Christmas:  God Remembers to be Merciful
December 23 - p.m.    God’s easily-overpowered message of love
Dennis Mullen  - Candlelight Service meditation

Our best effort at Christmas - Turkey Creek???
Dollywood?
Lights of Gatlinburg?

The good in these...  They reveal souls that strive for glory. TC -We want to give and see the joy on people's faces as they receive.  Lights - they really are beautiful, and may be our way of imitating God - "The light shines in the darkness..."  "I am the Light of the world."

But even when you consider humankind's best creations - Eiffel Tower, Monuments in Washington DC, or a clean, modern city - the ironic thing is that they all tend to blot out God's creation.  A TC or a Dollywood or a Eiffel Tower blots out the night sky...  Even a fine church building like ours - you have to push all the living things out of the way to build it, and then when you drive up here at night, even if it is a cold, clear starry night, you would never know it b/c our lights obscure the glory of God revealed in the heavens.

I use this only as an illustration b/c I don't see anything wrong with building a house or a city.  But it IS odd, isn't it, that the work of our hands insulates us from God's creation, to the extent that some of us here haven't seen a star in a month.

God made his presence known to the Magi with a star.  In our nativity scenes, we picture it as a spotlight on the house where Jesus was, but it was probably just a star.  No one else in the nativity story seems to have been aware of it.  If God revealed himself in such a subtle way today, would we stand a chance of seeing it? 

God made his Son's arrival known to the shepherds by means of an angel.  In the video drama this morning, it was quite clear that when the angel appeared, a bright light chased away the darkness.  Could it possibly have the same effect today to those of us who live under bright lights all the time?

Again, I mean this symbolically, mostly.  I like electricity!  But what kind of danger are we in of having the works of our own hands crowd out the steady but rarely demanding voice of God? How much danger are we in of worshiping and serving created things rather than the creator...because created things are all we can see?

Even with the star in the east, even with the glory shining down around the shepherds, God's entry into our world was the least overpowering thing of all - a small baby.  And present all the time in the background of that child's life, even on that first Christmas, was the cross - God's means of salvation - a symbol of powerlessness, weakness, even shame.  But hidden in the Christmas manger and AND the cross is something unimaginable...

 18 For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written:
   "I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
      the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."

 20 Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? 21 For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.

God speaks and his word is a star, a baby, a still small voice.  Because he doesn't force himself upon us, it's easy to miss it for the world.  But he or she who has ears to hear or eyes to see...  let them hear and see.

 Morrison Hill Christian Church
P.O. Box 59 - 1008 E. Race St.
Kingston, TN  37763   (865) 376-5205