Faith + Hope + Love
Fleming Rutledge says, “Advent begins in the darkness.” But you wouldn’t know that today. Around here, it’s the most wonderful time of the year…
Between the bright lights and commercials and Black Friday Sales and the beloved Hallmark Christmas movies that are on your TV 24/7, we live in a world that wants to celebrate the holidays!
It was about this time last year that I thought I was doing our community of faith here at Riverside a favor by sharing a few of my theological thoughts and reflections on Hallmark Christmas movies. Some of you thought I was out of line. I really thought I was making a public service announcement.
But because I want to be diligent in what I bring before you, I did a little research this year on Hallmark Christmas movies produced in mass number by a company that traditionally makes one line greeting cards.
As it turns out, Hallmark is producing upwards of 90 movies a year. 37 of those movies last year were Christmas movies which were viewed by more than 80 million people. Their movies have an average budget of about 2 million per film. The scripts for each movie are completed in under a year, some in a matter of a few months. They try to use the same actors that are beloved by their audience in their different films. They film mostly in the same place in Vancouver. And on average, they film their movies from start to finish in 15 days.
[slideshowck id=3812]This year, you can look forward to watching instant classics like Check Inn to Christmas, Christmas at Graceland, Christmas in Rome, and premiering tonight… Christmas Town! along with a total of 24 new films that will debut this season on the Hallmark Channel.
Why Watch?
Here’s what is truly amazing to me… even knowing all of this, people will still watch. People will still cry. Even though we know the story and we know what’s going to happen in the end.
My wife will say, “We don’t know how it’s going to end.” Spoiler alert, the guy is going to fall in love with the girl. They will kiss. And they will live happily ever after!
And the truth is… we love stories like these! Why?
Because we don’t live in a world of Happily Ever Afters!
Things don’t always work out the way we wish they would. For some of you, this may not be the most wonderful time of the year. It might bring sadness, stress, or other difficulties. Things don’t always go the way we want them to go for our kids, or at work, or in our marriage, or even at our church!
We don’t live in a world of Happily Ever Afters.
We live in a world of disappointment and unmet expectations.
The result?
People lose faith. They lose faith in God, in the church, and in each other.
People lose hope. They lose hope in God, in the church, and in each other.
People lose love. They lose love for God, for the church, and for each other.
We don’t live in a world of Happily Ever Afters.
But the good news is that advent begins in the darkness.
Why we need Christmas…
And this is why we need Christmas. This is why we need the Christmas story. We need the story that begins in the darkness. That begins in a world where everything is not ok.
Even though the Christmas story is set in the same town each and every year. Even though the characters in the Christmas story are the same every year. Even though we know how the Christmas story is going to end every year. We need the Christmas story. And we need to tell the Christmas story. The church needs to tell the Christmas story.
For a long time, many churches wouldn’t celebrate Christmas or put up a tree because we believed Jesus wasn’t born on December 25th. And, he probably wasn’t! So we allowed our need to be right and precise cost us the opportunity to tell the greatest story the world has ever known. We were content to miss the opportunity and leverage the moment to share the story of Jesus coming from Heaven to Earth because we wanted to be right. And what happened was we missed the chance to restore the three things that people need most.
Faith.
Hope.
And love.
The kind of faith, the kind of hope, the kind of love that sustains us in the darkness.
Faith, Hope, and Love
When Paul wrote to the church in the ancient city of Rome, he began by announcing this good news about the faith, hope, and love we have because of Jesus.
Paul writes,
“This letter is from Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, chosen by God to be an apostle and sent out to preach his Good News. God promised this Good News long ago through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. The Good News is about his Son. In his earthly life he was born into King David’s family line, and he was shown to be the Son of God when he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. He is Jesus Christ our Lord. Through Christ, God has given us the privilege and authority as apostles to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.”
And you are included among those Gentiles who have been called to belong to Jesus Christ. I am writing to all of you in Rome who are loved by God and are called to be his own holy people.
Here’s what I want you to see. Right here, at the very beginning of this letter to the church in Rome written by Paul, we have the Christmas story. This is the Good News story… Jesus was born into the family of King David.
And Paul says two times in the firsts five verses that his job is to preach, to proclaim, to announce to everyone everywhere this Good News!
Annunciation is always a part of the Christmas story.
The night Jesus was born, angels appeared in the heavens announcing his birth to a group of shepherds in a field nearby.
The morning of his resurrection, women announced his resurrection to the disciples who were still gathered in Jerusalem wondering what would happen next.
Announcing the good news, sharing the story, preaching the gospel, proclaiming this message has always been at the heart of the Christmas story, of the Gospel story!
Good News = Gospel
It’s called the gospel because it’s literally good news. That’s what the word gospel means. In the original language, it’s euangelion.
In the Jewish world, it looked back to Isaiah 40.9 and 52.7 where a messenger would bring good news of Babylon’s defeat. Babylon, at that time, held the Jewish people in captivity. Their defeat and Israel’s freedom would be euangelion, gospel, good news! It would mean the end of Israel’s exile and the return of YHWH to Zion!
In the Greek world, the same word would have meant the announcement of the accession or the birthday of a ruler or an emperor.
So Paul uses this word and it brings all that meaning to bear. The reason the birth of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus is Good News, euangelion, is because through Jesus people will no longer be slaves to sin, they will be forgiven and free! And this Good News is possible because of the accession and birth of a new King! The King of kings! Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Lord!
This is the Good News:
Jesus was born.
Into the line of King David.
He is the Son of God.
He was raised from the dead.
By the power of the Holy Spirit!
Paul begins this letter by sharing, by announcing, by proclaiming his own version of the Christmas story.
This is the FAITH we have… We believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. We believe that He was born, he died, he was buried, and he rose again!
This is the HOPE we have… That because of what God has done for us we now belong to Jesus Christ.
This is the LOVE we have… We are loved by God. This great love of God has been revealed through the cross of Jesus Christ!
This is the message that Paul wants to announce and proclaim. It’s the story that changes everything! The Christmas story is the Gospel story, it’s the good news that now, because of the great love of God revealed in Jesus, we can all be included in the family of God!
Sharing the Story
I think if Paul were here today he might ask this question… Where in your world are you announcing Good News?
Where in your world are you sharing the story of the FAITH you hold on to, the HOPE you have in Christ, the LOVE of God revealed through Jesus on the cross?
Where in the world are you sharing the story of the great love of God revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord?
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