Sermon Tone Analysis

A King is Coming

I hope everyone is ready for Christmas.

We are just 2 weeks away, so if you plan to buy anything online you are about to run out of time.

A couple of weeks ago we watched “A Christmas Story” and it got me thinking about Christmas traditions.

You may remember in the movie when their Christmas turkey tradition was ruined by the Bumpus hounds so they ended up having “Chinese turkey.”

So I did some looking online to see what traditions people tend to do for Christmas.

There were a lot of things about socks, sleeping in the same room, leaving Santa various goods, caroling, and other interesting ideas.

I came across one that I would like to start.

I like to decorate the inside of the house because it just makes you happy when you come home from work and see all the little reminders and celebrations of Jesus scattered around the house.

When I was a kid, we decorated the outside of the house one year and it wasn’t very fun, so I don’t do that.

However I saw one clever idea that I will have to add to my decorations.

One person said they put a small tree on top of the house above the tree that is in the house and it looks like the tree is sticking through the roof!

I like that one.

Anyway, as I was reading about these traditions, the ones that stood out the most to me were the ones from other countries.

In Norway, people believe that Christmas eve is when the witches and evil spirits decide to make a visit, so everyone hides their brooms before they go to sleep so that the witches don’t have access to their usual mode of transportation.

If you know someone from Norway, I am NOT saying that it would be funny to move their broom that night to mess with their heads, even though it would actually be funny.

But don’t do that.

There is a Spanish and German tradition of hiding a gherkin on the Christmas tree.

I’ve actually heard of this one before because it is becoming more popular in the states now-a-days.

Anyway, they hide the festive pickle and whichever child in the family finds it first is given a gift.

That one is interesting to me because it sort of reminds me of the Jewish passover tradition of breaking Matzah, which is unleavened bread, into two pieces and hiding one half for the children to find.

The one who finds it gets a prize.

Finding something that was hidden and getting a prize is what Christianity is.

Specifically, Jesus is the broken, unleavened bread who was buried and hidden, but when we find Him we receive the gift of eternal life.

But now I am rambling, because this is just a pickle.

In Venezuela, for whatever reason, people go to church on Christmas morning on roller skates!

Wouldn’t you love to start that tradition here!

Roads around their capital city are closed to traffic so that families can celebrate that tradition safely.

In Catalonia, they have a pooping log!

Leading up to Christmas, children will “feed” candy to a smiling hollowed out log.

They actually put faces on these things.

Then on Christmas Eve, the kids will beat it with sticks like a pinata until it poops out the treats.

I’m not sure what I think about this one.

As Christians, many people will read the Christmas story to the family on Christmas morning.

Not the transcript to the movie, but the real Christmas story about Jesus’ birth.

Churches everywhere will be talking about Jesus’ birth and celebrating the event with series, sermons, cantata’s, cookouts, caroling, and countless other great traditions.

We read this passage in chapter 1 of Matthew a couple of weeks ago, but I want to look at it again.

When we looked at it before, we were talking about Joseph.

His plans were turned upside down and his family was starting off as a broken family.

Even though things weren’t going to plan, Joseph was there for his family…

This time of year we think a lot about Jesus.

We think a lot about His birth and the sacrifice He made for us.

We think a lot about Jesus from our perspective.

When we looked at this scripture before we were looking from Joseph’s perspective.

But what about Jesus’ perspective?

Starting at the top, we know that God is triune, or three in one.

God the Father, Jesus His Son, and the Holy Spirit make up the three roles of our God.

One God, three distinct parts.

Through Jesus, God became flesh like you and me and walked around on earth.

He smelled bread as it was baking, felt dirt between His toes, felt refreshed with the splash of water in his face, and so on.

So imagine what a conversation between God the Father and Jesus may have looked like before He came to earth.

What if God and Jesus were talking it over and God said, “Listen, we keep raising up leaders and sending word to these people about what they need to do, but they will never get it right.

I know it won’t be easy, but you are going to have to go down there yourself.”

What might have gone through Jesus’ mind as they discussed the plan and talked about what it would cost.

From day one, this will be tough.

The good news is that I’ve found this woman named Mary.

She will be your mom.

You will really like her.

She is a young girl who lives in Nazareth.

She is devoted to Our Will.

She isn’t like other girls who are signing up on all the apps like tender, or playing truth or dare and spin the bottle.

She is pure in every way.

She is a virgin, saving herself for marriage.

Joseph will be your earthly dad.

Your step dad.

He lives a righteous life like Mary.

He will be an important part of you life, even though he won’t be as popular as Mary.

She will get a ton of statues and he will only make it to a good portion of nativity scenes.

You’ll have friends and family, but for the most part people are gonna hate you.

Life will be tough.

To be clear, You will be leaving the glory of heaven for this.

You’ll ride around in Mary’s womb for 9 months, then pop out into the cold hard world.

“Is it too late to do the stork thing that you joked about?”

Gotta be born of a woman.

You have to be ALL God and ALL man.

A lot of people are waiting for you, but they expect you to be born in a palace.

Instead, I will be sending you to a common place.

Where ordinary people are.

Well, poor people.

Actually, there won’t quite be enough room there even, so you’ll be born in a cave.

With farm animals.

We might hear that and go, “Really?

If I am going to be born in a barn, can it be a barndominium?

Or at least a warm place with a bed?”

But Jesus was thinking about you and me and probably thought, “I love it!

Then everyone will know that I came for them.

Not just the rich and powerful, but the common and ordinary!”

When you are born, it’s going to get complicated before your feet even hit the ground.

While you are still wiggling around on the ground Satan and all the demons in hell will be threatened by you.

They will all want you dead.

King Herod will hunt for you and when he can’t find you he will kill every boy in the area in hopes of hitting you.

Your whole family will be in danger.

After you are born I will help your family escape.

I’ll make sure they have a fast donkey or something.

On the plus side, if this stuff ever gets to you as a kid, just remember that you have our power!

You won’t have to put up with ALL of the frustrations.

If you don’t feel like taking a bath one day, just part the water and sit in a dry tub!

If you don’t feel like eating your broccoli, turn it into chocolate cake!

But you really should eat your broccoli and take your baths.

In school, the other kids might be jealous because you are gonna have perfect attendance and straight A’s.