John1:10-18
Merry Christmas
As I just read, Jesus, God’s Son, “was in the world and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.” “The world did not know him” My son Paul, who works in advertising, would probably look at this as an advertising problem. And in some ways, he would be right. What I believe was and still is needed, is a lot more person to person sharing of the good news of Jesus Christ; my son might come up with a variety of other things. But remember, back when Jesus was born, there were no TVs to advertise on, no radios, no billboards, no bus or train signage, no newspapers or magazines, yet what God saw that was needed to be done, God arranged for it to be done long before the arrival of the Messiah of God, Jesus. God, in preparation for the coming of the Messiah, inspired prophets to proclaim Jesus’ coming to the People of God and God inspired prophets to write down these prophesies, and God inspired rabbis to teach the prophet’s words, so that when God’s Son would come into the world the people would recognize him and be ready for him. All that the People of God needed to do, was to teach what God had revealed to their ancestors and then remember those teachings. And God also put the image of what was to happen in the wisdom and writings of Gentiles. They simply had to understand and believe the signs. And then those fortunate enough to live in the same time as Jesus, all they had to do was listen to their hearts as they saw Jesus, as they listened to him preach, listened to him teach, watched as Jesus healed and fed the people around them.
There were, of course, many who met Jesus in those ways, who did believe, at least for a time, but their faith it seems, was not up to the challenges of their world, they did not hold fast to the prophesies passed down by their ancestors and they fell away from following Jesus. Even the closest of Jesus’ followers, his Disciples, wavered in their faith. They were remiss in that they did not share the good news of Jesus when faced with Jesus’ suffering and death and when after the resurrection they faced the threat of arrest and execution by the Temple and Roman authorities; they let their fear overcome their faith and responsibilities. But that changed. The Holy Spirit impowered the Disciples and gave to them gifts that made it possible for them to share, beyond even the one-person to one-person method of sharing the good news, allowing them to speak in various languages to large groups of people, even to heal those who were suffering. For those who were not gifted in the same ways as the Disciples, the Spirit gave them the ability to speak to family and friends and neighbors one-person-to-one-person, or to write Jesus story for others to read or write/compose carols to be sung and because of this and in spite of the threats, faith in Jesus began to spread around the known world.
We just began the year of 2020. With the coming of the new year many of you have surely made resolutions; most of the resolutions we make have to do with self-improvement; we all make them; I encourage you to make one more resolution, a little late, but still I encourage you to resolve to share the faith that you know, the faith that brings you comfort, brings you some joy, helps you to really know love and brings you much hope with someone who does not know Jesus. I encourage you to resolve to tell your friends about the love that you have found within this community, which is centered on faith in Jesus Christ, the love and forgiveness that is offered by our Lord and Savior and the trust that you have come to feel for the promises offered by Jesus. Unlike the earliest of Christians, we face very little in the line of risk by sharing our Christian love and by sharing our faith in Jesus as our Lord and Savior; by sharing these we will be practicing the most effective advertising method ever devised and the one chosen by Jesus, one-person-to-one-person. Today the resources available to us to share the good news of Jesus Christ are many. We have things now like facebook, websites, newsletters, personal mail and for those who want to spend large amounts of money there are print ads and radio and TV ads. I have nothing against the expensive forms of advertising, except for the cost, but all of these things can help to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
But what you and I do as Christians, so that the world can come to know their Lord and their Savior, is personal and will likely not reach the hearts of those who only see or read an advertisement. My feeling is that the Spirit did not specifically give us the gifts of facebook and websites and other technological devises, but I don’t doubt that the Spirit has given us the gifts needed for us to make use of such things. These advertising tools can be helpful for the sharing of our Christian beliefs, but they need to be accompanied by our sharing, in love, of our experience of faith in Jesus Christ.
Turn, if you will, to the person sitting beside or near you, (each person a Christian much like you) and simply say to each other that you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior; you can tell your stories of how you came to faith or why you believe at another time. As a people of faith, we want everyone to know that Jesus, the Son of God, who was with God from the beginning of time and creation, has come into the world, he lived among us, he suffered like the people of his time and he died for our sins; and we want everyone to know that he did this so that all people may be forgiven, and we want everyone to know that Jesus was raised from the dead by his heavenly Father in order to reassure all his followers of God’s love and Jesus’ purpose to save humankind. But all this said, it is not enough to share the word of God’s forgiveness alone; we need to share Jesus love by acts of kindness as well, providing for those to whom we do this sharing, an understanding that such acts are done, because it is the will of God; because it is what Jesus wants us to do; because Jesus loves them and wants to share with them his salvation.
God wants for us to change things so that future writings will be able to say that Jesus came into the world and while the people then did not know him, the people today do know him.