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Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 1 “Hope: Miracle on 34 th Street” Theme: The Reel Christmas Story Scripture: Hebrews 11:1, Romans 15:13 Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon: _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________ Meditation Moments for Monday, November 30 Read Hebrews 11:1-6 Sometimes we’re tempted to think of people in Jesus’ day as naïve folks who’d believe any wild story anyone wanted to tell them. The writer to the Hebrews made it plain that he had wrestled with the issues of faith and doubt. Verses 1 and 3 described the unseen quality of what we believe in. And verse 6, rather than trying to “prove” God, said believing in God is a faith decision. In Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle said, “If you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life dominated by doubt.” God offers us a solid foundation for a life of faith—the testimony of dozens, hundreds, millions of people for whom faith has filled life with joy and meaning. We get to be part of that groupbut it still takes faith. Who has modeled faith for you? What makes faith a challenge for you, and what helps you to believe in the unseen realities of God? Verse 3 took faith to the very beginning of the universe: “By faith we understand that the universe has been created by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.” Faith offers an answer to the enormous question of “Why is there something instead of nothing?” What spiritual practices help you to look beyond your five senses to God’s unseen realities? Prayer: God of the universe, I see hints of your presence, and when I can silence my heart I hear you speak to me. Give me the faith to “see” you in your mystery and majesty. Amen. Tuesday, December 1 Read Isaiah 9:2-7 Isaiah gave Israel a beautiful prophetic vision. He spoke of a future in which light pierced the world’s darkness, in which peace was so deep-seated that people could burn all the warriors’ garments soaked in blood, in which hope, justice and righteousness reign. All of this (verse 6) because “A child is born to us, a son is given to us.” It was a lovely promise. The question, then and now, is: does it really make sense to believe something so hopeful and intangible? Fred Gailey, in Miracle on 34th Street, told the sternly “realistic” Doris, “Those lovely intangibles … are the only things that are worthwhile.” Can you even imagine life without “lovely intangibles” like hope, beauty, purpose, delight, compassion or love? To what extent do you agree with Fred’s sweeping statement that they are “the only things that are worthwhile”? The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Yet even after he met Jesus, Paul would write, “Now we see a dim reflection” (1 Corinthians 13:12). In what ways has Jesus already brought light into your dark world? In what ways are you waiting for the full brilliance of God’s light? Prayer: Lord, Advent is a time when we renew our commitment to your gift of hope. So much in our world, globally and

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Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 1

“Hope: Miracle on 34th Street” Theme: The Reel Christmas Story Scripture: Hebrews 11:1, Romans 15:13 Things I’d like to remember from today’s sermon: _____________________________________________________________________________________

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Meditation Moments for Monday, November 30 – Read Hebrews 11:1-6 – Sometimes we’re tempted to think of people in

Jesus’ day as naïve folks who’d believe any wild story anyone wanted to tell them. The writer to the Hebrews made it

plain that he had wrestled with the issues of faith and doubt. Verses 1 and 3 described the unseen quality of what we

believe in. And verse 6, rather than trying to “prove” God, said believing in God is a faith decision.

In Miracle on 34th Street, Kris Kringle said, “If you can't accept anything on faith, then you're doomed for a life

dominated by doubt.” God offers us a solid foundation for a life of faith—the testimony of dozens, hundreds, millions

of people for whom faith has filled life with joy and meaning. We get to be part of that group—but it still takes faith.

Who has modeled faith for you? What makes faith a challenge for you, and what helps you to believe in the unseen

realities of God?

Verse 3 took faith to the very beginning of the universe: “By faith we understand that the universe has been created

by a word from God so that the visible came into existence from the invisible.” Faith offers an answer to the

enormous question of “Why is there something instead of nothing?” What spiritual practices help you to look beyond

your five senses to God’s unseen realities?

Prayer: God of the universe, I see hints of your presence, and when I can silence my heart I hear you speak to me. Give me the

faith to “see” you in your mystery and majesty. Amen.

Tuesday, December 1 – Read Isaiah 9:2-7 – Isaiah gave Israel a beautiful prophetic vision. He spoke of a future in which

light pierced the world’s darkness, in which peace was so deep-seated that people could burn all the warriors’ garments

soaked in blood, in which hope, justice and righteousness reign. All of this (verse 6) because “A child is born to us, a son is

given to us.” It was a lovely promise. The question, then and now, is: does it really make sense to believe something so

hopeful and intangible?

Fred Gailey, in Miracle on 34th Street, told the sternly “realistic” Doris, “Those lovely intangibles … are the only

things that are worthwhile.” Can you even imagine life without “lovely intangibles” like hope, beauty, purpose,

delight, compassion or love? To what extent do you agree with Fred’s sweeping statement that they are “the only

things that are worthwhile”?

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has

dawned.” Yet even after he met Jesus, Paul would write, “Now we see a dim reflection” (1 Corinthians 13:12). In

what ways has Jesus already brought light into your dark world? In what ways are you waiting for the full brilliance

of God’s light?

Prayer: Lord, Advent is a time when we renew our commitment to your gift of hope. So much in our world, globally and

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 2

locally, tugs me toward hopelessness. Renew and reinforce my ability to live in hope this Advent. Amen.

Wednesday, December 2 – Read Luke 1:5-20 – As one of perhaps 18,000 priests and Levites, Zechariah knew that being

chosen by lot for Temple service was an honor he’d likely have just once. But Gabriel, God’s messenger, brought him a

promise much harder to believe, of a far greater event in which he, his wife Elizabeth (and the son they thought they’d

never have) would play a key role.

The angel’s promise was “too good to be true.” Zechariah modeled a common response to such promises: “How can I

be sure of this?” (verse 18) In Miracle on 34th Street, Doris Walker told Kris Kringle, “I believe Christmas is for

children” (i.e. not for an adult like me). Have you ever been tempted to see faith as childish and foolish? What people

of faith have you known who were anything but childish and foolish?

God’s messenger began his message with the words, “Don’t be afraid, Zechariah” (verse 13). In fact, “do not be

afraid” is the most common command that God and God’s messengers give in the entire Bible. What are you most

afraid of right now? This Advent, in what part(s) of life do you most need to take in God’s message: “Do not be

afraid”?

Prayer: Lord God, walk with me during the dark moments when doubt and fear tug at my heart. Send your messengers of hope

and promise across my pathway, reminding me to trust and not to fear. Amen.

Thursday, December 3 – Read Luke 1:26-38 – To both Zechariah and Mary, God’s messenger promised the birth of a

baby, despite the fact that the biological facts ruled pregnancy out (Elizabeth was too old, Mary was a virgin). Like

Zechariah, Mary struggled to believe the angel’s words—but she did. Doris Walker in Miracle on 34th Street came to see

that, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.” Mary did that, too, knowing we serve a God who sometimes

does very uncommon things.

Mary’s response to the angel is awe-inspiring: “I am the Lord's servant. Let it be with me just as you have said”

(verse 38). Mary’s obedient humility was a powerful model of what it means to trust God in faith, even when you face

things that seem impossible. When have you seen signs that “nothing is impossible with God” (verse 37)? What

impossibilities are you wrestling with that you can trustingly leave in God’s hands?

People in Mary’s day understood the basics of the reproductive process as well as we do. A virgin could NOT be

pregnant. Yet that was exactly what Gabriel promised (verse 31). No wonder Mary was confused and puzzled. She

didn’t try to hide her questions (verse 34), but she also listened trustingly to the angel’s answer. What doubts or

questions are you wrestling with today? Acknowledge them, and bring them to God in honest, heart-felt, listening

prayer.

Prayer: Lord God, from darkness to light, from illness (physical or spiritual) to health, from death to eternal life—you are

always the God for whom nothing is impossible. I praise you for the possibilities you open before me. Amen.

Friday, December 4 – Read Luke 1:39-45 – Miracle on 34th Street includes this exclamation: “I believe … It’s silly, but I

believe.” What an amazing “I believe” atmosphere must have enveloped Elizabeth and her young relative Mary as they

met and compared notes about their unexpected pregnancies! Elizabeth summed it all up, saying, “Happy is she who

believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her” (verse 45).

Before Jesus was even born, Elizabeth was the first person recorded as calling him “Lord”: “Why do I have this

honor that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (verse 43) (The gospels record that women were also the first

witnesses and proclaimers of Jesus’ resurrection.) In what ways does calling Jesus “Lord” involve surrendering the

right to live your life any way you please? In what ways has Jesus’ lordship changed your way of life?

We all need an Elizabeth we can turn to for advice, wisdom and encouragement. And we’re all called to be an

Elizabeth for someone else—to invest in that person and pass on what we’ve learned. As you think of the support and

kindness these two women gave each other, remember (and thank) those who blessed you with love and

understanding when you really needed it. And ask, “Is there someone who needs my support this Advent?”

Prayer: O God, what wonderful models Elizabeth and Mary are for me! Thank you for promising to lead me each day. Keep

reminding me that you kept your promises to Elizabeth and Mary—and that you still do that today. Amen.

Saturday, December 5 – Read Matthew 1:18-25 – Joseph quite possibly got the news of his fiancée Mary’s pregnancy

during her visit to Elizabeth. The fact was painful at first and the story she told was unbelievable. He was going, sensibly,

“to call off their engagement quietly.” But he didn’t, because he believed a message in a dream. In Miracle on 34th Street

Susan Walker said she believed in Kris Kringle because, “He looks like every picture of Santa Claus I've ever seen.”

Joseph didn’t leave a record of his thoughts, but we can wonder if he trusted his dream because it “looked like” so many

Biblical pictures of the kind of thing God would do.

Luke 1:38 showed Mary saying, “I am the Lord’s servant … May your word to me be fulfilled.” Matthew 1:24 said

Joseph “did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him.” Neither of them could see it as their story unfolded,

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 3

but today we can see that millions, perhaps billions of people stop to worship during Advent because two humble

Hebrew peasants listened, believed and obeyed. What is God calling you to listen to, to believe, and then to do or be

this Advent season?

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you were born into a world where most of the people didn’t believe you were possible. I kneel before you,

setting aside the voices in my head that call you impossible, and asking you to be the Lord and guide of my life. Amen.

Family Activity: In the movie Miracle on 34th Street, Fred says, “Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.”

He also talks about the importance of the “intangibles” of kindness, joy and love. These are Christian ideas, and

Christmas is one time of year we can focus on them. As you think about what you want to receive for Christmas, talk

together as a family about what you would like to give. Imagine who might need to receive some kindness, joy and

love. How could your family share those “intangibles” with them? Could you bake treats, make a card, say a prayer,

sing a carol or give a hug? God gave us the greatest gift in Jesus. May we help others believe by showing the kindness,

joy and love of God.

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 4

Theme: The Reel Christmas Story “Hope: Miracle on 34th Street”

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber

November 28-29, 2015 at First United Methodist Church, Durango

Scripture: Hebrews 11:1, Romans 15:13

1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

VIDEO Sermon Intro – Hope – Miracle on 34th Street

SLIDE “Miracle on 34th Street”

I would like to invite you to take out of your bulletin your Meditation Moments and your Message Notes. If you are watching at home or online you can download this resource right off of our website. You will find blank lines to write anything else down you would like to remember from today’s message. Continued on that side and on the back you will find daily Scripture readings and I want to encourage you to read the Bible on your own. You will find that all of the Scriptures will help take you deeper into today’s message and help you apply it to your life.

Today we begin a new sermon series for the season of Advent which is the four Sundays before we reach Christmas Eve. It’s a time of preparing ourselves for the coming of Christ in the birth of a child, Jesus, and it’s also the beginning of the church year. Many of you have been putting up decorations for the Christmas season for a few weeks, and our culture typically told us that the Christmas season begins with Black Friday, but now it begins on Thanksgiving because stores open on the holiday to get a jump on their competitors, or just to keep up. Many clips, like this from a Walmart store that went viral.

VIDEO Wal-Mart Black Friday Clip

Peace on earth and goodwill to all! That’s the spirit that we see around Christmas, isn’t it? This clip reminds us of why we need Advent, because without

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 5

these four weeks of pausing to think about what this all really means then Christmas is really just an orgy for self-indulgence so we can buy ourselves and others more than we actually need for no apparent reason. Advent is meant to remind us and keep us grounded in what Christmas is all about.

The Christmas films which are classics try to do the same thing. They all attempt to point us towards the real meaning of Christmas. So this year we are looking for the Advent themes and the real meaning of Christmas in some of the great Christmas movies which are classics for us today. We did something similar to this many years ago and a number of you have asked if we could do that again with different Christmas movies.

GRAPHIC 1 Miracle Movie Poster

Today we will start this series by looking at a film that won 15 Academy Awards in 1947. To this day, the film is listed as one of the top 10 most inspirational films of all time by the American Film Institute. It’s a film that helps us rediscover the joy of faith and it does so by pointing us towards Kris Kringle and Santa Claus which actually point us towards someone else – the child which was born in Bethlehem some 2000 years ago.

I found it interesting that this week there were pictures of Black Friday at Macy’s in 1948, the year after this film was released. While they are better dressed, there still was a mob and commercial mentality even almost 70 years ago. The film and these photos give you an idea of this.

GRAPHIC 1A Macy’s Black Friday 1948

GRAPHIC 1B Macy’s Black Friday 1948

GRAPHIC 1C Macy’s Black Friday 1948

The story in the movie begins at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1947. Doris Walker is in charge of the parade and hires all the staff as part of her role at Macy’s department store. She recognizes as the parade is about to begin that the person she has hired to be Santa on the main float is drunk and so she must find a new Santa Claus instantly. There just happens to be a man named Kris Kringle standing on the street and she hires him on the spot to be Santa on the float in the parade. She then hired him to be Santa for the 34th St. Macy’s store which is the largest retail store in the world. It is one city block and 10 stories tall with shopping on every floor.

GRAPHIC 2 Macys on 34th Street

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 6

Doris is looking for a Santa Claus for the most important Macy’s store in the United States and she ends up hiring Kris Kringle. Personally, Doris has struggled with Santa Claus. Though she hires and manages Santa Claus each year she doesn’t believe in him and she even has a great deal of antipathy towards him. She doesn’t care at all for Santa Claus and she tells her daughter Susan who is a young child that there is no Santa Claus. She tells her that common sense dictates there is no such thing as Santa Claus. From the beginning of the film you have the story of faith and doubt and struggle with what we know to be true and how we come to believe what we can’t see.

We learn that Doris and her daughter were abandoned by her husband. In the process of her divorce she lost more than her security and her husband. She lost her faith in goodness and love and mystery and the stories that lift up our hearts. In the first scene that we will see today we find Doris talking to an attorney, Fred Gailey, who lives in her building and has a crush on Doris. They live in the same apartment building and he wants to ask her out and we find him watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving day parade together. We learned very quickly in this scene, as does Fred, what Doris really thinks about Santa Claus and anything mythical.

VIDEO Miracle Scene 1

GRAPHIC 3 Miracle – Fred and Susan

This theme of faith and doubt will run throughout the film. Doris chooses to see the world through the eyes of her intellect and common sense. She wants life to be logical and she represents a way that many of us see the world and the way many of us were taught to see the world. We really should only believe in those things that we can demonstrate to be true which are scientifically provable. If we can’t prove it then we will be skeptical about these things, including matters of faith.

SLIDE Epistemology

This entire field of understanding what we believe to be true is called, “epistemology.” It is the study of what we know and how we know it and how we know things to be true. Doris represents the rationalistic side of this area of understanding.

Fred is an attorney who is a logical person, but he also recognizes there is more truth than what we can logically deduce or prove scientifically. There is truth that is deeper and comes from the heart and he believes this kind of truth is

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 7

the most important of them all. Fred represents this intuitive way of knowing the truth, recognizing there is more to life than we can possibly comprehend with our 3 pounds of gray matter in between our ears.

Though Fred and Doris will fall in love, they also will be at odds with one another as they represent these two different parts of the spectrum of epistemology. In some ways, these two represent the left brain and right brain kind of people that you may have heard of before. Left brained people are those who tend to be logical and they want concrete answers. Life needs to make sense and they are tend to be drawn towards the sciences. My grandfather was like this as was my father and most of the men in my family and so I tend to fit in this category.

Right brained people tend to know things more intuitively and are usually more interested in the arts. Poetry and music speak to their hearts. Science is great but these other areas are very important as well. They don’t need everything to be logically deduced or scientifically proven to believe that is true. They recognize that some things are just true and they come from the heart. Experience tends to shape what is true and what is not true.

We often find that right brained and left brained people marry each other giving credence to that old adage that opposites attract. In this congregation, how many of you would say that you are more left brained and that you decided what is true based on your intellect. You are more drawn to the hard sciences and you need proof of things. How many of you would say that is true of you? How many of you believe that you are more right brained and that you make decisions based on intuition and there is more to life than what we can see and feel and touch? Are you drawn to the arts and poetry and romance? Do you know truth from the heart more than from your intellect?

Typically, there are more in church who are right brained because they tend to be drawn more to spirituality and discussions about God and mystery. This congregation has a bit more evenness because your pastor tends to be right brained. For some of you, religion makes sense to you here because your pastor tends to lean that way and for some of you it is frustrating because you wish I was more focused on poetry and art.

One of the key parts of this film is an epistemological question in which we are struggling to answer the question, “What is true and what is not true? Is it only what you can scientifically verify and what makes common sense or is there

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a deeper truth that we can know from the heart?”

Let’s talk about being in love or loving somebody at how this plays out. I love my kids so much that it hurts sometimes and that I would even die for them in a moment. That doesn’t really make sense scientifically, but scientists will try to make sense of this, such as the research that tells us that love is simply the chemical oxytocin washing over a certain portion of your brain. Try telling that to your wife on Valentine’s Day! Try telling it to your teenager in the middle of their first crush!

Left brained people might tell us that love is a biochemical process that happens in the brain and the folks who are right brained will tell us that we have missed the point if that is all we think. There is so much more to love than simply chemicals on the brain. That scientific explanation doesn’t fully capture how we feel about our kids or our spouse or the people who are closest to us. These are two different ways of talking about truth and knowledge and both have value strengths and weaknesses.

If you come to the Christmas story solely from the scientific and logical, verifiable and rational kind of way, then the story seems absurd. The Christmas story tells us there is a virgin who conceives a child. That seems ridiculous and preposterous and impossible and there is no way the story could happen that way if you look at it simply from a logical point of view. We hear the story about God coming in human flesh, wrapped up as a baby in Bethlehem, and our left brain might say something like, “If there even is a God, why would that God come to us as a baby? What on earth could that possibly mean?”

Parts of the story don’t make any sense unless we are willing to come to it from our hearts and recognize that some things might not make complete sense, but when we trust the story it makes total sense. There is a different kind of truth we discover in the Christmas story which transcends logic and rational thinking, which is what makes the story so compelling and resilient over time.

The truth is that if we simply approach the story from a logical perspective, then all we have at Christmas is an occasion for massive spending which helps our economy. We spend more than we should on things we don’t really need and Thanksgiving Thursday or Black Friday at Walmart is all there is to the holiday.

But if we recognize there is more to life in this universe around us than what we can see and feel and touch then we can begin to see the power of Christmas and see there really is a God who has come to us in Christ. There is a

Sermon preached by Jeff Huber – November 28-29, 2015 Page 9

babe who shows us the way and the truth and the life and who declared by his life, death and resurrection that there is always hope and we are loved by the force that created the universe. We then can begin to see the real power of Christmas.

GRAPHIC 4 Kris Kringle

In the middle of the question about faith and doubt, we find Kris Kringle entering the story in the movie. Doris hires Kris Kringle to be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and then hires him to be Santa Claus at the 34th St. Macy’s store in New York City. The toy supervisor comes to Kris Kringle to give him tips on how to be a good Santa Claus and let’s see what happens.

VIDEO Miracle Scene 2

GRAPHIC 5 Santa Claus

We find that Kris Kringle is frustrated with what is happened at Christmas and we can identify with that as we struggle with the commercialization of Christmas. Kris Kringle is bound and determined to be a different kind of Santa Claus and he not only does not push the toys they have over purchased, but when children come and ask for a toy which Macy’s doesn’t sell, what does he do? He tells them they will get that toy and then he turns to their parents and tells them privately they can get those toys at Gimbals or FAO Schwartz. The toy manager is listening to all of this and he about have a heart attack, “What are you doing recommending our customers go to other stores?”

The management at Macy’s then discovers a powerful lesson. When you put the needs of the customer first, the customers like you better and become more loyal customers and they buy more at your store. They are getting accolades from customers who say, “Because you were willing to recommend to us other store to get what we really wanted, we will be back at Macy’s as often as possible because you put our needs before your own.” This of course is a gospel theme where Jesus teaches us that the first will be last and the last be first and as we learned a couple of weeks ago, “If you want to be great, you must become a servant.” The apostle Paul tells us to consider the needs of others before our own and this is exactly what Kris Kringle exemplifies when he is trying to teach people about the real meaning of Christmas, which they seem to have forgotten.

In the process of teaching other people about the real meaning of Christmas, their hearts begin to open like never before. Macy’s finally embraces this policy, the customer should come first, and pretty soon the other stores get

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in the action and they start sending their people back to Macy’s. Retail, the center of commercialization of Christmas, is transformed in New York City because Kris Kringle points them back towards the real meaning of Christmas. This is a great part of the story and we see it making a real impact in the lives of Susan and Doris, both of whom are skeptical about Santa Claus and about Kris. We see these changes come into play in this scene.

VIDEO Miracle Scene 3

GRAPHIC 6 Santa and Susan

The problem is that when you start doing things like this there are some people who will think you are crazy, especially if you actually say that you are Santa Claus. As Doris begin to discover that Kris Kringle really believes he is Santa Claus, she becomes worried that he is mentally ill and unstable. She takes him to the Macy’s psychologist, to have him examined and see if he really is mentally ill.

The psychologist, who we learn later in the movie is not really a trained psychologist at all, becomes determined that Kris Kringle must be locked up in a mental institution. The rest of the film is about the trial and the hearing in the courtroom to determine whether Kris Kringle is mentally stable or really Santa Claus.

This part of the story has many similarities to the story of Jesus as his life unfolds. Remember that when Jesus came he diagnosed the sins of the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious leaders, and they in turn tried to convince others that he Jesus had a demon inside of him. That was first century talk for what we know today as mental illness. When Jesus continued to diagnose their illness, the religious leaders then demanded that Jesus stand trial. The climax of the ministry of Jesus happens when he stands trial before the Sanhedrin, the religious court of the day, and instead of sentencing him to be locked up in a mental institution, Jesus is sentenced to be crucified. They need to get Jesus out of the way because he is a threat to their way of religion and their way of life.

This is a great parallel we see between the gospel story and this part of the film about Kris Kringle. Kris ends up in the psychiatric ward at Bellevue Hospital in New York City. Fred Gailey, the attorney who is now dating Doris the rationalist, decides that he will defend Kris Kringle and take on his case. He is going to stand before the New York Supreme Court and try to prove that Kris Kringle is who he says he is, which is Santa Claus. This leads to a direct conflict between Doris and Fred and it’s one of my favorite scenes in the film because the dialogue points to

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this conflict between those who only see the rationalistic side of the world and those who are willing to recognize another form of knowledge which comes from the heart. See if you can’t hear that tension in this scene.

VIDEO Miracle Scene 4

GRAPHIC 7 Doris and Fred

Fred has given up his job for an, “idealistic binge.” I love Fred’s response. “Look Doris, someday you’re going to find out that your way of facing this realistic world just doesn’t work. When you do, don’t overlook those lovely intangibles. You will discover they are the only things worthwhile.”

Can you see the conflict of how you know truth and what truth might be? Ultimately, the intangibles he is talking about are things like faith, hope, peace, love and joy. These things come from knowing a deeper truth which is the truth about a God who created the cosmos, who calls us by name, who came to walk among us in the flesh as a baby born in the midst of poverty named Jesus Christ. He shows us the way and the truth and the life by his life, his teachings, his death and resurrection. He saves us from ourselves, redeems us, heals us and offers us hope. He promises to walk with us always, that he will never leave us or forsake us. Because of that, no matter how dark our circumstances may be, believing and trusting that God walks with us, that he is with us, that he redeems suffering and evil and forces it to accomplish is good, the worst thing is never the last thing.

Because of all this, we have hope. That is the deeper truth of Christmas. Fred points to that truth in that scene we just saw when he says, “Faith is believing in things when common sense tells you not to.” It reminds us of the Scripture from Hebrews 11, the great chapter on faith in the Bible.

SLIDE 1 Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

In Romans 15:13 the Apostle Paul puts it this way…

SLIDE 13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

That leads to the final moments in the film which brings us to this question.

SLIDE Who really is Kris Kringle?

The climax of the film takes place in the New York State Supreme Court

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where Kris Kringle is brought before the judge to be tested and determine if he is actually mentally ill and should be placed in a mental health facility or if he can be set free. During the trial, Fred Gailey seeks to prove that Kris Kringle really is Santa Claus and he invites two witnesses to come forward. He invites a little boy who is the son of the district attorney who was one trying to prove that Kris Kringle is not Santa Claus and is actually mentally ill. Fred Gailey brings his son forward and the son testifies that his daddy taught him there is a Santa Claus and so this man must be that Santa Claus that his father taught them about.

Fred then puts RH Macy on the stand who is the owner of Macy’s. How is he supposed to testify against his own Santa Claus? He gives testimony that Kris Kringle is really Santa Claus, but that is not enough for the court either. They want tangible, hard and concrete proof. What you see in this next scene is the proof that was presented to allow Kris Kringle to go free.

VIDEO Miracle Scene 5

There is obviously much more to the film then we are able to show you and I hope you can watch the entire film sometime. There is a question we are meant to wrestle with as we watched this film even today some 70 years after its release.

SLIDE Who really is Kris Kringle?

I want to remind you that the name Santa Claus is a contraction of St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was the Bishop of Myra in the fourth century which is in modern-day Turkey. The tradition of the church tells us that Nicholas was raised in an affluent home and his parents died when he was young. He inherited their wealth and when he became a man he dedicated himself to God and became a priest. He took the money he had received from his parents’ inheritance and distributed it to people who were need. When he found people who were in need, his aim was to point them towards Christ and not towards his own generosity. He would take gold coins and put them in socks or stockings and if there was a family he knew of in particular need he would toss it to the window, or some said down through the chimney into the fireplace.

The families would find the stockings not knowing where they came from but grateful that God had provided and was supplying bounty in a time of need. Eventually, people became to know that Bishop Nicholas was the source of these gifts they had received. This way of living his life was his way of living out what Jesus taught in a parable that we looked at two weeks ago when Jesus told us

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what he was looking for in our lives in Matthew 25: 35-36.

SLIDE 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. 36 I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

St. Nicholas, pointing towards Christ and trying to live out his faith in Christ, began to literally do these things that Jesus commanded his disciples to do. After his passing, Nicholas became a great Saint in the church and in the years after his death there were hundreds of churches named in his honor throughout Europe. During the Protestant Reformation in the 1500s, Martin Luther recognized that people were giving the wrong focus and instead of focusing on Christ they were focusing on St. Nicholas, which Nicholas himself never would’ve wanted. Luther tried to change that by transforming St. Nicholas’s name. He began to talk about the giver of gifts as “Christkindl” which is a German word for the “Christ child.”

SLIDE “Christkindl” = Christ child = Kris Kringle

Kris Kringle is the English version and it really was an effort to move away from the focus being on St. Nicholas himself and towards the Christ child. By the way, that word also means, “Secret Santa,” which is an idea that we sometimes use in our workplaces and schools when we exchange gifts secretly.

SLIDE Who really is Kris Kringle?

So as we look at the question about who really is Kris Kringle, what I am really asking is, “Who were the people who will embody the gospel and live out what it means to give to others in the name of Christ?” The answer to that question is really pretty simple. It’s you! It’s me. It’s us.

We are representatives of the Christ child if we believe this story. If we believe this story then we find life ourselves in the Christ child. If we believe the story then we find that hope overflows in our lives. As we approach Christmas, we look at ways that we can be Christ presents for others where we can declare by our actions the love of Christ. This question really points to our mission statement in this church which is that we want to be Jesus Christ to the world.

This starts where St. Nicholas started which is to look at those who are hurting or grieving or who don’t have enough this Christmas season. How do we bless them? How do we seek to minister to those who are hurting so that we can show them the real meaning of Christmas and why Christ came? Christ came to

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bring hope and life and love and grace and we are meant to embody that which is what Christmas is all about.

If we forget that the Christmas simply becomes an orgy for self-indulgence. If we remember this, that as we go about the process of preparing for Christmas and making our list and checking it twice, and being sure we spent enough for everyone on our list, we also have to be asking, “What we done for those who are poor? What do we done for those who are hungry? What are we done for those who are hurting and lonely? What have we done for those who are in need?”

It’s four weeks until we come to Christmas and so we have four weeks to get involved and get started in being the presence of Jesus Christ in the world, and being Kris Kringle. Some of us have already started preparing by buying presents and we are counting on the fact that Santa will show up on Christmas day and so we are buying gifts already. One of our goals of the church is to make sure that Santa shows up for everyone at Christmas. Some of you helped serve hundreds of people at the Fairgrounds on Thanksgiving and I’m proud of those of you who gave up your Thanksgiving to bless others. Many of you did Operation Child Shoeboxes in your families and many of you volunteered to collect those boxes here the week before Thanksgiving. A number of you work at the soup kitchen and many of you are bringing in canned foods to be used in given to families in need.

One of the ways we encourage you to do this as a congregation is by giving away our entire Christmas Eve offering that you designate. We have challenged you every year to make a commitment as Christians to give away for those who are in need an amount equal to what we stand on our own families at Christmas. Many of you do this every year and some of you gone way beyond. Some of you are doing this for the first time and are just getting started. It’s why we have cards that you can give to your family members and friends and share with them that you have given something in their honor to those who are poor or are in need this Christmas season. Part of that offering will go to our international mission partner in Africa and part of it will go to local and regional projects that include Lighting for Literacy and water projects on the Navajo nation.

Each year this is the biggest worship experiences we will have as we have over 1500 with us in worship and it will be our largest offering by far. We encourage you to do this so that we can be Kris Kringle at Christmas. Over the past five years you have built wells in Africa for children so they can have clean water will not get sick. You have built a medical clinic in Guatemala and a training

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center for use in Honduras. You have provided scholarships for the Boys and Girls Club here in La Plata County. You have literally changed the lives of children all over the world.

That’s what it looks like when you’re Kris Kringle. Christmas is meant to look like this, and not Black Friday or Thanksgiving Thursday with people fighting over television sets, but rather looking around the world and seeing how we can make the love of Christ tangible for people who are in need. You have done this and you will do far more as you are the presence of Jesus Christ in the world to your Christmas offering.

Please don’t forget there is a great deal of truth that we will never fully understand with our 3 pounds of gray matter. God is far bigger than the universe and Christmas tells us that God who created the entire universe came to us in the form of an infant to show us love and grace and mercy. God knows your name and your story and you belong to him. If you will simply trust in him and in that truth that hope will overflow in your life.

Finally, remember that we are called to represent the Christ child. We are called to be Kris Kringle. Would you bow in prayer with me?

SLIDE Prayer

I would invite you to simply whisper this prayer quietly under your breath.

Lord, help me out to miss the real meaning of Christmas this year.

Help me, like St. Nicholas, to have a heart of compassion for people in need.

Use me as your hands and voice to bless and minister to those who are hurting this Christmas season.

Lord, sometimes we get so stuck in our logical way of thinking that we lose love and joy and hope and all the intangibles. Sometimes we forget what it means trust. Sometimes we think we can comprehend the whole universe with our 3 pounds of gray matter and forget that you are so much bigger. Help us to trust in the story of Christmas, your love made known in a child born in poverty in Bethlehem. Help us God to be your instruments, to bring healing and joy and hope and life to a broken world. Make us representatives of the Christ child this season we pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.