Refocus

I find myself looking back at my time here in Hilo and I am dumb founded. I can’t believe it has been six months already. I can’t believe that Halloween and Thanksgiving have come and gone so soon. We are now in the Advent season and our churches are lighting candles so we remember. They are there so we can see the real reason we have the holiday of Christmas. This is where I find myself and on Sunday I needed to be reminded of what God has called me to do.

Sunday was a rough morning for me. I woke up early went to church, sang songs, heard a sermon, prayed, fellowshipped, taught Sunday school and began to prepare for our 2pm service at the Life Care Center.

Our church for many years has done a service at the Life Care Center for those who are living in the center. It is a retirement home. My pastor and I switch off every week who speaks there. We sing about ten hymns and we preach a mini sermon. When I preach on Sunday morning I just adapt that sermon to time constraints but when I don’t preach I write a new sermon. Usually a text that our young adult bible study has used recently. I wasn’t in the best mood when preparing this sermon. I was stressed and not excited to go to the Life Care service.

The only way I can explain what was wrong was that I had lost sight of what the point is. The reason I am in Hilo the reason I even attend church. I lost sight of God and God’s calling in my life.

So there I was trying to write a sermon to preach later and I was just not into it. I was missing the point of advent. I started reading Luke 5.17-26. It is the passage about the paralytic. We had gone over it a few weeks earlier and it was really on my mind lately.

In the passage Jesus was gathering quite a crowd around himself and he ended up in someone’s house and he was teaching those who where there. A couple guys decide to bring their paralyzed friend so Jesus can heal him. They couldn’t get through the crowd so they decided to go to the roof. They start digging through the roof and lower their friend down in front of Jesus. This is already strange, they dug through the roof of somebody’s house just to get him in front of Jesus. So Jesus sees what these guys are doing and because of their faith he tells the paralytic that he is forgiven, but he doesn’t heal him.

There were Pharisees in the crowd and it tells us that they start grumbling. They ask a great question though. Who can forgive sins but God alone? It is a great question! But the way Jesus responds is great. He asks what is easier saying your sins are forgiven or stand up and walk. So for the sake of the Pharisees he tells the man to get up and walk out so they will know he has authority. So the guy does. He walks out glorifying God.

The rest of the crowd is stunned. They can’t believe what they just saw. They also started glorifying God. The passage says they were filled with awe, saying “we have seen strange things today.” So God was glorified by this very strange event.

Now I think about Christmas. We find ourselves in a time of preparation for the coming of Christ in the form of a child. This very strange event that really has me filled with awe. I don’t really understand it and it is hard to grasp but all I know is that I have to walk away glorifying God. It is the only appropriate response I have.

In this time of consumerism and sorrow, pain of loss, and loneliness the Church finds itself surrounded by people who need Christ. We have the opportunity to glorify God and share with people the real reason for this holiday. No matter how far gone this holiday is we as the Church have the chance to show people why we see this strange event and walk away worshiping and glorifying God. God grace has come to the earth and it is still with us. In this time of celebration let us focus on the reason for the holiday.

Merry Christmas everyone. Go out praising God for mercy, grace, peace, and love. Let your example be seen.