Christmas, I don't know. Christmas, in some respects is
is a great time to be a kid. It's the the mystery, the
wonder, the excitement, the present opening, Elf on the
Shelf, Santa Claus, all of these other things that go along with
being a little kid at Christmas time.
You know, kids, there's a lot of things kids can't do, but there
are also a few things that kids can do that adults just can't
get away with doing. At least, you know, adults of my
age anymore. Maybe if you're in your 20s you
can get away with doing some of these things.
But as a kid, when you were getting together with lots of
your friends, cousins, you know, neighbors, whoever it was you're
getting together with, all you needed to have fun was space,
right? And then you could play the
game. That is the ultimate kid game
that I have never yet heard an adult over the age of 25 ever
say when gathering with their friends, hey, let's play tag.
Who's it? You never hear that, right?
You know, adults can play basketball.
They can play football, they can play golf, they can play
pickleball, even when we get old.
But no adult ever says, hey, let's go play a game of tag.
But tag is a fascinating game. You don't need any equipment.
You don't need a rule book. All you need is space and a
bunch of kids. The more the merrier and the
better. And of course, when you're
playing tag, what does everyone who's playing tag want to be?
What? No, not it.
Some folks want to be not it. Other folks want to be it it.
I was one of the kids that always wanted to be it.
And and you know when you're it, you've got this amazing power.
You can run around and when you touch someone, you have the
power to make them it. So once you touch them, then
you're not it anymore. Now they're it and you run from
them. And if they touch you back,
sometimes you have to have the rules, no touchbacks, but you
know you got it. You get a touchback and you get
touched, and then you're it again and you touch someone else
and then they're it and they go touch someone else and they pass
that power when you get touched by it.
This is the strangest you ever thought about how strange this
game is. You know, you get touched by it
and the power of it gets transferred to you and now
you're it. You're changed when you're
touched by it. It's a beautiful children's
game. I think it's a beautiful picture
of our relationship with God Jesus, who came into this world
touching people and giving power to them to touch others and pass
that power on and on and on. God's love, God's grace, God's
mercy, God's forgiveness. It's like 1 giant cosmic game of
it knowing Jesus changes people and it changes people for good.
Now that phrase for good is important here because of the
theological significance, but also because of the connection
to our series Wicked for good. We've been kind of walking our
way through Wicked and Wicked for good.
The and the stage musical uses the same most of the same songs.
I think there's a couple of extras added to the movies, but
but this, this, the song that we're focusing on tonight is a
song called for good. And, and in within the movie,
the two main characters are are Alphaba and Glenda, and they
have a rocky relationship that goes up and down.
In the beginning they were enemies, then they became
friends. Then they were divided by being
on two sides, different sides of a of an ideological and societal
issue. And then toward the end, as
they're seeking to reconcile and becoming reconciled, they're
also parting maybe forever. And they sing to each other how
they've been changed by their relationship that each one says
to the other, you have changed me for good.
And the lyricist there, Stephen Schwartz, I think is his name
is, is makes great use of that double entendre of for good,
that double meaning not only changed permanently, but changed
positively changed for good. It's a wonderful song.
We're going to listen to it later and I'll get back to that
then. But knowing Jesus, you know,
Alphabet says to Glenda, Knowing you changed me for good, Glenda
says to Alphabet, knowing you changed me for good.
Knowing Jesus changes people for good, for true and certain.
Everywhere Jesus went, he touched people and he changed
them for good, even while he was still in his mother's womb.
Mary, pregnant with Jesus, goes to see her relative Elizabeth,
who's pregnant with John, who would become known as the
Baptist, a prophecy of one of the the final prophet of the
Messiah who was to come. And when Mary enters Elizabeth's
dwelling place and greets Elizabeth, the child within her,
recognizing that he is near the Messiah, leaps for joy.
Leaps for joy. John has changed and he's
changed for good. Elizabeth, his mother, says, So
right there, the child within me, leap for joy.
Blessed are you Mary. Zachariah goes even further and
speaks the prophecy about John himself, that this, this having
been touched by God, having been touched by Jesus, John will be a
prophet that will prepare the way for the Lord and Savior
Jesus the Messiah, who will prepare the way for people to
recognize and receive this light that is coming into the world.
Knowing Jesus changed John for good, but it was much more than
John, obviously much more than Mary.
On and on and on. We see throughout Jesus's life
he called those 12 disciples and folks that were just ordinary
folks, whether they were fishermen, whether they were tax
collectors, whatever they were doing, they were touched by
Jesus and they were changed for good.
And they became apostles sent out by Jesus into the world to
touch others and bring healing to them, bring hope to them,
bring peace to them, bring spiritual freedom to them,
knowing Jesus changed them for good.
And it wasn't just the good folks that Jesus touched and
changed for good. It was the folks that other
people didn't want to hang out with.
It was the tax collectors, it was the prostitutes, it was the
drunks, it was the gluttons. It was the people that the good
religious people said, Oh no, we don't want to get anywhere near
them. And Jesus got near and he
touched them and he changed them for good.
He changed them for good. And it wasn't just, it wasn't
just the morally struggling people, it was the diseased
people. It was the lepers and the
cripples and the blind and the deaf, the people that the world
looked at and said they've been cursed by God or they wouldn't
be struggling so much. Their disease.
Don't touch them. Their uncleanness will rub off
on you. Stay away.
Keep them out of the cities, keep them out of the towns, keep
them out in the countryside. Make them yell whenever they
come near lepers, outcast, unclean, Don't get near me,
don't touch me. And Jesus could have healed them
a word from a with a word from across town.
But he went to them and he touched them and he healed them
and, and Jesus being holy and clean and holier and cleaner
than anyone in history, when he touched a corrupt person, when
he touched a dirty person, he didn't get dirty.
He made them clean. Wouldn't that be great for our
kids? Put them in their Sunday best
clothes and they went out and instead of getting dirty from
what they touched, they made other things clean.
What a trick that would be, man. You can sell those clothes for
anything, but it only works with Jesus.
It only works with Jesus. The one who is the most clean
can't get dirty. When he touches The Dirty, he
makes them clean. When he touches the sick, he
doesn't catch their disease, he makes them well.
When he touches the broken in body, broken hearted, broken in
mind, he doesn't become broken, he makes them whole.
Well, he did become broken on the cross, and even in that he
didn't stay broken. He was healed and rose again.
And even in that, even in that hanging on the cross, beaten and
crucified, He looks at the folks closest to him, the ones
torturing him, the ones putting him to death, and he pronounces
blessing upon them. Forgive them, Father, forgive
them. They don't know what they're
doing. Knowing Jesus changed them for
good, for good. That's what knowing Jesus means.
Now, here's an interesting thing.
I think there are a lot of different variations of tag.
You ever heard of a variation of tag called BLOB tag?
You ever heard a BLOB tag? It's when we played at Camp, I
believe we played it out at Camp Asbury when it was still, you
know, Camp Asbury years and years ago.
I know we played it at Camp Otterbein when it was still Camp
Otterbein back then. And BLOB tags a little
different. Regular tag.
When you're it, you touch someone and they become it.
And now the person that was it is no longer it.
You, you, you've changed them, and you've given all of your
power of it to the person who is the new IT, and you retain none
of that power. BLOB tag is different.
BLOB tag. BLOB tag, when you up and touch
someone, they become it and you stay it too.
The catch is you have to stay touching each other.
You have to hold hands and now you're trying to touch.
As soon as you touch another one, now there's three of you.
You touch another. There's 4:00 and 5:00 and 6:00
and 7:00 until everyone is it. And then it's fun when you get
down to one person trying to avoid the whole BLOB that's out
there trying to touch them and make them it.
The Christian life is like a game of BLOB tag because when
Jesus touches us, he didn't just give his power and then retire.
He says stay with me, stay connected to me.
Stay in touch with me through prayer, through worship, through
scripture reading, through study, through service.
Stay in touch with me. And then when you touch others
in my name, we'll just pass that power.
It's like like electricity, you know that and it's an
electricity is kind of a negative example, but I remember
it's like the things we warn kids about sometimes because you
know, a lot of the stuff I I used to be afraid of as a kid
has never really been AI was terrified of quicksand as a kid.
Never been a problem in my life. Never once have I had to worry
about as a kid. You're really worried about
quicksand. The other thing that I was
worried about as a kid was like there was, you know, if someone
has touched a electrical pole, you know, something that's got
electricity and they're stuck to it, Don't grab them and try to
pull them off. It's good advice.
I've never yet I probably will die without ever encountering
that particular issue. But it's good because if if
they're touching that live electricity, they can get kind
of stuck to that. And if you grab them, you can't
pull them free. Now you're stuck to Jesus is
like that, only in a good way. When when we touch Jesus, his
power flows into us, and as we stay connected with him, we can
pass that power along to others, changing them for good.
And the BLOB just keeps growing and growing and growing.
I think church is a nicer name than BLOB, but you know what I
mean. It just keeps growing.
When we touch others while we're holding on to Jesus, His power
flows through US and Jesus allows us to be a part of
changing others for good. Who's changed you for good?
Christmas time is a good time to stop and reflect.
This would work as a New Year's Eve sermon too.
But will which Christmas Eve? As we think, as you think back,
not over just this past year, but over your life, who are the
folks that have touched you in the name of Jesus and changed
you for good? Now I want you to reflect on
that as we listen to the song. And it was Christmas Eve.
I didn't try to get anyone to sing live for us tonight.
That's a little much to ask someone to be ready to sing on,
on Christmas Eve. Lot of other things going on.
So we're just going to use the recording and, and listen to
that and, and the lyrics you'll play.
And as you're listening to the song and watching those lyrics,
I would invite you to reflect on the people in your life who have
changed you for good. And as those folks come to mind,
OfferUp a prayer of Thanksgiving to God for them and pray a
blessing from God upon them. Let's let's reflect together
here. At this point in the sermon, we
listen to the song for Good from the movie Wicked for Good.
For licensing reasons, I can't include it here, but you can
find it on YouTube and all major music platforms.
It's a beautiful song about how two people can affect each
other's lives and change each other for good.
I hope you'll listen to it. Now back to the sermon.
This is the nature of a life of faith following Jesus.
We would not be here had not had we not known Jesus, had we not
encountered Him, and had he not changed us for good.
And we would not have known Jesus were it not for the people
that knew Him before us that entered into our lives and by
His grace and His power and His mercy changed us for good too.
So let's give thanks to God. Let's give thanks to God for
those who have changed us in Jesus name.
And as we're giving thanks, let us also say a prayer which we
ask for God from God for the grace to be part of changing
others for good each and every day.
What? What a wonderful testimony for
the church when more and more people say because I knew you,
because I knew you, Rock Springs United Methodist Church, because
I knew you, insert your own name there.
I've been changed for good in Jesus name.
Amen. Amen.