Re-Discover the Christ Child!

November 22, 2011
For the Journal-Review
By Gary Lewis
Pastor, First United Methodist Church

As I write this, I’m busy making last-minute preparations for our first vacation trip to our newlywed daughter and husband in New York State. It occurred to me that when I return our community will be decked out in Christmas trimmings.

Of course, there already seems to be a lot of Christmas decorations in many stores. Perhaps that is a sign of a tough economy with stores desperate to entice shoppers to buy now in their annual push for sales during this all-important time of the year for them. Or, maybe it is simply a symptom of corporate greed. Whatever the circumstances might be, Christmas is coming.

December 25 will soon be here and it is so tempting to simply let it come without much spiritual preparation. I hope you won’t do that this year. Because Christmas is not the lighting of the Christmas tree, or a Shopping Frenzy, but a very, very, old story of a loving creator who brought us a beautiful gift in the form of an infant boy.

One of the highlights of my ministry is when parents of newborns invite me to the hospital for a visit. Several years ago, a family greeted me in a quiet hospital room in Anderson, Indiana. Jack and Angie allowed me to hold their newborn son, Jadin, just hours after his birth.

I must tell you that I wasn’t prepared to be part of such a special moment. The elevator I was riding in got stuck on the way to Angie’s room. I had to be freed by a very uninterested maintenance man (I thought they called the rescue squad when someone is trapped in an elevator!) after a maddening 30-minute wait.

After stumbling upon her room, still fuming over the elevator ordeal, I realized how special that mid-morning visit had become. A beaming mother and a proud father, and doting grandmothers and sisters, all had gathered to take part in a very special moment.

And after just a few minutes in the room, they asked me if I wanted to hold the baby!

That’s the way Christmas comes to most of us. We stumble through the season with all of its trappings and stumble into a holy moment still fuming over what we’ve had to go through to get there. But when we take the time to take hold of it all, we find ourselves suddenly changed. A long look into the eyes of a newborn baby wrapped in swaddling cloths will do that.
As we celebrate Christmas in the year 2011, I pray that you, dear reader, will find yourself in many holy moments. Christmas has come in the form of a helpless baby to meet the needs of a helpless world stumbling to find its way. Together, let us set our eyes upon Jesus so we can experience God’s transforming power.

I want to close this column with some excerpts from my Christmas Eve prayer. If you are looking for some holy moments this Christmas, I invite you to our 11 p.m. candlelight service on Christmas Eve. If it all works out, you will be walking out the door a few ticks after midnight – just in time to welcome the real reason for season.

“O God … We praise you for the mystery of Christ: Son of God, yet our brother, born of Mary; the Eternal Word, yet a speechless child; clothed in glory, yet wrapped in cloths; the Lord of lords, yet laid in a manger; strong in his weakness, and mighty to save.

“We remember this night the manger, the sign of your Son’s humility and rejection. Help us to seek and find him in the unexpected places of life. Pour upon your Church the Spirit of lowliness and love, that we may never despise any child of yours, however weak; but help us to honor and care for all people, for his sake, and to share with them the life and blessings which you have given for the use of all. … Forgive us our maddening cries which drown the song, and teach us to be still and to know that you are God. … All these things we ask in the name of your Child, Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”