Christmas Hope
Sermon
A favorite Christmas flower is the poinsettia, with its beautiful, red star-shape. It's also known as the "Flame Leaf" or "Flower of the Holy Night" and it was brought to the West over a hundred years ago by Dr. Joel Poinsett, the first US ambassador to Mexico.
The legend of the poinsettia comes from Mexico. It tells of Maria and her little brother Pablo. They were very poor but they always looked forward to the Christmas festival. Each year a large manger scene was set up in the village church, and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties.
The two children loved Christmas but always felt a bit left out because they had no money to buy presents. They especially wished that they could give something to the church for Baby Jesus. But they had nothing to give.
One Christmas Eve, Maria and Pablo set out for church to attend the service. On their way they picked some weeds growing along the roadside and decided to take them as their gift to the Baby Jesus in the manger scene. Other children teased them and jeered at them when they arrived with their gift, but nonetheless they began placing the green plants all around the manger.
Miraculously, the green top leaves immediately turned into bright red petals, and soon the manger was surrounded by the beautiful star-like flowers which we see today. And for those two children, disappointment was transformed into joy and hope. (This story is taken from: http://1996.christmas.com/html/poinsettia.html)
There's huge amount of hope in the Christmas story. Picture those shepherds out on the hillside at night, cold and weary and perhaps ground down by the unremitting boredom of their work. Suddenly they all shared a wonderful vision of angels, of music and singing, of joy and delight. And the angels brought them a message of great hope.
But I wonder what happened to the shepherds after they visited the baby in the manger? They must have been on a "high" for days, but did that event change their lives for ever, or did it fade to just a memory, something to tell their grandchildren?
That's the trouble with the thrills and delights and hopes of Christmas-type events. They don't last for ever. After the highs come the lows, and sometimes the lows are so bad that it's difficult to remember there ever was a high.
Take babies, for instance. A tiny, newborn baby is the embodiment of hope. Within that tiny frame, is unlimited potential. That baby could become Prime Minister or Pope, professor or popstar. When babies are born, most new parents have huge hopes, and tend to picture the future for their newborn offspring in glowing terms.
But it doesn't always work out quite like that. Sometimes the hopes are dashed at a very early stage, especially if the baby cries and cries and cries throughout the night! Sometimes the hopes are dashed little later, if perhaps the baby turns out to be slower and less able than other children of the same age. Sometimes the hopes continue right up until adolescence, but then they may be severely dashed, when the teenager suddenly comes home with earrings in strange places or with a shaven head, or decides on a whim to drop out of school or college.
It was much the same for the Holy family. There they were with the newborn Jesus, and all the neighbours coming in to see the new baby and bring gifts. Even very important visitors arriving from miles away, indicating that this baby really was someone special.
But within a few days, Joseph was warned in a dream to get out of Bethlehem as quickly as he could. Within a few days the little family was on the run, hunted by armed soldiers. Already the hopes begin to be dashed.
And Mary and Joseph's son Jesus didn't really grow up as they might have wished. He became a carpenter like his dad, but he didn't stick it. There was the family business just waiting for him to take over, but he dropped out. He threw away all that security to scratch an existence depending on other people's handouts, as a wandering preacher.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, he got into terrible trouble with the law. At one time his family was so worried about him that his mother and brothers arrived to take him home (Matthew12:46-50). But he wouldn't listen to reason and just kept on going his own way.
Things went from bad to worse, and eventually Mary and Joseph had to endure the agony of watching their first-born son, that tiny baby who had shown such potential, who had been visited by such important people, executed as a common criminal. What an end to the hopes of that young couple. There can't be many family stories more tragic than that.
But something had happened to complement or replace the hope. Like most families, as the baby grew, so love for him grew too. And the love always remains, even when the hopes change or die altogether.
And of course, it wasn't the end. Despite all the appearances to the contrary, God had his hand on the situation and it didn't end on the cross. Jesus emerged from death in a glorious and unexpected resurrection, and over the past 2000 years has become known as the saviour of the world.
Disappointment, heartache, tragedy for Mary and Joseph were all transformed into a hope and joy more brilliant than anything they could ever have imagined.
Life is never lived on a high all the time. Pain and tragedy and disappointment from time to time are part of the human lot. But love grows through all of that, and when God has his hand on a situation or a life, hope always springs out of the pain and tragedy and disappointment. God can transform any situation however bad it may appear to be.
And that promise of God, that hope, is gathered up and presented to us in the gift of the baby at Christmas. The baby's life didn't turn out to be all wonderful. But within that baby was huge unlimited potential, huge unlimited hope. Hope that was eventually realised in a magnificent and completely unpredictable way.
That hope is still alive today, and available to anyone in any situation. So when you look at that tiny baby born at Christmas, don't just see a baby, see too the huge hope and the huge promise God has made to you, that he will always be with you, and will always transform your bad situations, if only you ask him.
The legend of the poinsettia comes from Mexico. It tells of Maria and her little brother Pablo. They were very poor but they always looked forward to the Christmas festival. Each year a large manger scene was set up in the village church, and the days before Christmas were filled with parades and parties.
The two children loved Christmas but always felt a bit left out because they had no money to buy presents. They especially wished that they could give something to the church for Baby Jesus. But they had nothing to give.
One Christmas Eve, Maria and Pablo set out for church to attend the service. On their way they picked some weeds growing along the roadside and decided to take them as their gift to the Baby Jesus in the manger scene. Other children teased them and jeered at them when they arrived with their gift, but nonetheless they began placing the green plants all around the manger.
Miraculously, the green top leaves immediately turned into bright red petals, and soon the manger was surrounded by the beautiful star-like flowers which we see today. And for those two children, disappointment was transformed into joy and hope. (This story is taken from: http://1996.christmas.com/html/poinsettia.html)
There's huge amount of hope in the Christmas story. Picture those shepherds out on the hillside at night, cold and weary and perhaps ground down by the unremitting boredom of their work. Suddenly they all shared a wonderful vision of angels, of music and singing, of joy and delight. And the angels brought them a message of great hope.
But I wonder what happened to the shepherds after they visited the baby in the manger? They must have been on a "high" for days, but did that event change their lives for ever, or did it fade to just a memory, something to tell their grandchildren?
That's the trouble with the thrills and delights and hopes of Christmas-type events. They don't last for ever. After the highs come the lows, and sometimes the lows are so bad that it's difficult to remember there ever was a high.
Take babies, for instance. A tiny, newborn baby is the embodiment of hope. Within that tiny frame, is unlimited potential. That baby could become Prime Minister or Pope, professor or popstar. When babies are born, most new parents have huge hopes, and tend to picture the future for their newborn offspring in glowing terms.
But it doesn't always work out quite like that. Sometimes the hopes are dashed at a very early stage, especially if the baby cries and cries and cries throughout the night! Sometimes the hopes are dashed little later, if perhaps the baby turns out to be slower and less able than other children of the same age. Sometimes the hopes continue right up until adolescence, but then they may be severely dashed, when the teenager suddenly comes home with earrings in strange places or with a shaven head, or decides on a whim to drop out of school or college.
It was much the same for the Holy family. There they were with the newborn Jesus, and all the neighbours coming in to see the new baby and bring gifts. Even very important visitors arriving from miles away, indicating that this baby really was someone special.
But within a few days, Joseph was warned in a dream to get out of Bethlehem as quickly as he could. Within a few days the little family was on the run, hunted by armed soldiers. Already the hopes begin to be dashed.
And Mary and Joseph's son Jesus didn't really grow up as they might have wished. He became a carpenter like his dad, but he didn't stick it. There was the family business just waiting for him to take over, but he dropped out. He threw away all that security to scratch an existence depending on other people's handouts, as a wandering preacher.
And as if that wasn't bad enough, he got into terrible trouble with the law. At one time his family was so worried about him that his mother and brothers arrived to take him home (Matthew12:46-50). But he wouldn't listen to reason and just kept on going his own way.
Things went from bad to worse, and eventually Mary and Joseph had to endure the agony of watching their first-born son, that tiny baby who had shown such potential, who had been visited by such important people, executed as a common criminal. What an end to the hopes of that young couple. There can't be many family stories more tragic than that.
But something had happened to complement or replace the hope. Like most families, as the baby grew, so love for him grew too. And the love always remains, even when the hopes change or die altogether.
And of course, it wasn't the end. Despite all the appearances to the contrary, God had his hand on the situation and it didn't end on the cross. Jesus emerged from death in a glorious and unexpected resurrection, and over the past 2000 years has become known as the saviour of the world.
Disappointment, heartache, tragedy for Mary and Joseph were all transformed into a hope and joy more brilliant than anything they could ever have imagined.
Life is never lived on a high all the time. Pain and tragedy and disappointment from time to time are part of the human lot. But love grows through all of that, and when God has his hand on a situation or a life, hope always springs out of the pain and tragedy and disappointment. God can transform any situation however bad it may appear to be.
And that promise of God, that hope, is gathered up and presented to us in the gift of the baby at Christmas. The baby's life didn't turn out to be all wonderful. But within that baby was huge unlimited potential, huge unlimited hope. Hope that was eventually realised in a magnificent and completely unpredictable way.
That hope is still alive today, and available to anyone in any situation. So when you look at that tiny baby born at Christmas, don't just see a baby, see too the huge hope and the huge promise God has made to you, that he will always be with you, and will always transform your bad situations, if only you ask him.
