewaukee.
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That's what Nazareth was.
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And sometimes we can miss God's hope because.
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We expected to come with flashing lights. But it usually starts.
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In the small, quiet corners of life. And I would
also suggest it starts in the small quiet corners of
your life too.
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Maybe you're waiting for something big to change that.
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Right job, that enduring relationship, or maybe you're hoping the
diagnosis will.
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Change that it will move to a different place.
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You're you're looking for a new direction in life, and
God is whispering to you.
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Then I'm all read the.
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Working where you are right now.
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I am working in your ordinary. But there's also something
else as we but to put together.
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The hope of Christmas is that hope.
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Besides flourishing in the ordinary.
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As it did for Mary, hope also speaks much louder
than fear. It has a louder articulation. The Angel I
love it, The just says, don't be afraid, now, don't
be afraid is angel speak for don't freak out.
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I know this is a lot for you to handle.
That's what it is.
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So why does God start there in the beginning of
this journey with Mary saying, don't be afraid. It's because
in our fears we gotta watch it. Because fear is
the loudest voice in most.
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Of our lives. What if I fail? What if I
can't handle it? What if I'm not enough?
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Fear says you can't, But hope says God can't.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
Fear, I can't. Hope God can.
Speaker 1 (07:43):
Now, Mary clearly didn't understand everything, but she knew the
one who did, and that.
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Would be her comfort.
Speaker 1 (07:56):
Her response was, well, I'm the Lord's servant.
Speaker 2 (08:02):
May it be to me your word be fulfilled.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
I think when she says that she's not talking about
blind faith. Blind faith is a good thing for a
rock band, but has nothing to do with the faith
that catapults us forward in our lives.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Hers was an anchored faith.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
She understood what the scriptures declared about God's promises in
a Messiah who would be born, and what that cross
would mean from the manger. She understood that it was
an anchored faith. It wasn't a mindless blind faith. It
was anchored faith that says, I don't know how this
(08:50):
will work, but I.
Speaker 2 (08:53):
Know who's working. It's a big difference there. I don't
know how this is going to be solved.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I don't know how this challenge we have will work out,
but I do know this.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
I know who's working it.
Speaker 1 (09:12):
And that's where our trust and our faith is, and
that is what gives us strength to move on and on.
And now there's also something else about when hope feels
far away. Okay, hope is not the absence of uncertainty.
Speaker 2 (09:31):
It's something more. It is trusting.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
God in the middle of it, in the middle of
the messes where we can't imagine how the solution will
work itself out in detail, but saying I know God's
got this, God's got the back.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
Now that's also contextualized very a little more. Think of
her situation.
Speaker 1 (10:07):
She's pregnant, she's going to be she's not married, and
all this was in the culture that you put those
things together.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
It can get you stoned. And her fiance, Joe, he.
Speaker 1 (10:28):
Can walk away, her community, her faith community could reject her.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
And yet she says, I'm in here. I am.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
I can't imagine how it to work out, But I
know who's doing the detailing.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
She chooses.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Faith over fear, and she trusts the promise of God
more than the problem. Sometimes we will focus on the
problems in life instead of trusting on the promises that
(11:14):
we have in God's word as we go through the
challenges of life. So her life is also a reminder
that we embrace and we trust the power of God's word,
that we are loved by a holy God. And that's
what Christmas hope does. It looks uncertainty in the eye.
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We all have uncertainty we're having to face in our tomorrows.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
We look at uncertainty in the eye and it says.
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God is not done, God's not finished, and how can
we come to that spot?
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You may ask very easy, because hope is a person.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It's not just an idea or a philosophy or a religion,
none of that stuff.
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It is a person and the person is Jesus. It's
not a feeling.
Speaker 1 (12:36):
So Mary's hope, if you will, wasn't in her strength.
Come on, it wasn't really in her circumstances. Her strength
wasn't in her reputation that catapulted her forward.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
Her hope was in the child that she cared Jesus,
and you can carry Jesus too in your life.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
And that's what we celebrate at Christmas, and all of
the traditions and experiences and times. We will have this
month to gather and tell the story and retell the
story and sing about it, and light candles and drip
wax all over the carpet and just have a good
old time because it's a wonderful story. It's not a
(13:41):
vague feeling of optimism, but a savior who came close
to us, so in hope feels far away.
Speaker 4 (13:55):
Maybe words my hope.
Speaker 2 (13:59):
Remember God is near.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
He didn't send a postcard from Heaven saying I'm thinking
of you.
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He shows up in the middle of the mess, wrapped
in swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes. I have a confession to make.
Speaker 1 (14:30):
I love thrift stores and rummage sales. Drives my wife crazy.
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She even has nothing to do with them.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I keep thinking, maybe I will find that vintage
Martin guitar.
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That's way underprice, or.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
I'll finally be able to get that Macintoss audio file
power amplifier and a fraction of the cost.
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Because people won't know what they got. I can find
the deal and I love going.
Speaker 4 (15:01):
I remember this last summer, I was at an antique
store in downtown Waukeshall and they have a little section
in the back where it's you know, they got a
little fence around it.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
We can park around it.
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And in their shop they had a Nativity scene the characters,
and I noticed.
Speaker 1 (15:27):
Mary's hand was broken off, the donkey was missing an.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Ear, and Baby Jesus was chipped. Oh my goodness, I
love it.
Speaker 1 (15:43):
The lady there said, it's not perfect, but it still
tells the story. And I thought, and I said to her,
and so do we. We're not perfect, but we still
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tell the story.
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Your life does not have to be perfect for God
to use it, not at all, because.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
God specializes in hope that shines through our cracks.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
Okay, Mary's yes, change the world.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
But it started with an ordinary girl in an ordinary
small town who believed in an extra ordinary promise.
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Will you believe in that promise?
Speaker 1 (17:00):
I you notice you go to these gift shops and
they'll have everything to just say believe on it.
Speaker 2 (17:07):
We have a belief.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
Matt in our bathroom at the parsonage, and when I
say it, I go, that's terrible.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Believe believe what, believe what you want to insert.
Speaker 1 (17:19):
No, it's not just to not just to believe, but
you have to have some definition there.
Speaker 2 (17:29):
To believe in an extraordinary promise that God so love
the world. It's us that he gave his son, Jesus.
That's what we believe.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Hope didn't just visit Mary, Hope moved in. Please stand,
let us pray together. Holy God, We thank you for
speaking hope into ordinary people and messy moments.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
When fear is loud, let us hear your voice louder.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
When hope feels far away, remind us that you already
came near.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
In Jesus' name, we come, ah Man
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