If you read the Christmas story in the gospels, you will notice that in both Matthew and Luke perhaps the main character in this whole play is not Mary, or Joseph, or the Magi, or the shepherds! The key character is the Holy Spirit!
In Luke 1:18, the Angel Gabriel tells Zechariah this: “your child (John, the Baptist) will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born.”
In Luke 1:34 and 35, the angel Gabriel reassures a perplexed Mary with this news: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
Later, in verse 39 and following, Mary visits aunt Elizabeth and as they meet Luke shares this: “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.”
Later in Luke 1:80 after John, the Baptist, is born, Luke shares this: “And the child grew and became strong in the holy spirit; and he lived in the wilderness until he appeared publicly to Israel.”
Later, when Jesus was taken to the temple to be circumcised, Simeon and Anna greet Mary and Joseph. Again, the Holy Spirit is present. Luke 2:25-28 “Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God.”
Matthew, too, mentions the Holy Spirit in his story. In Matthew 1:18 the Holy Spirit has caused Mary to be with child. And in Matthew 1:20 the angel says: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
Both of our Christmas stories are infused with visit after visit from the “Holy Spirit!” And yet, I wonder if any of us really understand what or who the Holy Spirit is! What does it mean to listen for the Holy Spirit? What does it mean to have the Holy Spirit land upon us and infuse our very being?
One of the things about the Christmas story that I love is the fact that it is not all fact and figure, based upon scientific readings and computer-generated graphics. The Christmas story is much bigger than all of that! The Christmas story is about great big dreams, and about listening for something greater than just what we see! It’s about letting a dream be born anew into your heart. It’s about allowing the portals of our hearts to be flung wide open and allowing for the fact (and I mean “fact”) that sometimes the mere possible isn’t enough for our lives.
Really Living in the deepest sense, involves us allowing for the possibility of an “impossibility”. Sometimes truly living is about allowing for the possibility that something bigger than what we know is, or can be, at work in our lives!
Nearly 30 years ago, a group of dreamers met in the living room of a house in Woodinville. These folks were asked to come together and dream just what might happen if a group of United Methodists got together and asked God just what they might do in the Bear Creek area. One of the things they did before each gathering was to pray. And they didn’t just pray for what they wanted, but instead, they asked God to send God’s holy spirit upon them. They asked God to implant a dream, God’s dream, into their hearts.
Do you see the difference in what they did? So many times, in our lives, we don’t listen to what God, or the Holy Spirit, might want. We pray only for God to bless what we want. By asking the Holy Spirit to descend into their hearts, the people of what was soon to become Bear Creek UMC, were not just dreaming…they were asking God to implant God’s dream into their hearts and lives! They were asking to be infused by the Holy Spirit.
As we approach this holy of holiest seasons, Bear Creek, can I ask you all to do me a favor? Can you take some time during this season, not to ask God to bless your journey, not to ask God to bless Bear Creek! But can we dare, just as Mary and Joseph did, to ask God’s Holy Spirit to descend upon us and give us a new dream!?! Can we ask God to implant that dream for Bear Creek UMC right into our hearts!?!
Folks, we’ve made it through these last 3 years, it’s time we open our hearts to something more than getting through. It’s time we ask God for a new dream into our very being. So, this Christmas season, I dare you to dream, to take some time this season to listen deeper than just you, to listen deep down to the places in our hearts where only God can stir a new dream.
Your friend and pastor, daring to ask God to lift us into the act of dreaming with the angels, Brook
Dream, dream, dream
Of the joyous day to come
While guardian angels without number
Watch you as you sweetly slumber
Dream, dream, dream
Of the joyous day to come
(Final verse of Christmas Carol “Still, Still, Still”)
PS: If you are interested in the art posted above. The painter is Mickey McGrath and you can check purchase some cards with his paintings here:
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