CHRISTMAS SUNDAY

"Power to Become"

John 1:9-14 

Evelyn was thirty three years of age. She had made it to a very responsible level in her job. Her life was falling apart and she went to see H. Scott Peck. She would awaken in the night with feelings of spiders in her bed, and crawling all over her. She could not longer sleep. The lack of sleep was destroying her ability to do her job. In fact, she was in danger of loosing the position she had worked so hard to earn. After several sessions her counselor asked her to talk to her mother and see if her mother wouldn't help her to be sure to get to bed by 8:30 at night until she was better. She asked her mother to help. She became very angry. "That's between you and your counselor," she said. That evening at 8:30 Evelyn announced she was going to bed. Her mother brought up her favorite subject to be discussed. Evelyn declined. Her mother started an argument. They argued until after 12:00. The next day Evelyn was hardly able to perform her tasks. She had waked up several times during the night with Spiders in bed with her.

At the next trip to the counselor she told her counselor what had happened. Has it ever occurred to you that your mother might be your spider. In her fear that your success might mean you will move out on your own and leave her ... she is weaving a web around you to destroy you. H. Scott Peck: " People of the lie"

Basically evil begins with selfishness. Evil is darkness that John says Jesus came to put out. When the light of truth shines upon evil it vanishes. Evil can not stand light. Truth will destroy evil every time.

The overriding reason for Jesus' coming was to destroy, and bring under control evil.

EVIL (Three definitions ( People of the lie; H. Scott Peck, p.46)

1. Evil is the other side of the coin from Good

2. Evil is distinct from good, but created by God. It's the ferment in the leaven of life. In dealing with it one makes conscious choices to follow God or one's own selfishness.

3. Evil was not created by God, but is a ghastly cancer, in creation beyond the control of God.

Evil exists in this life in many forms.

1. It is blatant non-conformity to accepted ethical and moral rules for living. This type of evil we have named criminal. It is all around us but is not the evil with which most of us have to deal.

2. evil exists in the distortions of human relations. It destroys the relationship of husbands and wives, parents and children, co-workers, the body of Christ we know as the church. Evil loves closed meetings, closed doors, rumor, broken promises.

Christ which exists as truth in our lives from time to time helps us discover evil in our own lives ... evil in our relationships with each other. At that point there is a time of choosing.

This was the choice of Evelyne. When she discovered her mother was sabotaging her life she could be freed from her web. She could do this by assuring her mother that she would continue to live with her, and always keep one eye open to her manipulation; or she could move out. She choose to move out.

Children of God are those who live their lives in the light. They refuse to live in a world of manipulations, and distortions.

If they have an issue they will lay it out in the open, and deal with it with sensitivity and love. They can identify their territorial bounds and the bounds of others. They struggle to identify their own problems, and separate them from others. They exist not to control; but to live in harmony with their brothers and sisters in Christ.

AT THIS POINT WE ARE READY FOR CHRIST AND CHRISTMAS. IT IS OUT OF THIS UNSELFISHNESS THAT CHRIST GAVE HIMSELF FOR US. IT IS OUT OF UNSELFISHNESS THAT WE GIVE OF OURSELVES TO EACH OTHER AND THE CHURCH.

Oh, how good it feels to be free to really live.

Leslie Weatherhead tells a story which comes out of world war II dealing with this freedom. The Jewish community in Germany was persecuted, and many killed. If people were of Jewish extraction they were killed as Jewish...even though many of them were Christians. The soldiers came one night to a very prominent Christian family. The mother and father were killed. The two young daughters were assaulted and raped. ONE OF THE DAUGHTERS WAS A NURSE. She was TAKEN TO A ARMY HOSPITAL TO SERVE THE TROOPS. CONSTANTLY IN THE PRESENCE OF THE ENEMY SHE WAS REMINDED OF THAT ONE NIGHT IN HER LIFE. SHE WAS FILLED WITH HURT, AND HATE.

THEN ONE DAY IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE A GROUP OF WOUNDED OFFICERS WERE BROUGHT IN. SHE IMMEDIATELY BEGAN TO MINISTER TO THEM. AFTER FIRST AID HAD BEEN GIVEN SHE STARTED CLEANING THEM UP ... SUDDENLY, HORRORS OF HORRORS ... BEFORE HER LAY UNCONSCIOUS THE MAN WHO CONTINUED TO TORMENT HER. ALL SHE HAD TO DO WAS TO TAKE THE BLOOD SHE WAS GIVING HIM AND GIVE IT TO ANOTHER. NO QUESTION WOULD BE ASKED. NO ONE WOULD EVER KNOW. SHE WOULD HAVE HER REVENGE. WITHIN HER WAS A STRUGGLE. SUDDENLY, SHE WAS FREE. FREE BECAUSE SHE DECIDED SHE WOULD DO HER BEST TO GIVE THIS MAN WHAT HE HAD TAKEN FROM HER ...LIFE. FOR SEVERAL DAYS HIS LIFE HANGED IN THE BALANCE. THEN SLOWLY BUT SURELY HE CAME BACK TO HEALTH AND LIFE. THE FAMILIAR FACE WAS REMEMBERED BY THE OFFICER.

ONE DAY HE ASKED HER ....IF SHE WAS THE PERSON HE HAD RAPED AND WHOSE PARENTS HE HAD KILLED.

Then he asked ...Why didn't you kill me? I didn't kill you because I am a Christian. She told him. That experience changed this man's life.

Carl Rogers ....ON BECOMING A PERSON says ... that when we choose to live for something higher than self we will soar to heights of life we never dreamed.

"I came that you may have life, and have it more abundantly." said Jesus.