All Saints Lutheran Church

Christmas Day, 2003

Pastor Tim Johnson

LIGHT FOR OUR LIVES

John 1: 6-8, 19-28

Dr. Maxwell Maltz has gained quite notable fame through his popular self-help book entitled "Psycho-Cybernetics." The theory of psycho-cybernetics is based on Dr. Maltz's work as a plastic surgeon. Listen as he describes how he became interested in the human personality:

"One day many years ago a woman in her mid-twenties came to my offices. She had a deep indented scar on her left cheek, a constant reminder of an automobile accident she'd been in. She looked unhappy, with herself and her life."

"`Who wouldn't be, in her situation,' I asked myself. As a kid, looking in the mirror when she brushed her teeth or combed her hair, she saw a perfectly normal face and began to take it for granted. Now, when she looks in the mirror, she must think, `Gosh, I look awful! I used to have a normal face, now I have two entirely different cheeks.'"

"I told her that I'd remove the scar and, after surgery, she'd look fine once again.`Don't worry,' I said,`We'll take good care of you.'"

"She asked how she would look, and I reassured her and tried to soothe her fears. Later, I operated on her."

"After a week's time, she came back. I took the bandages off and handed her a mirror. Her scarred cheek was a thing of the past."

"Then I waited for her reaction. Many patients are overjoyed when they first see their new, improved image. But her reaction was uncertain; she expressed no real positive emotion. I waited a few seconds, then said, "What do you think? Do you like it?"

"She responded, `I really don't see any improvement.'

"I was stunned. My surgery had been totally successful. `Would you like to see the pictures of your face before the operation?'

"She looked at the "before" pictures, then surveyed her new face in the hand mirror.

"`It looks better,' she admitted, `but I don't feel better!'"

"Cases such as this one (and there have been many!) helped me to understand that all our scars cannot be seen, that [many] are worse than physical scars, they are deep inside us and infinitely painful." (1)

And so, it was those inner scars that Dr. Maltz sought to explore.

Here is where, I think, our greatest needs lie--not on the outside of us, but on the inside. And that is what the gospel this morning speaks to when it says: "The light shines into the darkness..."

E. Paul Hovey has written: "Jesus came into a sin-darkened world. To a groping and bewildered people He announced: `I am the light of the world.' A new day had dawned. [Humanity} was no longer to walk in darkness, but in the full illumination of the heavenly light...."

So the good news this Christmas morning is the promise that Christ can help us with the darkness of our lives, and I want to look at three important ways this happens:

•  By helping us find peace for our hearts

•  By giving us power for our lives

•  And by helping us to find purpose for our lives.

Perhaps the most important the Prince of Peace helps US FIND PEACE FOR OUR HEARTS. Dr. Maltz's theories on Psycho-Cybernetics are concerned with helping persons find a sense of healthy self-identity.

I heard about a student at a university who signed up for a course in introductory ornithology. He didn't know what it was. He just liked the sound of the course and he figured it would impress his parents. He heard it was a very easy course, taught by an old professor who gave everyone at least a C and gave a lot of A's and B's. After he had registered he learned it was a course about birds and that the old professor had retired. Instead there was a young Ph.D. who was just waiting to demonstrate his brilliance to the students. It was an incredibly difficult course. On the final exam, there were 25 pairs of bird legs, from the knees down, and the students were asked to identify them. As soon as he saw the exam the young man knew he was finished. He threw down his pencil and said aloud, "I quit! This is ridiculous! This is absurd."

The professor said, "Young man, what is your name?"

The young man calmly rolled up his trousers to his knees and walked out!

pause

The student was successful with his protest because the instructor did not know his name. Of course most of us want to be known by name. We don't like being another face--or pair of legs--in the crowd. Christmas is a much needed reminder that we matter to God. We're known; we're loved.

At the very heart of the Christmas story is God coming in the flesh to the least and seemingly most ordinary people. People matter to God. All kinds of people. We matter. And the truth is that not only do you and I need to be reminded of this, but there is a world of people who are not sure they matter. Who will tell them?

Christmas tells us who we are. We are loved. We are persons to whom God sent His own Son. We need not ever again feel ugly or inadequate or insecure. The gospel helps to put our feelings about ourselves in perspective.

Many of us know those feelings of inadequacy, do we not? Charles Schultz does a masterful job of capturing those feelings in the cartoon character, Charlie Brown.

Charlie Brown, Linus, and Lucy are lying on a hillside looking up at the clouds. Lucy says, "If you use your imagination you can see lots of things in the cloud formations. What do you think you see, Linus?" Linus replies, "Well, those clouds up there look to me like the map of the British Honduras on the Caribbean....the cloud up there looks a little like the profile of Thomas Eakins, a famous painter and sculptor...And that group of clouds over there gives me the impressions of the stoning of Stephen...I can see the Apostle Paul standing there to one side."

Lucy responds, "Uh, huh, That's very good....What do you see in the clouds, Charlie Brown?" and Charlie responds with his typical note of inadequacy: "Well, I was going to say I saw a ducky and a horsie, but I changed my mind." (2)

I'm glad that Charlie Brown has his own Christmas special, aren't you. The Charlie Brown in all of us needs to know that we are loved just as we are! "The light shines in the darkness..." Christ helps us find peace within ourselves. Such peace is an integral part of the Christmas story. How can we hope to find peace on earth if we cannot find peace within ourselves? He gives us peace for our hearts.

HE ALSO GIVES US POWER FOR OUR LIVES.

As Norman Vincent Peale once wrote:

"If ever a man needed to expand his living space it was Jesus. He was born in a stable in an obscure suburb of Jerusalem because `there was no room for him in the inn.' He grew to maturity in a carpenter shop attached to his home in an unpretentious village called Nazareth . The place was so obscure and unimportant that Nathaniel was led to wonder, `Can anything good come out of Nazareth ?' Jesus never traveled beyond the border of Palestine , a tiny country smaller than most of our states.

"Nevertheless, the world's most significant thinking was done in the town of Nazareth , and from it there emerged one who would be known as Lord and Master. What mattered most was not the town, nor the quality of the schools, nor the nature of the community, nor the vigor of the synagogue, but rather the person who found in the town , the school, the synagogue and the community something more than anyone else found there. Jesus captured from His environment all the values it offered and then enriched it with His own insight.

"Nevertheless, who would have guessed that the faith and hope of Christendom would have come out of Nazareth ? Who, for that matter, would have dreamed that the age of air travel would be born in Kitty Hawk , a place nobody ever heard of until the Wright brothers made it famous. Or who would have guessed that the character of Abraham Lincoln would have come out of a log cabin in Kentucky ? You never can guess what great things can come from out of the way places when somebody begins to think greatly.

From this kind of perspective, we're reminded of the power of Jesus to put power for good into our lives.

FINALLY, CHRIST HELPS US FIND A PURPOSE FOR LIVING. Do you remember the song: This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine! Jesus calls us to move beyond ourselves. Just as we might light a candle bring its light into a darkened room, so are we to bring Christ's light to a darkened world by letting our light shine.

We have Christ's example of a life of loving service. And, though our lives will never measure up to his, we can definitely dive into our best efforts.

A high school principal urging graduates to go to college insisted that they should at least start college, and gave them a simple illustration.

A very rough road ran from the school to the town. It was a dark night as he spoke to them but the principal explained that one does not need a great searchlight shining all the way to walk the road safely. All one needs is a very small light shining one step ahead. When that step is taken , the light moves up and reveals the next step. He was encouraging them at least to make a beginning. (3)

So it is with seeking to do God's will. Most of us can see at least one small step to take. Often times we don't because we're unsure about the one that follows. But simply taking that one step is all God asks that we do today. That is an act of faith, and as we take that step, we will be delighted to see the Lord's light moving ahead of us!

In 1789, during a session of the Connecticut Legislature, an eclipse of the sun took place. Many were sure that it was an omen of terrible tidings or a sign of the end of the world. Frightened legislators introduced motions calling for suspension of the legislative session as the darkness deepened. A Colonel Davenport stood up, however, and retorted. "The Day of Judgment is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. But if it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish to move, therefore, Mr. Speaker, that candles be brought in."

There is a man who understands his purpose--to do his duty, to let his light shine.

And, so Christmas is not only about peace in our hearts, and power for our lives, but it is in living with a deep confidence in the light of God to give purpose to your life. Purpose that follows the ways of the Babe of Bethlehem, who came in an unexpected way to unsuspecting people, in humble means, but with deep conviction that life is a gift to be lived with all the passion and generosity of someone who has been visited by God's own Son—Emmanuel—God with us!

Amen.

_____________________________________

1 Dr. Maxwell Maltz in PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS.

2 From a sermon by Donald F. Garret.

3 Adapted from C.L. Allen's ROADS TO RADIANT LIVING.