“6º of Christmas: Home Alone & Christ Alone”
Brimfield Faith UMC / December 24, 2010
Luke 2:1-20
FAMILY CHRISTMAS
For better or worse, Christmas is about family. Children come home from college or the cities in which they live and work. Aunts and uncles travel from afar to reunite. And grandparents gather everyone together. Christmas is one of the few times a year that we break the normal routines of our lives, stop work, and at times travel far distances to be with our families. Most of the time, this is a joyous experience, but there are times, if we’re honest, that things are so jolly. If you’re worried about family drama this year, perhaps you can relate to this… [HA CLIP #1- Disappear]
Of course, this clip is from the 1990 classic Christmas movie, Home Alone. Kevin McCallister is an eight year-old boy played by Macaulay Culkin who is unintentionally left by his family on their family vacation to Paris. Kevin awakes in the morning to discover that he has “made his family disappear.” Upon this revelation, his is filled with rejoicing. For a short time, he thinks his newfound freedom in the world is great.
Anybody ever feel like Kevin? I know I have once or twice. Kevin’s story in many ways is part of our story. We find our lives full of conflict and drama and we simply want to escape it all. We want to run and hide. If we don’t think we’re screw ups, we think the rest of the world is. Christmas time can often be a time of year when we just want to run away. It serves as a reminder of things lost, things never realized, and things yet hoped for. Christmas is supposed to be joyous but sometimes it isn’t.
GOD’S DRAMA
Did you know that God understands all of this? As we read the Scriptures, we learn that God’s human family hasn’t been without drama. Consider God’s first children, Adam and Eve, who disobeyed and got kicked out of the house. Or their first kids, Cain and Abel, talk about family conflict? Consider the first Christmas. We sometimes forget the kind of drama that surrounded the first Christmas. Mary is engaged but not living together with Joseph and winds up pregnant. The virgin impregnated by the Holy Spirit story undoubtedly didn’t go over well. In fact, Joseph was ready to put her aside quietly. I can only imagine what her own father and mother thought. They graciously agreed to send her away to her cousin Elizabeth’s house for the bulk of the pregnancy. Consider the drama when Joseph told Mary that she needed to travel the 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem at 8 months pregnant? It’s a miracle she didn’t have Jesus along the road. Imagine the conflict there was when they couldn’t find a place to stay and Mary started having contractions.
I don’t know about you, but this is comforting for me. I know that God will still be present even when the drama unfolds, whether it be Christmas or some other time of the year. God doesn’t abandon us at the first sign of drama. Instead, God knows drama and knows how to speak his love and power into it.
EPIPHANY MOMENTS
In the movie Home Alone, Kevin enjoys his freedom for a short period of time. He eats junk food, raids his brother’s room and generally lets loose. (As much as an eight year-old lets loose.) The temporary joy wears off when he realizes that two burglars are planning to rob his parent’s home. All of a sudden he begins to miss his parents and his family. While he enjoyed a few moments of freedom, he realizes they aren’t as bad as he thought. He realizes that he is meant to be a part of them.
I think we all have these kinds of moments in our lives, especially when it comes to faith. We wander away from our families and from God for a few moments of letting loose. Eventually we realize that we need God and the family of God. We realize that we are lost without our faith. We find ourselves in a tough spot, facing opposition and we know we need to turn back.
When we find ourselves having run away and ready to turn back, God is ready for us. Thankfully, God is always working behind the scenes to resolve the drama, to welcome us back and to usher heavenly joy, peace, and love into our lives. About halfway through Home Alone we seek Kevin’s Mom, Kate, pleading with a woman to get a ticket home to be with her son and we see Kevin realize how much he misses his family. Let’s watch that now. [HA Clip #2 Epiphany] There are two important aspects in this clip that I want to touch on.
#1.Kevin’s mom is desperate to get to her child.
The first is the how hard Kevin’s mom works to get on the flight back to Kevin. She gives us much of her possessions to persuade the woman to give her the tickets. The line that moves me is when she says, “I’m desperate… from a mother to a mother.” She is a desperate woman and will do anything. Kate’s actions reflect the heart of God for us as his children.
In Luke 15, we read three stories about God’s desire to find and rescue his children. First, a woman searches for a lost coin. Then, a shepherd looks from the lost sheep among the 100. Finally, a loving father rushes out to greet his wayward son. God is not a distant and impersonal God. God is a God who wants to living in relationship with his children. He will go to great lengths to bring us back into relationship with him.
The ultimate picture of God’s heart is seen on the first Christmas day, when Jesus enters into the world. In Matthew 1:23 it says, ““The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.” Through Jesus, God enters earth in the humble form of an infant. That child will grow to be the Savior of the world and the key to redeeming humanity, you and me. Jesus is the gift of God’s presence in the world. It is the desperate measures that God goes to in order to bring us back to him. God gives everything up when he sent his son to earth, thus setting the stage for a reunion of eternal significance.
#2. Kevin realizes the error in his ways and wants his family back.
The second important aspect of the clip is Kevin’s epiphany. As his mom is working desperately to get back to him, we watch Kevin, a wild eight year-old, realize that he needed his family. Kevin comes to realizes he needs his mom and dad. He realized that he had messed up and been a jerk. He was ready to change all of that. He was ready to be a part of the family once again. If Kevin’s heart didn’t change, Kate’s efforts would have been for naught. They would have been a waste. Although Kevin doesn’t realize it, we need to realize the extent to which God moved on our behalf. He wants nothing more than to reunite us to our heaven family and heavenly father.
THE REUNION
This brings us to the end of Home Alone. Early in the movie, Kevin asked Santa for his family to come home this year for Christmas. On Christmas morning, Kevin wakes up expectantly, hoping to see his family. When he doesn’t find them, disappointment settles in. What he doesn’t realize is that his mom has successfully hitchhiked all the way home with John Candy and his polka band. So the scene is set and the movie wouldn’t be the same without the final reunion. [HA CLIP #3 – Reunion]
Have you experienced your reunion with God and his heavenly family? When we decide to return to God’s family, there is rejoicing in heaven. God wraps us in his loving arms, just like Mary wrapped baby Jesus in swaddling cloth that night in the stable. The first Christmas and every Christmas is about family. It’s about our human families but it’s also about our heavenly family.
My hope is that you can have a drama-free love filled reunion with your family this year. Even if that isn’t possible, God really has set the stage for each of us to be reunited with our heavenly family. God has done all of the work. Jesus was born to guide us back to God. God started his new family in Mary, Joseph and Jesus and he invites us to join it. All you have to do is run into the Father’s open arms. This is the gift that God offers us this Christmas season. I hope you will open it and receive the blessings of heaven. May hope, peace and love fill you will joy this Christmas Eve and all year round.
Let us conclude this evening’s worship with the dimming of the lights, lighting of the candles and the singing of Silent Night.
Before we do that, let’s pray.
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