The Christmas Story, Part 2: 3 Things to Know as You Follow Jesus

© Peter Maszlen

Last week, we discussed what I called “the scandal and the sting” of the Christmas story that we sometimes consider so familiar. But the question I want to raise is, what does that element of scandal tell us about Jesus? And what does that tell us about us as we are entrusting ourselves to him?

Expect the Unexpected
First, if you want a safe and comfortable life where everything feels normal, you may not want to entrust yourself to Jesus. There is something going on in the very pattern of his birth that’s continued throughout his life and finally in his death and resurrection. He tells us, “If you’re going to belong to me, you have to, in essence, expect the unexpected.
The whole point is: You are my follower. You belong to me, so I want you to do what I am telling you to do, not meet the expectations of other people—even the good expectations of family, friends and neighbors. There always has to be an openness to God doing something unusual, something unexpected in you and in your life. Otherwise, you’re (to use the phrase I mentioned last week) domesticating this story. And as a result, you’re domesticating your own expectations of God’s work in you.

God consistently—and we see this in the life of Jesus—calls us out to do something nobody expected, certainly not us. He calls us to do the unusual, to be bolder than we ever thought would be possible, to take a risk in a place where it might have, at least according to the world’s logic, been better to remain safe. The most famous line in Scripture that speaks to this for me is the story of Peter and Jesus (see Matt. 14:22-33) when Jesus is walking on water. Peter’s a mess, but he’s adventurous, and he says, “Lord, I want to come out there with You.”
If Jesus had been cautious, he would have said, “I don’t think you’re up for this one. If you come out here you’ll probably sink, because you’ll be afraid.”

But notice? Jesus doesn’t do that. He says, “Come on.” And in the process, it becomes a life-changing lesson for Peter. To say yes to Jesus means you’re always going to have Jesus at work in you saying, “Come on. Let’s take a risk together. Let’s do something you didn’t expect.”
That could mean connecting with people that you didn’t imagine, engaging in some kind of outreach project with which you feel entirely unfamiliar, giving your money away in a way that you did not expect or may not have fit in your budget—or who knows what. In fact, the very nature of being a follower of Jesus means being a person who is willing, by God’s mercy, to take risks, but also to know you’re in his care. As Christians, we are committed to being followers of Jesus. That’s a different understanding than saying, “We’re committed to staying where we are and hoping Jesus is with us.”

Do Something
You see, being a “follower” means Jesus is going somewhere. He’s doing something. He is on the move. He is at work. And so to be a follower of Jesus means we’re on the move, too. We’re at work. We’re doing things. In our Confirmation liturgy, the very essence of confirmation is the commitment to service. And “service” means you do something. Those who commit themselves to Christ are doing more than committing themselves to a certain set of beliefs. They’re committing to servants who obey Jesus and go where he says.

The very essence of being a Christian is being a follower of Jesus, meaning “I’m willing for you to take me someplace. Let’s go, Jesus. Let’s see what you’d have me do!”

That’s the kind of Jesus to whom we are entrusting ourselves. And we begin to step out and do the things we never would have expected but that we know that he is asking of us. We know he loves us, that he holds us in the palm of his hand, that he deeply cares for us, and that we want to be near and with him, because that’s, in fact, the safest place to be. Because in him there is mercy, there is forgiveness of sin, there is the promise of heaven, there is the companionship of his presence: “I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20b).

Follow Me
So this is not a commitment to lethargy. This is not a commitment to sitting around and waiting for God to show up. This is a commitment to say at the beginning of each day, “Lord, what would you have me do today?” and to be open to his direction. To be willing to be challenged, literally about any area of your life: your social life, your relationships, your work life, your how you spend your money, how you organize your time, where you hang out, what you do. It’s all up for grabs. There is no “safe space” if you’re defining safety as “the place where I get to do what I want.”

We make that commitment to follow Jesus, and the very expression of his life is taking great risks. He took great risks to lay aside his throne in heaven, to subject himself to the limitations of humanity. Literally, the Lord of the universe being encapsulated in the form of an infant, subject himself to being misunderstood, to being mistreated, to live in a place that we would define at best as blue-collar poverty, and eventually to die at an executioner’s hands and be resurrected from the dead.

Those are the risks he took for us. And as a result, he laid out a pattern for us that says, “You want to follow me? Let’s go. But we’ll take risks together.”
So don’t allow the cute loveliness of the Christmas story to rob you of the call that is inherent in that story: to be his follower. To be willing to step out of the boat. To be willing to go to really dirty places like mangers. See where God will take you as you make this commitment to follow the scandalous and risk-taking God whom we call the Lord of heaven and earth.

What risks are you taking as you follow Christ? Share this blog and your response on Twitter. Please include my username, @revgregbrewer.

(This post is an adaption of Bishop Brewer’s sermon on Dec. 18, 2016, at Grace Episcopal Church, Port Orange, Florida.)
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.