Isaiah 52:7-10 NIVUK
7 How beautiful on the mountainsare the feet of those who bring good news,who proclaim peace,who bring good tidings,who proclaim salvation,who say to Zion,‘Your God reigns!’ 8 Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices;together they shout for joy.When the Lord returns to Zion,they will see it with their own eyes. 9 Burst into songs of joy together,you ruins of Jerusalem,for the Lord has comforted his people,he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord will lay bare his holy armin the sight of all the nations,and all the ends of the earth will seethe salvation of our God.
Introduction
We know all about christmas don’t we. We know the stories. We know the traditions and we know everything about the day. The one thing that is often said is that Chrsitnas is about sharing so there’s no problem looking at that again is there?
Share it – Angels and Shepherds – Proclaim Megafone
7 How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of those who bring good news,
who proclaim peace,
who bring good tidings,
who proclaim salvation,
who say to Zion,
“Your God reigns!”
Luke 2: 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
Today is not just about partytime, presents and eating too much. We know that but what it is is that all these things normally mean that it is a celebration. And celebrations are not just about all of these things: parties, presents and eating but it’s about sharing something with others. Think about the parties you have. Why do you have them? Now that is difficult to have them at the moment, well, at least as far as being together, but we can still share something of Christmas.
Sharing Good News… the isaiah reading reiterates a very natural reaction to good news… and that is…? It’s beautiful and wonderful and good news is always brilliant to share with other people. Good Tidings are words we don’t use much during the year but at christmas it becomes the norm at some point to sing it… at least
… there are two instances that telling people about the good news of christmas, God with us, and they tell us how this sharing works. First the angels declare it to the shepherds and the shepherds then share it with others. I would imagine, but we are not told, that those the Shepherds told then told others and then those others… well you get the picture.
There is still something to share at christmas and we are still able to share it.
MEGAPHONE – so if you received your message to be prepared and have a megaphone ready I want to challenge everyone to shout out, wherever they are, “I HAVE SOME GOOD NEWS, IT IS CHRISTMAS AND GOD LOVES US AND IS WITH US” OK after three wall to together. One two three… I think I heard it.
Share it – Wise men – present
8 Listen!
Your watchmen lift up their voices;
together they shout for joy.
When the Lord returns to Zion,
they will see it with their own eyes.
9 Burst into songs of joy together,
you ruins of Jerusalem,
for the Lord has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
Matthew 2: 11 And when they had come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary His mother, and fell down and worshiped Him. And when they had opened their treasures, they presented gifts to Him: gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Watching the skies the wise men knew something was happening and travelled a long way to find out. They knew something special was going on in Israel. They came a long way to see it and that was some persistence. They came a long way and when they arrived they were prepared. They gave some presents to Jesus. We know what they were GOLD FRANKINCENSE AND MYRRH.
We get prepared for today. There’s often a long time of getting stuff and things ready. Now we also give presents today as part of our celebration so
What presents did you receive? Were they what you wanted? I guess though the more important question is were they what you needed?
What presents did you give? Did you think about it? About what the other person needed? I’VE GOT THIS ONE that I haven’t opened yet… hmmm not the best wrapping I’ve ever seen but you know never judge a book by it’s cover… Ah maybe in this case I was right to judge the book by it’s cover. SOAP Well maybe just, maybe it is what I need though.
God KNEW what we needed. He saw what the world and we had become, a bit of a mess really. We needed cleaning up and the only one who could do that properly and completely was…well HIM. God gave us what we needed. It may not have been wrapped as we expected or wanted but it was exactly what we needed.
Along with sharing the celebration with others, it’s worth sharing that gift that we all need with others. A gift that at first we might think OH! HMMM! But after a time we realise it’s exactly what we all need.
Share it – Jesus with everyone
10 The Lord will lay bare his holy arm
in the sight of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth will see
the salvation of our God.
Salvation to the ends of the earth….
We can share the celebration (megaphone)
We can share the gift (Presents)
We can also share (with everyone) No distinction
We share christmas with the ones we love, even if today it is not quite how we want or have always done it, many would never have thought we would be joining in with some of our friends and family over skype or zoom. But we can still share it with them.
GLOBE… Today is not just about us, here, or our neighbours, our streets and town. Not just about the country, Europe, or just the west celebrating this momentous event. Today is about the whole world knowing, everyone, without any distinction we might wish to put on it, everyone knowing about this Good News, the gift of God himself.
We have to be careful that sometimes we might think hmmm! “Maybe not them, that’s not happening” but God knows better and He includes everyone…the whole world in the celebration of His salvation. The gift of Jesus Christ. We also sometimes think we or our streets are not inc,udeed because we think it’s about other places but “Are we part of the world?” “is our town?” “is our street” “are our family and friends?” Well of course they are and we can share it with our little bit and if we all do that, then who knows how far around the world it will go.
All the ends of the earth will see
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