Connecting You to What Matters Most - Sermon for Christmas Eve

The Nativity of Our + Lord – Christmas Eve
December 24^th, A+D 2024
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Hill City and Custer, South Dakota

 Sermon Audio available HERE.

Connecting you to what matters most.  

     I’m thankful to Goldenwest, our local telecommunications provider, for giving me the theme for tonight’s message.  It can be a challenge to choose a good theme for Christmas Eve.  In this Lessons and Carols service, we hear so many texts, so much of God’s Word, how will I boil it down to one main thought? 

     Then I walked into the church office last week and saw this calendar on the counter.  It’s from Goldenwest, and across the front it says: Connecting you to what matters most. 

     That’s very helpful, because connecting you to what matters most is exactly why God has gathered us here tonight.  So, thank you, Golden West.   

     The question really comes down to this: “What truly matters most?”.  What do you believe matters most?  What are the things, the people, to whom you most want to be connected, that make your life good and complete?   

    “Connecting you to what matters most” is Golden West’s company slogan.  What do they mean by “what matters most”? 

     The photos of the calendar would suggest that rural South Dakota is what GW has in mind… (show pictures, give commentary, really beautiful)

     Finding beauty in the world is certainly good, it probably matters more than many of us give it credit.  Life as God has given it to us is supposed to be beautiful.  Ugliness goes with decay and death and sin.  Christmas is beautiful.  We love so much to decorate for Christmas that we start in early November, once all those “beautiful” Halloween decorations come down. 

     The story of the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus is beautiful, the ultimate story of humilty and dedication and hope.   Beauty has always been important to Christ’s Church.  At our best, we, within our means and abilities, pursue beauty.  In our music, art, architecture, in our hymnody and preaching, we seek to adorn the communication of the beautiful message with beautiful things.   

      Of course, by their slogan, G.W. certainly means connecting you via telecommunications to, well, to everything, I think they would say.  Via wires and waves, our lives have become remarkably interconnected.  And certainly, there are many blessings in modern telecommunications.  Costs and risks, too, no doubt, but many blessings. 

    In terms of “what matters most,” I think G.W. would likely stress connecting you to loved ones, allowing you to communicate with your kids, your parents, your bothers and sisters, your grandparents, neighbors and friends.  For sure, this matters a lot. 

     When Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait separated my wife Shelee and me, telecommunications were an amazing blessing.  I remember clearly how wonderful were the two times, over seven months, that Shelee and I were able to talk.  Once was on a military satelitte phone.  I love you, over…  The pregancy is going fine, over…  I miss you so much, over…  The second time was on a regular long-distance phone call from the home of an American oil field engineer who lived and worked in Dharhan, Saudi Arabia.  Two gifts of telecommunications that we will never forget.    

   Today, thanks to the internet, you can text or talk or video chat with anyone anywhere,  as long as you are both connected.  Is this what G.W. means?  Is this the connection that matters most?  Well, a lot depends on who you are connecting to, doesn’t it?  And on what is being communicated.  Most of the connections we make on the internet don’t matter much at all.  A follower or friend on the internet is not the same, not even close, as a friend in real life.  Far too many of our “connections” are just distraction, eye-candy that keeps our heads down, that prevents you and me from connecting to the people who are right around us.  A barrage of shallow, fleeting, often un-real connections, that keep us from connecting with people and things that matter more.     

   Keeping you connected to what matters most, from the Church’s perspective, is the complete opposite of most of the connections fed to us by the Interwebs.  I’m not saying the internet isn’t used to proclaim Christ and His Good News of reconciliation and peace with God.  Many Christians and many Churches, ours included, try to use the Web for good. 

     Telecommunications are a communication technology, of the 20^th and 21^st centuries.  So is the printing press, which got its start in the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  Interestingly, the early use of both technologies was driven in large part by two separate causes:  On one hand, sharing God’s Word and the teaching of Christ; on the other, sharing socially transgressive and sexually explicit materials.  Light and darkness, good and evil, both trying to expand through information technology.    

     Sad to say, I think the ratio of good Christian material vs. inappropriate material is much worse with internet today that it was with the 16th century printing press.  The Christian must take care, because for all that is useful and good, most of the Web is a cesspool.  I’m not giving up on using the internet, but I don’t think it is the best way to truly connect you to what matters most. 

     That’s why I’m very glad we are here together, tonight.  All in one room, phones put away, listening, singing, speaking God’s Word together, praying.  I’m thankful we are here, face to face, because, despite what G.W. or the internet might tell you, connecting you to what matters most means one thing.  What matters most is being connected to the Babe of Bethlehem, God’s Son, who became a human baby, and grew up to bcome the Man of Sorrows, the Scapegoat of Golgotha, the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ, who sacrificed Himself, to take away the sin of the world. 

     Being connected to Jesus is so much better than being up to date on the latest post from whatever influencer you follow.  Your favorite internet personality may entertain you, enrage you, maybe even give you some helpful tips.  But he or she will not forgive you your sins.  The vast majority of internet influencers do nothing to take away your guilt, or teach you Godly wisdom for living.  A life hack about all the cool ways you can use a paperclip is fine.  But Jesus offers so much more. 

     Being connected to Jesus is infinitely better than being continually distracted and entertained, hopefully not titillated, by the limitless stream of outrageous, angry, and shallow material that telecommunications has on offer.   

     I’m thankful we are here, together, tonight.  Because meeting and understanding and coming to trust in the Savior, Jesus, works so much better face to face.  Which makes sense, because face to face togetherness is our ultimate goal.  All who trust in Christ for forgiveness and new life will be face to face, with God and His angels and all the saints.  Face to face, forever, in paradise.  And that is what matters most.

     Now, often this particular Truth from God’s Word will generate some push-back, spoken or unspoken, from souls who are working hard to make a good life in this digital age.  I mean, what about my family, our time together?  Are you saying they aren’t what matters most?  What about my job, which allows me to care for my family, and make a good life for us?  What about keeping my kid active in sports and school, so they can get ahead, and have a good life?  Can you really say what matters most is gathering around an ancient book to learn ancient stories and sing old songs? 

   Well, yes I can, but only because God said it first. 

    Family and friends and honest work and providing for your family are all very important; they really matter, a lot.  They matter so much, because God has given all these good things to you.   They matter, but they all have a problem that prevents them from being what matters most of all.  All these important things are imperfect, always somewhat disappointing, never totally fulfilling, because you are disappointing.  Because I am disappointing.  So are all your family and friends.  God gave you your family, your friends, your honest work, your home.  God gave you these beautiful Black Hills, to explore and enjoy.  But we, all of us, deface them, with our selfishness, our foolishness, our sin, which continually ruins things. 

    This is why being connected to the Babe of Bethlehem is what matters most.  For only Christ Jesus offers forgiveness, restoration, removal of guilt, peace with God.  Peace and joy that spills over into peace with your family, your friends, yourself.  Peace and contentment that makes all the other things that matter even better. 

     Your family, your work, your recreation, your life, now and in eternity, will be much richer, if you are connected to what matters most, if you are in communion with the One who matters most.  He was born for you.  He served and healed and taught, for you.  Jesus suffered, for you, in your place, and He died.  He died for you.   But death could not hold the Lord of Life.  And so He rose, for you.  He has taken the wood of His manger and the wood of His Cross, and is building a heavenly mansion, for you.   

     God grant you a wonderful Christmas, filled with the peace, love and joy of Jesus.  And God grant you what matters most, an ongoing connection to Christ, through His Word, through His Meal, through His Church, the gathering of the Baptized, staying connected to Jesus, today, tomorrow, and forever and ever, Amen.