CHRISTMAS SERVICE
Sermon Review
25 December 2001One only has to look around a little to see that people will go to all sorts of lengths to stand out from the crowd - weird clothes, hairstyles, body piercing, tatoos, lingo and jargon. Others will use different kinds of achievements eg. mainstream - sports, scientific research, philanthropic interprise etc. Non-mainstream eg. longest beard, finger nails, most spiders in the mouth, snake bites, razor blades swallowed etc. I suppose that there are as many ways of standing out as there are people, some more outstanding and successful than others.
Sometimes, there needs to be something done to highlight individuals for they are indeed significant and deserve recognition. For many though, the efforts engaged in to bring notice are really attempts to hide their ordinariness - superficial crowd-stoppers to veil the truth about themselves from others and sometimes even from themselves!
The Extraordinariness of Jesus: With Jesus however, ordinariness is not a word you could use to describe him. On days like today it is worth reminding ourselves some of the extraordinary claims made about him in the Scriptures: John.1:1-4,14; Rom.1:4; Phil.2:6-11; Col.1:15-19; Heb.1:1-3; John.1:12,13, 3:16-18.
His life and ministry also highlight his uniqueness eg. healing the sick, raising the dead, multiplying food, walking on water, turning water into wine, casting out unclean spirits, calming storms, even his own resurrection from the dead etc.
He himself made some amazing claims about himself eg. John.4:25,26, 5:24, 11:33; 8:12, 58, 14:6, 16:28 etc.
The Endorsements of God the Father: Is there any wonder that God the Father did things to ensure Jesus' entrance into the world marked him out of the ordinary? Prophecies, Angels, unusual pregnancies, Shepherds, wise men etc. These things were not attempts to hide Jesus' ordinariness. They set the tone; they highlighted he was extraordinary - unique in fact.
Conclusion: The veil that the razzamatazz of the secular Christmas celebration weaves is one which hides not Jesus' ordinariness, but actually veils the nature of his true uniqueness - and remarkably well at that. For those of us who have taken time to come here this morning and be reminded from the Scriptures of Jesus's absolute uniqueness, we can sideline the sidelining and halt the hiding of Jesus by worshiping God and thanking Jesus ourselves for his coming into the world, our world, this Christmas.
Blessings