Jesus’ Wish List *

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday – Jesus’ Wish List *
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
December 24, 2013

Merry Christmas Friends!  Every time I watch that scene from the History Channel’s Bible Series I get a little teary eyed.  I’m moved by the mess of it.  There’s nothing clean or simple about it.  It’s got the elements of a seriously powerful story.  Political intrigue.  Down and out characters.  Foreign emissaries.  Money.  Precious jewels.  Poverty.  A new king being born.  And a big question: what will this king be like?  What will this king demand of his kingdom?

I’m not sure how we got from The Nativity to this:

I’m sure no one has fried cat on their Christmas wish list.  How is your shopping for presents going?  Got it all done?  Was it easy?  Hard?  It always depends for me on who I’m shopping for.  It’s easy to shop for my wife, Sarah.  I just buy her clothes.  Easy?  Yes, easy.  “How is it easy to buy clothes for your wife?” you ask.  Here’s my secret: I don’t even try to figure out what she thinks will look good.  I simply buy what I think looks good and when she sees my reaction to how good she looks in it, she’s sold.  Boom shakalaka!  Sarah, easy.

On the other hand, my dad is super hard to buy gifts for.  How do you buy gifts for a guy  who has most everything he wants?  And if he doesn’t have what he wants, he just goes out and buys it.  Well, one year I nailed it.  I’m not sure it was for Christmas, but it was a gift he would never forget.  I simply wrote down several memories I had of him growing up, and by the end of it I had four pages of memories.  He cried as he read them.  Here are some of the memories I wrote down:

• I remember the feel of my dad’s prickly face at the end of the day as he kissed me good night.
• I remember the first day I beat my dad running.  We raced in the street.  It was the last time we raced.
• I remember my dad offering the suggestion that I get out in front at the beginning of the mile-long race in middle school track.  I followed his advice.  I’m not sure it helped my race, but I remember with great satisfaction the joy of having pleased him in watching me.
• I remember the one and only time I yelled at my dad.  I was in college.  As my volume raised and my curse rang out, my voice cracked and the effect was considerably less than I desired.  While my dad did not often raise his voice with me, it was the last time either of us yelled at one another.

Boom shakalaka!  Dad, hard, but done.

Mike Slaughter asks a question that I think all of us should ponder:

How can we change the traditional focus of Christmas from materialistic self-indulgence to giving Jesus what he desires for his birthday?…What can you possibly give the Lord of the universe? 

What can you possibly give the Lord of the universe!  Now that’s an even harder person to shop for than my dad.  Slaughter goes on to say:

Fortunately, Jesus made his wish list unquestionably clear.

Then he points to a passage in the book of the Bible written by Matthew, one of Jesus’ closest followers.  Matthew was a Jewish tax collector.  His fellow Jews considered him a sell-out to the empire that occupied their territory.  Maybe this is why Matthew was sure to get this story down from Jesus.  Listen for Jesus’ birthday wish list.  It’s obvious.

Matthew 25:31-40 (The Message)
“When he finally arrives, blazing in beauty and all his angels with him, the Son of Man will take his place on his glorious throne. Then all the nations will be arranged before him and he will sort the people out, much as a shepherd sorts out sheep and goats, putting sheep to his right and goats to his left. 

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Enter, you who are blessed by my Father! Take what’s coming to you in this kingdom. It’s been ready for you since the world’s foundation. And here’s why: 

I was hungry and you fed me,
I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
I was homeless and you gave me a room,
I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
I was sick and you stopped to visit,
I was in prison and you came to me.’ 

“Then those ‘sheep’ are going to say, ‘Master, what are you talking about? When did we ever see you hungry and feed you, thirsty and give you a drink? And when did we ever see you sick or in prison and come to you?’ Then the King will say, ‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’ 

I interact with a lot of people who have questions about God.  Sycamore Creek Church tries to be a faith community that is curious, creative, and compassionate.  We’re curious because we welcome questions.  I’ve got questions too.  And this is a question I get asked a lot:

If God is all-loving and all-powerful, then why doesn’t God do something about evil? 

One “answer to this question is simple: you are the ‘something’ that God is sending to combat evil in this world” (Slaughter).  The way that you live your life, the hungry you feed, the thirsty you share a drink with, the homeless you give a room, the shivering you share your coat with, the sick you visit, and the prisoner you go see are what is on Jesus’ wish list.  They’re on Jesus’ wish list because they’re Jesus’ plan for bringing healing and wholeness to the world.  “We need to be committed to live more simply so that others may simply live—because that is what Jesus desires from his followers” (Slaughter).

This means that we need to think differently about how we celebrate Christmas.  News flash: it’s not your birthday.  Did you know that?   It’s not your birthday or your kid’s birthday or your grandkid’s birthday or your husband or wife’s birthday.  It’s Jesus’ birthday!  That means that on Christmas we need to throw a huge birthday bash for the birthday boy, Jesus.  Are there any Christmas presents under your Christmas tree that have Jesus’ name on them?  Have you included any family traditions that remind your family that you’re not celebrating each others birthdays, but you’re celebrating Jesus’ birthday?

Let me make a simple suggestion: give something to Jesus that is on Jesus’ wish list this year.  And we’re giving you an opportunity to do that today: our Christmas Eve offering that will go 100% to our medical missions in Nicaragua.  This isn’t the only way that you can give Jesus something this Christmas, but it is one great way.

We’ve been challenging ourselves this (and every Christmas) to give away as much as you spend on yourself at Christmas.  Or maybe you have to spend half as much on yourself so that you can give half away.    Imagine if every person who calls themselves a Christian did this.  Imagine if they gave to some mission or charity somewhere in the world.  Here’s how the math plays out: the average family spend about $800 on Christmas.  So this year you spend $400 and give $400.  78% of Americans claim to be Christians.  That’s about 234,000,000 Christians in America alone.  So multiply $400 by 234 million and you get: $93,600,000,000.  That’s $93 billion!  $93 billion!  How much would it cost to end world hunger?  The estimates aren’t perfect, but according to the United Nations, it would cost $30 billion a year (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/04/news/04iht-04food.13446176.html?_r=0).  That’s only 1/3 of what Christians spend on themselves every Christmas.  We could wipe out  world hunger forever if we gave something to Jesus that is on his wish list.

Recently I was told by a hard-core skeptic I met, “There is nothing special about the group of people (Christians) who say they know God and His will.”  In some ways that’s too true.  But here at SCC we’re trying to orient our entire life together to give Jesus what’s on his wish list not just at Christmas but every day of the year.  Our small groups each commit to serving somewhere in the community.

Every month we send 5-10 people to serve dinner and make friends at Maplewood women and children’s center.  Every other month 5-10 people go down to Open Door Ministry at CentralUnitedMethodistChurch to serve coffee and make friends while men and women wait (often in the cold) for their community room to open.  This year we collected almost 4000 items for Compassion Closet personal needs bank.  Every quarter 5-10 people head to Holt Senior Care to socialize and make friends with the residents.  20-30 people head to Henry North Elementary, the most diverse elementary in the Lansing school district, to work in their community garden.  Twice a year 5-10 people help with Recycle Rama so that we can be better stewards of the earth that God has given us.  As 2013 comes to a close we’re finishing up a three-year capital campaign so that one day we can own our own building.  When we began the campaign, we decided to tithe 10% of it to missions.  We’ve raised almost $330,000 and we’re giving away $33,000 of it.  Over the twelve years of our life we’ve received and given away $31,000 in Christmas Eve offerings.  What’s more, over the life our church we’ve received and given away over $150,000 to local and foreign missions and charities.  That’s almost $11,000 a year.  And because we’re part of the UnitedMethodistChurch, we can lay claim to some of the $42,000,000 that United Methodists gave to local and foreign missions in 2012 alone!  Is there nothing unique about these people who claim to know God?  Show me another community that has done this sort of work giving to Jesus what’s on his wish list year after year after year.  We’re not perfect, but we are seeking to be compassionate to everyone, no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done.

So this year we continue in that tradition of giving to Jesus what is on his wish list this Christmas.  100% of the Christmas Eve offering will go to our medical missions in Nicaragua.  We send medical teams to Nicaragua twice a year.  They bring life-giving medicine and life-changing medical expertise along with spiritual hope.  We’ve been working for over ten years with a local doctor who is planting a church out of her home.  She feed over fifty kids every day.  For many of them this is the only meal they get.  We give to this mission not because we get anything out of it, although we do, but because it is what is on the birthday boy’s wish list this day and every day.  This year we’re expecting a miracle at our Christmas Eve offering.  The biggest amount we’ve ever received was $5800 in 2011.  This year we’re expecting twice that.  Will you join us?

God, give us the inspiration, motivation, and courage to celebrate Christmas differently this year.  Let us celebrate it not as our own birthday but as Jesus’ birthday.  Let us focus on our own wish list but on Jesus’ wish list.  In his name and in the power of his Spirit.  Amen.

*This sermon is based on Mike Slaughter’s book, Christmas Is Not Your Birthday.