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Creekside Church
Sermon of December
24, 1998
Christmas Eve Meditation
"Now Here!"
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![[Pastor David Bibbee]](../../graphics/Pastor_David2.jpg)
Rev. David
Bibbee
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The
more times are different, the more they are the same. What
could be more different than the world as it is on Christmas
Eve 1998, and the world as it was the night Mary gave birth
to her first born son? Ours is a world of technological wonders.
We have sent probes to distant planets, peered into the outer
reaches of the universe, and cracked the genetic codes so
that God is not the only creator. We can fly several times
around the world in the time it took Mary and Joseph to go
from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Mary had "a" baby. This week,
medical science helped a woman in Texas have "eight" babies.
Life today is phenomenally different from life as it was two
years shy of two thousand years ago.
But
despite how advanced we have become, in many ways life is
no different now than then. We have eliminated diseases,
but not hate, hunger, fear, poverty, oppression, or war.
The world still has its Caesars and Herods and Husseins.
Slaughter still goes on in places like Bosnia and Ruwanda.
There still is a vast gulf between the haves and have-nots.
Peace and goodwill is still a scarce commodity, and yes...we
still pay taxes.
Now
and then. So different, yet still the same, and through
the ages a question continues to reverberate...where in
the world is God? What is God doing that proves God is still
in business? If, as the Bible says, God loves us so much...if
God is so crazy about us, why does life remain such a hassle?
So much is so troubling to us that each December 24th and
25th becomes a breather from the problems and pains, but
on the 26th they are where we left them to pull at us like
a dog on a leash.
Christmas
may be a warm, wonderful story, but it is just that, many
say...a story, one that inspires a little cheer in an otherwise
hard, cold world. In the absence of compelling evidence
that God cares one iota for the world in a way that can
be weighed, measured, and seen, many will not count on God.
A university
professor lectured on the case against the existence of
God. "Creation, as colossal and amazing as it is, is not
an act of God, but a long chain of random occurrences,"
he said. "Religion, like Freud said, is a neurosis which
we will one day move beyond. God is simply a projection
of ourselves; a crutch for those not brave enough to face
reality." As a final punctuation to his perspective, on
the board he wrote in large letters, "GOD IS NOWHERE!" He
left the room, and as the students were filing out, one
of them changed the declaration by putting a space between
the w and h. It then read, "GOD IS NOW HERE!"
Just
a little space is the difference between God and no God.
Just a little space in time that was born on a deep, cold
winter night. An angel told dumbstruck shepherds the savior
had been born. "And this will be a sign. You will find a
babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and laying in a manger."
It was a troublesome time into which God placed himself
in an obscure birth in an obscure place. Tonight we bear
testimony to this birth and its significance for us.
Jesus
is God with us...the presence who has been with us from
then till now till tomorrow, not apart from, but in the
midst of troubled times. So what is the sign by which we
can find him? If tonight has anything at all to tell us,
it is that wherever we are, whatever struggle we face, He
shall be there also.
We
have come with heavy loads tonight...grief, depression,
illness, rocky relationships, concern for loved ones. If
I have anything to offer you...if there is one prayer I
have for us tonight, it is for the faith that God is now
here. Not beyond the burdens, not after things have been
ironed out, but in the thick of life's troubles, with you.
Come
with me now to a Christmas Eve eighteen years ago, to a
POW camp outside Hanoi, North Vietnam. Howard Rutledge was
there and recounts the night when the guards ordered their
American prisoners to stand at attention in front of their
cells. One door remained closed. An Air Force officer named
Ron Storz was inside, too sick to move. Faint from fever,
he heard the guards say the others were being transferred
to another prison. His stomach knotted. He had been with
these men for five years. His life was ebbing away, and
he would now die alone.
His
friends thought the same. Pointing to his door, they begged
the guards to let Storz come with them. The guards remained
stone-faced as the men spoke of friendship and need. Then
one of them talked of Christmas. It would be a gift to the
group to allow them to carry their friend with them. His
Christmas talk brought a sharp crack to the head from a
rifle butt, followed by silence. It was then that they heard
soft taps from Storz's cell. It was the code with which
they had communicated for years, and his message was unexpected..."Seek
God here," he tapped. "This is where you will find him."
The
guards looked with stunned observation as the prisoners
stood tall and proud and marched into the night.
It
seemed such a God forsaken place. Yes, there were tears
and pain, but a presence as well. "God is now here," the
angel said. "God is now here," said the university blackboard.
"God is now here," Storz said. "God is now here," untold
numbers have said turning to and finding God in their own
turbulent times. And tonight we say it still, no matter
what burdens we may bear. Because God came at Bethlehem,
God is now here. And that makes all the difference.
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