St. Aidan’s Sermons
Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Rev. Dr. Brett Cane, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve; 8:00 and 11 pm, Holy Communion
“Are You a Good Receiver?
John 1: 1-18
Opening Prayer:
Heavenly Father, you are a giving God; help us now, by your Holy Spirit, to discover how we can be good receivers and accept your gift of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Are you a good receiver? How many of us, when we open our Christmas gifts tonight or tomorrow are going to say to the donor, “Oh, you shouldn’t have!” Or when someone you have invited over brings something, you will respond with “Oh, you didn’t have to do that!” I don’t think we would ever hear children around us saying things like that! They are more likely to say, “Have you got anything more?” That is because children are good receivers. When Jesus said that we could not enter the Kingdom of God unless we were to become like a child, I believe being a good receiver was one of the childlike qualities he had in mind.
Christmas is very much about giving and receiving but it begins with God giving and us receiving. Did you notice in the Gospel passage from John 1 that was just read that it speaks of “receiving” three times in respect to God’s gift of Jesus? “His own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him…we have all received one blessing after another” (verses 11, 12, 16). John sums up God’s giving later in chapter three in the well-known verse: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son” (John 3:16). How are you at receiving God’s gift? Are you a good receiver?
Barriers to Receiving
First, we look at barriers to receiving. In the Gospel, it says that some people were unable to receive: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (verse 11). How could this be? Here are five barriers we might have to receiving.
1. Our Agenda: The initial people referred to in this verse who did not receive Jesus were those of his own race – those specially chosen by God to proclaim his message to the world. They had difficulty receiving because Jesus did not fulfill their agenda of what they thought God should be like or what he should be doing. They expected God to come as a conquering hero to expel the occupying Romans and establish an earthly religious kingdom. But Jesus had other plans and means for doing something far greater.
Do you have an agenda for God that you feel he hasn’t fulfilled? Unanswered prayer? A difficult situation he didn’t resolve? A hardship you have had to bear? Are you so disappointed in God that you are not open to receiving anything he has to give you? But have you ever stopped to think, that just as Jesus went about hidden and unrecognized in the midst of those first-century people – as a baby, a wandering teacher, a condemned criminal – so he might have been with you – hidden but unrecognized – in the difficult situation or the suffering? Perhaps you were looking for some spectacular outside intervention, but all the time God was with you, waiting to support and uphold you, perhaps even wanting to use the situation itself to help you grow and reveal his love and care for you in a deeper way than you have ever known before? Sometimes we can not receive from God because we have our own agenda of how we think he should work.
2. Busyness: Another reason for not being able to receive what God has to offer is that we might be too busy. We don’t have time for God. This could even be religious “busyness” – the people of Jesus’ day were very involved in doing their religious “thing” but they missed seeing God when he drew alongside them. For most of us, though, we are so busy getting an education, working on our career, taking care of our family, creating security, that we have been unable to receive the foundations we need for all these things which must come from God. What are we busy for if it is not ultimately to live the life God designed for us? Some of us are too busy to stop and receive from God.
3. Self-reliance: A third barrier which prevents others from receiving is that is shatters our sense of self-reliance. The people of Jesus’ day were quite happy to try to get ahead, especially with God, through their own efforts. Some of us don’t like to be on the receiving end because it lessens our self-image – we want to earn our way into God’s good books so we can impress ourselves or others and him. But who are we fooling! Are we up to the standards and magnitude of the One “through whom all things were made” (verse 3) and who is “the true light that gives light to every one” (verse 9)? Perhaps you have heard the story of the discussion that took place between God and some unbelieving scientists – the latter were claiming they could create life just like God could and so they agreed to meet the next week for an experiment. The day came and God began by creating life from the dust of the ground. The scientists then began their efforts, putting some earth into a test-tube, when God stopped them and said, “Get your own dust!” Some of us are too self-reliant to receive from God.
4. Apathy: A fourth reason we may have difficulty receiving is that we are too apathetic and indifferent or even take the gift for granted. We in the Western World are like those first-century Jews – we have a magnificent heritage and culture shaped by the message of the Bible – but we take all the benefits as a given both for our own lives and for society as a whole. However, unless we receive what God has to offer – both individually and collectively – we will lose it. Many of us us have received those “Congratulations Rev Cane Brett, you have been entered into the contest to end all contests” letters. Supposing you actually do win and receive a letter telling you to go and pick up your cheque for a million dollars? The cheque will do you no good unless you go and get it and cash it. If you do not receive through apathy or indifference you will loose what has been offered. It is the same spiritually. Some of us are too apathetic to receive from God.
5. Unworthiness: But there are many who do not have their own agenda, or are not too busy or self-reliant or indifferent – they want to receive, but they can not because they feel they are too unworthy. “How could I receive God into my life – how could he live within me, sinful and broken as I am? Verse 14 of our Gospel says that Jesus came from God, “full of grace and truth.” Two verses later, we are told that “From the fullness of his grace we have all received…grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (verses 16-17). Grace is God’s unearned giving to us. No, we do not deserve to have him come into our lives – we are unworthy – but that is precisely why he came – to give us that which we can not give ourselves – to do for us that which we can not do on our own – to forgive us, to cleanse us, to heal us, to restore us to the kind of people we were meant to be. This is why he became a baby in a manger; this is why he died on the cross; this is why he rose again – to give us the new life that we can not earn and do not deserve. For many of us, the very thing we need to receive Christ for – our unworthiness – is the greatest barrier to receiving him.
Receiving
So what does it mean to receive God’s gift? “To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God” (verses 12, 13). “Well,” you say, “Aren’t we all God’s children?” Yes, in one sense – that we are all created in his image and that he loves us. But we have been cut off from his love and life through our own selfish ways and rebellion. We need to be restored to his “forever family”. This is what it means by being “born of God” – we need a new birth, a new beginning spiritually. This is the gift God offers us in Christ.
Christmas is first of all about God giving – not about us giving. We can not give until we first receive. What have you done with God’s gift of Jesus Christ and the new life he offers? Have you rejected it because it does not fit in with your agenda? Have you been too busy to stop and listen to his offer? Have you thought you don’t need to receive anything, that you can manage on your own? Have you been apathetic and taken the gift for granted? Or have you thought of yourself as unworthy, not deserving of Christ in your life? You need to receive God’s gift .
So how do we go about receiving God’s gift? As you come forward for communion, you come with empty hands – God wants to give you the gift of himself in Jesus – receive him into your hearts – perhaps for the first time or perhaps as a recommitment of your life to him. As the carol says, “Where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Lord enters in.”[1] If this is your decision, I invite you to go to one of the prayer teams at the back and to take a copy of the booklet “Why Christmas” as you leave, to help you understand what you have done and to move ahead into the new life Christ has given you.
This Christmas, don’t come to God saying, “Oh, you shouldn’t have!” – be a good receiver and welcome the gift of himself with open arms and say: “Thank you very much!”
[1] “ O Little Town of Bethlehem”, Phillips Brooks.
