Be Unexpected: December 24, 2018 I know this may be An awkward question To begin this sermon. So please. When I ask. Don t look At the people Sitting next to you Just look at me And discretely raise your hand How many of you Sitting in this church tonight As God as your witness Have WEIRD family members? [1 Weird] Right. We all do. And if you don t know Who the weird family member is It s probably you. - Anyway My mom. My wonderful amazing mother. She s 85 years old She is extremely active Driving all over God s Creation Going to great grandchildren s Baseball games School concerts Wrestling matches You name it. She goes. She also plays bingo A couple times a week And it s not little community center bingo Using pieces of dried up corn To mark your card And winning a package of Reese s Peanut Butter cups. No. This is the real deal. She has dabbers. And multiple cards. A professional bingo caller. Nasty older women.
Who glare at you If you win. And big money. She loves bingo. And she also runs The weekly Euchre tournament In our hometown. Of Sabula Iowa Which despite Dan Turner being skeptical Is in fact An island city Off the coast of Iowa. At any rate I digress. Back on topic. My mother is wonderful. But occasionally has been know To be weird. - One Sunday morning [2 Winter River] In the middle of a frigid Iowa winter It gets cold there. Not like here It s in the high 40 s today But feels like 60! No. It s was in the low negatives And it felt like Siberia. At any rate We jumped into the car To drive the five blocks to church. But it was cold. The kind of day Where the car Just does not warm up. And your breath hangs in the air In front of your face. But the sun was shining And it was so bright. My mom Who was driving Looked out on the beauty
Of the frozen river And with that far off Distance look In her eyes Said People people Take my advice Pull down your pants And slide on the ice. Which is not only A fine example Of strange American poetry Of the late 20th century But completely Unexpected. Not what I thought My mom might say To me As we drove to church That Sunday morning. Totally unexpected. But memorable right So much so That I can remember Every detail of the event Even 35 years later. True confession. I have a weird mom. - We have gathered here tonight. [3 The Birth of Jesus] To once again Celebrate The birth of Jesus. And the reason We come back Year after year Is because We know This birth Was weird. Not what we expected at all. And even now Over 2000 years. 2000 years later.
There is something so Significant. And powerful. And wonderful. And unexpected. That we celebrate Like it happened tonight. The birth Is still Impacting us Even on this very night. That s how weird. Unexpected. And important. The birth of Jesus Was is and always will be. And besides all that [4 Baby Jesus] We look at a cute little baby On Christmas Eve And we love babies. And puppies. But tonight we re talking about a baby. Do you ever wonder why We love babies so much? I mean It can t be All the hard work That goes into raising a child. Because Anyone who has done it Knows it is NOT an easy process So maybe It has to do With those big eyes And the cooing noises And the smell Like baby powder And lotion That seem to resonate with us And make people happy. Or maybe It s because They are a little bundle of potential.
Unscathed by the cynicism That comes From getting old And living our lives. And witnessing the same BS day after day. Untouched By the commercial nonsense That tells us We re not good enough Unless we buy the product Du jour Unharmed By the psychological And social damage Inflicted on us By the selfish and hurtful people Of the world. Maybe it s because At that moment As you hold the baby in your arms Anything is possible. Nothing else is necessary. All is good. Right there. It s good. But I m so sorry to tell you This night Isn t just about A precious little baby In a barn full of cute animals And beautiful angels Filling the sky. I m sorry to tell you In a way This night This celebration Is about ugliness It s about sinfulness it s about our own tendency To care more about ourselves And our wants and desires And our own little universe It s about the fact
That we have turned our backs On our loving God. And this baby Isn t just another cute little ankle biter. [5 The Cure] This baby is the cure To our sickness Is the love To our hate. Is the forgiveness To our sin And is the life To our death. He is the Savior. And it s not the way [6 Unexpected] It s supposed to be. We didn t expect this kind of Savior. We didn t expect God To come to us In the flesh. And live among us. It s not what we expect. It s not what we would have done. We would have had a warrior Someone to beat this world Into submission to God. Not this child Who grows up And even as an adult Is weird. He proclaims A gospel Of love. And acceptance And forgiveness And hope. It s not what we expected And it s certainly not What we deserve. But here he is. The Savior of the Universe.
The Savior of YOU And the Savior of me. Do you want to hear [7 Manger Joseph] A Christmas secret. Joseph is Unstable. Mary Coleman told me. Just yesterday. Joseph is unstable As he stands in this stable. And the people who decorate The altar and the church For our celebration They use something To prop him up. They use wooden crosses. Seems significant Doesn t it. That beneath The feet of Joseph There are crosses In the manger. See. The baby. He grows. And the real story Is about what he does. Who he becomes. And the love he has That sacrifices it all. Again. Just not what we expect. - Tonight I want to tell you a story About a nine year-old boy named Wallace Purling. Wally was a kid who was bigger and taller Than the other kids in his class Wally wanted one thing very much To be in the Christmas play. He hoped he could be a shepherd. But the teacher had a larger part in mind. Wally was big enough to be the innkeeper. [8 Innkeeper Door] She reasoned he was about adult size. He was happy and practiced hard. The night of the play everything went beautifully. No one missed a line.
At last the play came to the part Where Mary and Joseph Knocked on the door of the inn. "What do you want? Wallace asked, Opening the door with a brusque gesture. "We seek lodging," Came the response. "Seek it elsewhere, the inn is filled," "But sir, we have tried elsewhere, We have come a long way, And we are very tired," They responded. "Go away," Wally properly commanded. "There is no room in my inn for you." "But sir, my wife is with child. Don t you have a corner Where we can get out of the cold?" For the first time the innkeeper Broke his icy stare And looked at Mary. There was a long silence. The audience was tense With embarrassment Because they thought Wallace Had forgotten his lines. "No, be gone," The prompter whispered From offstage "No, be gone," Wally said halfheartedly. Joseph sadly placed his arm around Mary As they began to move off the stage. But Wallace Purling Could stand it no longer. He was not a cruel child And his heart was breaking So with big tears welling up in his eyes He gave a performance That no one would forget "Wait, don t go Joseph!" Wally called.
"Bring Mary back." Wallace Purling s face grew Into a big smile. "You can have my room And I ll sleep out in the cold." Some said the pageant was ruined. Others knew better. Wallace Purling Caught the real spirit of Christmas That of giving and sacrifice. See. That really is The spirit of Christmas. God became flesh To live among us And to bring life and salvation To light. It was a sacrifice And it was unexpected. AND IT WAS wonderful. Same as Wally. The end of the Christmas play Was a sacrifice And unexpected And wonderful. Now it s our turn. This tired old world Doesn t need more of the same. Negativity. Hate. Pain. It needs unexpected grace. It needs unconditional love. It needs a hope That goes beyond The daily grind. It needs you. To be unexpected. [9 Be Unexpected] DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. Don t adhere to the expectations. Of this society.
Don t blindly go along with the most current Conflicts of our culture. Don t just accept what is Dream about what can be. - By the power of the Holy Spirit You can rewrite the story. Just like God did. You can bring light To the darkness In the name of Jesus Christ. You can bring hope Out of despair. With simple acts of unexpected love. You can be different Than what people expect. And you can do it To honor Our God. Who is constantly calling us To expect the unexpected. Thank you Jesus. Merry Christmas! Amen!