Faith Community Church Of Hopkinton

God is amazing. People who come to see God's nature and understand His works find Him astounding. Whenever we discover something or someone we find beautiful, pure, rare, unparalleled or infinitely good, we marvel. Whether the work of an artist, the character of a hero or the beauty of nature, we find our attention locked and our spirits lifted. We praise it, applaud it, stand stunned before it, surrender to it and sacrifice for it. Christians worship God when they approach Him like this. When we expand our understanding of God, reflect on His nature, experience His loving presence, hear of His marvelous deeds, see Him in nature and witness His transforming power in our lives, we worship Him. When we come into a weekend service, we should come amazed at the God we get to worship. If our hearts and minds were already focused on the magnificence of God, we would experience awe and lift up joyous worship.

People rush into weekend services harried, busy, distracted, bored, frustrated, and disengaged. They skip weekend to weekend like a stone on water without ever sinking into God's presence during the week. The affairs of the week washes away the impact of the last weekend they attended. They forget their commitments, their experiences of the divine, their insights that were supposed to change how they live. Instead, they bring worry with them. They bring the anger and frustration of broken relationships. They carry in distractions of thoughts about work, future plans and home projects. Service is over and they have hardly engaged. Worship is about intentionality. It is about preparing to come in and participate in what is going on around us. It is about carrying momentum into our week through our spiritual practices. It is about blocking our distractions to focus on the music, the message, and the opportunities to worship.

It is hard to worship God. Our desires, our attention, and our affections are constantly drawn away from God to other people or other things. Even as we draw closer to God, we are tempted to pull away. Sometimes we are tempted by people who do not understand our desire to worship God. They mock, persecute, minimize and try to woo us away. Sometimes we are tried by the difficult experiences of life. They challenge our resolve and cause us to question God's concern for us. Sometimes we are distracted by our ambitions: career promotion, material gain, financial success. All of these things vie for our time, attention, energy, and sacrifice. Sometimes we let life's demands crowd out our time and attention so we wander from God. When our loyalty becomes diminished we drift from weekend services. We let our allegiance align with other relationships, passions, and pursuits. To worship God, we must make Him our first priority.

Genuine worship includes honesty. The Gospels are full of encounters between Jesus and people who confessed their sin, doubts, weaknesses and failings. They came to God without pretense or façade. The Gospels are also full of people who came to Jesus feeling that they deserved to be recognized by God. They took pride in their religious practices, expressed contempt for the sinful practices of others, found security in their lineage and protected their religious worldviews. They felt challenged by Jesus and fought back. They hid their inadequacies and excused them in light of other people's failings. Those who discovered the love of God in Christ and divine nature of His soul approached Him with humility. They confessed their fear, their sin, their soul's poverty and discovered love, forgiveness, purpose, direction, God. If we approach weekend services honest about our failures and weaknesses, we will find our worship acceptable to God.

We do not blink an eye to see countless Wise Men occupying “made in China” plastic crèche scenes decorating shops at Christmas time: a scene that would be shocking and disturbing to First Century Israelites. One simply does not expect pagan astrologists at the birth of the Jewish Messiah of God (let alone crusty shepherds, but that’s for another sermon). Yet it seems consistent with this outrageous God–who acts with a flair for Tom-foolery and holy mischief–that we find at the Messiah’s Delivery Room stable strangers to the covenant whose access would be made by way of the cross. These Eastern socialites could have sent servants teetering as they balanced a mountain of gifts in their arms, or they could have ordered a Levite to deliver a “So Glad You Are Born, Mr. Messiah” sing-a-gram. Instead, they came themselves to offer worship to the newborn King. Their real gift was their personal homage: pagan, foreign leaders bowing down and worshiping an infant Messiah. For, in the end, our gift is also our ultimate

Five hundred years pass between the end of the last book in the Old Testament and the Christmas story. These are centuries where God's people remain faithful but His silence is deafening. When God finally did speak, it was through the life of Christ. God's silence is broken by words woven into a human life. Suddenly the God who seemed distant is near. You can see Him in Christ's deeds, hear Him in Christ's words, feel Him through Christ's touch. This child born at Christmas is the gift of God's presence, manifest in the form of a child who would be a Savior. In our present world, God can seem distant and silent as well. Christmas reminds us that the gift of His presence is still available to us. We can experience it through Christ - we can discover the gift of His presence in a way that will bring freedom, life and joy.

The Christmas story has a lot of strife. There is a broken relationship between a man who believes his finance has been unfaithful. There is the despot, full of fear and hatred who seeks to kill a child. Blood runs in the streets from his violence. Despite this, the story speaks of a peace that is available to everyone. Its the same today. We live in a world where people inflict senseless violence on others. It happens in schools, movie theaters, and churches. Places where you would expect safety. It also happens at home when family relationships break down into anger, discord, strife, and sometimes violence. There is always talk of peace at Christmas but the holiday can accentuate the despair of conflict. The gift of God's peace is found with the angels. It comes first to those who experience God's favor. Then it resolves the strife within a person. Finally, it is available to affect relationships. The gift of God's peace comes from a mended soul.

Life can feel overwhelming. Something like a unanticipated pregnancy can send our world spinning. Mary was on her own with the threat of losing her marriage, being rejected by her family and becoming a single mom without an income. For us, it doesn't have to be a surprise pregnancy. It can be job loss, unexpected illness, infidelity, the break up of a family, depression, and much more. Into these conditions, God emerges - a divine presence who provides help. He touches people's hearts, maneuvers circumstances, provides resources, speaks into the silence. He is a powerful God whose listening ear is always attuned to our voices. We can learn to trust Him so that we can pray the way Mary did. We can find security and hope even in the most difficult circumstances when we discover that we are never alone. God is with us.

In this first message, we'll look at the gift of God's plan. The world can seem like a chaotic place. There are stories of war and violence, suffering and tragedy, economic uncertainty and social instability. The people in the Christmas story had all these same uncertainties. Incredibly, God had a plan! He was working in their world and through their lives to achieve something great. He is doing the same today. Even though we may feel insecure and unstable because of what we see in the news or experience in our lives, God has a plan He is working out. We can see it when we look back at the stories in the Bible and the experiences in our lives. As part of this astonishing gift, God invites us to partner with Him in carrying out His plan. We can experience God doing something good in and through our lives when we surrender to Him, like the people in the Christmas story. Then we get to be a part of what God is doing in the world around us.

"Christians seem to have strong beliefs about what happens when someone dies. They talk about a heaven and a hell. What are these places like and why should I care where I go? Who (or what) determines where someone goes when they die? Why would a loving God send anyone to hell or deny anyone heaven? Christians seem to tie a decision regarding Jesus Christ with access to heaven. What does Christ have to do with it? There are people I know who have died. Are they in heaven? They were good people so why wouldn't they be there? I have a hard time believing that someone could be good their whole life and denied heaven while someone could be bad their whole life and get to go because of a last minute decision. Is that really fair?"

"Christians claim they know right from wrong. They judge people according to a standard that was developed in ancient societies. Because of that, they have justified slavery, suppressed women and promoted outdated sexual mores. Anyone who doesn't fit their narrow definition of morality is unaccepted and even ostracized. How can they say that there is a universal code that transcends all cultures of all time? Who are they to tell me what is right and wrong? Why would they be so condemning and judgmental when they don't even seem to live up to their own standards? How can anyone be morally good and acceptable to God?"

"The stories in the Bible are like the myths developed by other ancient civilizations. They didn't possess the knowledge and technology that we have today so they interpreted the world through their primitive perspectives. They believed in miracles, gods who worked in supernatural ways and heavenly messengers. No rational person with our understanding of the natural world could take faith seriously. The biggest example of this is in the origin of the world and the evolution of life. What the Bible has to say about those two subjects is incompatible with what we know about cosmology and human development. How could I be a rationally intelligent person with faith? How could I be a Christian in light of the scientific developments in knowledge?"

The world is full of suffering. Sometimes it is the result of natural disasters: earthquakes, famine, tsunami, etc. At other times, suffering comes from the hands of evil people who inflict pain upon others. It could be the child who contracts cancer or the despot who oppresses a whole nation for personal gain. Whatever the cause, the suffering induces pain, leaving long-term affliction or results in death. How could God allow such suffering and evil? Christians talk about God's love, but that's hard to understand in light of this kind of suffering. Does my suffering have meaning? Why would God allow it? How can I find hope?

"There are so many religions in the world, how can Christians think their way is the only way to God? What does that say about the other religions? There are over a billion people in China alone, most of whom are not Christian. Are they all wrong? What about all the people who have never heard about Jesus Christ? What happens to them? It seems simplistic and naive to believe that Christians possess sole access to God. It even seems arrogant. All these religions contradict each other, fight with one another and lead to more confusion than good. How can Christianity really lead me to God? Why should I believe that your way is better than anyone else's?"

"Christians place a lot of stock in the Bible. They study it, memorize it and try to teach it to others. They talk about it as a source of truth but how is it really different from the spiritual record of other faiths? Isn't it just a compilation of stories, folklore and myths that were created to communicate how one religion understood reality? How can you believe that miracles actually happened? The Bible contains some beautiful, poignant and helpful insights but it can't be more than just a collection of writings from one tradition. How can you trust it as a source of truth? Why should I read it? How could it possibly help me?"

Many people carry a burden of guilt or shame from their past actions. They don't know how to come out from the shadow of the shame in order to find forgiveness. As a result, the weight affects their relationships, their identity, and their perception of God. As Christians, we have been tasked with the privilege of helping them find the forgiveness and cleansing that Christ offers. We should look for the people who sinned and offer them the message of Grace that leads to freedom and life.

Christians have always been called to address the needs of people who are broken, grieving, suffering. They may struggle with physical illness, emotional distress, mental dissonance, grief or confusion. As a church, we are called to care for their needs. As Christians, we are called to connect in relationship, loving people to wholeness.