173 Talking About Jesus at Noel, 2

    (Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Talking About Jesus at Noel, 2”, originally shared on December 16, 2021. It was the 173^rd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)

   Last time we talked about the importance of telling the whole story of Jesus’ love and sacrifice at Christmas. We talked about inviting people to hear it so that they might come to believe and receive the gift of faith and salvation at Christmas. We talked about talking about the “What?” and the “Why?” of talking about Jesus at Christmas.

   Today, we’re going to talk about the “How?”

   How do we talk about Jesus at Christmas? Well, that might sound like a question for Captain Obvious, but it’s not as clear as some might think.

   First, we need to be honest with ourselves about our motivation. Do we invite people to come to a living relationship with Jesus Christ or to become members of our church to help pay the bills? To lower our average age and bring back a youth program? To sustain our legacy?

   Most visitors have pretty good sincerity detectors. They know when they’re being played.

   They are already afraid that they’re going to be caught-up in a hate group, a political action group, or an ingrown and insular church culture, from what they’ve seen in the media.

   Why would anyone come at Christmas? To attend a friendly church? A nice family church? A support group or a social service agency that uses religious language?

   What do we offer that no one else is offering, that no one else can offer?

   “Noel”, we heard last time, is a word that means “Christmas”. It came into the English language from the French and into the French language from the Latin word, “natalis”.

   “Natalis” is where our word “natal” comes from. Your “natal day” is your birthday. “Pre-natal vitamins are the ones you take before you give birth.

   “Natalis” according to mirriam-webster.com can mean "birthday" as a noun or "of or relating to birth" as an adjective.

   Christmas is a day in which we talk about the birth of Jesus. An historical event. But it becomes a contemporary event when someone receives the gift that is Jesus and becomes a new Creation. That is, when they are born again.

   The gift that we offer at Christmas, the gift that no one else but us is talking about, is a fundamentally transformed life in Jesus Christ.

   Jesus said, in his conversation with Nicodemus, in John 3:5-10,

⁵ Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. ⁶ What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ ⁸ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ⁹ Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” ¹⁰ Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

   This is the Christian life. It begins with an act of God and God changes everything.

   Paul writes, in 2 Corinthians 5:16-17,

¹⁶ From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. ¹⁷ So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!

   This is what we have to offer at Christmas. It is who God has made us to be.

   Second, we need to proclaim Jesus with realistic expectations for the result.

   Paul writes in Romans 10:13-17,

¹³ For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

¹⁴ But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? ¹⁵ And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” ¹⁶ But not all have obeyed the good news; for Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” ¹⁷ So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the word of Christ.

   Changed lives can happen overnight. But most of the time it takes time.

   Be the ambassador of Jesus Christ that God has called you to be. Be persistent, if necessary. Be open to the work of the Holy Spirit to recognize those to whom you are being sent. Share the good news in a way that speaks to the situation of the person with whom you are sharing it. Know that not everyone will be open to believe. At least not right away.

   Faith comes not through what is said but through what is actually heard. Know that not everyone will hear what we say; their hearts will be hard. All we can do is bring the good news, to proclaim the good news of Jesus for all people. That is the necessary act for people to hear and then to believe.

   Jesus does not have much appeal to people who feel no need of anything, but to people who know that what they need is outside of themselves. Jesus does not have much appeal to saints, but to sinners.

   Jesus is not attractive to those who are perishing, but to those who are being saved. Jesus has nothing to offer people who are self-righteous, but to those who know that what they really need is a Savior.

   People come to Christmas services for many reasons. For some, worship will just be something that they do because they’ve always done it. Just one more Christmas tradition to check off the list. Will they get anything from worship when they put nothing into it? Will they then write-off Christianity as another disappointment?

   Raise the expectations of those you invite by sharing your own story of how you became a Christian, or why you remain a Christian with so little external support in our culture, especially if you have no living ethnic tradition, no social need, or no political motivation. Share a story about a time when you were challenged, and Jesus got you through.

   Third, don’t be afraid to share your weaknesses and your struggles and your stress points. They are your growth points. Don’t be afraid to talk about questions you have where you struggle. Faith is knowing that there are answers; you just haven’t heard them yet. Relatability builds credibility.

    Fourth, you can’t give away what you don’t have. And you can’t give away what you don’t know that you have. Be open to the Holy Spirit at work in you and the opportunities for growth that the Holy Spirit presents to you:

1. Pray about it.
2. Read or study the Bible in a meaningful way regularly and with all your heart.
3. Jesus was once tested by an expert on the religious law, in Matthew 22:34-40,

³⁴ When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together, ³⁵ and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶ “Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?” ³⁷ He said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the greatest and first commandment. ³⁹ And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Do that earnestly.

4. Love the other, and yourself, but be wary of only talking about yourself. God is the hero in your story. God will make a way. It’s not about you. It’s not about “How God helped me,” but it is about “This is what God did when I was…”
5. Be transformed daily, be a new Creation, live as one who is fully defined by God, one who has been born again.
6. Be open to the Holy Spirit. The openings to share your faith will come.
7. Don’t be too prepared. Don’t prepare your witness. Prepare yourself. Don’t work on your answers, be open to God’s work on you yourself. Jesus said, in Luke 12:11-12,

¹¹ When they bring you before the synagogues, the rulers, and the authorities, do not worry about how you are to defend yourselves or what you are to say; ¹² for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say.”

   In our own time these opportunities to be witnesses are usually personal, maybe with groups, maybe whole families, maybe even with a culture, but they mainly begin one at a time, person-to-person.

Let your words come naturally. If they are forced, you will freeze-up. Just talk as the Holy Spirit leads. Learn to recognize the Holy Spirit, and not your own inner voice.  When the Holy Spirit leads, and especially if you are shy, just start talking.

8. Don’t be prissy, or know-it-all, or holier-than-thou. People will see that for what it is: spiritual insecurity. Be who God has made you to be. Be confident in God.

   Finally, look for a point of need, some crisis that has caused people to look again for answers, for a firm footing in life, when they are open to listening. Don’t find a need where none exists or exploit people’s vulnerabilities. Love them and give them what you know will help them. That is your best Christmas gift.

   Why do we give gifts at Christmas? Because God gave us God’s own self in Jesus, who was at the same time fully God and fully human being, to suffer and die for us so that we may live.

   God is still giving that gift. He has given it to you. He has given it to the world. Be one who points to God this Christmas. Tell the story about what Christmas means to you. The spiritual meaning. The new birth. And invite people who you know and who you find in your path to receive the gift that is God in Jesus Christ.

   Talk about Jesus at Christmas, celebrate his birth, point to his death and resurrection, and invite people to receive the greatest gift of all in a living transformational relationship of faith in the one true living God.