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Milford Baptist Church
8 December 2002
Christmas: Has God got a
surprise for you?
Matthew1:18-25
Christmas Service
With the kids and young
people here, I want to speak to them this morning.
(The rest of you can listen in.)
Do you like
surprises? I want to tell you three stories. Three
stories about surprises...
A surprise for grandma
An elderly lady was
doing her shopping and, upon returning to her car,
found four young men in her car about to drive off
with it. She dropped her shopping bags, drew a gun
from out of her handbag, and then screamed at the top
of her voice, "I have a gun, and I know how to use it.
Get out of the car!" The four men didn't wait for a
second invitation. They scrambled out of the car and
sprinted off across the car park as fast as they
could. Then, somewhat shaken, the old lady proceeded
to load her shopping bags into the back of the car and
get into the driver's seat. But she was trembling so
much that she couldn't get her key into the ignition.
She tried and tried. And then it dawned on her...
A few minutes later she
found her own car parked four or five spaces further
down. So she drove her car down to the local police
station to confess what she'd done. The sergeant to
whom she told the story nearly tore himself in half
with laughter. He pointed to the other end of the
counter, where four pale young men were reporting the
theft of their car by a mad, elderly woman described
as European, less than five feet tall, with glasses,
curly white hair, and carrying a large handgun. No
charges were filed. The surprise was bad enough for
that poor little old lady. And anyway, by reporting
her mistake, she'd done the right thing.
A surprise for Misha
It was 1994 and two
Americans were in Russia. They'd been invited there by
the Russian Department of Education to teach Christian
morals and ethics in public schools, prisons,
businesses, and in a large orphanage. They were at the
orphanage and it was nearly Christmas time and the two
teachers decided to tell the orphans the traditional
Christmas story. They told them about Mary and Joseph
arriving in Bethlehem and finding no room in the inn,
having to go into a dirty old stable, where Jesus was
born and placed in a manger - a food trough for
animals. It was the first time these kids had heard
the Christmas story. They sat on the edges of their
chairs, listening in amazement.
As a follow-up activity
to the story, each child was given three small pieces
of cardboard to make a simple manger. Each kid was
also given a small paper square cut from a yellow
napkin, which they tore into strips and carefully laid
in the manger for straw. They used small squares of
flannel from a thrown away nightgown for the baby's
blanket and little pieces of tan felt for the baby.
The teachers made their way around the room to look at
how the kids were getting on. All the kids were doing
very well, until they got to the table where little
Misha sat. Misha looked to be a boy of about 6 years
old and he had finished his project. But something was
wrong with his manger. There wasn't one baby but two
babies in the manger. Through an interpreter one of
the teachers asked the little fellow, "Why are there
two babies in the manger?"
Misha answered him by
accurately recounting the story that he had been told
until he got to the part where Mary put Jesus in the
manger. But Misha had made up his own ending for the
story. He said, "When Mary laid the baby in the
manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a
place to stay. I told him I have no momma and I have
no papa, so I don't have any place to stay. Then Jesus
told me I could stay with him. But I told him I
couldn't because I didn't have a gift to bring him
like everybody else. But I wanted to stay with Jesus
so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I
could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept Jesus
warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, 'If
I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?' And
Jesus told me, 'If you keep me warm, that will be the
best gift anybody ever gave me. So I got into the
manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me I
could stay with him - for ever.'" As little Misha
finished telling his story, his eyes brimmed full of
tears. He put his hands over his face, dropped his
head to the table, and sobbed. He was an orphan -
without a mum or dad - but he had found someone who
would never abandon or abuse him, someone who would
stay with him - for ever! He could hardly believe it.
What a wonderful surprise.
A surprise for Joseph
Let me tell you one more
surprise story. It's a story about a man who was
engaged to be married to a lovely young girl. He
couldn't wait for the wedding day. But before they
were married, before he had been with her, he noticed
that her tummy was getting bigger. It wasn't that she
was eating too many Moro bars. She was pregnant - she
was going to have a baby, presumably to someone else.
Joseph wasn't the father. Can you imagine how Joseph
felt? I think he would have felt hurt and angry and
sad. I think he would have felt embarrassed. Everyone
else in the village could see for themselves the
changing shape of his fiancée. But most of all, I
think Joseph would have simply been surprised. How
could Mary betray him like that?
But the biggest surprise
of all came when Joseph had a dream and an angel from
God said to him, "Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary
home as your wife, because the baby inside her has
been given to her by the Holy Spirit. And when the
baby is born you are to call him Jesus, because he
will save his people from their sins." You think the
old lady or little Misha got a surprise? This was a
surprise. This little baby born on Christmas day not
only came from God; he was God - "God with us." This
little newborn human baby with his limbs wrapped
tightly against his body, was the Creator of the
Universe and had entered into our world to save us.
That's what the name "Jesus" means: "God saves."
What did Joseph do? He
did what the angel told him to do. He took Mary home
to be his wife. And when the baby was born, he called
him Jesus. Joseph did the right thing. But can you
imagine how difficult it might have been for him to
accept what seemed impossible, and to commit himself
to an unknown, risky, difficult path?
A surprise for you?
Maybe God sometimes asks
you to do something difficult, something surprising.
What could he be asking you to do today?
Is he asking you, like
the old lady, to say sorry to someone or to own up
about something you've done?
Is he asking you, like
Joseph, to be kind to someone who you think has
treated you badly? To invite someone home this
Christmas who you wouldn't normally invite home?
Or maybe he's asking
you, like Misha, to accept his love, his friendship -
and to say, "Thank you Jesus for coming to earth to
forgive me and be my friend. Come and stay with me
forever."
Study Questions
1. "God who created all
matter took shape within it, as an artist might become
a spot on a painting or a playwright a character
within her own play" (Yancey). What do you think
Christmas tells us about God's purpose for creation
and his attitude towards the human race? See Matthew
28:20 and John 14:15-16,18.
2. "In Jesus we see what
God is like, and we see what we ought to be like." How
is that? In the light of Christmas, what qualities
would you ascribe to God? Why? (John 1:14; 14:9;
Hebrews 1:3).
3. Why else do you think
it was important that Jesus be both the Son of God and
the son of Joseph, divine and human?
4. The name "Jesus" is
the Greek form of the Jewish name, Joshua. Can you see
any parallels between Jesus and Joshua in the Old
Testament?
5. If you were Joseph,
how do you think you would have reacted to Mary's
confession that she was pregnant, and to the angel's
command to take Mary home as your wife?
6. Has God ever asked
you to accept something that seemed impossible, or to
commit yourself to an unknown, risky, difficult path?
What happened?
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