CHRISTMAS EVE SERMON

Longing for More …

Pastor Robyn Hogue December 24, 2012 Skyline Presbyterian Church

Every year about this time television stations bring out of their vaults an old black and white film that is still speaking to people's lives. It's a film titled “It's a Wonderful Life.”

George Bailey, the lead character in this heartwarming film, never felt like he amounted to much in life. He had dreams of becoming a famous architect, of traveling the world. Instead he feels trapped in a humdrum job in a small town. Then a crisis occurs that strains his every resource. He is faced with unjust criminal charges. Although he has a fine family and many friends in the community, the injustice of the situation plunges him into despair. Faced with this crisis, George Bailey breaks down and leaps off a bridge into a river. That's when his guardian angel, Clarence, comes down to show him what his community would be like without him. The angel takes him back through his life. He shows George how his job has benefited many families, how his little kindnesses and thoughtful acts have changed the lives of others, and how the ripples of George's love will spread through the world, helping to make it a better place.

George Bailey is played in the film by actor Jimmy Stewart. In the making of the film, Stewart says that things happened to him that never happened in any other picture he made. For instance, in one scene, George Bailey, broke and in despair, sits in a little roadside restaurant. In this scene, Jimmy Stewart, playing George Bailey, raises his eyes and, following the script, pleads, "God . . . God . . . dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way. I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God . . ."

Stewart now says, "As I said those words, I felt the loneliness, the hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless, had reduced me to tears."

Hope is the message of Christmas. Christ’s coming into the world means there is hope for those whose hope has worn thin. And that's good news. Sometimes you and I are among those for whom hope has worn thin. Sometimes our hearts grow weary and our spirits sag. We need to know that Christ is there when things look dark particularly at Christmas time.

Charlene Anne Baumbich knows what it is to be sad at Christmas. Charlene might normally be called a Christmas enthusiast, one of those people who takes joy in the tiniest detail of the holiday. The yuletide season is a time of excitement in her household. On a whimsy one year, Charlene decided to get her picture taken with Santa to give as a humorous gift to her husband and two grown sons. One afternoon at a nearby mall, she came across an unoccupied Santa and asked him if she could sit next to him to have her picture taken. He seemed pleased by the idea, so Charlene squeezed in next to him for her photo.

Then the congenial Mr. Claus turned to Charlene and, with a twinkle in his eye, asked her what she wanted for Christmas. Without giving her brain time to engage, Charlene blurted out, "Santa, I'm having surgery next Wednesday, and I'd like swift healing." For a moment, Charlene was mortified at her own bluntness, but Santa looked deep into her eyes and said, "I'll pray for you, and so will Mrs. Claus."

Charlene, moved by his sincerity, started to cry. That was just what she needed to hear. What Charlene needed was a word of hope. She was fortunate to encounter a Santa with a strong Christian faith who could give her a word of assurance in her time of need. That is what Christmas is all about—hope for all those whose hope has worn thin.

Every year at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, there is displayed, beneath the great Christmas tree, a beautiful eighteenth century nativity scene. In many ways it is a very familiar scene. The usual characters are all there: shepherds roused from sleep by the voices of angels; the exotic magi from the East seeking, Joseph, Mary, the babe—all are there, each figure an artistic marvel of wood, clay, and paint. There is, however, something surprising about this scene, something unexpected here, easily missed by the causal observer. What is strange here is that the shepherds, and the cradle are set, not in the expected small town of Bethlehem, but among the ruins of mighty Roman columns. The fragile manger is surrounded by broken and decaying columns. The artists knew the meaning of this event: The gospel, the birth of God's new age, was also the death of the old world.

Herods know in their souls what we perhaps have passed over too lightly: God's presence in the world means finally the end of hopelessness. They seek not to preserve the birth of hope in God's new age, but to crush it. For some, the gospel is news too bad to be endured, for Mary, Joseph, and all the other characters it is news too good to miss.