Christmas Eve 2006

Pastor Gayle M. Pope

Is the Christmas Story YOUR Story?

Between 1958 and 1963 there was a TV police drama set in New York called “The Naked City.” At the end of each episode, the narrator would say, "There are eight million stories in the Naked City. This has been one of them."

That tag line became more famous than the TV show itself. I was only about 8 or 9 years old when that came on and I don’t remember anything about the show, but that line always stuck with me.

Those two simple sentences resonate because we understand this about life on this planet. There’s the big picture – the 8 million stories – the mass of humanity on this planet – and the up-close-and-personal picture – the one story – maybe your OWN story.

One of the awesome privileges of being a pastor is the opportunity that we have to become engaged in all these different life stories that are happening all around us. Everyone is on a life journey and, as a pastor, I often get to walk a few steps along side people on those journeys. And very often, those are times of great transition or great trauma.

Someone is ill. Someone is getting married. A new baby is born. Someone has just moved or is about to move. Someone has a new job. Someone has died. Someone is lonesome or depressed. Someone is in trouble.

As we grow up and grow old, life just keeps on changing – sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. We’re all going through SOMETHING.

But I’ve noticed there’s something about the holidays – especially Christmas time – that adds just a little more intensity to whatever is happening in our life stories at the time.

If things are going well, celebrating Christmas with loved ones can add just a little extra glow to the already warm feeling in your heart. But if things aren’t going so well, the holidays can make it worse.

For example, it’s bad enough being in the hospital with a broken hip, but to be in the hospital at Christmas time seems just a little harder.

To lose a loved one is hard enough, but it can seem all the more lonesome at Christmas time. Family feuds intensify. If someone drinks a little or a lot too much, you might learn to cope but you hope they can just stay sober for Christmas.

It’s like the holidays amplify everything. Expectations are higher, and disappointments are bigger. But what might all that have to do with the “real” meaning of Christmas?

What do all those 8 million or 8 billion stories have to do with that ONE story that we heard tonight of a child born in stable in Bethlehem over 2000 years ago?

Maybe nothing. Maybe everything.

For those who don’t believe what the Bible reveals about the Baby Jesus, or who have forgotten, or whose hearts have grown cold, well then the ONE story of the baby born in Bethlehem is just another story, like one you might watch on TV for entertainment – interesting, but irrelevant.

For those who DO believe what the Bible reveals about that child, the Christmas story has EVERYTHING to do with our own stories.

For when you believe, by faith, that the Baby Jesus is God in the flesh, come to take on sin and death and defeat it forever in the cross and resurrection – when you believe he did that FOR YOU – then the ONE story of Bethlehem intersects with YOUR story and changes it forever.

When the Savior born in Bethlehem becomes YOUR Savior – when you know that, through HIM, YOUR sins are forgiven, then your own story gets a new beginning and a new ending and new meaning for every day in between.

Then, the good news of great joy that the angel brought for all the people – becomes good news for you. It is the good news that for YOU – and YOU – and YOU – and ME – was born that day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord – YOUR Lord, MY Lord – the one who forgives our sins and comes to dwell WITHIN us even now – and who fits us for Heaven to live with him there for all eternity.

May that good news bring great joy to you tonight and every day of your life, and may it ALWAYS be a part of your own story, however it may unfold. Amen.