A RACE TO RUN

                                                                    

     Philippians  3: 7-14

 

 

          "There have been a lot of changes around here," said the old man proudly, "and I want you to know I've been against every one of them." 

    

          Have you ever noticed that some people have a difficult time with change?

 

          Some people would rather fight than switch.

 

          Their motto seems to be "Don't rock the boat even if it's the Titanic!"

 

          Of course, some changes are difficult to accept.

 

          As someone has said, "It just doesn't seem right to go over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's condo."  

    

          And not all change is progress.

 

          One analyst predicts that women born after 1960 will have more husbands than children.

 

          That's something to think about.

    

          Doug Larson, says,  "Remember when a drug problem was trying to get a prescription filled on Sunday? 

 

          Remember when jokes that couldn't be told in mixed company weren't?"

 

Galatians 6:14              But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.

 

Paul declares in other portions of his writing that "if any person is in Christ Jesus, they are a new creation." 

 

          Yes, the Bible talks a great deal about us being a new people, but it doesn't have anything to do with atoms in our physical bodies.

 

          We are new people when we have the mind and attitude of Jesus Christ living inside us.

 

          This is the priority that the Apostle Paul urged the Christians at Philippi to adopt for the living out of their faith.

     Paul writes, "Forgetting what lies behind, I strain forward to what is ahead."

    

          If you have ever been to a circus, you've no doubt seen the huge bull elephants chained to a peg in the ground.

 

          Perhaps it has occurred to you that the elephant could easily pull the peg out of the ground and escape.

 

          However, he doesn't try.

 

          You see, as a baby elephant he was tied to a huge stake that he could not pull out of the ground.

 

          Weeks of pulling and tugging only wore a trench around the stake, and finally, he gave up.

 

          Now that he is full-grown, with great strength and the physical ability to pull the peg out of the ground, he remembers only the futility of past efforts and does not even attempt to escape.

 

          He is conditioned to failure.

 

          How I cringe when I hear people say, "we tried that once and it didn't work then, and it won't work now!"

We are to confess our sins and place them under the blood of Jesus, knowing we have been freed from their condemnation and power.

 

          Jesus can clean the slate (the blackboard of our lives) and compel us to work for righteousness, rather than unrighteousness.

, "But God shows His love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us?" (5:8) 

 

          That's a special kind of love, isn't it?

 

          It's unconditional love.

 

          There is life-changing power in unconditional love.

, "No man only needs a little salary. 

 

          When a person's dreams and goals and purposes in life are destroyed, that person is destroyed. 

 

          We not only need something to live on, we need something to live for."

 

          After his encounter with Christ, Paul had something worthwhile to live for.

St. Paul discovered there is no ceiling on discipleship.

 

          We can be better followers of Jesus at seventy than we are at forty.

 

          We can be more loving, more joyous, more focused. 

 

          The mistake many of us have made is taking our identity from our career rather than from Christ.

 

II Chronicles 7:14     If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

 

          If your dream is to be like Christ, you will never reach the point where you say, this is it.

 

          This is far as I can go.

 

          For Paul there was no turning back--no winding down--no giving up.

 

          He had discovered freedom, yes, and unconditional love.

 

          But just as  important, he had found a reason to live.

 

Before we close this service this morning,  I want to share with you a prayer, written by the Rev. Dr. Kenneth G. Phifer, and found in a publication produced by Upper Room Ministries titled, "A Book of Un-Common Prayer." 

 

          It was written for New Year's Eve, and because it reinforces some of the ideas and imagery I have used today, I thought it would be a good closing to our message  today.

 

          "Eternal God, before whom we are creatures of the day and children of the hours,        

     I lift my prayers to you as I stand in the shadow of the waning year.         

          I am aware once more of the fleetingness of time, and the transiency of my being.         

          So much has happened to me during the year which has so rapidly slipped away, So much of hurt and happiness, of loss and gain, of hope and fear.                 

          I did not expect the sorrow that was thrust upon me.

          I was surprised by the turn of events that changed my life.

          I look back.

          I remember how different life a year ago was, The slow, quiet erosion of the days has gone on, and I am not quite the same person I was, for better or for worse.

          I have had a whole year to grow in love or to fall out of love, to turn my hands to constructive tasks, or to turn away in idleness.        

          I have had a whole year, and now it is gone.

         No matter what I have done or failed to do, O Lord, keep me from dwelling on it too much.

          If I have failed, help me put my failure behind me.

        If I have done well, help me to be glad but not complacent.

          There are other hills to climb and new hopes to be realized.

          I know, O God, you understand my need to look back for a while, wistfully peering at the past.

          But start me looking forward.

          I do not know what events are ahead, but I do know you are there, and I am grateful. AMEN. 

 

 

Birth of a King

                                                     

                           

Matthew 2: 1-12; Luke 2: 1-20    

 

          In the FAMILY CIRCUS cartoon, the little girl sits her baby brother on her lap and tells him the story of Christmas.

 

          It goes something like this: "Jesus was born just in time for Christmas up at the North Pole surrounded by 8 tiny reindeer and the Virgin Mary...

 

          Then Santa Claus showed up with lots of toys and stuff and some swaddling clothes...

 

          The 3 wise men and elves all sang carols while the Little Drummer Boy and Scrooge helped Joseph trim the tree...

 

          In the meantime, Frosty the Snowman saw this star...."

         

          Thus concludeth the reading from the FAMILY CIRCUS. 

       

          We want to deal this morning with some of the simple, basic elements of the Christmas story.

 

          Hopefully, the rush and turmoil of pre-Christmas shopping, decorating, banquets, etc., is for the most part behind us, and now it is time to deal with those quiet, precious truths that occupy such an important place in our hearts.

        

          There are three things we need this Christmas to make this a time of spiritual growth and renewal.  

       

1. FIRST OF ALL, WE NEED A SONG THAT WE CAN SING.

 

          How much poorer Christmas would be without the sounds of music in the air.

 

          "Silent Night," "O Little Town of Bethlehem", "Joy to the World"--how our hearts rejoice to hear the triumphant hymns and the tender carols that herald this special season of the year.

          I could not imagine letting Christmas go by without at least once listening joyfully to the sound of a great choir singing the "Hallelujah Chorus."

 

          There is something about Christmas that lends itself to lovely melodies and gentle rhymes of adoration and praise.  

       

          And, of course, the greatest Christmas song of all is the song the shepherds heard on the Judean hillside--the song of the angels:  "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward men."  

       

          That is a song we need to sing throughout the year.

 

          What a lift it was just a few years back to hear those astronauts as they circled the earth on Christmas day read from the Bible.

 

          Their perspective helped us become aware that we are all fellow passengers on the "Space-ship Earth."

 

          Such a reminder is music for any season of the year.  

       

          During World War II an air strip was built on a small tropical island in the South Pacific.

 

          The chaplain and others had tried to tell the natives about the Christian faith, but the natives responded slowly.

 

          Orders came to move on at Christmas 1943.

 

          The departing Americans gave a farewell party with make-shift gifts, and several tried to explain the origin of Christmas and the true meaning of the Christmas spirit.

 

          A few years later the same chaplain stopped at the island enroute to a Far East assignment.

 

          He was greeted with excitement and taken to see the beautiful Church which the natives had built.

 

          Over the doorway was crudely lettered, "This is our Church, built on faith and brotherly love."

        

          The chaplain stayed for a service of worship in the church.

 

          There were no seats; the songs were all Christmas carols because those were the only ones they knew.

 

          One native explained to the chaplain, "After you left, we built the Church to worship Jesus.

 

          We worship Him with the only service we know- Christmas, the Day He was born.

 

          Every day is Christmas here.

 

          Every day the Christ child is born anew.

 

          Our gift to give is love.

 

          Our Church, we call it, the Christmas Church."

 

          How the world needs a Christmas song and a Christmas church.  

       

2. IN THE SECOND PLACE, WE NEED A STAR THAT WE CAN FOLLOW.

 

          Indeed, it may be that the greatest need of our time and our generation is to find a star--a singular goal, objective, or ideal--upon which we can fix our gaze and toward which together we can move.

 

          The tragedy of our time is that people are pulling in so many different directions that, rather than moving toward the Kingdom of God, we seem more likely to be headed toward anarchy.

       

          We need a star from on high to follow.

 

          We need a vision of a better world toward which to strive.

 

          If there is any urgent demand being thrust upon the Christian church today, it is the plaintive plea of society to the church to translate the concept of the Kingdom of God into concrete Twentieth Century language.     

 

          Harry Emerson Fosdick, in ON BEING FIT TO LIVE WITH, tells of a church on the coast of England that had been destroyed in a hurricane.

 

          Its members felt unable to build it again, and the ruins remained untouched.

 

          One day, however, the British Admiralty sent a representative to urge its rebuilding. 

 

          He told the people that if they did not rebuild the church, the government of England would.

 

          Then he added: "That spire is on our charts and maps.

 

          It is the landmark by which the ships of the seven seas steer their course."  

       

          Certainly the basic decency and honesty of Christmas is part of His Kingdom.

 

          A post-Watergate world searches for something to believe in.

 

          It wants to know that traditional values and high ethical standards are yet alive and relevant to this new age.

 

          They look to the church to put that star back into the heavens.

 

          That is the second thing we need:  A star that we can follow. 

       

          Here's the final, but most important, thing to be said:

 

 

3. WE NEED A SAVIOR THAT WE CAN WORSHIP. 

       

          There's a palace in the city of Rome, which has a great high dome.

 

          Inside that dome there is a painting known as "The Dawn" by Guido Reni.

 

          In order that visitors may see this masterpiece, a table has been placed directly beneath the dome, and on the table a mirror.

 

          When one looks into the mirror, he sees the majestic painting far above.

 

          Is that not what the Incarnation is all about?

 

          Jesus of Nazareth is the "mirror-image" of God. 

       

          Do you remember Louis Cassels' famous parable of the birds?

 

          It was Christmas Eve and the man's wife and children were getting ready to go to church.

 

          He wasn't going.

 

          "I simply can't understand what Christmas is all about, this claim that God became man," he told his wife. 

       

          It had been snowing all day and it was beginning to snow harder as the man's family rode off to church without him.

 

          He drew a chair up to the fireplace and began to read his newspaper.

       

          A few minutes later, there was a thudding sound at the kitchen window.

 

          When he went to investigate, he found a flock of birds out in the back yard.

 

          They had been caught in the storm, and in a desperate search for shelter, were trying to fly through the kitchen window.

 

          He was a very kind man so he tried to think of something he could do so the birds wouldn't freeze.

 

          "The barn!" he thought.

 

          That would be a nice shelter. 

       

          He put on his coat and overshoes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn and opened the door wide and turned on the light.

 

          But the birds didn't come in.

 

          Food will bring them in he thought.

 

          So he hurried back to the house for bread crumbs which he sprinkled on the snow to make a trail to the barn. 

       

          But the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flop around helplessly in the snow.

 

          He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around waving his arms.

 

          They scattered in every direction except into the warm, lighted barn.

 

          "They find me a strange and terrifying creature," he said to himself, "and I can't seem to think of any way to let them know they can trust me." 

       

          Puzzled and dismayed, he pondered this thought, "If only

I could be a bird myself for the moment, perhaps I could lead them to safety." If only I could be a bird myself...  

       

          Just then the church bells began to ring, pealing the glad tidings of Christmas.

 

          The man stood silently for a minute, then sank to his knees in the snow.  

       

          "Now I understand," he whispered as he lifted his gaze to the sky.

 

          "Now I see why You had to become man."  

       

          The world needs that reflection of God's goodness and love.

 

          It needs it before it will be able to sing the song of "Peace on earth and Good Will to all men."

 

          It needs it before it will recognize and follow the star of lasting values and high ethical standards.

 

          It needs a Savior that it can worship.

 

          And that is our greatest need as well: to kneel before the manger of Bethlehem, to pray "Come unto my heart, Lord Jesus."

 

          Then within our hearts we will hear the song and behold again the star.

 

          For the Savior will make us His own.