Grace was born at Christmas!

2 Corinthians 12:9
But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.
I Corinthians 1:18
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.
I Corinthians 1:27
But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

As I walked away from a crowded story the other day......one thing hit my heart. “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness!” Isn’t it also true that “God used the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.” When God came into the world as an infant He did both, as He directly confronted the human condition, absolute weakness rising from the pain of sin and the fact of death. Christmas is all about Good News and until we realize the bad news of humanity and our sin condition - the Good News makes little sense. It is like getting a prescription when we do not even know what the diagnosis is. We have a God who comes to us the only way that He could; the power of God entering the weakness of humanity, the holiness of God meeting our sin, the life of God confronting our death. The hope of God meeting our hopelessness and the grace of God touching our weekness. According to these verses the diagnosis of our human condition is in the words “weakness” and “foolishness,” an admission that is forced upon many of us through the various circumstances of our lives. The real truth becoming known, we lead mistake ridden, imperfect, weak lives, that an error free, holy, all powerful God sends His Son to save. Yet in our world we often demand from others and have it demanded of us, that we each live in power and perfection and somehow the Christian life must be defined as a life that has no failure. We project (as we shared in last Sundays message - and is available at www.lfcmessages.blogspot.com ) our expectations, insecurities and pain upon others. We find our existence dependent upon pleasing others or them pleasing us, an existence that is impossible to achieve or maintain and equally outside the will of God. There is a reason the Bible says “Love covers a multitude of sins!” When we expect perfection or having all things our way or each gift we give or recieve to be just right - well we miss the fact we are human. There is only one word that makes the Christian life, Christian family and the Christian church work and that is grace. Yes, “Grace was born at Christmas!” For the working of the Christian life is not in what we look like or having our lives in perfect order; its not in the family where a voice is never raised; it is not in a church where all the technical systems work right or the office answers every call or email (especially at this time of year) It is in “The Incarnation.” It’s God’s power seen in our weakness; God’s grace in our difficult relationships; God’s grace placed into our foolish humanity, in our limitations, our boundaries, our gifts and even in our lack of gifts. Too often we allow our lives to be built upon our past - we let the past speak into our future. We rest on our succeses or dwell too long on our failures. When this is our method for life building, the stack of cards we have placed on top of each other will eventually come toppling to the ground. We instead are taught in the Bible to build our lives on “The Incarnation,” the act of God for us in Jesus Christ, an act surrounded by ignorant and dirty shepherds, by educated and wealthy wise men and held in the arms of a teen age girl whose husband was a carpenter, all to the sounds of a smelly and noisy stable and act of grace upon which we stand every day – “God’s power perfected in our weakness!” God coming to us since our problem was clearly diagnosed. I hope you are having a great Christmas season and even more inviting the “Incarnation” to fill your days, your family and welcoming him into each gathering at LFC. I am so looking forward to this weekend and the four great opportunities we have to be together and celebrate the life of Jesus in us and through us.
Please see ways you can to invite your friends with you - the Good News will be presented in many creative ways. I hope you will be here but that you will not come alone.