Redlight Crossing

Over the past few days my mind has been mulling over the sermon topic we had for this morning during our student ministries services. The topic at hand was "Where's Your Focus?" particularly with Christmas. As I was prepping for this sermon I was looking at the traditions we have for Christmas and where they came from, most of which were not of Christian origins and have somehow infiltrated Christmas and taken the place of Jesus as the focus. This study led me down a parallel path in my teaching this morning as I felt that not only have we lost focus during Christmas but often times we lose focus during our Christian lives in general. Whether it be with things in life like materialism, politics, or relationships or the church related things like theology, doctrine, and dogma, we often times lose focus of Jesus. This isn't easy for me to say because I believe that I'm the guiltiest of them all when it comes to losing focus expecially with theology and doctrine. Sometimes we get so caught up in being right that we lose focus on Jesus and end up doing more damage than good.

During the sermon this morning we showed clips from A Christmas Story, where the boy focuses solely on getting his "Red Rider BB Gun" and doesn't even realize that the holiday he is celebrating has a much deeper significance. As we covered the topic of Christmas and what it would look like if we actually removed everything and focused solely on Jesus a whole new world opened up. A world where presents weren't the focus or trees, lights, or misletoe but rather on Jesus and how even as a baby he turned the world over by lifting up the poor and the oppressed. This in turn led to talking about the latter half of the above paragraph where it's not only at Christmas that we lose focus. When we lose focus of who Jesus is as Christians it can do some major damage. I showed a slide show of various images that most of the students were familiar with. Pictures of Buddy Jesus, Bobble Head Jesus, and "Jesus is My Homeboy" t-shirts, all of which received giggles in the crowd. The demeanor of our students changed however when I switched a picture of two little girls wearing shirts that say "God Hates Fags" and then to a Crucifix that was displayed in a bottle of urine (which was considered "fine art"). We closed the slide show with a picture of a man holding a sign that said "If Jesus returns, kill him again."

These images show what can happen when we neglect Jesus and focus on other things. Each of these images showed a persons view of either Christians or Jesus, each of which lacked respect and reverence. Somewhere along the way, some Christians lost focus and gave the world the wrong image of what Jesus was about. If we as Christians can maintain focus on Jesus then the world can truly change, not just at Christmas but throughout our entire lives. It's not an easy task to focus on Jesus all the time but if we can remove the distractions, if we can remove ourselves and allow the Holy Spirit to work then it can happen. My challenge to our students this morning and to myself was to see where I need to refocus my life so that Jesus would truly be the center and ask God to lead me to becoming the Christian that he desires me to be; one who loves God and loves others.

I can only pray that when it comes to the times that I lost focus of Jesus, whether at the holidays or anytime, that God's grace will redeem any damage that I have done and that He will use me to accomplish more now.