Houston Congregational Christian Church

Pastor James Manuel
4883 Russia-Houston Road
Houston, OH  45333
Phone:  937-295-3591
Email:  click here

Message Title:     The Hope of Christmas

Call to Worship:     Micah 5:2

Scripture Reading:    Luke 1:26-38

Prayer:     May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable unto You O Lord on this Your day.

Today is the candle of Mary.    Mary was young,  poor  & female---all characteristics that to the people of her day   would make her seem unusable by God for any major task.      But God chose Mary for one of the most important acts of obedience He has ever demanded of anyone.     Luke 1:31,  ‘You will be with Child and give birth to a
Son   and you are to give Him the name Jesus.’          There may be times when   You   may feel that your ability,   experience   or education makes you an unlikely candidate for God’s service.     Don’t limit God’s choices.   God can use you   if you trust Him.

God’s favor doesn’t automatically bring instant success or fame.   His blessing on Mary,   the honor of being the mother of the Messiah,    would lead to much pain,  as Simeon said to Mary in Luke 2:35,  ‘And a sword will pierce your own soul.’      Her peers would ridicule her,    her fiancé would come close to leaving her.    Her Son would be rejected and murdered.   

But through her Son would come the world’s only hope.    This is why Mary has been praised by many as the young girl who as Luke 1:30 tells us,  ‘Have found favor with God.’    Mary’s submission was part of God’s plan to bring about our salvation.   If sorrow weighs you down and dims your hope    then wait patiently for God to finish working out His plan.  

That story,   the Christmas story,  and all that goes with it continues to draw us,  it continues to have a strange,   haunting power over us.    As important as Christmases past have been,   both that first Christmas in Bethlehem and our own Christmas,   that is not what draws us most compellingly.   What draws us most compellingly is Hope.    Hope for this present Christmas    and Hope for the future. 

There is something in all of this that we want.      Here in the story of shepherds,   angels,  wise men   and Mary’s quiet birth of Jesus.   Here in the triumph of the power of Love    over the love of power;     here where peace,  compassion  and gentleness are part of God’s   Good News as the angel said to the shepherds in Luke 2:10,  ‘I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.’     Here in all this there is something we want.    We want God to come to God’s people   and to God’s world in gentleness,   in love    and with the hope of peace.   Peace for our world,   peace for our own lives.      We want this birth to happen again,   to keep happening in our lives and in our world.

And the Good News of Christmas is that it can keep happening and it does keep happening.   God has not deserted us.   God has not left us alone.    God still comes to us   much    as HE did that first Christmas.    Things haven’t really changed all that much.    The hopes and fears of all the years are about the same now as they have always been.    God still reaches out to us     just like God reached out on that first Christmas.  

But there are some differences.   One thing that has changed since that first Christmas is that we’re here,   the church is here.   As God reaches out to the world in love   it matters that we’re here.       Because we’re here  the manger is closed.    The manger was there because there had to be a place for the birth   for the coming of the Lord.       It had to be somewhere   and the world would not offer a place as Luke 2:7 tells us,  ‘Because there was no room for them in the inn.’

May I say this is not precisely true of course.   There was plenty of room for them in the inn----if the people who were there had been willing to share,   to move some of their stuff,  and some of their worries and some of their fear,   over to one side and so make room for them,  but nobody did.  

After all Mary didn’t look like she was going to be famous.   She looked like any other tired,  scared,  pregnant young woman who had just traveled 90 dangerous and dirty miles and was about to have her first baby.   The world took one look at her     and next thing you know the inn is full     and no one is willing to create a place for them.

So that first Christmas the manger was open.   The manger was the place that God provided for the birth to occur.   But today the church is here and the manger is closed.    You see it is our calling,    our task,   our glory  to create that manger,   to be that place where there  IS room for the Lord to be born.     We are to make that space   as we are able. 

Isaiah 9:6,  ‘For unto us a Child is born,  to us a Son is given.’   To us is given the happy chore of being sure that we are neither so cluttered by stuff,    nor so consumed by anxiety,   nor so over-booked by our own busyness   that there is no room for a quiet birth.      And by the grace of God we are to build mangers,     to create places with room for God,  wherever we are----within our families,   our communities,   our work,    anywhere.      That’s part of what we are about.    The manger is closed   but we’re here,     and still     God comes into the world.    

The church is here,   we are here.      Now the wonderful business of proclaiming God’s saving mercy to those the world loves the least is ours,   and God still insists that these be told,   Matt. 28:19,   ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’         Go Tell It On The Mountain.  

What we want most from Christmas is Hope   and that Hope is real.   At the same time now that we are here,    now that the church is here,  we are a part of the Hope of Christmas.    Some of the wonderful parts of this great story are ours to live,    ours to give,   our to have.    We are a part of the Hope of Christmas.   

The Christmas story goes on.   The great miracle continues as God reaches out to the world in Love.    For as in Bethlehem of Judea,   so today,   God is with us.    God is for us.    God comes to us.    The light that Isaiah foretold in Isaiah 60:1,   ‘Arise shine for your light has come.’  The light first seen fully in Bethlehem   that light is still coming into the world today. 

But remember,   these day the manger is closed and the angels have been transferred.  And that means-----We are not just spectators,   we are not just consumers----we are also players.    My friends the Hope of Christmas is real    and we are all part of that Hope.