This is a special musical presentation of Mary Did You Know, performed today by the Faith Lutheran Chancel Choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Christmas Eve 2023

          Throughout this past year, we all have had our joys and struggles. Some of our experiences we have considered good news and blessings and others not. Tonight, we gather together to hear the story, maybe a few for the first time and for others, we may have lost count. What might the good news or blessings be in this old story?

          This old story is about the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, our Messiah, God coming to earth to save us, God’s people. It is easy to glamorize this story, but when we do that, we may miss the good news of the story. The time period that Jesus was born into was not an easy time. Transportation had not been developed and there were many laws or customs that were expected to adhere to.

          When we begin to look at how Jesus’ birth came to be, it rocked many boats. Mary was a teenager who had not had sex with Joseph, and they were not married. Mary’s family could have disowned her, and Joseph could have told people that he was not the father. Was this conception good news and a blessing or was it a curse?

          When the angel Gabriel came to tell Mary, of course Mary was asking, ‘how could this be?’.  I am a teenager and have not even been with a man. It seemed that when Gabriel told Mary that her aunt Elizabeth was also pregnant and she was quite old, Mary felt that she could affirm this conception as she would not be alone.

          Since some of Mary’s fears were allayed, she was able to reframe it. Mary was able to see this conception as a way to serve God. She really did not know what she was in for, but she was honored to be a servant for God. Mary looked at this as good news and a blessing. She sang a song of praise to let God know that she was joyful to be able to serve. Something that could have caused her to be stoned she reframed into a blessing, good news.

          Then there is the census that caused them to have to travel. Could the census have been good news and a blessing? Our first thought could be that it caused a hardship for Mary and Joseph. As the census required them to go from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Remember Mary is pregnant. The distance is ninety miles and there were no cars. The story tells us that she rode on a donkey. Have many of us have walked ninety miles, let alone with someone who is pregnant?

          Does this sound like good news, let alone a blessing? For us this would be like walking from Okemos to Holland or Grand Haven. The census was actually bringing them back to where Joseph grew up. This established Joseph as being in the line of David, which was foretold in the Old Testament to be where the Messiah was coming from. When we can reframe the census, it can become good news and a blessing.

          It gave Mary and Jospeh a sense of belonging and status, which they may have been struggling with. It became good news and a blessing when this information came together. If they were going back to where Joseph grew up, they probably had family and friends around to support them. Thus, the census could them be viewed as good news and a blessing.

          So often we have heard of the angry motel keeper who wouldn’t let Mary and Joseph into his motel. Jesus was place in a manger, possibly then in a family room of a family member.  What if placing Jesus in a manger was a provision for safety and security? Could this be looked at as good news and a blessing as God provided what they needed at the time? Again, reframing a situation that seemed to be of lack, but could also be seen as abundance.

          As we can reframe these different parts of this familiar story, can we begin to see that even in what may seem like the darkest moments in our lives, that when we can reframe them, they may become good news and a blessing? In each situation in our Christmas story God provided what was needed. In each situation in our lives, can we see where God has provided what we needed at that time? This is good news and a blessing for us to share with others.

          It also reminds us that God is always with God’s people. Even in what may seem like our darkest moments in life, we can see God’s love shown for us. God loves us enough to come to our messed up world and continues to show up and be with us and our stories into good news and blessings.

          God provided for Mary, Joseph and Jesus throughout this old story. As our stories continue to unfold, God continues to provide for us. At times we may need to do some reframing in order to see God’s presence in our stories. The good news and blessing is that God came to earth out of love and continues to love us by providing for us what we need, when we need it.

          We have gathered to hear this old story again to be reminded that God walks with us in our stories continuing to love and provide for us. God continues to turn our dark moments into good news and blessings. This is the good news for us and the good news that we have to share with others.

Let us pray: Loving God, we have looked anew at the story of your Son’s birth. The story tells of many challenges that Mary and Joseph had. A story that also shows your presence with them in many ways and providing what they needed when they needed it. A story that shows how your love for them allowed them to reframe challenges into good news and blessings. Help us tonight to be able to see the good news and blessings in our lives that you have given to us out of love. Help us to share the good news of your love and blessings with all people. Amen

Today was the 2023 Christmas Pageant . Come and celebrate the Christmas season with youth from Faith Lutheran.

Endings have beginnings and beginnings have endings. So often we dread endings. The endings of a life, sometimes the endings of a school year, a graduation or position. As emotionally difficult as they can be, there can also be a sense of celebration in each one.

Normally when there is an ending, there will be something or someone that we will be missing. This is when we come more to the realization that hopefully we can be thankful for these people and times. At 63, I have been through a number of seasons in life as many of you also have been. We learn to savor moments with people and things.

Beginnings can be difficult also, but it is what keeps us going and moving on to new moments to savor. In our gospel lesson today, we hear the beginning of our first Gospel ever written. In Mark we hear, The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

Context is always important. This Gospel was believed to have been written in AD 70. This is when the Roman Empire destroyed and looted the temple and Jerusalem itself. This event ended the revolt and huge numbers of Jews left Judaea to make a home elsewhere.

Mark’s Gospel is the shortest. He doesn’t start out with a Christmas story as Mathhew and Luke do. I’m wondering if he felt he needed to get some good news out as soon as possible. He begins by announcing that this is the beginning of an account of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of Man. Mark was putting down Jesus’ story.

Mark immediately moves on to John the Baptist by using the prophet Isaiah who prophesied John the Baptist many years before. In our Old Testament lesson, we hear the prophet Isaiah reminding people that Jerusalem needs comfort. They have just returned from exile. This time it was the Babylonians who had destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.

The prophet Isaiah in this section of the book is trying to give the Hebrew people comfort, hope and joy. Even though it was their behavior that led them into exile, God was still there for them. We hear those familiar words of comfort hope, and joy, “Comfort, O Comfort my people, says your God. Isaiah also says, In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. This was first prophesying John the Baptist and then Jesus, God coming to earth.

Now in Mark, history is repeating itself and the people are looking again for God to come and comfort them and walk with them. Mark is reminding them of Jesus by retelling Jesus’ story from his point of view. God had come to earth in Jesus in order to prepare God’s people for the restoration of their lives, land and temple.

God has promised to be with God’s people and has never given up on this promise. God’s people then, in Isaiah’s time, Mark’s time, and now us, need constant reminders of God’s expectations and promise of comfort, hope, and joy. Might John the Baptist be giving us the stance or posture that we need to constantly be in the process of restoration?

First of all, John the Baptist was out in the wilderness. He was not in a town, nor in the temple. One could say he was different, dressed in camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He was preaching a baptism of repentance, but yet there was someone coming who was greater than he. John said he was not even worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of this person’s sandals.

The statement about his sandals must have been important as all four Gospel writers have used it. John was making the point that the focus should not be on him. He was the messenger. Jesus was the savior that the people were looking for. He was the one to bring comfort and joy.

Even though John the Baptist was baptizing, he said it wasn’t the full baptism. The one coming would be baptizing with the Holy Spirit. We are in the first chapter of Mark, in the first eight verses and we are already hearing about the Holy Spirit. Did they even know who the Holy Spirit was?

John the Baptist was out in the wilderness telling people to get ready for this one who is greater than he. Mark identifies this person who is coming as Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and that he is bringing good news. This is what the people needed to hear as Jerusalem had been demolished and they wanted to restore what had been broken. John’s posture or stance was one of repentance and being vulnerable in order to recognize Jesus in the unexpected places.

Good News came to the Hebrew people in Isaiah’s time, came to the people in Mark’s time and continues to come to us today. God fulfills God’s promises to bring comfort, hope, joy and walk alongside God’s people to restore what has been broken. Sometimes the brokenness comes from decisions that have been made and sometimes it just happens.

Each one of us makes decisions and will continue to make decisions that cause brokenness in our lives and other’s lives. There will be things that happen to us and the ones we love that we do not have any control over that cause brokenness. I am sure that every one of us here and online can think of someone and maybe ourselves who are experiencing brokenness right now.

The good news is that regardless if it was because of decisions that we made or someone else has made or just because it happened, that God in Jesus Christ comes to comfort us and walk beside us. Many of us have received comfort, hope and joy in our times of brokenness and we have offered words of comfort to others in their brokenness.

The prophet Isaiah reminded the people that regardless of Jerusalem’s choices that may have gotten them into exile originally, God still loved them and wanted to help them be restored to wholeness. When we read Jesus’ story, he never turned anyone away, especially if they were seeking restoration, wholeness.

This is the good news for us and good news that we are called to offer to others. This Advent season is about remembering the comfort, hope and joy that we can have in Jesus. People seem to repeat history. God in Jesus Christ remains constant in comforting us, giving us hope and joy and walking beside us through our brokenness into wholeness which brings us joy.

It is when we receive the words of good news, of comfort, hope, and joy, a reminder of God’s constant love that we can move from endings into beginnings.

This is a special musical presentation of Climb to the Highest Mountain, performed today by the Singing Sinners at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

This is a special musical presentation of Waiting for Bethlehem's Light, performed today by the Chancel Choir with Gwynne Kadrofske on flute at Faith Lutheran Church in Okemos, Michigan.

Happy New Year!! We had our New Year’s Eve gathering at the Williamston Theater last night. We usually don’t stay up until midnight to welcome the new church year in. Part of what the church year has done is to try and offset the regular calendar. This is how we got December 25 for Christmas, as it used to be a pagan holiday.

So, what do we do differently in Advent? In some sense it is a penitential time, similar to Lent. We always talk about slowing down, but how often do we really slow down. It often gets busier. Even though we hear the words in our Gospel lesson this morning to stay awake, be alert, do we? The busier we are the less that we see and are able to experience.

Jesus paints quite a picture in our Gospel lesson today of what his second coming may look like. Quite stark language, During the days after this trouble comes, the sun will grow dark, and the moon will not give its light.
The stars will fall from the sky. And the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Jesus had just told his disciples prior to our Gospel lesson, that the temple would be destroyed, not one stone would be left. Up until this time the presence of God was thought to have been in the temple, thus this was a radical departure from what they grew up with. Can you imagine the anxiety that this must have created? Then Jesus paints this picture of the Son of Man returning. I am not sure the disciples fully understood what Jesus was talking about.

How and when all of this would take place, Jesus says no one knows except God. In the meantime, stay awake, keep alert. We could read this as don’t go to sleep, but we know that is not the way God made us.

There are some people who will focus on, “you will see these things taking place” and then you will know the time and the hour. Many people have waited at a certain place at a certain time, but Jesus did not return at that time. Thus, I don’t believe waiting and keeping alert means that we stand still.

In Mark, Jesus is changing the focus of where we will find God’s presence. God’s presence is not only found in the temple, but out in the wilderness, outside the doors of the temple. In the next few weeks, we will encounter John the Baptist who was out in the in wilderness. People left their cities and towns as they were seeking something more than what they were finding from the church leaders in the temple.

Since Jesus has not come back yet, we can easily become complacent. We only talk about Jesus’ second coming at the beginning and the end of the church year. When we talk about it, I would like to suggest that it can encourage us not to be fearful or complacent, but to continue seeking God’s presence in our lives. For me, this is what it means to be awake and alert.

Our Old Testament lesson from the prophet Isaiah, may help us be in a posture to do this. Some of the people have returned from their exile. They returned to a demolished temple and plundered land. At least now they were home, and not under the Babylonian authority.

The prophet Isaiah is not happy with God and kind of feels that God has abandoned them. Isaiah says tear open the heavens and come down to us and help us get back on our feet. Although, he recognized that God had done awesome deeds that they didn’t expect. He recognized that God intervened for those who waited for God.

At the same time, Isaiah was blaming God for their sin as God hid God’s face from them. This may seem quite bold to blame God, but if we are honest, there are times we blame God for things also. Isaiah was asking God, since you are angry with us, where does that leave us?

Yet, says Isaiah, since you are our parent, we are your clay, and you are the potter. This can be good news, but what does it mean for us to be clay. Clay is a lump of wet gooey stuff. Is this what we want to be? Is this what we are called to be?

For us to be clay means that we are vulnerable and flexible. It means that we will continually be reshaped until the day we are made perfect and go home to God in Jesus Christ.

The Potter's Hand

Verse 1

Beautiful Lord wonderful Saviour I know for sure all of my days are

Held in Your hand crafted into our perfect plan

Verse 2

You gently call me into Your presence, guiding me by Your Holy Spirit

Teach me dear Lord to live all of my life Through Your eyes

Pre-Chorus

I'm captured by Your holy calling, set me apart I know You're drawing

Me to Yourself Lead me Lord I pray

Chorus

Take me mold me, Use me fill me, I give my life to the Potter's hand.

Call me guide me, lead me, walk beside me, I give my life to the Potter's hand

CCLI Song # 2449771

Darlene Zschech

© 1997 Wondrous Worship

For use solely with the SongSelect® Terms of Use. All rights reserved. www.ccli.com

CCLI License # 720217

When we allow ourselves to be molded by God’s hands, the potter, we will be awake and alert. It also means that we may need to slow down in order to see people and situations through Jesus’ eyes. In order to be molded, we are called to be vulnerable and flexible.    

During this Advent season, there may be things that we need to let go of, that are holding us back from more fully experiencing God’s presence. Where are we looking for God. We often find God in the unexpected places. This will mean changing our hearts and minds being clay and allowing God the potter to be remolding us.

May we pray the prayer together printed in your bulletin:

Change My Heart, O God

          Change my heart, O God; make it ever true.

          Change my heart, O God; may I be like you.

          You are the potter; I am the clay.

          Mold me and make me; this is what I pray.

          Change my heart, O God; make it ever true.

          Change my heart, O God; may I be like you. Amen