Seeing Christmas Differently

Luke 1:39-45

39At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. 41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!"


When you think about it, how do you see Christmas? I think because of the commercialism of Christmas we think about Christmas from very slighted vision. Some may even call it a blind view of its real meaning. This week we will be talking about seeing Christmas differently. I wonder how Mary the mother of Jesus would view the way we celebrate the birth of her son. In the Scripture, when Mary greets Elizabeth the baby John jumps for joy within his mother's womb. It is at this point that Mary realizes that she must now view the world differently. She has hit that point in her life where she must quickly mature. How does she mature? She does so by seeing things in an iconoclastic way. Seeing things different from the way the world sees them. She could look upon this unplanned pregnancy as a hindrance or stumbling block. But instead she sees this as an opportunity to play her part in the role of God's Kingdom. She sees God's favor as peculiar and yet she is willing to serve. She could see this as the end of her good reputation and well being but instead she says, "it is as you say". She looks at the glass as being half full instead of half empty. So back to the original question, how do we see Christmas? I hope you view it with an Iconoclastic view. You see when we look at Christmas from this point of view we will see the world totally different from the way others see it. We will see it in a non traditional sense. It is at this point that God can use us to change the Kingdom. May this be a Merry Iconoclastic Christmas.

Joyous?

Zephaniah 3
16 On that day they will say to Jerusalem,
"Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing."


Every year we hear that Christmas is a "Joyous" time of year. I remember a few years ago we had our Children take their Christmas pictures holding the letters J.O.Y. It was absolutely adorable. So this week we light the third candle in the Advent wreath. This candle is known as the JOY candle. But does Christmas really bring joy? I think before we can answer that question another question is appropriate and that question is how do you define JOY? I mean as we look back on our lives, maybe there were certain things that may have brought or will bring us absolute joy. Some of these things may include marriages, the birth of a child, graduation from college, or the purchase of a first house. But so often we look for joy in the midst of material things or temporal things. We feel that if we get the perfect present or hot new gift then we will bring joy to that special love one. But this joy is usually short lived. In today's Scripture we see the prophet Zephaniah telling the people of Israel what would bring true joy. For many years the Chosen people had been looking everywhere other than the heavenly father's grace and mercy for their joy. This means that they had come up void. The prophet today is telling the people of Israel that God is mighty to save. That is the real reason that we have joy at Christmas because God is mighty to save and he became one of us to prove it. So this Christmas remember that the gifts under the tree may be temporal but the gift of salvation is what really brings one joy at Christmas.

What do you think of when you hear the word Charisma? To say that someone is a Charismatic leader may lead one to believe that this person is a hard driven to succeed larger than life personality type. You know the type of person that loves to be in the limelight and media. A person that is driven to succeed no matter what it takes to get there. We have all seen these types of personalities all over the media. The problem is that most of the charismatic personalities that we see in the media are there because their large personality has led them into trouble. They usually get to a point where there is never enough: not enough power, money or things. this usually leads to them doing something unethical in order to stay at the top.


Jesus was known as one that had "great charisma". But this was a different kind of charisma than we see into today's society. The Biblical definition of Charisma actually meant "divine gift" Jesus was a divine gift for all of mankind. He was the fulfillment of the prophesy. The Charisma that Jesus possessed was not to call attention to himself but to the father that had sent him. But Jesus not only had charisma but he had a true human side. You see these two attributes combined led to the peace that had been promised. This week as wee continue our journey through Advent we will look at how our lives can have the same charismatic effect that Jesus had on people. Join us as wee look at how we as humans can show the divine.

Advent Anxiety

34 ‘Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, 35like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. 36Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.’

Are you anxiety driven? I mean is it fear and trepidation that drives you? This week is the first week of advent and maybe you go into with anxieties. There may even been added anxieties this year as many do not have the resources that they have had in past. (I mean the economy has been tough) We worry that we will not be able to afford the right gifts. We also have all those anxieties that surround the shopping season. I mean there is the fear of finding a parking spot in the same area code of the store. Then there is the anxiety of waiting hours in line to purchase gifts that some people will stand in line again to return. Then you have the anxiety of decorating the house and getting it ready for Christmas company. Let's face it, the Advent season will cause some to experience huge bouts of fear and anxiety. Some may even need medication after the season. But today we find a scripture that could even lead us to a new level of anxiety. This is scripture is about the second coming of Christ. So your question may be why start off the Christmas season by talking about the the second coming of Christ. I mean is Christmas not about the celebration of the first Birth? Well to answer that, "yes" it is but in order to really go back to the beginning we must first be reminded of the future. We must be reminded that it was more than just the birth of a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths. It was about a Savior that came to save us and will one day come back to get us. So maybe Advent anxiety is self induced. Maybe by focusing on the assurance that Jesus came to earth to save us that we can find security and not anxiety. I mean when we have have asked Jesus to be Lord of our life rather than fear of his coming back we can live with the security that his return will be as celebrated as his birth.

(Never) Changing

John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed* us from our sins by his blood, 6and made* us to be a kingdom, priests serving* his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. 7Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him,even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.So it is to be. Amen.
8 ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega’, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty

The one constant in life is that things are going to "change". The truth is that not only do we expect change but we embrace change. We read books about it, we live for it, and our president was elected on a slogan promising it. We live in a society that loves to change. We change our clothing style, hair color, addresses and even our music genres. But when it comes to God, we are glad that he is the one constant. We are glad that Jesus was, is and always will be. This week we celebrate "Christ the King Sunday". It is a Sunday when we celebrate that Christ is the King who has never changed. His mission and death has never changed the salvation process. This week we will examine how in this every changing, fast-paced society that changes in the blinking of a eye, Christ remains the one constant that we can find our assurance. Christ is the beginning and the end. The alpha and omega. We will also examine how as a Church we have evolved and changed over our hundred year history but our one constant is Jesus. In the past three years our Church has went through so many changes. We changed locations, names, worship style, and ministry positions but the constant is that Jesus has always been present. Christ the King Sunday is a huge reminder that even though we may change Christ never will. The one constant in life is that when you need Jesus he is there.

Hurry Up and Stop!

26Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.

Have you ever been cruising along in the right hand lane when someone passes you on the left going twice as fast as you only to get caught 300 yards down the road by a stop light? "You think to yourself' a lot of good that did. That person has just wasted gas and made me mad all at the same time." So many times in life we hurry up just to wait. Have you ever considered that you spend 5 years of your life waiting? This is waiting in line or in traffic or even at the gas pump . But so often we hurry up just to wait. This week we encounter a scripture about the second coming of Christ. Now as we examine the Scripture we must note that we have no need to hurry up and wait on a Savior to return. The writer of this scripture encourages us to focus more on making the most out of the wait and less time on the worry. Most people hurry because they worry. They worry that they will be late. They worry that they will miss out some important bargain or item. They worry about being last. The truth is that most of the time they just hurry up and still wind up waiting. But consider this: when we have asked Jesus into our hearts there should be no worries. Can you remember the song in the 90's that went "don't worry be happy"? Well the truth to that Song is that when we know Christ we can be sure of our salvation and be sure that Jesus entered the Holy Sanctuary. There is no need to just kick back and wait on Jesus. In fact, maybe we should do just the opposite and focus on serving our fellow brothers and sisters as we await the return of our King. the promise behind this concept is that it is not necessary for us to hurry up to wait but it is more essential that we take in life. By taking life in we take risk and by taking risk we change lives. That is what we are really all about here at Lakeview. So hurry up and join us but I promise you will not have to wait.

Giving It Your All

What does it mean to give your all? You have heard the expression for years,"you got to sell out if you really want it." Today we see the story of a lady that gave all she had. But is this really possible, can we really give all we have or is this even expected? This week we will investigate what Jesus meant by giving all that she had. Maybe this parable is more about sacrifice and less about the amount that we give. Jesus also stresses one of the most important lessons that we learn in life and that is the lesson of other's first. We live in a society that seems to think me first and others later. But this lady considered others first. It was not the value of what the lady put in the Treasury, it was the reasons behind why she did it. There were many others that were putting huge amounts of money into the treasury box but they were doing so for show. They gave in order to brag about what they gave. They also did it so that they could try to buy there salvation. They gave to have the "best seats in the synagogues" and the "places of honor at the banquets". Another thing that we will examine is the fact that Jesus was stressing that rather than this poor widow giving all she had, it should have been the others taking care of her. They were giving but were ignoring the real reason for giving. They did not give so that they could benefit but so that others could benefit. Let me ask you this question? Are you really giving it your all?