Hannah sat down this afternoon and said she would write my sermon for tomorrow. Here is what she came up with:
Today’s sermon is about Christmas. Christmas is a time of joy, happiness, love, compassion, and many other virtues that lots of people forget. For those people in our towns, cities, states, and even our own personal lives, it’s not even about those virtues. The typical, non-Christian person’s idea of Christmas is a long morning full of unwrapping gifts and drinking hot cocoa next to a fire set ablaze.
The Christian’s idea of a Christmas scene is a Nativity manger under a shack-looking thing with shepherds and wise men huddled around the newborn baby Jesus and his earthly parents, Mary and Joseph. How different is that from the other’s view who don’t see it like that? It might be identical. The wise men brought gifts, so do we need to automatically assume that we are to offer gifts, and expect some in return? Others that see the Christmas scene as a Christmas tree with glowing lights around it and presents underneath it will see it the same way too. They give presents and also expect some. They expect Ones with their name on it written in someone else’s handwriting. Why are they looking if they already have one? Jesus’ present to us was that He died, with our name on it.
Why, then, do you ask, that they are still not content with their ultimate present? Maybe, they have not met their wise men. The wise men traveled from afar to get to the baby Jesus, the King. Some researchers found out it could have even taken 2 years to get to them. Never once did they give up, either. They kept on going throughout circumstances we are not even aware of. They came, and never gave up on getting to Jesus.
Why aren’t we like that? We should be their wise men. Travel to them, no matter what the circumstances are, and what they might be. Know that they, too, received that present, the ultimate present of eternal life that they don’t have to pay for. The one with their name on it.
Think about all those people that you may know, or you may not. Think about all of them, the ones that don’t know that they have eternal life under their Christmas tree. Be their wise man. Their wise man that will travel far to get them to their King and their Savior. Be a wise man.