JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING Reinbeck UMC Christmas Eve 2015

JESUS CHANGES EVERYTHING

Reinbeck UMC Christmas Eve 2015

It has been calculated that the probability that you would exist as the unique individual you are is something like 1 in 4 trillion. That is a 4 with 14 zeroes behind it.

One person has done some calculations and estimates that the probability of your ancestors meeting, and falling in love, and having children is, get this, 1 in 10 to the 2,685,000^th power. That is 1 with 2,685,000 zeroes behind it.

That person continued, picture 2,000,000 people playing a game of dice and each of them gets to roll their 1 trillion sided die one time and only one time. They all roll at the same time and they all roll exactly the same number. Could it happen? Mathematically it could. Now I’m not a betting man, However, I am pretty sure that you would have to be awfully bad at math to bet your life savings on that happening.

Calculating the probability that both of these things would happen, the combination of relationships and the genetics is pretty simple, but when I used an on line, statistical calculator to perform that calculation the display read simply, “infinity.” The chances are so small that mathematically speaking our existence is a virtual impossibility.

Mathematically speaking we shouldn’t exist. In the grand scheme of things in a random universe, our chances of existing are zero.

The Christmas story that we celebrate tonight, is that the infinite, God of all Gods, creator of the universe did something even more unlikely than that. Even though we are zeroes, God loves us, and chose to become one of us. God chose to become a zero, and even more, he chose to come as a completely helpless infant-- a baby “zero”-- in a nowhere corner of a smallish planet--- in an off-the-beaten-track part of the universe. Right?

“While they were there, (in Bethlehem the place Micah calls the least of the clans of Israel)… While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. (She being Mary, a young, unknown, poor, unmarried girl) And she gave birth to her firstborn son (one of us… a mathematical zero)… and wrapped him (that mathematical nothing) in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, (an animal’s food trough) because there was no place for them in the inn. (because she was considered too unimportant even among the other mathematical zeroes.)

Now that may sound harsh, but that is the miracle of Christmas! Philippians tells the Christmas story this way

Though he was in the form of God,
 did not regard equality with God
 as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
 taking the form of a slave,
 being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,

 he humbled himself
 and became obedient to the point of death

If that is not a miracle, I don’t know what a miracle would be.

·        The result is that we who were “nothings” are suddenly “somethings” because we are loved by God; because Jesus Changes everything.

·        We, who were formerly a mere statistical anomaly, have been given the gift of the presence of God in our midst because we are loved by God; because Jesus Changes everything.

·        We, who were formerly trapped in our sin, are suddenly loved by God. And that makes all the difference; because Jesus Changes everything.

·        Nothing can ever be the same again. Nothing can ever go back to being the same; because Jesus Changes everything.

(Say it with me “Because Jesus Changes everything.”)

·        Suddenly the heavens sing with choirs; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly the old evergreen glows with magic; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly the world glistens with tinsel and lights; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly cold hard, broken, dysfunctional, dead hearts start to beat; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly, we who are tragically sinful have hope; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly, we who were restless and troubled can be filled with joy; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly, we who have become accustomed to fear and hate, can be filled with peace; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

·        Suddenly we who, if we are lucky, have only experienced a faint reflection of love in our lives are awash with God’s love; “Because Jesus Changes everything.”

You might not feel like everything is changed, because like the wise men Jesus birth set us on the journey of a lifetime.

That journey that  began 2000 years ago, but begins anew tonight, no matter how many times we have set out on that journey before.

The journey begins anew tonight because tonight we celebrate this miracle of miracles, Jesus changes everything because tonight like a new mother gently leaning over to kiss the forehead of her newborn child, tonight heaven comes down and kisses the earth with a miracle.

·        Heaven comes down and kisses the earth with hope.

·        Heaven comes down and kisses the earth with joy.

·        Heaven comes down and kisses the earth with peace.

·        Heaven comes down and kisses the earth with love.

Tonight my prayer is that heaven will come down and kiss your heart, kiss your life with the miracle of Christ at Christmas; (one last time together) Because Jesus changes everything.