Merry Christmas!
I hope that you were able to experience the wonder and joy of Christmas, even if it was not quite like you expected this year. And, I pray that you continue to experience that wonder and joy as our continued Christmas celebration draws us beyond the new year.
Do you know what one of the greatest gifts that you can recieve may be? It just happens to also be one of the greatest gifts that you can give. It is a gift that anyone can give and that anyone can receive. And, though the safe answer would be “Jesus,” we are in church after-all and Jesus definitely is the best gift anyone can receive, that is not the gift toward which the scriptures are drawing me.
In fact, Jesus himself received this gift at a very young age. The gift is one of the great Christian spiritual disciplines. And, I hope that during this unusual Christmas season that you were able to receive and give the gift of encouragement.
Do not underestimate the power of holy encouragement. I likely would not be standing here, preaching this sermon if it were not for this holy gift; but more on that later.
First, you may recall that encouragement is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that the Apostle Paul lists in Romans. Paul says in Romans chapter 12, “We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: prophecy, in proportion to faith; ministry, in ministering; the teacher, in teaching; the exhorter, in exhortation; the giver, in generosity; the leader, in diligence; the compassionate, in cheerfulness.”
I know, I know, you did not find encouragement in that list. But, it is there. An “exhorter” who “exhorts” is a person who is trying to press someone to do something. But, exhorting is not a manipulative or exploitative act. Rather, the connotation is one of encouragement. An exhorter presses someone to do something Godly. So, what Paul is saying is that when you encourage someone, that is a clear sign that the Holy Spirit is working through you.
Have you ever thought about that before? When you offer someone words of hope and words that lovingly push a person to be the person that God has created them to be, God could not possibly get any closer to you or the person you hope to encourage. God really is with you, in a very real way working through you. If you ever feel that God is distant, just start encouraging others.
We see this very dynamic in Luke, Chapter 2, when Jesus’ parents bring the baby Jesus into the temple to present him to the Lord. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit rested on an old man named Simeon. The Bible also says that Simeon was “guided by the Spirit” when he took the baby Jesus into his arms and said:
“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word;
for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.” (NRSV, Luke 2:29-32)
Wow! What an amazing blessing for the baby Jesus! Jesus’ life starts out with this amazing proclamation that in him, Simeon sees the salvation (the love, the grace, and the deliverance) of the Lord. And, now he can live the final days of his life in peace. Wow!
What if your life started out with words like that? How could you not be a blessing to other people after hearing the story of the encouraging blessing at the very start of your life?
Too many children start off their lives knowing that they have been a burden since birth, that they were not intended, or that they were not wanted. One woman told me on her deathbed the story of how her mother had died in childbirth. As a child, she was given to relatives who reminded her daily that she was not their child and that she should not expect to be treated like one. I always thought that Cinderella was a fairytale, but I was staring into her dying eyes. She spent her young life as a household slave and could never shake that identity all the way to the point of death.
How I desperately wished that someone filled with the Spirit’s gift of encouragement had found her early on in life.
I understand that most people do not experience something as shocking or dramatic as domestic slavery, but many young people do experience being told that they are too difficult, or too out of control to be loved.
What if each of these children had encountered people who were led by the Spirit to give them encouragement?
What if each of these children had a person in their lives who regularly encouraged them to love more, and be more, and encouraged them to develop their God given gifts and talents?
What if we all had a holy ally who regularly encouraged us to be who God has created us to be?
Would we all grow to develop compassion? Would we all care about the lowly who yearn to be saved?
Would this encouragement lead us to love in the same way that Jesus did whenever someone in pain reached out to him?
Would we all desire to open wide our arms as Jesus did for us on the cross?
Would we all start to believe that we could possibly make a difference in this world because someone, through the power of the Holy Spirit, told us that we could?
I think that what this world needs is a lot less finger pointing and a lot, lot more blessing. I think that what this world needs is to listen deeply for the movement of the Spirit which places in our hearts the desire to connect with others and to encourage them in a very holy way.
You have heard the voice of the Spirit. It is the one that is tugging you to get involved. Evil says, “Stay away. Just let them be.” But, the Spirit draws your attention back and back again to connect and to encourage. This movement toward rather than away is the deep desire of God as revealed in Colossians 1:20: “Through [Christ] God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
The Spirit of encouragement once reached out to me while walking down the hall of the building on campus that held the religion department. A voice called out to me from one of the offices, “Jira, come here a second.” Hearing these words from a professor is usually not very good. But, I listened to what he had to say anyway. “This paper you turned in is really, really thoughtful,” my freshman religion professor said.
Quite frankly, I was just glad that I got the thing done in time to be turned in without points taken away, but my professor saw something that I did not, and could not.
“You have a gift in this. You are going to seminary, right?”
I was a theatre major, but after those words of encouragement another major soon popped up in my course of study.
God works through other people to shape and mold our lives.
Sometimes, we have no idea how powerful the words that we speak can be. Sometimes we do not realize how the few words that come out of our mouths can completely change the trajectory of someone’s life.
I just pray that the words that come from my mouth, and from yours also, are words of encouragement, coming as a gift to others from the Holy Spirit. After-all, we could all use some words of encouragement, especially in these days of struggle and darkness. Am I right?
Now, we do not want to forget the prophet Anna in this discussion. After a short marriage, Anna devoted her life to living in the temple and encouraging those who entered. Anna was an old, but wise woman.
She joined in the discussion of Jesus’ blessed future and took things one step further as she began to “praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.”
I cannot stress enough that encouragement is a communal thing. The more people who provide encouragement and reinforcement concerning your identity as a child of God, the more the Holy Spirit is able to find a home in you and develop your gifts for the glory of God.
And, on this Sunday of Christmas, I want to take a moment to encourage you, O followers of Jesus Christ. After-all, God has called you to be a child of God through the forgiveness of the cross that comes through Jesus Christ. As a sibling with Christ, God has called you to follow faithfully, and to be who God has created you to be, in community with others. You have been encouraged by others through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that same Holy Spirit is with you now, making you an encourager of others.
Someone came to mind during this sermon. I am certain of that. The Holy Spirit has directed your attention to someone in your life. Stop a moment and remember who it was.
It is time to listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit and encourage that person as the child of God that they are.
Be encouraged and encourage, it is the way of the Holy Spirit.
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