"Nothing Is Impossible for God"
Sermon Transcript for December 24, 2002 By Rev. Dan Sinkhorn
Over the last four weeks during the season we call Advent, here at Grace Church we’ve been trying to learn from God’s Word and from the classic story by Charles Dickens, "A Christmas Carol". We’ve been journeying from "Humbug to Hallelujah". And as some of you know, that’s been my own personal journey. I’m happy to report that I’m feeling in a very "Hallelujah" way tonight. So we can do it; God can change us. As we just heard, "Nothing is Impossible with God" especially when we consider the need for us to get a life.Have you ever used that phrase before—"Get a life"? I know you have. You’ll probably like me. You want to say that when someone you know seems to be completely absorbed with totally insignificant, trivial things. You just want to look at them and say, "Get a life!" Or perhaps you know somebody who seems to be completely absorbed with things that have no relevance to the day-to-day function of normal people. You want to say to them, "Get a life!" Do you know anybody like that? It seems like their ideals are reversed. The things that they ought to value they don’t; and the things that they value seem so insignificant. They seem to be completely unaware of the big picture of what’s going on all around them. So that you just want to say to them, "Get a life!"
I think that as we have studied the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, we’ve been tempted to say that to him. Perhaps at the very beginning of the story when he is locked in the confines of his accounting house totally absorbed with accumulating wealth, counting it one penny at a time. We want to look through the window of the accounting house and shout, "Get a life, Scrooge!" "Get a life!" What does that mean anyway? What kind of life do you want? If you get a life, what kind of life do you think you will get? So many of us settle for mediocrity. So many of us settle for a life that is only a fraction of what it could be even as we are given the opportunity for a life that is beyond our wildest dreams. Scrooge got a second chance. When he was faced with restoring his life, how insignificant his pursuits really were, he recognized that something had to change. There was something inside him; there was something about his will.
We’ve learned from another character tonight, a very important one, Mary, the mother of Jesus. She has shown us that the best way, indeed, to get a life is to respond to God when God asks you to do something. You see, Mary teaches us that God can change us when we are willing to receive God’s Word with humility. The first impression you get of Mary as we read about her in Scripture and hear about her in song is that she has this pure, delightful humility about her. She was completely taken aback by the message from the angel and had every right to be confused. And yet her response was to say, "I am the Lord’s servant, may it be to me as you have said." She simply accepted God’s plan and her role in it. She exhibited neither pride in her worldliness nor the pride that comes with protest. Mary realized that God is God and that God has every right to work in the ways that God sees fit. Mary teaches us about humility for humility knows how to say, "I am a servant" without degrading itself. Humility knows how to say, "I was wrong" without being self-debasing. Humility knows how to say, "Please forgive me" without groveling. Humility knows how to say, "Let me have another chance to make things right".
When Scrooge woke up from his sobering night with the three Spirits of Christmas, he was faced with a decision that could change his life. And he responded for the first time with humility. I want to read a little excerpt from that story. I’m picking up where Scrooge has been presented by the Spirit of Christmas’ yet to come with the tombstone that has his name on it. And Scrooge responds by saying, "Why show me this if I am past all hope? Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have shown me by an altered life. I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The Spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me that I may sponge away writing on this stone! And holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his faith reversed, Scrooge saw an alteration in the phantom’s hood and dress. It shrunk, collapsed, and dwindled down into a bedpost. Yes, and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own. The room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the time before him was his own to make amends in. And that Christmas day, Scrooge went on to greet many people with the newfound joy. He gave lavish gifts. He made peace with his nephew, Fred. And he did right by Bob Cratchit and his family."
Something remarkable happened to Ebenezer Scrooge. Dickens doesn’t go real far on the religious end but I think that we can safely assume that something spiritual happened in Ebenezer Scrooge. I am reminded of the words of the Apostle Paul in his Second Letter to the Corinthians where he says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has gone and the new has come." I think that’s what happened to Ebenezer Scrooge. He reached the end of himself and he was given a choice. He chose to reach out and grasp mercy and grace and then pass it on. You know, that’s what happens to a lot of us. We have to wait until we reach the end of ourselves. We have to reach that point that we often call "rock bottom". It’s not an uncommon occurrence. Scrooge is certainly not a unique character. Sometimes we want to think that there aren’t any Ebenezer Scrooge’s out there, but the truth that we’ve discovered through this series of sermons is that we are all Ebenezer Scrooge’s. We are all people in need of transformation in our hearts.
Hear this story about John D. Rockefeller, Sr. Here’s an example. Rockefeller determined early that he was going to earn lots of money. So he drove himself to the limit so that by the time he was 33 he had made his first million. By the time he was 43 he controlled the biggest company in the world. And by the time Rockefeller was 53, he was the richest man on earth and the worlds only billionaire. And then he developed a sickness that caused his hair to fall out. His eyelashes and eyebrows disappeared. And he was shrunken as if he was a mummy. His weekly income was over a million dollars but all he could stand to eat was crackers and milk. He was so hated in Pennsylvania that he had to have bodyguards with him everywhere he went day and night. He never slept; he never smiled. He didn’t eat. He didn’t enjoy anything in life. Doctors predicted that he wouldn’t last another year. The local newspapers gleefully pre-wrote his obituary. And for convenience they would have it ready when he passed away. But one sleepless night, John D. Rockefeller came to a new understanding not that different from Scrooge. He realized that he couldn’t take one penny of his wealth with him when he died, and he would certainly die. So when he awoke the next morning, he was a changed man. He took his wealth and he applied it to good things. He helped churches. He developed something called the Rockefeller Foundation which has been behind many medical discoveries not the least of which is the discovery of a treatment for polio, the vaccination for polio. Rockefeller had put his wealth to work creating things that would out last him.
From stories like his and Ebenezer Scrooge, we learn that what we accomplish with our own ability has an end to it. From Mary, the mother of Jesus, we learn it isn’t about our ability at all. Mary didn’t claim any merit for herself and she hasn’t really been presented in the Bible with any great detail so we can only guess about some things. But we do know this, when given the opportunity to do what God asked her to do she responded by saying, "I am the handmaid of the Lord". Mary teaches us that it is not about our ability but our availability. This should give us a great sense of hope and purpose in our life because we can realize then that we don’t need to spend our lives trying to be something we are not. We can make something of ourselves by being ourselves and allowing God to work through our availability. Remember that in God’s Kingdom, the lowest servant is greater than the most powerful person in the world.
Would you like to be used by God? Would you be willing to be used by God? You know, I once heard a story about a woman who learned that lesson in a powerful way eventually. Her name was Jean Thompson and she was a teacher of fifth graders. She stood in front of her fifth grade class at school on the first day of school one year and she told them a lie. She said that she intended to teach her pupils and treat them all the same. But she knew she couldn’t do that because of a little boy on the third row named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy in the previous year and she had noticed that he didn’t play well with the other kids, that his clothes were unkempt and dirty, and that he often needed a bath. Teddy was just unpleasant. It got to the point during that first part of the school year that Mrs. Thompson kind of enjoyed grading Teddy’s paper. She got very creative with her "X’s" and her "F’s". Teddy was a sullen little boy that no one really liked being around.
Now Mrs. Thompson, like all teachers, was required to review the records of all of the students so that she could have a better understanding of them. But she put off Teddy’s records until the very last. And when she finally did go through his records, she was in for a startling surprise. When she read what his first grade teacher had written, she was shocked. For it said, "Teddy is a bright and inquisitive child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners. He is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote this, "Teddy is an excellent student well liked by his classmates. But he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote this, "Teddy continues to work hard but his mother’s death has been hard on him. His father doesn’t show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren’t taken. Teddy’s fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn. He doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. He is tardy and he could become a problem."
By now, Jean Thompson realized what the problem was. The problem for her though was that it was a few days before the Christmas break and she didn’t see much opportunity for change. Except that on the last day of school before Christmas break, the children brought Mrs. Thompson Christmas presents. And all of them were wrapped in beautiful paper with ribbons and bows except for Teddy’s. It was in a brown paper bag. And inside Teddy’s bag was a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle of cologne only a quarter full. Now Mrs. Thompson made a big deal about it. She opened his gift even earlier instead of waiting for last. Even stifled the laughter of some of the children as they made fun of the gift. She put the bracelet on and she eyed it lovingly. She tried some of the cologne. It happened that at the end of the day when all of the other kids were gone, Teddy stayed behind. He walked up to Mrs. Thompson’s desk and said, "Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled like my mother use to." And when all the other children were gone and Teddy was gone, Jean Thompson cried.
You see, on that very day Jean Thompson stopped teaching reading, writing, and speaking and she started teaching children. Jean Thompson turned over a new leaf that day. She decided it was okay for teachers to have pets and by golly Teddy needed that kind of attention. And so she worked hard with Teddy for the remainder of the year and he seemed to come alive. And he suddenly began to do better in his schoolwork, and he became more popular among the kids. Teddy struggled at times. And when he was to take a test or something, Jean would remember that cologne. Well, Teddy made it. In fact a few years later Jean got a note from Teddy saying, "I’ve graduated from high school third in my class and I just wanted you to know you are still my favorite teacher." Now, four years later Jean had received another note from Teddy saying that he had finished college and that he had been accepted into graduate school. And soon after that she received another note from him that said much the same thing. That he had succeeded but struggled and that she was still his favorite teacher. But it was signed a little differently. Now it said, "Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D." Now the story doesn’t stop there, because a few months later Jean Thompson received another letter from Teddy. Teddy had found the perfect woman and wanted to settle down. And he had asked that Jean would come to the wedding and sit in the place usually reserved for the mother of the groom.
The problem Jean had, the problem so many of us have, is not that we think to much of ourselves, but that we don’t think enough of ourselves. We think to little of what God can do through us if we’ll just make ourselves available to him. The lesson we learn from Mary is that nothing is impossible for God when we make ourselves available to God. Change comes by faith when we believe that nothing is impossible for God. You know, the greatest lie about Christianity is that you have to be good enough to be loved by God. Nothing could be further from the truth. God gave the greatest gift the world has ever known on the first Christmas for people like Teddy, Jean, Ebenezer Scrooge, John D. Rockefeller, you. Broken, hurting people who are just trying to get by.
Why would God do this? Well, the fact is, God thinks you are worth it! You are worth Him sending His Son as a baby small enough to be like us. Jesus came for the likes of you and me to save us from ourselves. This Christmas when you are opening gifts remember that Christmas is about the greatest gift. And it is a gift for you. If you’ll pardon the analogy, I would suggest that you imagine that baby Jesus laying in the manger with a gift tag that says, "To: ____" and put your name in there because that is exactly why Jesus came so that He could pay the price for our sin, so that He could rise again from death and give us the gift of eternal life, so that He could ascend to heaven and wait there to come again and make things right. That’s what we celebrate at Christmas—the greatest gift the world has ever known.
Have you given up trying to get a life? Have you given up on that person that you wish so much would get a life--those scrooges that we all know? The Christmas story, if nothing else, teaches us that God can do and will do the impossible if we’ll simply participate in the process with humility and openness. Don’t go in to this Christmas day in just a few minutes without considering your relationship with God and whether or not you have accepted the gift that He offers you today. Don’t give up, because God hasn’t. Let us pray, "Almighty God our Father, Blessed Jesus our Savior and gracious Holy Spirit, our Fortifier, we bless you for the wonder we celebrate this night that you came as a child in to the world so that we might become your children forever. Lord, we confess that we have often lost sight of your presence, your power, and your purpose for our lives. We have doubted, and we’ve drifted, and we have been distracted and deceived. Lord have mercy on us. Call us home to yourself. Change our lives and help us to be a part of your life changing work in this world. And like the angels we will sing, ‘Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God in the highest and peace on earth!’ Amen."
E-mail Comments to: Reverend Dan Sinkhorn