Special Talk
INTRODUCTION
BRO. ALVIN BARCELONA:
Research says that not all are happy during Christmas. Perhaps because some feel pressured to give gifts. To some, they need to think of what food to put on the table for the Noche Buena.
Indeed, it can be stressful.
What is Christmas to you?
It has been said that Christmas has three stages with Santa Claus.
On the first stage, we are excited because we all believe in Santa Claus.
In other countries, Christmas is a SAD season. SAD is an acronym for Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is true in countries that are cold– because they have snow– and gloomy because the nights are longer than the days. When you’re alone in a cold and gloomy place, it can really be depressing.
But in the Philippines, we don’t have snow. We set up bright Christmas lights– that’s why in January we have higher electric billsJ.
But how come during the Christmas season, many of us experience
SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder?
Why SAD?
Here are some observations:
Christmas heightens your expectations.
Especially in the Philippines– because we have a long Christmas season.
In September, we’re already excited for Jose Mari Chan to come out (in the media with his Christmas songs). Actually, he’s completely Christmas: season: Jose (Joseph), Mari (Mary), and Chan (sounds tiyan in Tagalog or tummy where Jesus is being conceived)J
But they say the Christmas season heightens your expectations.
Once Christmas season steps in, we expect to have more money and more food. If we don’t, we feel miserable.
We are used to family members not being around at all times.
But when Christmas comes, we feel the need to be complete. If the family is incomplete, we feel sad.
In addition, the hectic schedule of successive parties and heavy traffic just makes the season worse.
And since we eat more and sleep less, our health also suffers.
Merry, Happy
It seems that we are more concerned with the less essential and we’re less busy with what’s truly essential.
I love it when we play with words. Say: Christmas.
If you remove Christ, what’s left is just mas. So, you become focused on other things, not on the birthday celebrator.
The word Christmas begins with Christ. He is the birthday celebrator but more often than not, He is not being celebrated…
In our school (Barcelona Academy) we teach children that the most important greeting during Christmas is “Happy Birthday, Jesus.”
Merry Christmas!
In other countries like the United States, the Merry Christmas greeting has been prohibited especially in government offices because they deem that it’s promoting a religion of Christianity that tends to discriminate other religions that are non-Christian.
To be safe, they say, “Happy Holidays!” or “Season’s Greetings!”
It’s ridiculous if you take away the reason for the celebration.
That’s why, I want us to pronounce Merry Christmas as MerryChristmas.
We cannot remove Christ in Christmas.
That’s why I am happy with this meme:
Meanwhile, an advertisement says: “We hope to have less Ho-hos! and more Hallelujahs! every Christmas.”
Of course, Santa Claus is also a saint.
He is Saint Nicholas.
But he’s not the reason for Christmas.
The reason for the season is Jesus.
The Main Star
On the first Christmas, the angels sang:
“Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to men of good will.”
It was a holy night, a peaceful night. A far cry from how we do Christmas today — although it’s not exactly a bad thing.
That’s why in our family, during Noche Buena, we put an image of Jesus in the center of our table.
I suggest you put His image up in your house. It’ll serve as a reminder for us, especially for the kids, that the reason for the season is Jesus.
The food for Christmas is Jesus. After all, He was born in a manger where horses or cattle eat from.
Jesus is the main star of Christmas.
It should continue to be a season of peace, joy, and love.
That’s why if you want your Christmas more merry don’t forget Christ on Christmas.
He is Christmas.
God Is with Us
Our higher expectations may not come.
But Christ already came a long time ago and He has always been with us since then.
So, those who are sad because they don‘t have their daddy or mommy or loved ones with them…Wait…
Yes, family is important. But more than just a family celebration Christmas is a celebration of Jesus. The food and the money you receive this Christmas are blessings– but they are limited.
But when you focus on Jesus, He is limitless. The Christmas season will end but Jesus remains.
If Christ is in your Christmas, there will be more joy, more peace, and more love.
As we continue our special Grand Feast, may I just remind you that Christmas is about the Virgin who conceived and gave birth to a Son called Emmanuel– God is with us. This is Christmas.
A blessed Christmas and a hopeful New Year to all of us!
Special Talk
BRO. BO SANCHEZ:
Give Him praise, Everybody! Worship Him, Everyone!
I want you to put your arms around somebody beside you. Tell that person,
“God is with us.”
Let’s extend our hands towards the Word:
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet
And a Light unto my path
I want you to believe that Jesus is here and He wants to speak to us. Let’s read together:
Put your hand over your chest and say:
“Jesus, unpack to me the events of the past so that I may receive light for the present and the future.
You are with me.
I pray that right now, my heart becomes the manger, my life becomes Bethlehem. Be born into my mess. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
One more time:
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet And a Light unto my path.
Give Him praise and worship. Tell somebody beside you:
“Let Jesus be born in your mess.”
Christmas Pageant
When I was a kid, I was part of a Christmas pageant in school.
I was really tiny.
How many of you were chosen to be Mary? How many of you were chosen to be Joseph? How many of you were chosen to be part of the Three Kings?
How many of you were the sheep and the whole time you were on your knees?
In a Christmas pageant in class, it’s usually the prettiest girl that is chosen for Mary.
I was chosen to be Joseph.
You know why they chose me to play Joseph?
There were only two boys in the class and the other one was huge and he was the bully of the class.
They could not make him Joseph. So, they had to choose me. He got the role of the innkeeper.
Two memorable experiences from that play:
- I was able to hold the hand of the prettiest girl in class because I was Joseph and
she was Mary. While they were singing the song, I was holding her hand and I was so happy.
- We knocked on the inn and then the door — made of cartolina and brown paint– was The guy who got the role as the innkeeper was
in character. He was a bully. He was holding a broom and he hit me on the head.
He said, “Shoo! Go away, go away!”
I was there and I was trying to protect Mary from this guy who was bullying me.
That’s some people think how the Christmas story happened.
The True Story
Every year, I go to Israel and I go to Bethlehem > to lead pilgrimages.
Below is the picture of the church. Inside it was where Jesus was born.
But every time I’m there, there would be Christian Arabs who would come up to me and say, “Brother Bo, your Christmas story is wrong. We are from here. My family has been living here for centuries. Our great, great, great grandfather passed the story to us: “We– my ancestors– would never reject Mary and Joseph! Impossible. We welcomed them.”
But in my mind, that’s what the Bible says. So, I dug deep. Do you know what I found out? They were telling the truth. The Greek word for inn is kataluma.
We imagine the inn to be a 28-bedroom hotel or motel. But Bethlehem was a barrio or a provincial village.
Kataluma is more accurately translated as a guest room. So, you’ve got a private house and then they have a guest room.
There was no more room in the guest room.
The Belen
My wife collects belens (nativity settings).
Most of the belens look like this:
The belen is in a stable.
The reason we think of the belen as a stable is we’re thinking there was no room in the inn.
So, the innkeeper said, “You’re pregnant. You’re going to give birth. There’s a stable for the animals. It’s about 80 meters away down the road. Go there.”
That’s where Jesus would be born.
Think of your nipa hut in the province. Underneath the bamboo slats are chickens, the goat, and the pig.
We live with our animals and so did the people in Bethlehem. The people there had a house usually attached to a cave. There was a guest room and that was the best room. But at the time, it was full because there was a census (so people from other towns, like Mary and Joseph, where obliged to go back to their hometown to be registered).
There were so many people in Bethlehem. When Joseph and Mary came, there was no room in the guest room. They had to stay in the living room.
We think of a stable because of the word manger. Manger is the food box of animals.
That’s where Jesus was placed.
Imagine a typical family who lived with their animals and there was a manger in the living room.
Those Christian Arabs were telling me,
“We welcomed Mary. When Mary gave birth, there were women there.” Do you know why we believe in that?
They Were Busy
Read again:
This is our assumption: Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem on December 24.
But according to this verse, they were already in Bethlehem weeks before because of the census.
Why is it important to understand what happened there?
I invite you to think about our life in the province. No hospitals. You’re giving birth in the house and the aunties, sisters, and women cousins are there to take care of the one giving birth. Some are washing clothes, some are preparing the diapers, and some are heating water. It’s messy. It’s dirty– but that was what was offered.
The people in Bethlehem were not able to give the guest room because it was already occupied. I want to be dramatic here:
If this year, you had problems– pain, loneliness, and anxiety– and if those problems forced you to turn to the Lord, please stand.
Most of us, we go through pain. We went through 2024 with struggles and storms– but those made us turn to the Lord.
Do you think you would pray to the Lord when things are comfortable?
Maybe not. It is in our emptiness that we would turn to the Lord.
Turn to the person beside you. Is that person good? Is that person busy?
This is what happened to the people of Bethlehem. I really think they couldn’t give to Jesus their best, the guest room– not because they were bad, not because they were like my classmate with a broom hitting me on the head. It’s just that the people of Bethlehem were probably busy. There were so many people and they could not give the best.
They couldn’t give their best to Jesus because they gave their best to someone else already.
The Enemy
For most of us, the enemy is not the devil but the distraction. We’re just too busy doing too many things.
I believe what wake us up are the problems, trials, storms, and the struggles and they shake us to turn to the Lord. To make Him our priority.
My questions to you this Christmas: Have you given your best to Jesus?
Have you given your best to someone else other than Jesus?
How many of you are working?
What, if one day, the CEO of your company, not your direct boss, sends you a text message: “May I talk to you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m.?
Let’s have breakfast together.”
Will you say no because you’re busy? Of course, not! You will cancel everything for your CEO, the guy who pays your salary every month.
Hello! It’s important. But how many of us said “I’m busy” to God this 2024? How many times did you tell God that you can’t accommodate Him– not because you’re bad but because you’re busy?
Why can we say “I’m busy” to God? Think of your father.
What if your father is the one who says, “My child, let’s spend time together.”
We say, “I’m busy” to our dad.
When I was growing up, and my mom would call me and say, “Bo, please visit me.”
I would tell her, “Yes, mom. I’ll go there when I’m less busy.”
Why is it that we will cancel everything for our CEO but for our parents, we are busy?
Two reasons: One is familiarity. The second is availability.
You get to see the CEO once in a while but your parents are always there.
I’ve got news for you. My mom and my dad, they’re gone. They’re in Heaven but I talk to them every day.
What They Could Only Give
This is my main point: The people of Bethlehem could not give their guest room but they gave what they could give– their second best. They gave to Jesus their second best– their messy second best.
Jesus was born into that messy second best and transformed it to be the greatest story ever told.
My dear Friends, let’s be realistic. We live busy, distracted lives.
I’m going to call you to open your heart and give Him your second best.
You cannot give your best anymore because that was given to all sorts of things and distractions. Even your phone is such a distraction. According to statistics, 3 hours and 36 minutes a day is our social media consumption. That’s 25 hours a week.
But it’s so easy to say, “I don’t have time to pray. I don’t have time to spend with the Word of God. I don’t have time to go to The Feast.”
Let’s stop doing that right now. This is what we do:
Embarrassing it may be, let’s give our second best to God and let Him be the one to transform our second best– so that in 2025, we’re going to give our best to the Lord. Amen.
Tell somebody again:
“Let Jesus be born in your mess.”
Do you want to make God happy today and in 2025?
Stop saying to God, “I’m busy for you.” He is your CEO. He is your father.
He is the one who gave you Life. He is the one who gave you strength.
What We Can Give
I end with this story that I fondly remember.
I always remember this story.
My youngest son Francis and I attended a father-and-son event in our homeschooling organization. He was still small then.
We played a game. We stood back-to-back. They gave us a piece of paper and Pentel pens (markers). They asked us the same question and we’re supposed to write our answer.
If we are close, then we would have the same answer.
One question was like, “What’s the first thing your dad does when he wakes up?” I can never forget the answer of one of the boys: “He sleeps again.”
But there was this one question: “What is the one thing that your son likes to do?”
Francis likes watching the movie Jurassic Park.
So, I wrote: “Watching movies.”
But my son wrote: “Spending time with Dad.”
We lost that game because we didn’t have the same answer.
But I won in my heart. When I heard his answer, I felt like I won the Lotto.
Do you want to make God happy? Tell Him that the best part of your day is spending time with Him. Being here at The Feast is your best time of the week.
Say this prayer with me:
“Jesus, I’m giving You my messy second best because in 2024, I was distracted and I was busy. Jesus, please be born in my mess and in my weaknesses. Be present in my life. Jesus, transform me so that one day, I will give You my best. Help me to never say, “I’m busy for You.” Help me to say that the best time of my life is being in Your Presence. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Distraction
BRO. AUDEE VILLARAZA:
Speaking of distractions, may I distract you for a few moments–if you could look in this direction where the spotlight is?
It’s so fitting that Bro. Bo spoke about how we are distracted as a society, about our greatest struggle right now: our fully presence to God, and the many things. I’m almost assuming that right now you’ve got a million and one things running around in your head– about all the chores and the tasks that you still need to finish before the year ends.
Luke spoke to us a story in his Gospel about a person who was distracted.
Her name was Martha. Jesus visited the home of Mary and Martha. And Luke says that Martha is distracted by all the preparations that needed to be made because Jesus was in their home.
So, she comes up to Jesus and says, “Lord, do you not care that I’m doing the work by myself? Will you tell my sister Mary to come help me?”
Then, Jesus says, “Martha, Martha, you are upset and worried about many things. But only a few things are needed. In fact, only one. And Mary chose better. And I will not take that away from her.”
You know, many of us, whenever we would hear that story, we would give Martha a hard time, and we would burn her first and say that Martha was wrong. She was preoccupied and distracted by many things.
But until you study the text, you will never really know what Jesus was saying. Because I found out about this only recently. That when Jesus was addressing Martha, He used the Greek term diakonia which means to serve somebody, to wait upon somebody.
And Jesus used this term many times.
In his now famous Scripture verse, where the apostle Mark says:
“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:45 NLT — Bible Gateway
) he was using diakonia to say that service is good. Waiting upon people is very good.
That’s why I know that Jesus was not rebuking Martha. He was lovingly correcting her.
You will be surprised that when Jesus turns to Martha and says, “Mary chose what is better,” it simply tells all of us that what Martha chose was good. Except that there was something better. And Mary chose that.
The Good News
What is my point? My point is having distractions in your life, it’s normal. It’s good. Families may distract you, and it’s good. Work may distract you, it’s good. Ministry may distract you, but it’s good.
Jesus is saying to us that even though these distractions
are good, there is something better. There’s a better choice. There’s a better option, my dear Friends.
Jesus is trying to tell us that right now, it’s not a problem that you have a busy schedule. The problem is you’ve got a busy soul.
And if your soul is always busy, you might not have time for God.
In the hustle and bustle of living your life, what is the state of your heart?
Because until you open your eyes and you open your heart, you will miss the greatest story ever told. Until you realize that Jesus is always here with us, you might miss that great miracle.
But my dear Friends, the Good News is this: that He is always with us. because the greatest story ever told is about a God who took the form of man and He became flesh and blood and He dwelt among us. And we call Him Jesus. We call Him wonderful counselor, the Prince of Peace, mighty God, everlasting Father, and we named Him Emmanuel which means our God is with us.
So, the Good News is Jesus is with us.
He is always with us.
He will always be with us this season.
Let’s put the spotlight back to Jesus.
Let’s worship the Lord and sing Emmanuel,
Our God, He is with Us!
Amen.
Commitment
BRO. BO SANCHEZ:
May I I invite you to say a prayer of renewing your commitment to Jesus?
For some of you, it might be the first time you’re saying that you’re going to give and turn over your life to the Lord.
I love to lead you in this prayer to finally say: “Lord, from now on until the rest of my life, I’m yours.”
But for most of us here, it’s a renewal of your commitment. Let’s do that together.
If you want to lift your hands, you can do so a symbol of openness and welcoming Jesus in your messy life. It might not be perfect or the best but let’s give what we can and He’ll take it from there.
Everybody, say:
“Jesus I open my heart to You. Come, take Your place, Be the center. I receive You as my Lord and as my King. From now on, You will be the center of my life. My life will revolve around you. I will love You with all my heart, with all my soul, and with all my strength. Help me to be Your Presence in this world.
Forgive me for all my sins. Wash me. Purify me. Change me. Make me another Jesus in this world. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.
Come and See!
BRO. JOHN BEN RODRIGUEZ (left) and BRO. JC LIBIRAN thank the Worship Team and all Feast servants and attendees, and close the Grand Christmas Feast with a merry announcement: The Feast resumes on January 5, 2025!
See you all!
