Yesterday at Eastbrook, I preached a Christmas message entitled “A New Day” as part of our Christmas Eve services. You can find view message here and read the preaching manuscript below. Merry Christmas!
I don’t know if you’ve ever been to Hinsdale, New Hampshire. Probably not. The town of roughly 4,200 people is off the beaten track, set apart from the closest interstate highway, near New Hampshire’s border with Vermont and Massachusetts. It’s main claim to fame is that it has the oldest continually operating post office, but that probably isn’t a reason to visit.
If you had been there a few years ago, you might have encountered interesting characters, like in any town or city. One of them might have been Geoffrey Holt who died this past June. Holt might have caught your attention because he wore threadbare clothes and drove his riding lawnmower around town. He’d given up on cars since he rarely left Hinsdale at all.
Holt lived simply. He was the groundskeeper for the Stearns Mobile Home Park in the area. He lived so simply, in fact, that his own mobile home had almost no furniture, including no TV or computer, and the legs of his bed went through the floor.
What was most surprising to everyone, then, was the fact that when Geoffrey Holt died earlier this year, he died a millionaire. Only his friend, Edwin “Smokey” Smith had a clue.
But even his friend, “Smokey” Smith was as shocked as everyone else when Holt’s will had these brief instructions: “$3.8 million to the town of Hinsdale to benefit the community in the areas of education, health, recreation and culture.”[1]
It’s a new day for Hinsdale, thanks to the generosity of the unlikely Geoffrey Holt. One local resident said, “Maybe this will put it on the map a little bit.” Maybe so. It’s a new day.
Sometimes a new day comes in an unlikely way.
Sometimes powerful announcements arrive in unlikely forms.
Christmas is like that. A new day dawns both shocking and good with the unlikely Christ-child in the manger.
The backstory on why this is such a big deal goes all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible. There, we’re told, God literally creates a new day as the first days of creation unfold with stunning majesty and beauty, intricacy and wonder. The first humans and creatures enter into what did not exist before: a new day dawns…and it is a glorious day.
But when human decision pushes back against God, grasping for the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil in an attempt to be like God and, therefore, displace God, something breaks.
Relationship with God is disrupted, human will turns inward, judgment falls down as a natural consequence, and a deep separation between God and humanity opens wide. Things that the new creation did not yet know—sin, brokenness, evil—lead to a vast gulf between God and all creation, including humanity. This is a new day, but not in a good way. It’s like an oil spill that you can’t control, touching and tainting everything, leaving ruin in its wake.
If we were to summarize the rest of the Bible after that moment, one way to do that would be to say that the entire Bible has two main story arcs:
- Story Arc 1: Humans unsuccessfully grappling with the pervasive oil spill of sin and brokenness, usually running away from God – this is the story of darkness and shadows
- Story Arc 2: God pursuing humanity out of a heart of love to bring restoration, healing, forgiveness, and life – this is the story of light
These stories exist at the same time, one speaking of darkness and the end of things, and the other story speaking of light and new beginnings.
Like the sun shining over the dark of the earth, sometimes we cannot tell if the day is ending or if the day is beginning. And we may find that our lives move more toward one of those stories than another. Some of us live toward shadows of darkness, while others live toward the light of life. More realistically, perhaps, we may find ourselves going back and forth between these two stories, and today may be no different. Today we may feel the gravitational pull of the shadows or the light. We may be wrestling even today with how to live in this world marked by the tension of these two stories. How to live our lives when both darkness and light gather around us and even rise up from within us.
Many times in the Bible, it feels like the shadows and darkness will overtake everything, whether that’s in an individual’s life or a group of people’s life together. In fact, even God’s chosen people in the Bible face many difficult, dark days. That’s not that different from us, I’m sure. When they felt cast off, when enemies gathered around, and it seemed everything was hopeless, God sent messengers to bring words of hope.
One messenger we return to a lot during the season leading up to Christmas is Isaiah the prophet from the 8th century BC. He says some pretty powerful things. One of those is this:
The people walking in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of deep darkness
a light has dawned. (Isaiah 9:2)
Even though it may seem the darkness is too deep for light to get in, there is a new day coming, Isaiah says…and that new day will come dawning with a great light. Later in the some part of Scripture, Isaiah says that the new day dawning will be linked with a new child coming, and the nature of that child will be incredibly unique. Listen to it with me:
For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the greatness of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David’s throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the Lord Almighty
will accomplish this. (Isaiah 9:6-7)
The new day will come, Isaiah, says. A new day with light dawning in the darkness, and it will come with this new child.
And this new child, Isaiah tells us, will be a different sort of child. In fact, the description Isaiah offers is so lofty it is shocking:
- He will be a wonderful counselor – giving the guidance we most need
- He will be called Mighty God – bringing both the presence and power of God near
- Everlasting Father – the one from eternity with lovingkindness for us all
- The Prince of Peace – his rule will be marked by utter peace, shalom, that everything will be put to rights in the world
- His rule and peace will be endless – not like the passing truces and treaties we make to keep conflict at bay, but something more enduring and deep altogether
- His rule will be marked with justice and righteousness – not an incomplete or half-hearted attempt to make different parties happy but something that is marked by true justice and goodness
- And God will do this wondrous work by His own hands
There’s a new day coming, Isaiah says, so watch for it. It may feel like the sun is setting and darkness surrounds, but it is actually the first glimmers of the sunrise. Pay attention and watch for it.
So people watched and waited for that One promised in Isaiah. They watched and waited while they waded through the oil spill of a broken and beautiful world. Through the spreading shadows, they watched the horizon for the dawn’s breaking sunlight. They watched and waited, developing ideas about what that day and that One would look like.
But sometimes a new day comes in an unlikely way.
Sometimes powerful announcements arrive in unlikely forms.
So, when angelic visitors appear to unlikely people, it should have been a clue, but it was just too shocking. Teenage Mary gets pregnant, she says, by the Holy Spirit after meeting with an angel. And Joseph, her fiancé says an angel told him Mary was right, and the child she carried was the One Isaiah foretold. To be honest, it just seems so far-fetched that it’s hard to believe.
Would God really do something like this? Would it start on the edges of society up in Galilee, in an area that certainly was off the main highway? Would God really use these everyday, even poor, people, their clothes threadbare, their place not fancy, who survived by the work of their hands? It doesn’t seem possible.
And yet…and yet…Matthew and Luke the Gospel writers tell us this is just what was happening. God is bringing a new day. The child was born in Bethlehem. He was announced with angelic fanfare to a group of unlikely shepherds out in their fields.
“Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10-12)
A new day has come with this child, and it is for you, for me, for us. Jesus, the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord. A new day dawns.
So, friends, even as the shadows gather, even as nations rage, may we remember that God’s light is stronger still. That light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it.
When we feel cast off by friends or family or total strangers or society, may we remember that God has not cast us off but has pursued us tenaciously all the way down to this wondrous birth of Jesus.
When we feel insignificant and too lowly to be counted, may we remember that God drew near in Jesus, born not among the great and mighty, not among the regal and wealthy, but among ordinary people who appeared lowly, but were treasured deeply by God.
When we think our wrongs are too strong to be forgiven, our brokenness too dark to be shared, the evil too powerful to be overcome, may we know that God has stepped into our dark, broken world to be present, that God has faced into our wrongs to bring forgiveness, that God has confronted evil in humility to display the weakness of false strength.
That a new day has come for the broken, the weak, the worn-out, the cast-off, the insignificant, the ordinary, for people all through history and all around the world just like you and me.
Jesus is born our Messiah. He is the child who brings the new day. He is the child bringing new light into darkness. He is Immanuel, God with us. The God of the ever-new day.
[1] Kathy McCormack and Robert F. Bukaty, “New Hampshire man had no car and no furniture, but died with a big secret, leaving his town millions,” AP News, November 21, 2023, https://apnews.com/article/new-hampshire-town-gift-frugal-millionaire-holt-994a9448623c51db5036b85dd563fb24.
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