Sermon Text: January 6, 2008

"Is It True What They Say About God?"
- Rev. Ken Streitenberger
Assistant Pastor

the Gospel Lesson:
Luke 1: 67 - 79

Nina Hermann Donnelley, a hospital chaplain, tells in an article in “The Christian Ministry,” of the following true-life incident.  She writes:

“Joe was sitting on the edge of his bed.  An IV tube was stuck in his arm, but otherwise he looked like a fairly chipper six-year-old.

I was a new student chaplain on the general medical-surgical floor at Children’s Hospital.  (After introductions, Joe found out that I was a chaplain.)

“You’re a real minister?” he asked.

“I sure am,” Nina replied.

The little boy’s face immediately lighted up.  (I wasn’t expecting such a joyous response,” the student chaplain adds as an aside.

“Good,” said Joe.  “I have a question I want to ask you.”

“Okay,” responded Nina, with the fleeting thought that she might be better off at the dentist.

“Is it true,” Joe asked, “what they say about God?”

“What exactly do you mean, ‘What they say about God?’”

“You know,” Joe replied, “like that God is there even though you can’t see God?”

“Pretty good for a six-year-old,” Ms Donnelley thought.  “He’s grasping some theology.”

“Yes, Joe,” Ms. Donnelley continued, “I do believe God is there even though we can’t see God.”

There was a long pause.  And then a big smile on Joe’s face.  “Good!” he exclaimed enthusiastically.  “Then I believe in Santa Claus, too!”

I.

          “Is It True What They Say About God?”  That’s a pretty good question.  And it deserves a pretty good answer.  “Is it true what they say about  God?”  Well, what is it they say about God?

          Zechariah stated it in the scripture lesson for the day.  At the birth of his own son, John the Baptist, who would introduce and prepare the way for the Christ, Zechariah proclaimed,

“Blessed be God…for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up for them a horn of salvation.”

          That is what they say about God.  That God has visited and redeemed his people.  That is why we are celebrating this season

–because God has come among us;  because God has brought us back to unity with God;  because God has opened the door of the future that we might always come back to God.

          In a February edition of “New Yorker Magazine” a few years ago, the cover was graced with a wonderful Charles Addams cartoon. The cartoon showed an elderly gentleman standing in his pajamas and robe at his apartment door.  The man had just secured the door for the night with not one, but four locks.  He had thrown two dead-bolts and he had secured the chain latch.  It was only after the last lock was fastened that the man noticed a small white envelope stuck beneath the door.  On the envelope was a large red sticker in the shape of a heart.  His private security system had been penetrated.  Someone had gotten in.  Someone had slipped under his door –a valentine.  (Celebration)

          So it is with God visiting and redeeming his people.  Through the Christ, God has entered into our lives.  God has invaded us with love.  God has penetrated the lonely, fearful and anxious places of our lives.  God has slipped through the barriers a self-sufficient and arrogant world has erected and brought warmth and caring and peace.

          “Is It True What They Say About God?”  --Yes!  In this season, we are reminded that it is true that God has visited and redeemed his people. We celebrate again the coming of the Christ who brought us God’s love and who made possible our return to oneness with God.

II.

          One Christmas season, a class of young people from a local church decided that on Christmas morning they would take bags of popcorn and candy and fruit to each of the children at a near-by hospital.  The young people found that most of the children had already received some gift from family or friends.  But as they went through the wards, they discovered one lad who had nothing to show that anyone had visited him.  This child’s face shone brightly as they gave him the colored bag of goodies.

          Most of the other children began devouring their fruit and candy at once, but as the young people came back through the ward, they saw that this one little fellow had placed his fruit and candy out on the pillow, in plain sight, without having eaten any of it.

          “Why don’t you eat your candy?” asked the leader of the group as she came up to the bed.

          “Nope,” said the boy with a quiver in his voice.  “I’m going to keep it out there so all the kids can see that somebody did care about me when it was Christmas.”  (Albert W. Beaven)

          Somebody cares about us at Christmas.  In fact, that caring about us is why we have Christmas.  God cared enough about us to send a son to be with us, to love us, to be a constant reminder that we are important to God.  God showed that somebody cares about how we live and whether we are confused or afraid, wounded or lost.  God cared enough to show us the path home and to provide the way for our return.

          “Is It True What They Say About God?”  Yes!  It is true.  God loves us and God has expressed that love in a visible and very real way.  God has visited and redeemed his people.  The Christ is our gift and he is the expression that somebody cares about us.

III.

          In Zechariah’s speech that day at the birth of his son, John the Baptist, Zechariah spoke about the past works of God in the lives of his people.  Zechariah recalled the mighty acts of God –acts of redemption and rescue of his people.  Zechariah praised God for God’s many saving deeds of the past.  But Zechariah’s word of praise was not for the past only.  It was also for the future acts of salvation by God.  It was a song of praise for a God who is constantly present, constantly coming to visit and redeem his people –not just in the past but today and tomorrow as well.

          I’ve never forgotten one scene in a movie from the early 1970’s.  The movie was titled “Save the Tiger.”  The movie starred Jack Lemmon.  Maybe some of you remember the movie, too.  At one point in the story, a 22-year-old young woman talked with the middle-aged Jack Lemmon about those things that appeared to give her life significance.  One of the things she mentioned was an effort being made to save a certain rare species of animal in danger of becoming extinct.

          Of the lions and tigers that once roamed the savannahs and wild sections of Africa, the young woman said,

“I understand they come back to places of remembered beauty.”  (Repeat)

          Observes one writer about her statement,

“That phrase haunts me.  People, too, need ‘places of remembered beauty’ to return to –not to be caught and trapped in, but as points of reference that enable them to live free from fear and free from hate, free to dream and free to fail.”  (James W. Angell, “Learning to Manage our Fears”).  –And I would add, free to face the future.

          The Christmas season is one of our “places of remembered beauty.”  It is a place where we return, yes, to remember the mighty acts of God in the past, but even more, it is a place which serves as a point of reference that we might find strength and courage for the future.  Christmas reminds us that God loves us.  Christmas reminds us that God cares about us and how we live and where we hurt.  Christmas is the concrete act God has performed as evidence that indeed God did and God does visit and redeem his people.

          “Is It True What They Say About God?”  Yes, emphatically, yes!  God loves us.  God has provided a way for us to return to God.  God has expressed care for us through his Christmas gift.  And God continues to express love and care for us as God constantly provides opportunities where we may be renewed and made strong and courageous for the facing of tomorrow.

* * * * *

          “Is It True What They Say About God?” –Yes…  “Blessed be God for God has visited and redeemed us!”