This is a brief summary of yesterdays sermon at Heartland. Check out www.heartlandlpc.com for more about the church.
It is now December, which means the Christmas season has
arrived. My favorite things about Christmas are egg nog, Christmas parties and
Christmas movies. During the month of December in this article and at Heartland
Community Church we will be looking at a different Christmas movie each week.
One of my favorite Christmas movies and probably yours as well is A
Christmas Story.
When I watch it I cannot help but see the story of hope.
Ralphie, the main character in the story is a young blonde kid filled with
hope. He has the hope that his parents are going to buy him a Red Ryder BB Gun.
He brings his hopeful request to his mother. She responds, “You will shoot your
eye out.” He even writes a school paper on his deepest desire for the toy. He
receives a C+ on the paper and the teacher tells him, “You will shoot your eye
out.”
As Ralphie lies in bed one night he is trying to figure out
how he will make this dream come true. It comes to him to take the request to
Santa. So Ralphie is now becoming anxious about telling Santa about the hope he
has. He arrives at the mall and realizes he has a long way to wait in the line
for Santa. This however does not destroy his hope. He waits… and waits… and the
time arrives where Ralphie sits on Santa’s lap and he is speechless. He does
not know what to say. Santa tries to get it out of him. Still nothing. Santa
asks, “Would you like a football? Ralphie shakes his head yes in agreement. The
elf puts Ralphie on the slide and as he starts to go down, Ralphie stops
himself and starts to crawl up the slide. He yells “NO, I want a Red Ryder BB
Gun.” Santa responds, “You will shoot your eye out kid.”
Ralphie’s mom, teacher and Santa are what I consider Killers
of Hope. We all have them in our lives. We cannot let Killers of Hope get the
best of us.
In Isaiah, the Israelites were going through a rough time,
however held onto hope. They had hope that a Savior was coming into the world,
that he would rescue and restore them to where they should be. God, the Father
was looking to give them this longing but it was not yet the right time. But it
would not be long…
Ralphie was defeated he had opened up all his gifts and his
Father asked him if he had received everything he wanted. Ralphie responds,
“kind of” but the disappointment was obvious. His Father tells him to go look
behind the desk. Ralphie goes over, pulls out the box, unwraps it and it is the
Red Ryder BB Gun. He is ecstatic and asks if he can go outside to use it.
The one person he never asks for the toy, his Father, is the
one person who gives him the gift. His Father wants to give him the things to
fulfill his hopes and dreams… Granted Ralphie does break his glasses and
fulfills the “you will shoot your eye out.” Why is it that we can always go to
God the Father with all our hopes and requests but it is usually the last place
we go?
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