Sermon Text: Luke 1:46-55

This year’s Christmas Project partner is Touch a Life. Pam Cope, Touch a Life’s founder, tells a number of amazing rescue stories in her book Jantsen’s Gift. Today as we reflect on Mary’s words about the great reversal that God brings through Jesus, here is one of Pam’s stories about a reversal in her life. (From Jantsen’s Gift, 192-195).

“We had been introduced to a couple from Liberia, Korma and Cecilia, who were studying for their master’s degrees at a local university. One night, Randy and I invited them over for dinner to learn more about the situation in their country. 

Over dessert, I explained to them that I had become very interested in Africa, and had been thinking about fund-raising in order to expand our work there. When I finished speaking, I saw a peculiar look cross Korma’s face. He was quiet for a moment, then set down his fork and leaned toward me in his chair. 

“Pam, I have to ask you this,” he said. “Why do you talk about needing to raise money?” He waved his hand across the pool, the sprawling lawn, and pointed up toward our house. “You have been blessed with so much. And it looks to me like everything you need is already right here.”

I will never forget that moment. At first, I was extremely uncomfortable, and a little angry. Hey, wait a minute here, buddy, I thought. Don’t judge me, I am saving a lot of orphans! But later that evening, as I put away the dishes and wrapped up the leftovers, I couldn’t get what Korma said out of my mind. I tried to see myself the way that he and Cecilia had to see me: living a privileged life in a fifty-five-hundred-square-foot house, far more room than we needed, and still talking about hitting up everyone we knew to help. 

…something about Korma’s words had shaken me, making me admit to myself that even though Randy and I had embarked on this new journey, we were still trying to drag along so much stuff…I was surprised that night to be looking at it like this for the first time; it had never occurred to me to ask myself if this house was essential to us. Yes, we needed to have a house, but did we need this house?

No, we didn’t. It was as simple as that. When Randy and I talked about it, he agreed right away, and once the thought occurred to us that we should consider downsizing our home, it felt like a no-brainer… 

In the end, we found the perfect house. Our friends Chris and Lisa Parks had always loved ours as much as we did, and had recently put their own home on the market. It was about half the size of ours, and all that we needed. A few months later, they bought our house and we bought theirs, and it felt right.

…that first night in our new house, as I sat alone in the kitchen, I knew that despite the moving challenges, I loved that we made this decision. Randy had recently read a quote to me by the author and poet John Ruskin: Every increased possession loads us with a new weariness. I hadn’t thought about it like that before, but that night, I became aware of how true it was. In the weeks before the move, I had gotten rid of so much stuff—most of it things I never even needed. For the first time in years, I felt physically and emotionally skinny.

Looking back now, I know that this decision set so many wonderful things in motion. It was just a few weeks after we sold our house that Randy and I went to New York City with Warren and his wife, Shelly, to see Mamma Mia!, where I came across the article in the New York Times about Mark Kwadwo, the boy who had been sold into slavery in Ghana. And I know…I know…that it is only because I had unburdened myself—financially, emotionally, spiritually—that everything that happened with Mark was able to, well, happen.”

Additional Readings: Zephaniah 3:14-20, Isaiah 12:2-6, Philippians 4:4-7, Luke 3:7-18

Light: The candle of JOY

Read: The warrior leader, JSB p. 108 (Joshua 3, 6)


Ask: Have you ever forgotten a promise? What were the consequences?

In what way is God calling you to be a leader?

Pray: Thank God for keeping His promise to be with everyone who trusts Him. Ask for the help to obey God. Pray that our leaders (church, nation, school) will walk closely with God.

Jesse Tree Ornament: City w/ arrows

Act: Identify a leader at church or school, and find a way to encourage or help them (make a card, buy them coffee…)

Listen: In The Bleak Midwinter