It was an interesting sermon because I think it touched on quite an important idea, but rather danced around it and missed the opportunity to really dive in. Our faith is personal, and not an academic study to be made with takeaways and three key bullet points. If there is only one important point, so be it. No need to try and squeeze three points out of it. Which is an observation by the way and not meant as criticism. The danger is that the real message is lost when there is too much focus on the presentation and the personal connection is lost or just skimmed over.
It's a bit of a stretch but I recall the point was that the birth of Christ in a humble manger should have been, by all normal accounts, totally insignificant when it was in fact, the most important/significant event in human history. And by extension His birth must be of great personal significance to us because of what it means, to each of us personally. Or something like that. Well if it wasn't, never mind because I have something of my own to say about personal significance.
There are two perspectives to be explored, one easy, the other, less so. The easy one about significance is how Christ helps us overcome death. The fear of death is a common one, at least at some stage of our lives. People spend inordinate amounts of efforts and expense to delay the effects of aging, to ensure good health, to postpone that day when we have to meet our Creator. When I was young, I had nightmares about falling into a deep black space, and used to wake up from the sheer terror of it. Then in the day I would be terrified by the thought of death, of not existing anymore.
But eventually these fears went away. Not because I had found Christ. Not yet. I suppose at some point I realised that it served no purpose to dwell on it. People have come up with all kinds of rationalisation or coping strategies to remove the fear. Many are simply avoidance strategies. If you don't think about it, or trick yourself into thinking about it in a certain way, it ceases to be a problem.
However you cannot ignore the elephant in the room. Why am I here? What is the purpose of my life?
That's the second perspective. Our search for personal significance. We are made in His image, which is why we sense there is something missing when God is not part of our lives. We want our lives to mean something. Some people ask the question but find no answers and fall into despair. Others find solace in drugs and other forms of oblivion or distraction. Yet another common response is how people want to leave a legacy, something that stands the test of time, so that there's evidence that they once were, not just dust in the wind. The whole of Ecclesiastes is the go-to reference for this.
People create art, institutions, monuments etc. Some crave power, invade countries, abuse others. Both come from the same space of seeking personal significance. None of it really matters in the grand scheme of things. All things decay over time, or lose meaning or relevance or context (just think of the woke brigade and the revisionism going on in the world today). Achievements become insignificant, or at best, a footnote in history.
This isn't to say that the positive things that come from a search for personal significance by those who do not believe in God, are meaningless. Not totally anyway. Any one who does something to make life better for others is doing God's work by loving people. But it is a poor substitute for that person if he does not accept Christ. He is then missing out on the most personally significant perspective of Christ's life, death and resurrection.
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