New Year's Day Sermon: From Broken to Blessed

"Death Never Takes a Holiday"

"Christmas the deadliest day of the year"

These are some of the news headlines you may have recently encountered, which stem from a publication in the American journal 'Social Science and Medicine'. The study has confirmed that mortality rates rise between 3 - 9% over the Christmas/ New Years holidays.

Researchers are debating how to interpret this data, which was culled from 58 million death certificates over a 25yr period. But the leading explanation has to do with the 'psychological stress' people experience over this period.

And this stress is amplified by the eerie stillness that the Christmas holidays bring. After the initial shopping frenzy, it's like the whole world comes grinding to a halt; work and school stops, stores close, programs and activities are postponed.

And we are left standing naked before our own reality, before our own brokenness; and it's then we feel the true weight of the child who never calls… of the marriage disintegrating by the day… of the ever-worsening health problem.

But it is in that same eerie stillness that we can also hear the whisperings of grace.

If you ask any 12 Stepper where healing begins, they will say it comes from that moment of clarity; that moment when reality pierces their self-delusion and they can say -- "Yes, there's a real problem I've been running from, and I can't face it alone... I need help."

Inside each of us we hear that same spiritual cry for wholeness, for God's healing.

Paul talks about God sending the Spirit of His Son into our hearts; "As proof that you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying out 'Abba, Father!'"

It reminds me of my 1yr old, Jack, who whenever his mother is trying to do something he doesn’t like, like put on his snowsuit, he cries out in protest, "DADADADADA!!!!" Like he's saying, "Father save me from this!!! I don't want to go in the car seat!!!"

One of the biggest wounds that I hear from churchgoers today has to do with the fact that their children are leaving the faith. I recently read the five-part Globe and Mail series on faith and it confirmed this trend. The article talked about how fewer and fewer young Canadians are identifying with any particular religion, and how even less are regularly attending church.

But as depressing as it was, the real story for me was that regardless of religious practice or identifcation, this same study reported that 80% of Canadians still believed in God. And that was an unbelievable sign of hope. That confirmed for me Paul's words, that even in this secular age, that the vast majority of our hearts still cry out 'Abba, Father!'

So things are messy and far from ideal -- inside our church and outside of it.

But that just amplifies the scandal of the manger. Our reading from Luke today talks about how the shepherds went in haste to Bethlehem and found Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus lying in the manger.

Now so much of our Christmas imagery today romanticizes this setting; the manger is typically portrayed as a kind of picturesque petting zoo, bathed by the light of that special star. It makes it completely appealing.

But the truth is that Jesus entered into a dirty, smelly manger, full of bacteria and feces. Certainly an unworthy birthplace for the Messiah.

And that's the point. Jesus meets us amidst the brokenness of our lives. That's where he wants to meet us because that's where we need him... when we're broken, when we're down and out, when our hearts cry out, "Abba, Father!"

As followers of Jesus, this applies to us in particular; Cardinal Marc Ouellet once said "The church is not a society of perfect people. The church is a hospital for the soul." We all need to be continually reaching out for our Lord and savior.

So when the music stops and the guests have left, I pray that we do not find ourselves alone in our anguish. But instead, that it may be at time for spiritual renewal, a time to deepen our relationship with Jesus.

After all, the Chinese use the same character for both 'crisis' AND 'opportunity.'