A Blue Christmas Service of Hope

Read – James 2:14-18

Notice – The great reformer Martin Luther did not like the letter of James. Luther (mistakenly) believed the book taught that human works earn God’s love. In fact, James offered an important reminder of what a faith-filled life looks like in practical terms. For example, James writes that we do not feed the hungry to gain God’s favor. We feed the hungry because our faith in God’s saving favor leads us to help others be resilient in the loving spirit of Jesus. The apostle Paul taught the same idea as James. writing, “You are saved by God’s grace because of your faith. This salvation is God’s gift. It’s not something you did that you can be proud of. Instead, we are God’s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things.” (Ephesians 2:8-10) The “good things” we do grow out of God’s unearned gift. Have you ever felt as if you were working to earn favor with God? Do you need to change any of your thinking to put faith and action in the proper order? Methodism’s founder John Wesley taught that we serve God with our head, our heart and our hands, that true faith produces good works. Working on Jesus’ behalf looks different than it did before Covid-19 changed our world. What creative ways have you found to work for God and God’s people in ways that show your faith by sharing grace and peace?

Pray – Jesus, help me to fully accept your love and grace, so that it empowers and energizes me to keep resiliently serving all the people that I can in your loving spirit. Amen.

Read – John 13:34-35

Notice – Jesus lived, and taught his followers to live, a resilient, tenacious love expressed by the Greek word “agape.” “God does not merely tolerate sinners: he loves them. God for all his ability to punish and for all [God’s] own spotless purity does not regard sinners with aversion, but with love, with the costly love we see in the cross where Jesus died to save them.” * Christ-followers trust in and aim to live out the truth that Jesus showed that God loves us, and that God’s love reshapes all of life for the better. The most distinctive response Jesus asked of us as followers was to live in God’s love, which meant loving one another. When he said his new commandment was to love each other “just as I have loved you,” that took “love” to a whole new level of sacrifice and commitment. What, in practical terms, does it mean for you to love others as Jesus loves you?

Pray – Jesus, you did not love me as a matter of warm emotions. You made hard choices and sometimes denied your own comfort to love me. Now help me keep learning how to love the way you love. Amen.

•  Leon Morris, article “Love” in Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992, p. 494.

Read – John 15:9-13

Notice – Scholar William Barclay wrote, “We are chosen for joy. However, hard the Christian way is, it is, both in the travelling and in the goal, the way of joy. There is always a joy in doing the right thing. .A gloomy Christian is a contradiction in terms, and nothing in all religious history has done Christianity more harm than its connection with black clothes and long faces.” * On the night before he died on a Roman cross, Jesus reminded his followers that living out his agape love is ultimately the path to joy. As the moon reflects the sun’s light, our love for others at its best reflects God’s love for us. On this Thursday, how will you live out your commitment to love God and others? How can our church be, above all, a living model of God’s unceasing love for all people?

Pray – Jesus, you know how much I like pleasing myself. Keep teaching me how to find life’s deepest joy in living out your model of self-giving to bless others. Amen.

• William Barclay, Daily Study Bible Series: The Gospel of John—Volume 2, Chapters 8–21 (Revised Edition). Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1975, p. 177.

Read – 2 Corinthians 9:6-15

Notice – – “God has the power to provide you with more than enough of every kind of grace” (verse 8). “You will be made rich in every way” (verse 11). The apostle Paul, not a rich man by earthly standards, wrote that! Even to people in the large city of Corinth, he used the farm language of harvest, of God increasing their crop. Paul challenged them (and us) to rethink what “rich” really means. God-given generosity toward others makes them and us more resilient. Paul’s specific focus was an offering from Gentile Christians to support poor Jewish Christians in Jerusalem. Yet he focused on what God gives us: “everything you need always,” “every kind of grace” and “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous in every way.” When (if ever) have you received a gift that “left you speechless,” that words couldn’t fully describe? How would you compare that feeling with God’s gift(s) of which Paul spoke? How does (or doesn’t) generosity fit into your picture of what it means to be one of God’s people? How does generosity make you and others more resilient?

Pray – Lord Jesus, you gave, literally, all you had to give for me “for the sake of the joy” laid out in front of you (Hebrews 12:2). Teach me more each day about the joy of generosity. Amen.