December 19 – Romans

Romans 8:22-30

In just a few days, it will be Christmas, and our homes will be strewed with torn pieces of wrapping paper and bows.  Yet, it is a celebration of the greatest gift anyone has ever received that really counts.  That is, the Christ Child who ultimately brought eternal life and hope to all those who believe.   Jesus’ life was and is indeed a gift to be treasured for all people of all times and places.  Our lives are also a gift to be treasured and used for God’s glory.

For many of us, Christmas also signals that another year of our life is almost over, and it causes us to evaluate our own lives and to make a judgement on how we think we did during the year.  Often the touch stones that we use to judge ourselves have more to do with earthly things than the heavenly.  Sometimes all we can think about are the parts of the past year that we see as a failure.

I am sure that we are all familiar with the film made in 1946 staring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed, “It’s a Wonderful Life.”  Although those of us who have seen the film would unwaveringly class it as a ‘feel-good’ movie, the first part of the film comprises a far from ‘perfect’ story. The scenes trace the darkness of the leading character, George, and his mood as his mounting personal and financial troubles plunge him to the brink of ruin and into an abyss of despair and suicide.

Like many of our lives, George’s life does not go as planned.  Just as he is about to embarq on a great adventure, he is called to give up his plans and take his father’s place in the bank.  Yet, he still has hope that he will eventually be able to take the trip he has planned.  As life seems to go, things again do not go as planned.  Harry, George’s brother is expected to come back and take George’s place in the bank after he graduates from college, but Harry is soon called off to war where he becomes a war hero.  George’s life becomes consumed with keeping this small business afloat. He marries his childhood sweetheart named Mary, and just as they’re leaving town on their exotic honeymoon, there comes a run on the bank, and it takes all of their travel money to keep the bank from going under.

Then, at midlife, George comes to the end of his rope. And to top it all off, his partner, his Uncle Billy loses $8,000 on Christmas Eve, and George is threatened with scandal, disgrace, and even prison. That’s when George decides it would have been better if he had never been born. So, in a half-drunken stupor, he desperately prays to God.

Notice that when George gets to the end of the rope, he realizes that he cannot move ahead by his own power, but needs God’s help.  George, in effect, surrenders his life to God’s direction.  Although George’s prayer is made because he was desperate, God answered his prayer by sending him a guardian angel named Clarence Oddbody.  Clarence is trying to earn his wings so, when George wishes that he had never been born, Clarence grants his wish. George gets to experience an enlightening evening, seeing what Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never been born. He finds out how incredibly different things would have turned out for, not only his loved ones, but the whole town, if he hadn’t been around.

George’s is a story about broken dreams, and ultimately a story of despair and hope that we can all relate to.  Advent tells this story too, because we, God’s people, can experience God’s good news anew in the hope of Christ that overcomes the despair of the world.

My guess is that at one time or another, we have all experienced heartfelt disappointment, just as George expressed.  It is easy to feel that we have been deprived of certain opportunities.  We wish that we had taken another path that would have led us in a different direction.  Perhaps, at times, we have made sacrifices in our lives for other people and we have never been rewarded in any way for how those sacrifices changed that part of our lives.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God says to us “My purpose is to give life in all its fullness”. This Life is ‘Wonderful’ because it enables us to reach our potential. Such a promise seems alien to the troubled, broken lives that surround us. Lives where disappointment and shattered ideals wear us down. A world where many people have come to exist with numbed and neutral expectations.

I don’t know if we have guardian angels or not, I like to think so, but regardless, Advent and Christmas can be a time where we take stock of our value in this world.  We can contemplate the purpose that God has given us.  We can ask ourselves, how is it that we can make a difference in our own little corner of the world?

As we leave here this morning, let us too surrender our all to God, going to Him in prayer and thanksgiving.  Let it be a time that we let God heal our hearts, all the hurts and disappointments that have accumulated and that steal our joy.  Let us not let the season drift by in a flurry of Christmas activities, without recognizing the greatest gift that we ave been given, the hope that the Christ Child brings, for it really is a “Wonderful Life!”     Amen