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 1 Corinthians 1:3-9 What to give someone for Christmas. I have started my Christmas shopping. And it is the same thing every year. What do I get each person on my list for Christmas? Finding the right gift is difficult. There are a lot of thing that need to be taken into account. What do they like and what are their interests. I know that if it is shoes or books Mary will like it. If it has anything to do with music or Disney Kaitlyn will like it. So I have to consider each person's interests, but also their needs. What can I give that that person really needs? And of course there are the costs. I can't very well obtain something, as wonderful a gift as it may be, if I can't afford it. And it just makes sense to try to get the best for my money. So once I find something I try to get it on sale. Having taken all these things into consideration I have a few Christmas presents for you. I didn't find them at the mall. They don't even carry them at Wal-Mart or Target. You can't put them on lay away at Circuit City or Best Buy either. And the best thing is that they are invaluable. You all need them and I won't tell you that they were free, but I didn't spend much for them. And I found them all in one place: 1st Corinthians 1:3-9. The first of these gifts is grace. Grace is the unmerited unearned favor of God. We all need it. I mean without it none of us would have a chance. It is only by the grace of God that we are saved. It is by the grace of God that we are able to know forgiveness and have a relationship with our Heavenly Father. And you have to admit the cost is affordable. Grace is a free gift. Not that it is cheap or worthless. In fact it is very costly. Jesus gave his very life to pay for it. So God can offer it to us free of charge. So my first Christmas gift to you is grace. You don't have to wait until Christmas morning to open it. It is here now. Take it - it is yours: merry Christmas. The second Christmas gift I have for you is peace. The Hebrew word for peace is shalom. The idea is not just an absence of violence. It means wholeness and health. Not just physical health but spiritual and emotional. To have that peace that passeth understanding is a gift of faith. It is to be whole spiritually and emotionally. You have to admit that everyone needs that; especially in our world today. Very few people are at peace. Most are full or anxieties and worries. And they are hardly whole and healthy. Most people are emotionally and spiritually incomplete and soul sick! And once again you can't beat the price. Peace in this sense is priceless. But once again Jesus had already paid the price. So, to us this priceless gift is free. The third Christmas gift I have for you is what Paul called "the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." It is a relationship with Jesus the Son of God. This is something that we all need. Without it we are lost and without hope. Our earthly friends can betray and deny us. But Jesus will always be there for us night and day; rain or shine. And again the price was great. I didn't even need use a credit card to purchase it. Don't misunderstand; this gift is more valuable than all the gold in Fort Knox. Even Bill Gates couldn't afford to buy this with his billions. I was able to get it because it was already paid for. And so I offer it to you: merry Christmas. But there is a problem with these gifts. I am sure they all fit. One size fits all you know. I know what I forgot. The first rule of gift giving: does the person already have the thing you want to give? If they already have one then you should find something else that they don't already have. I think that you all have grace and peace and fellowship with Jesus. They have already been given to us by God. That is what Paul is saying here in 1 Corinthians. He is thanking God for the gifts he has already given the Corinthians. In fact every Christian has these things simply by virtue of believing in Jesus. We have grace, we have peace, and we have a relationship with Jesus our savior. That is what Christmas is all about. God gave us Jesus, the Prince of Peace, wrapped in grace. How silly of me to think that I should give you these things as Christmas presents. I mean you already have them �. Don't you? If you haven't accepted grace and peace and a relationship with Jesus, then please accept these Christmas gifts.
Isaiah 64:1-9 - Tracy Chapman - Like the folk singer Tracy Chapman I see what is happening in our world and it disturbs me. I watch the news and day after day people kill each other and abuse each other. Violence and hated and war and greed and avarice. In the streets people die for lack of food clothing and shelter. In our towns people kill and are killed for drugs: AIDS epidemics, crack houses, drive by shootings, teen suicide. In our homes, families abuse and kill one another: child abuse, spouse abuse, elder abuse� And modern technology makes my anxiety worse. Digital technology and satellites bring live images unedited from all over the world right into our living rooms. When we see people dying in a war on the other side of the planet we cannot say, "Oh that is over. This is history I am watching." People are actually killing and dying at that moment. And their cries are heard by us in our easy chairs. I was at Annual Conference in Spartanburg in 1989 when the students were massacred at Tienamin square. During the breaks I would go to a student lounge there at Wofford where they had a big screen T.V. and CNN. And I would watch what was going on. As young people, my age and younger, stood up for freedom. As they defied the evil of a totalitarian state to establish the righteousness of human rights. And as the tanks came in and tore down their statue of liberty. And inside I was crying, "Someone, do something!" But what could I do. I have no voice or influence with the communist leaders in Bejing. I was helpless. So I cried to the only one who could do something, and I said, "God, do something." A lot of us felt the same way on September 11th 2001 as we watched the towers fall. I believe that is exactly how the prophet Isaiah felt. He had seen Israel decline spiritually and politically. God had intended Israel to be a holy people called to bless the nations. But the people strayed from God. They worshipped idols. They committed acts of injustice and hatred to one another and forgot the holiness of God. As a result of their abandonment of God, they declined as a nation. In the beginning God had made Israel strong and great, but by Isaiah's day they had grown weak. The northern part of Israel fell to an invading army. What little was left of Israel was under the thumb of a foreign government. How could Israel be God's holy people, doing justice and mercy, blessing the nations, if a pagan king was telling them what to do? Isaiah remembered God's mighty acts of salvation from the past. God had brought Israel out of captivity with a mighty hand. God had led them through the wilderness feeding them bread from heaven. God made them a strong nations. But the people turned from God and it appeared that God was going to let them fall into slavery again. And so the prophet turned to God and said, "I wish you would tear open heaven and come down." In the past prophets had only asked God to look down and see what was happening and remember the covenant. This request was radically new. As Isaiah surveyed the trouble he realized how hopeless things were. Somebody had to do something and God was the only one who could. So he cried for God Almighty to come down and make it right again. Today is the first Sunday in Advent. Advent means "coming." Christmas is coming, but we remember also that Christ is coming. In Advent we remember the comings of Christ. Jesus came to Bethlehem in the past. He comes by the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts in the present. And he will come again on clouds of glory in the future. When Jesus came to Bethlehem, That was God's answer to Isaiah's prayer. By sending Jesus, God tore open heaven and personally came to make things right. That is what Christmas is all about: God coming to dwell in our midst and to bring healing to broken lives. And that is what Jesus did. He healed the sick, loved the unloved, ate with sinners and told them of God's holiness. He brought good news and freedom to the poor and oppressed. And he died to bring forgiveness to the sinners of the world. The prophet Isaiah and I both see the pain around us and we say "Somebody ought to do something." The good news of the Christmas Season is that God did something about it. God Almighty in the flesh came to earth to make what was wrong right. And by the Holy Spirit, God is still among us healing the sick, freeing the oppressed, making the broken people whole again. And Christ will come again to make all things right. As Christmas approaches, look at the world. See the pain, the brokenness, the loneliness, the lostness, the poverty around you. Don't just throw your arms up in disgust when you see the state that the world is in. Remember that Jesus came to do something about it. Instead of throwing your arms up in disgust, throw them up to God. And God Almighty in the flesh will respond to your prayers. God did it for Isaiah, and we celebrate that fact every year. God will also do it for you!
Isaiah 63:16-64:8 In Isaiah's day the children of Israel were separated from the Promised Land. Since the time of Moses' death they had lived in the land that God had promised their ancestors Abraham and Sarah. Now they had been taken off to a foreign land. In the Promised Land, they had praised their Lord for the land they had been given. In Israel they would worship God in the temple that Solomon had built and in which God dwelt. Now that temple had been destroyed and they had been carried off far from its site. Now, in exile, they lived in a land where people worship other gods. It was bad enough that the children of Israel were separated from the temple and their homeland, but there was more. They were also separated from God. Even though they knew that God was their Father, their hearts were hard, and they had turned their backs on their heavenly father. In their separation from the divine love of God they suffered. It may have taken an invading army to take them away, but their hearts had already strayed from the place where God dwelt. People have not changed much since Isaiah's day. People today are exiled from the Promised Land in their own way. People today are separated from their traditions and any references to time tested values. Like the people of Israel, the armies of the world have carried the children of God away from God's Promised Land. We live in an age when people's hearts are still hard. We have been separated from the only one who could show us how to truly love one another. As a result we suffer from spiritual and emotional isolation. But this has always been the human condition. Humanity in general is separated from its Heavenly Father. Sinfulness has always been the order of the day in this age. And because of our separation we have no reference to what the meaning of love is. The result is sin and oppression: one human being mistreating another. Because of sinfulness and hard heartedness human hearts have always strayed from the place where God dwells. And like the Children of Israel we dwell in a strange land, exiled from the places and the people we love, separated from them because of our own lovelessness. Not only have the temples been destroyed and abandoned but our hearts are broken and distraught because we have driven God's love from them. It seems there is no solution to the human dilemma. But Isaiah had an answer. He knew that what the people needed was a close encounter of the Divine kind. They needed to experience God with them, as they had in the desert. They needed to come face to face with God like Moses had on Sinai. They needed more than just getting their temple and land back. They needed God to be so close to them that they could touch the Almighty's robes. It is one thing to know that someone cares; it is another thing entirely to have them pat you on the back or give you hug. They needed God to become so real for them and so close that they could shake hands. That kind of thing cannot be brought about by preaching. I don't care if you have Billy Graham, Mother Theresa and the pope all working on it. And Isaiah the prophet, as powerful a preacher he was, couldn't do it. He knew that kind of encounter can only be brought about by God. So Isaiah prayed. He prayed with earnestness and depth. He prayed with faith. He said, "Lord I wish you would rend the heavens open and come down here. I pray that you would appear to them like you appeared to Moses in the burning bush or to our Mothers and Fathers in the desert." "Then all the world will see how great you are." You may ask, "Did God ever answered Isaiah's prayer?" The answer is, "Yes! God did answer that prayer." The heavens were rent by an Almighty hand. And the hosts of heaven came streaming down for common everyday folk to see. And the Word of God dwelt with people. And it was so real! It was so real, that Mary held the Word of God in her arms. And God was so human that this incarnation shivered from the cold and had to be swaddled. And it cried. And he cried. And the world had a chance to hear God speak in penetrating tones like the shrillness of a baby's cry. And God's voice carried not only to the Inn next door, or merely to the corners of the earth, but to the corners of human hearts.
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