A Thrill of Hope | Sunday, December 6, 2020

For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end, upon the throne of David and over His kingdom, to order it and establish it with judgment and justice from that time forward, even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. (Isaiah 9:6–7)

Christmas 2020 will be different—and that very difference can make it one of the most meaningful and memorable Christmases of your life.

A Memory Triggered on a Cold Morning Walk

It is likely that you have a single favorite memory of Christmas from when you were a child. You probably don't have to think about it long for that memory to surface. Memories are an amazing thing. They can be tied to a song, an object, a place, or a person. Interestingly, one of the biggest triggers for memories is smell, and it is amazing how a triggering moment can almost overwhelm us with a flashback.

Something like that happened to me sixteen years ago this last week. I was working at a small international Bible college in northwest Germany, in a city called Siegen, and during the fall and winter of 2004 I planned a short trip to fly from Cologne to Stansted in London to visit friends who lived in a town east of London. When I was nine years old, my family moved to London because my dad was working there. We lived there a little less than a year, but that period left a big mark on my mind and heart.

By 2004 I hadn't been back to London in about fifteen years, but we still had connections in the town I had lived in—a town called Epping. So in November of 2004 I flew to London, and on my first Monday there I got up early and walked from where I was staying up to the High Street, then down to Station Road, the street we had lived on when I was nine. I walked to house number 36, the house we lived in, and from there I walked the same path I had walked nearly every day to the school I attended in third grade, called Ivy Chimney School. It was on that morning walk that the triggered memory happened—and it was a smell connected with that place that triggered a wave of emotion as I remembered what may be my favorite Christmas memory from childhood.

A Quiet Christmas Far From Home

I grew up in one of those families with a mom who loved to entertain guests—she still does. Rarely was our house not a kind of grand central station through which many people were stopping by. My mom still has a sign that says "Sit long and talk much." Holidays were especially busy; it was not abnormal for her to entertain forty or fifty people or more for Thanksgiving and Christmas. After a while you get used to all the chaos, and you not only get used to it but begin to expect and enjoy it.

But my favorite childhood Christmas memory was the Christmas we were 5,500 miles from San Diego in London, with just my parents, my sister, my brothers, and me. On that November morning in 2004, that memory came flashing back, triggered by the smell of diesel exhaust on a cold morning walk. Why is that memory so special to me? Because there weren't any distractions. There wasn't any of the chaos. It was a quiet family Christmas. I don't remember the presents that year—although I'm sure Micro Machines were involved. I don't remember the decorations or what we ate for dinner. There's far more I don't remember than what I do. But it is a happy memory, one that still triggers emotion thirty-one years later.

A Different Year, A Different Opportunity

I know 2020 is not the year you expected when the clock struck midnight last New Year's Eve, because it isn't the year I expected either. I know many of you are frustrated with much of what has happened this year—especially the response to it by many of our authorities and leaders, locally, at the state level, and nationally. I'm frustrated as well.

For most of this year we've been asked to socially and physically distance, and that has been very difficult. Aside from the fact that our vision and mission at Cross Connection Church is built entirely around connecting with God and one another, it is human nature to be in community. God created us for connection. That's really why you don't like physical distancing—it is against our very nature as God made us.

I'll be the first to say I haven't been entirely obedient to the regulations, and I suspect many of you haven't either. I enjoyed Thanksgiving with friends and family, and I'm not going to apologize for it, and I plan to enjoy Christmas as well. But I want to encourage you to take this opportunity. The restrictions and recommendations, in some respects, present us with an opportunity to create new and different memories at this most wonderful time of the year.

What Made That Christmas Meaningful

What made Christmas so meaningful to me at age nine in England? Two things come to mind. First, it was different from all the other Christmases. Christmas 2020 is going to be different from our normal holidays. We can be upset and angry about the difference, or we can make the most of every opportunity, as we're exhorted to do in the book of Ephesians.

Second, that Christmas was meaningful because it was Christmas at a distance. My family was physically distanced from all our extended family and our sphere of friends. It was just us, and that was meaningful and special. You may or may not be planning to gather with a group this year, but whatever you do will be different. Normally just before Christmas Day my wife's extended family comes to our house for a huge celebration—we had sixty people last year. This year that's not happening, and we're bummed about it. So Christmas will be different, but it doesn't have to be dreary and terrible.

Christmas Is a Memorial

So I come back to the question: what is your single most favorite memory of Christmas? Hold that memory in your mind for a moment. You may be asking what all this has to do with the Bible. Christmas is about memories—it really is. Christmas is a memorial. A memorial is something—a structure, an event, an institution—established to remind us of a person or an event.

Reason this out. Christmases come and go every year like clockwork, and most of them pass with very little thought, almost as if they just happen around us. Some of the cultural trappings we like, and many we complain about. But the gifts, the holiday, and all the things it has come to hold should be to us a reminder—a reminder of the gift that has been given to us. All the sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and experiences of this holiday ought to be triggers, just like the smell of diesel exhaust triggered that memory for me on that road in England. Hopefully those things trigger us to remember the gift we are celebrating.

What gift is that? It is the child of Isaiah 9: "For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given... His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Memories that stick are the memories outside the ordinary. That's why the Christmas from when I was nine sticks out, and that's why this Christmas will stick out. We need to make the most of this season so we can remember and remind others what it is all about.

Seizing the Opportunity to Remind Others

The people you interact with regularly—neighbors, co-workers, family members, friends—many of them no longer church-goers, still have a corporate, often joyful memory of Christmas they can call to mind quickly, and that memory triggers emotion. We need to seize the opportunity at this most wonderful time of the year to use that memory to remind them what is so meaningful and important about Christmas.

In the gospel of Luke we read of His coming: "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end." Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given—the Son of the Highest, who reigns forever upon the throne of David. His name is Jesus, and He came to save His people from their sins.

When the Trial Brings Our Sin to the Surface

There are a lot of things in 2020 that have stirred up my flesh and made me want to complain, murmur, and have a generally bad attitude—and I confess there have been times throughout these challenging months when I've done exactly that. God bless my wife especially, and my kids, for putting up with me when my flesh boils over. I'm sure you can relate.

I've shared with you before that we really see our true sinful nature when we are sick, tired, hungry, and stressed. Those things come out, and now we can add: when we are under lockdown. Lockdown makes our sin nature boil to the surface in a big way. God always knew those impurities—the frustration, anger, murmuring, and complaining—were already deep in our hearts. The trial, which is meant to try and purify us, brings them to the surface. Why does God allow the fiery trial? So that we can see those things, acknowledge them, confess them, and have Jesus take them away. He is the refiner.

A Christmas You'll Remember for Decades

So don't miss this opportunity. If Jesus doesn't return immediately, then twenty years from now you will remember Christmas 2020. Your kids will remember it; if you have grandkids, they will remember it. My hope is that you and I and our family members will look back and say, "That was such a meaningful Christmas." Even with all the craziness and chaos in the world, it can be meaningful if we take the time to remember what it is really about and to share that with others.

Maybe this will be the Christmas you share the good news of Jesus with someone special, and that will make it all the more meaningful. Or maybe this Christmas will be a little quieter, a little more focused, a little more meaningful. Everything that happens in the lead-up to and celebration of Christmas is meant to be a memorial reminding us of Jesus—that He, the reason for the season, came to give us what we deeply need and desperately desire. Christmas is about God becoming man to dwell among us, to bring grace and truth, forgiveness and salvation. He makes peace possible—peace with God and peace with one another—and He brings hope and joy in abundance.

The Advent of a Sure and Steadfast Hope

If you tuned in last week, I shared that the advent of Jesus is the advent of joy—a joy increasing unto abundance for eternity. This morning I want to point out that the coming of Jesus is also the coming of a sure and steadfast hope.

The concept of hope becomes all the more consequential when we are going through challenging times, and a lot of people are right now. Not much of the news is hope-producing. Whether you get your news from the right, the left, or what you believe is right down the center, the flood of information from the media and social media is more hope-deflating than hope-producing. The wise King Solomon observed three thousand years ago, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."

Interestingly, the Old Testament is almost one story after another of hope deferred. From Genesis chapter 3, where humanity falls into sin, right on through Malachi, you have thousands of years of hope deferral and heart sickness for the people of Israel, who were waiting in hope for the coming of the One who would bring hope—the Messiah. By the time you reach the gospel period, there is a lot of heart sickness among the people of God.

A Thrill of Hope

But the coming of the Messiah, Jesus, is the coming of hope—not a wishy-washy, wishful-thinking hope, not a blindly optimistic hope, but a sure and steadfast hope. Another famous Christmas song says, "Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn." The coming of Jesus is the breaking forth of a new and glorious day that brings rejoicing to a weary world.

In all the chaos and heart sickness of 2020, the world needs the hope that only Jesus brings. The hope He gives causes His people to stand rejoicing, because it does not disappoint. The author of Hebrews writes that "this hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast." The souls of many—their hearts and minds—have been shaken and tossed in 2020, but Jesus gives a hope that is an anchor, sure and steadfast. That is what Jesus brings: the advent of joy increasing unto abundance for eternity, and the advent of a hope that anchors our souls. This joy and hope can be yours as you put your trust and faith in Jesus, which I hope you will do this season as you come to discover who He is and what He really brings.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You so much for the work that You are doing even when we are physically distanced from one another as Your people, the church. Even though we're not gathering together in our building, we are still gathering as one in Christ, bound together by Your Spirit. I pray that You would work in and through my brothers and sisters, that You'd work through Your church to be a light shining during this time.

Lord, there are many people in our near proximity—people who live next door, work in the same office, go to the same school—people we interact with regularly who are depressed and in darkness under the bondage of sin. They are afraid because their hope is not sure and steadfast; their hope is temporal, only in the things of this world, and their joy is connected only to good things happening. So it's hard for them to have joy or hope in the midst of challenging circumstances; they've lost hope and their hearts are sick. God, I pray that You would give Your church such a bright and shining joy and hope that it would be magnetic, drawing people to us so that we would share the good news of Your gospel with them.

Jesus, Your advent is the coming of joy increasing unto abundance for eternity, and the hope You give is a sure and steadfast anchor for our hearts, minds, and souls. So cause that to overflow from Your church, we pray. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

And now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.