Rudolph and Mary

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Mary the Mother of Jesus have something in common and something important for us to hear. You can listen to the message by following the link or read the text below. Merry Christmas.

http://www.mediafire.com/file/0vrxohjg2oj/Christmas Caroling.mp3

INTRODUCTION [ADVENT WREATH]
A couple of weeks ago I was in a meeting and we were evaluating our worship service. During the course of the meeting, I was informed that lighting the Advent Wreath would smell really bad since it was plastic and that we should really write the lighting of the Advent Candles. Right after that, someone else, who will remain unnamed but who gave me permission to share this, said, “Not to nitpick but can we get a fourth purple candle. That pink one is driving me crazy.” We explained to him that the pink candle was supposed to be there and had special significance.
I thought it would be good as approach Christmas to briefly explain the Advent Wreath. Advent is from a Latin word that means “coming.” Advent is the time of preparation for Christmas. It proclaims the birth of Christ. The wreath is a visual way to mark the nearing of the holiday. The three purple candles mark the first, second, and fourth weeks and represent royalty. The pink candle represents Joy and is supposed to be lit on the third Sunday of Advent because we are over half way to Christmas. In some traditions there isn’t a pink candle… so our nameless friend wasn’t completely wrong. On Christmas Eve, the white Christ Candle will be lit to remind us of Jesus’ birth.
One of the reasons I like the Advent Wreath is that it reminds me of God’s light in a sometimes dark world. The meaning of the Christmas/Advent Seasons can often get quenched in the midst of holiday festivities. The candles each represent the Sundays of Advent. The first candle speaks of HOPE. During the first week of Advent we talked about how the pressures of Christmas can leave us feeling hopeless. We watched and learned as George Bailey rediscover hope through friendship and prayer. The second candle speaks of PEACE. We talked about the turmoil of the Christmas Season. We shared in the frustration of a lack of peace as we watched Ebenezer Scrooge discover peace in his life. The third candle speaks of JOY. Last week, we learned from Dr. Seuss about rediscovering Christmas joy as the Grinch’s heart grew three sizes in one day. The fourth candle which we lit today speaks of LOVE.
While Christmas season has a tendency to bring the best and the worst out of people, the best was evident on Friday as people from our church and the community delivered food baskets and presents to needy families in the Brimfield community. We served 96 baskets this year and ministered to many more children and families. It is truly a blessing to be a part of a church that believes in doing the ministry of Jesus Christ in such tangible and meaningful ways. When we engage in acts of mercy, we share the love of Christ and spread the true Spirit of Christmas. Christmas truly isn’t Christmas without the sharing of God’s love. During this last Sunday of Advent we will be attempting to discover Christmas LOVE through the eyes of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the blessed Mother of Jesus, Mary.

RUDOLPH THE OUTCAST
Perhaps on first glance Rudolph and Mary don’t have much in common, but as we will see this morning they in fact do. More importantly, they have an important message to speak to each of us this morning about God’s love and acceptance. Let’s watch and learn about Rudolph.
[VIDEO CLIP]

You might say that Rudolph had a rough childhood. When he was born, Rudolph’s nose was a source of humiliation and ridicule. It was shiny and” if you ever saw him, you would even say it glows.” He stood out in a crowd. His nose carried a stigma. The other reindeer judged him and “used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games.” Today, he would have been an outsider. Rudolph probably had a low self-esteem, poor self-image, and didn’t like himself very much. Life was tough for little ol’ Rudoph.
Do you ever feel like Rudolph? Are you left out, ridiculed, and humiliated for being different? Some of us probably have flashback to our own childhood. We know the feeling of being picked last on the play ground, not invited to a birthday party, and having no one to go to the school dance with. There is tremendous peer pressure to fit in as a kid. Unfortunately, that pressure doesn’t stop as an adult. Sometimes, we are still excluded from a group of people, or gossiped about at the work place. Some of you might even feel the ridicule at those Christmas family gatherings. Maybe you are that in-law or that disappointing child. Regardless of how you’ve been left out, in my opinion, it is one of the worst feelings in the world. Thankfully, God understands the pain of being ridiculed, left out and gossiped about, and he has a powerful antidote for it.

LOVING OUTCASTS
The antidote for that pain is borne out of the God’s love and unconditional acceptance. Much of Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of healing and restoration. The real miracles happened not the physical healing but the social restoration. One of my favorite healing stories happens when a woman with a blood disorder. She secretly slips through the crowd and touches the hem of Jesus’s garment. As her fingers roll over it, power leaves Jesus and she receives her physically healing. The more important healing occurs as Jesus makes a public scene to expose the woman’s actions. The spectacle is meant to publically acknowledge that the woman is healed and should be fully restored to proper standing in society. This social restoration is equally as important as the physical healing.
Jesus understands and values the importance of being accepted and loved by a community of people. Jesus most likely grew up much of his life as somewhat of an outsider. The whispers and gossip began before he was even born. They started when a teenage girl was engaged and ended up pregnant. The neighbors began to whisper because premarital sex was more than taboo it was punishable by death. She claimed to still be a virgin and was sent away to her cousin’s house to protect her. Then after claiming an angelic visitation her fiancé decided to still marry her.
We often don’t think of Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’s birth in such scandalous terms because we have the whole picture. We know about the angelic visitations and the virgin birth. Mary’s friends and family might not have received these explanations with such enthusiasm. The fact that Mary was sent to stay with her cousin Elizabeth speaks to this reality. Mary became an outcast of the group. She was gossiped about, ridiculed, and laughed at. We might assume that the ridicule stopped after Jesus was born, but the actuality of the situation is that it most likely didn’t. The looks probably continued to come much of Jesus’s childhood. People either didn’t know or didn’t believe that Jesus was the messiah or even special. They most likely thought that he was a bastard child of a loose woman. Even with divine assurance, I am sure there were difficult days in their family. Jesus and Mary were without a doubt outcasts most of their lives

MARY’S AND RUDOLPH’S SONGS
Mary was able to overcome her outcast status, because she knew God’s love and acceptance. She knew that while she was different that she had a purpose and a mission from God. She had a song in her heart that reminded her of this fact. Listen to her words: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”
Mary knew that God’s love would triumphant over the voices of ridicule. She knew that “All generations will call her blessed.” She knew this because God used her for great things. She knew she would raise a son that would break down all kinds of barriers. Barriers between people groups, between races, between classes, and most importantly the barrier between humanity and God would be brought down because of her son. She understood that the thing that made her different was the very thing that God would use to bring about his purposes. And so she sang that song again and again in her heart and it enabled the love of God to prevail on the earth.
In a similar way to Mary, Rudolph’s differences made him unique and special. His status as an outsider allows him to be used powerfully by God. Let’s watch the clip where that red nose is transformed from a source of ridicule and exclusion to a source of joy and purpose.
[CLIP OF RUDOLPH LEADING THE SLEIGH]
Rudolph’s nose was no doubt a source of embarrassment for him. That all changed when, “One foggy Christmas Eve Santa came to say: ‘Rudolph with your nose so bright, won’t you guide my sleigh to night?” Rudolph’s nose had caused him much pain, but in an instant that would all change. When Rudolph saved Christmas and lit guided the way, “All the reindeer loved him as they shouted out with glee, Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, you’ll go down in history!” Mary was to be called blessed by all generations and Rudolph was to go down in history. Each was used for an important task. Both were outcasts that came to belong because of their unique purpose in the world.

BELONGING TO GOD
So often, when society points and laughs, God is working his master plan behind the scenes. The things that make us unique are often what enable us to be used by God. We all have our quirk, our oddities, and our eccentricities. Even if society tries to make us outcasts, we should embrace that which God has given us. If we submit it before the Lord, God can redeem them for his glory. When we try to hide them, suppress them and when are embarrassed by them, is when he hinder God from using us. God’s love accepts exactly for who we are. He is able redeem all things and make all things new. When we yield all of ourselves to God, God is able to work all things for God. God calls us his own, calls us his children, and calls us citizens in heaven. When we receive the gift of God’s love, we belong unconditionally. No strings attached. No forced molds to conform to. Just God’s accepting love.
if we can embrace who we have been uniquely made, then God will use us powerfully. God has a specific purpose and mission that no one can accomplish except you. The problem is that many of us spend our entire lives trying to be someone else. And not only that, but we spend our time trying to force others to conform to societal norms as well. God’s love is a radical alternative to the pressures of the world.

CONCLUSION: EMBRACING OTHERS
As we learn to embrace God’s love and experience the acceptance of God, we should seek to share God’s love with others. Jesus’s experience as an outcast uniquely shaped him and his capacity for ministry. It gave him a unique heart from the outcasts of society, because he was one of them. He suffered from the judging, harsh standards of society. When we are accepted by God, we need to actively welcome others regardless of their differences. Many of your past experiences will give you avenues to share God’s love with others. You can relate uniquely to certain types of people. God’s love is made apparent by accepting people for who they are. When we do so, we emulate the one who accepted us.
As I mentioned, we delivered food and presents to over 100 families in the community. In those baskets, we included invitations to the Christmas Eve Service. I felt it was important that we invite each of these families to be a part of our church community. If you have never had to get food from a cupboard, you might not realize the shame and embarrassment people feel about it. Having a lack of resources, or being poor, carries a stigma with it. People assume you are lazy or stupid or something worse.
The poor among us often feel like Rudolph and Mary. They feel the sting of being left on the outside looking in. As I church community, we need to actively embrace these people with the unconditional love of God. Each one of the people who we minister to through that cupboard is a unique child of God with a specific and important purpose from God. It is part of our calling this Christmas to embrace each person as God’s very own. When you sing Rudolph this year, be reminded that you are loved by God and to love others. To do so, is to rediscover the Love of Christmas.
Let’s pray.