Christmas Eve & Christmas
Advent Conspiracy – Love All
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
Various Texts

Merry Christmas, Friends!

ACT I – Worship Fully

Hear a classic Christmas story from the gospel, the good news, according to Luke.

Luke 2:1-7 NLT

At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) All returned to their own towns to register for this census.  And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David’s ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee.  He took with him Mary, his fiancée, who was obviously pregnant by this time.

And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born.  She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

This Christmas season we’ve been inviting you to join a conspiracy, an Advent Conspiracy.  “Advent” literally means “coming”, preparing for the coming of Jesus, and “conspiracy” literally means “to breathe with.”  So we’ve been inviting you to breathe  with four characters from the Christmas story: Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi.

Mary (Luke 1:46-55)

Mary is a wonderful character, isn’t she?  She’s essentially an unwed teenage mother with the courage and faith of someone way beyond her years.  An angel comes to her and tells her that she’s going to have a baby.  She asks how this can be since she is a virgin.  She is told that God will overshadow her and that she will become pregnant by the power of the Holy Spirit.  After hearing this crazy news, she says, “Whatever God wants.  I’m his servant.”  Then she sings a song of praise about it: “Oh, how I praise the Lord.  How I rejoice in God my Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47 NLT).  Mary teaches us this Christmas that Christmas begins and ends with worship.

Joseph (Matthew 1:18-24)

I love Joseph.  He makes the whole story believable to me.  He finds out his fiancée is pregnant, and his first reaction is to end the relationship quietly.  He’s a good man.  He thinks Mary must be in a world of hurt, and he doesn’t want to add to that.  He’s focused on her well being even though he thinks she has hurt him!  But then “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. ‘Joseph, son of David,’ the angel said, ‘do not be afraid to go ahead with your marriage to Mary. For the child within her has been conceived by the Holy Spirit’” (Matthew 1:20 NLT).  So Joseph goes ahead with the marriage despite what his friends and family must be saying: “She said what about how she got pregnant?  What will people think?  You’ll be ruined.”  Joseph teaches us that Christmas is about obeying without regard to cost.

Shepherds (Luke 2:8-20)

Joseph and Mary aren’t the only ones who receive a visit from an angel.  The shepherds do too.  The shepherds are the fringe element of society.  They hang out in the wilderness taking care of their sheep, protecting them from wolves, bears, and thieves.  They probably don’t shower very often and probably smell like it.  But angels come and proclaim the good news about Jesus to the shepherds.  Luke tells us, “When the angels had returned to heaven, the shepherds said to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go to Bethlehem! Let’s see this wonderful thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about’” (Luke 2:15 NLT).  Have you ever wondered who was watching the sheep when the shepherds left?  What about all the wolves, bears, and thieves?  To go and worship Jesus, they were putting their livelihood on the line.  The shepherds teach us that Christmas is about leaving our busyness to worship Christ.

Magi (Matthew 2:1-12)

If the shepherds are on the fringes of society, then the Magi are at the center.  They’re the wealthy and well educated.  They’ve seen a star that tells them that a new king is born.  So they go to where you’d expect a new king to be born: King Herod’s court.  But what they don’t know about King Herod is that he’s a pretty nasty dude.  He’s killed some of his own family to secure his place of power.  When they show up at King Herod’s court, he doesn’t know anything about this new king being born, so he tells the magi to go and find this king and come back and tell Herod so that he too can go and worship.  Yeah right.  Go and kill him is more like it.  Matthew tells us, “But when it was time to leave, they went home another way, because God had warned them in a dream not to return to Herod” (Matthew 2:12 NLT).  The Magi teach us that Christmas is about confronting directly or indirectly anything that gets in our way of worshiping Jesus.

Join the Advent Conspiracy by worshiping fully this Christmas!

ACT II – Spend Less

Matthew 2:13-18 NLT

After the wise men were gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up and flee to Egypt with the child and his mother,” the angel said. “Stay there until I tell you to return, because Herod is going to try to kill the child.”  That night Joseph left for Egypt with the child and Mary, his mother, and they stayed there until Herod’s death. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”

Herod was furious when he learned that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, because the wise men had told him the star first appeared to them about two years earlier.   Herod’s brutal action fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah:

“A cry of anguish is heard in Ramah —
weeping and mourning unrestrained.
Rachel weeps for her children,
refusing to be comforted — for they are dead.”

Christmas in our culture ends up being two competing worship events.  There’s a cultural Christmas that all of us have been participating in over the last month.  Shopping, buying, eating, and partying.  Let’s face it, this is a worship event.  It is an encounter with a god of stuff that demands that we respond with everything we’ve got – our time, our talents, and especially our treasure.  It is a love story, a love story with the god of stuff.  And ultimately it is a story of the bondage to a lot of expectations that we’d probably rather not be in bondage to.

Then there’s the worship event that worships the God who became a baby.  This too is a love story, but it’s a very different love story.  It’s a story of freedom, freedom from the bondage we have to everything including stuff.  Freedom to worship and love God and others fully.

In the passage I just read we saw that Herod was not willing to see Jesus’ birth as a love story.  He could only see it as a story that threatened his own story of power.  Well, actually Herod was right.  Jesus’ story of love does threaten Herod’s story of power.  Here’s the catch, in just the same way, it threatens our culture’s love story of stuff.  And that means it threatens our worship event of the god of stuff.

We need God—the God who is Emmanuel, God with us—to come again and break us from this bondage that we are in to the god of stuff.

Join the Advent Conspiracy by spending less at Christmas!

ACT III – Give More Presence

John 1:1-14 NLT

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light.  The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.

But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came.  Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God.  They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan — this rebirth comes from God.

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us.

John tells the Christmas story in a much more poetic fashion.  He refers to Jesus as the Word, the Word or reason or thoughts of God come to dwell with us.  This is what Christians call the “incarnation.”  “In” means “in” and “carn” means “flesh.”  So the incarnation means God coming in the flesh, and that means God giving of God’s very own self relationally.

We read at the very beginning of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God” (John 1:1 NLT).  Jesus, the Word, is both with God—distinct from God—and is God—unified with God.  This is what Christians call the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God is one God in three persons who are in an eternal community of loving relationship.  The incarnation is about Jesus coming to invite us to join in the dance of loving relationship with God.  He does this in three ways.

First, God gave God’s very own presence.  John tells us, “So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us” (John 1:14 NLT).  Jesus wasn’t content to stay in heaven and send us tweets, but to come and dwell among us.  God became more tangible, approachable, and understandable.  God doesn’t give presents so much as God gives presence.

Second, in Jesus, God gave personally.  John tells us that, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12-13 NLT).  This is family language.  The Son of God became a human so that humans might be come sons and daughters of God.  This is the offer of a personal relationship with a heavenly family characterized first and foremost by love.

Third, in Jesus, God gave a costly gift.  We read, “But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted” (John 1:10-11 NLT).  A gift always takes the chance of being rejected.  A gift can only be received.  And because we’ve read the rest of the story, we know that lurking in the background of the manger is always a cross.  This baby was born to eventually die.  Jesus gave a gift that cost him the luxury of heaven for the suffering of the cross.  In Jesus God became friends with us so that we might become friends with God

Join the Advent Conspiracy by giving less presents and more of your presence.

ACT IV – Love All

2 Corinthians 8:9 NLT

You know how full of love and kindness our Lord Jesus Christ was. Though he was very rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.

What were the riches that Jesus had?  Certainly the richness of heaven.  What was the poverty he took on?  Was it the poverty of taking on flesh with all its discomforts, pains, and sufferings?  And by this heavenly switch, Jesus extends to us the riches of heaven.

In this giving of presence, Jesus’ friendship with us models for us friendship with the poor.  If we follow Jesus’ way we will share our wealth (Time, Talents, Treasure) with others, especially the poor.  Now in one sense all of us are poor.  Jesus says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3).  We all have spiritual needs that only Jesus can meet.  We can see our own poverty at this time of the year when we try to worship the god of stuff to meet those needs rather than the creator of the universe, the God of love.  We need to be saved from our own poor, blind, and imprisoned Christmas, the love story of stuff.

But in another sense, God has a special love for those who are literally poor.  Jesus was born to a poor family.  The first to hear the proclamation were the poor shepherds.  The good news is for all people, even us, but especially for the literally poor.  God is still moving into the neighborhood, and the poor in our world will or will not experience this God through how we choose to celebrate Christmas.  And so this Christmas we’re inviting you to exchange consumption for compassion.  Spend half as less and give the other half away to meet real basic needs in our world.

We do that several ways here at Sycamore Creek.  Many of our small groups have made a commitment to serve the poor in some way in our community.  Actually what they’re really trying to do first is just build relationships, to become friends with the poor just as Jesus became friends with us.  We also have a team of people that heads to Nicaragua twice a year to do medical clinics for people who can’t afford to see a doctor.  Our next trip is in February, and I’m going on that trip.  You can still join us.  We offer $500 scholarships for anyone who needs the help to afford it.

Last, this Christmas Eve we’re taking an offering that will be entirely given away.  Half of it will go to meet local hunger needs by buying food for the Church of Greater Lansing’s food drop in February.  About 20 churches deliver over 2000 boxes of food to people right here in Lansing.  It takes money and also time and energy to pull this off.  Half our Christmas Eve offering will go to meet the money needs, but you can also sign up to help both before the event and on the day of the event.  The other half of the offering will go to meet global needs: medicine for our medical mission trips to Nicaragua and clean water projects in Sierra Leone.  Spend less this Christmas so you can give generously.  Exchange consumption for compassion.

Join the Advent Conspiracy by loving all, especially the poor and outcast of our society.

This Christmas, join the Advent Conspiracy.  Breathe with God.

Worship fully.

Spend less.

Give more.

Love all.

All three services will have the same basic message but will have a different flavor:

Christmas Eve – 5PM & 7PM
(Usual Worship at SCC)

Christmas Night – 7PM
(Unplugged Communion)

Invite a friend to join the Advent Conspiracy!

Advent Conspiracy: Give More
Sycamore Creek Church
December 18, 2011
Tom Arthur
John 1:1-14

Merry Christmas, Friends!

I love that commercial.  It nails the problem, although I think it misses the solution.  We often think that a present is what is wanted, when what is really wanted is presence.  When I think back on the gifts that I have received over the years, I barely remember any of them.  But there are a few that have thoughtfully celebrated the presence of relationship.  On my first father’s day, Sarah, my wife, gave me and Micah, my son, a set of matching BBQ aprons.  I got choked up when I put them on us, because they celebrated the relationship of me and my new son.  My step-mom is a master at giving meaningful presents that celebrate the presence of relationship.  One Christmas she knitted a full nativity set for our house.  This is something we had growing up, and every time we pull it out for Christmas, I think of her and the love we share together.  This Christmas she knitted a stocking for Micah with his name on it.  My dad says one of the best gifts I ever gave him was a list of written memories.  Over about a week or so I compiled a list of memories I had about my dad.  They included:

• I remember the feel of my dad’s prickly face at the end of the day as he kissed me good night.
• I remember my dad driving me all over town, especially to youth group on Sunday nights.
• 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 multiple different days in completely different states where my dad brought me and my siblings to a dirt track to ride our bmx bikes.  I especially remember his advice to my brother, “Go down that hill and turn real quick.”  Dan ended up over the handlebars in the bushes.
• I remember my first only real attempt as a teenager at defying my dad as he ordered me to come back upstairs.  I had walked out on an argument.  I remember the strength and authority in his voice as he verbally challenged my own developing sense of self-authority.  He won the day and I came back up stairs.

By the time I was done, I had four pages of memories.  My dad loved this present, because it celebrated our relationship in a very personal way.

Today we continue a series called Advent Conspiracy.  Christmas has become bogged down in so many ways, and we’re inviting you to celebrate Christmas differently this year.  Jesus’ birthday changed the world 2000 years ago.  Christmas can still change the world today.

I’d like to go back to Jesus’ birth and explore what we can learn about how to give presents this Christmas in a different kind of way. How did Jesus give us a present?  Let’s turn to the book of John in the New Testament.  John has a very poetic way of describing Jesus’ birth and life.

John 1:1-14 NLT

In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God. He was in the beginning with God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he didn’t make. Life itself was in him, and this life gives light to everyone. The light shines through the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.

God sent John the Baptist to tell everyone about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony. John himself was not the light; he was only a witness to the light. The one who is the true light, who gives light to everyone, was going to come into the world.

But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted. But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan — this rebirth comes from God.

So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father.

This is the story of Christmas for us today.  Thank you, God!

Give Relationally

We read, “In the beginning the Word already existed. He was with God, and he was God” (John 1:1 NLT).  John is making a pretty amazing claim here.  Jesus, the Word of God, is God!  But Jesus does not simply stay in relationship with God the Father.  Jesus offers us relationship by coming in the flesh.  Throughout this entire passage we see what is often called the “incarnation.”  “In” = in.  “Carn” = flesh.  So God comes “in the flesh.”  Jesus gives to us first and foremost relationally.  God with us.  There are three ways that Jesus  gave relationally.

Give Presence

This relational giving was done first and foremost by coming among us in our presence.  We read, “So the Word became human and lived here on earth among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father” (John 1:14 NLT).  Jesus took on our form and moved into the neighborhood.  It wasn’t enough for God to simply stay at a distance and send presents to us.  God wanted to live with us.  In our neighborhood.  Maybe even in our house!  Jesus shows us how to give more by giving of our presence.

Give Personally

Third, God gave personally, exactly what each of us needed.  We read, “But to all who believed him and accepted him, he gave the right to become children of God. They are reborn! This is not a physical birth resulting from human passion or plan — this rebirth comes from God” (John 1:12-13 NLT).  The right to become children of God! God knows that all of us long for a personal relationship with God.  Not one that is mediated to us through someone else, but a one-to-one loving relationship, like a father and daughter, or mother and son.  God knew exactly what we needed, and God gave it to us.

Give Costly

Lastly, God gave a costly gift, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.  We read, “But although the world was made through him, the world didn’t recognize him when he came. Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted” (John 1:10-11 NLT).  This gift ultimately cost Jesus his life.  The world saw what perfect love looked like and rejected it.  Sometimes our gifts are rejected.  There is a cost involved in that.  Sometimes our gifts are misunderstood.  There is a cost in giving more.

Give More

I realize as we’re getting into this that some of you are struggling with how to join the Advent Conspiracy this Christmas.  Some of you had all your gifts already picked out and shopped for before we even began this series.  God bless you.  Well, for those of you who are this organized, I invite you to do one of two things: either take some of those gifts back or plan to join the conspiracy next Christmas.

Join the Conspiracy

For the rest of us who are still trying to figure out what we’re doing for Christmas this coming week, I want to invite you to join the Advent Conspiracy by giving more.  Giving more?  Yes.  Give relationally.  Give presence.  Give personally.  Give costly.  Resist the trap of thinking that says that easy or cheap gifts, expensive gifts, or more gifts is the best way to show love.  That’s a love story our culture is telling us, but it is in competition with the love story that Jesus’ birth tells us.  So what I’d like to do is walk through each of these three ways that Jesus gave relationally, and look at some practical ways that we might give in that way this Christmas and in future Christmases.

Give Presence

How do you extend presence to someone?  Presence is essentially the offer of friendship.  Meet together regularly.  Some of the best memories I have of my four years in seminary preparing to be a pastor are of the weekly get-togethers I had with several different friends.  We’d sit and drink a cup of coffee or share a meal together.  And we’d talk…about everything.  Who do you need to give this kind of gift of one-on-one undivided attention to this Christmas?  When was the last time you spent one-on-one time with each of your kids?  How about rotating through one-on-one date nights with each of your kids?  When was the last time you spent quality time with your spouse?  One-on-one, no distractions, TV turned off, not going to a movie, but sitting and talking about hopes, dreams, fears, and failures?  What about with your grandparents?  This Christmas my dad is going to receive a gift certificate from me for a Grandpa-daddy-grandson road trip. I plan to drive down to Indy with Micah for a day or two road trip with him.  How can you give presence to the people you love or who need your love this Christmas?

Give Personally

I’m afraid I too often fall into the trap of buying a gift, any gift, just so that I can check that off my To Do list.  This past week I’ve heard from others of you who are much more thoughtful in personalizing your gifts to the ones you love.  You’re like my step-mom who knits a nativity scene for our family.  Giving personally takes more time and effort, but it often doesn’t require nearly the same amount of money.

Sarah and I are giving our family a video that we made called “A Day in the Life of Micah.”  One day two weeks ago we filmed all the significant parts of Micah’s day.  Basically his pattern of life goes like this: Sleep…poop…eat…play…repeat.  I edited it all down to about twenty minutes, put some titles on it and some music behind it, and voila, a personal gift to each of our family members that they will love.

What about giving a donation to someone’s favorite charity.  In the mail this past week we received an invitation to give to Habitat for Humanity from Sarah’s parents.  It is some kind of fundraising Habitat is doing through the personal relationships of their key donors.  We decided that we will be giving a donation to Habitat as part of their Christmas presents this year.  We’re also giving Kiva gift certificates to different family members.  Kiva is a microloan organization.  You lend $25 or more to an aspiring entrepreneur around the world, and over time, they pay it back.  Then you lend it out again.  They pay it back again.  You lend it out again.  It is literally the gift that keeps on giving.

Give Costly

This Christmas give more by giving costly.  I’m not talking about giving something that costs a lot of money.  But consider how to give your time and energy.  Half of our Christmas Eve offering will be going to the local Food Drop.  The Food Drop takes place in February and we will deliver food boxes to over 2000 families in the Lansing area.  But the Food Drop does not exist on money alone.  It also requires time and energy.  Consider making a commitment to help prepare for the food drop.  The Church of Greater Lansing, a coalition of many churches in and around Lansing, needs volunteers to work at a phone bank, to print out maps, to load boxes, to hand out instructions, and of course, to deliver food boxes.  All of these require time and energy more than they do money.

Or what about having a neighborhood Christmas or New Years dessert at your house?  Invite your neighbors over and actually take some time to get to know them.  And while they’re at your house, invite them to come to our Christmas Eve services.  There is a cost involved in this.  It is the cost of possible rejection.  They may not come to your house, and once there, they may not be interested in coming to church with you. But don’t forget that Jesus was not accepted by all!  That was part of the cost for Jesus to give more.

Of course, one of the biggest costs involved in giving relationally comes from the needs that the friend puts before you.  Debbie and Chuck Bird are members of our church and have two kids.  Chuck’s work often takes him away on overseas business trips, and one time while he was on one of those overseas trips, Debbie became very sick and had to go to the hospital.  Chuck and Debbie were left with all kinds of needs in that moment.  Listen to how they describe what happened.

I love how our church came around Chuck and Debbie and their kids and gave costly of their time and energy.  But you know what?  It probably didn’t really feel like it cost all that much, because they were in relationship already.  That’s what giving relationally does.

Advent Conspiracy

If you gave relationally this Christmas by giving presence, giving personally, and giving costly, it just might cut the actual amount of money you spent this Christmas.  So what could you do with that extra money?  I’d suggest you give it away.  On Christmas Eve we’re going to be taking an offering that will be entirely given away.  Half of it will go to meet local hunger needs through the Food Drop and half of it will go to meet global needs through our Nicaragua medical missions trips and clean water projects in Sierra Leone.  Could you cut your Christmas costs in half this Christmas and give the other half away?  The average family spends $1000 on Christmas (gifts and travel).  If the 120 giving families in our church each spent $500 less and gave that way, that would be $60,000 that we’d give away this Christmas!  This Christmas join the Advent Conspiracy.  Give more relationally by giving presence, giving personally, and giving costly.  If we all gave this way, it would be a pretty amazing conspiracy to join.  No one would feel alone, isolated, or unconnected, and we’d make a serious dent in the needs of our community and world.  Jesus gave this way and it changed the world.  This Christmas can still change the world.