Born Into This Mess - With Special Guest Kerry Harlin

Life rarely goes according to plan, and the Christmas story reminds us that Jesus entered a world filled with chaos and danger. King Herod's threat forced Mary and Joseph to flee as refugees with their newborn son. Jesus experienced the full reality of human suffering, fear, and vulnerability. This matters because when we face our darkest moments, we need someone who truly understands our struggles. Faith doesn't remove life's difficulties, but it promises that God will be with us through every mess. Hope lives not in denial of our circumstances, but in the promise that God shows up in the middle of chaos and says we are not alone.

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Transcript

Morning. Can you guys hear me? Glad we're here on the first Sunday after Christmas.

Did everybody have a good Christmas survive? Yes. We were the home team this year. We survived both times, so we're doing good. Okay.

Our scripture today is Matthew 2:13 through 23. I took this through the new international version and it states, when they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. He said, get up. Take the child and the mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child and kill him.

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled. The Lord had said through the prophet out of Egypt, I called my son. When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious and gave orders to kill all of the boys of Bethlehem and in the vicinity who were two years old and under in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled.

A voice in Ramah weeping and giant and holy cow weeping and great mourning. Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they were all gone. After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up. Take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to kill you have died. So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to Israel.

But when he heard that Archelaus reigned in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to Galilee and went and lived in the town of Nazareth. So was fulfilled the prophecy that he would be called a Nazarene.

I don't have to tell you guys, we live in a very messy world, do we not? I mean, with all the things going on today. You know, back when I was younger, we would have never thought of having to deal with some of this stuff. And I'm not that old, but I am older. I've seen this up close.

I've worked in ems, and we never get called when things are good, ever. I've stood in doorways at 2am with families having the worst time of their life. I've seen how fast things can go from normal and great to. To chaotic. Currently, I spend most of the time in my office, but for a few years.

Actually, it says decades here, but I'll go with years. First, there are A few decades in there. I was there. So when we read the Christmas story and you really read it, and you honestly read it and put it to thought, it seems very familiar of times today.

Jesus was born into a mess in a barn, laid down in a little box full of clothes. If you guys know, my wife Chandler would have never been able to be born in a barn or live in a box.

Would have happened. We would have figured something out. Trust me. Actually, I would have had to figure something out. We'll put that in there.

Matthew tells us that almost immediately after Jesus is born, King Herod feels threatened. Right, Because Jesus was supposed to come and do all these great things, and he did, which intimidated Herod. Herod didn't like that. So Herod wanted him killed to take care of the threat. Mary and Joseph were warmed in a dream.

Get up and run. Can you imagine? I mean, now if you had to get up and go, I had to get up and go. And I had to take Chandler and my wife. Sorry, but my dogs would come too.

They didn't have an iPhone back then. How would you deal with that? No iPhone. I gotta go now. I can't grab my phone, my iPad, my laptop, whatever else I have.

That's nuts. I don't know if I'd make it. Maybe this isn't a sweet nativity scene. It's a trauma. This is displacement.

This is fear. Can you imagine just having a baby in a barn, little box, a lot of clothes, and you gotta go because somebody's trying to kill you. Can you imagine what? Well, Jesus probably didn't know how to think, but when he was a bear, can you imagine? I'm just here, now somebody's trying to take me out.

Jesus becomes a refugee before he can even speak.

Sometimes we forget that we like the idea of Jesus coming to fix the mess, but we're less comfortable with the truth. The truth is he was born into a mess and chaos, just like the rest of us. Hebrews puts words to what Matthew shows in this story. I'll go to Hebrews 2. Because He Himself was tested, when he suffered, or by what he suffered, he's able to help those who are being tested.

Jesus didn't stay above the suffering. He didn't observe it from afar. He stepped into it. And then obviously, as you go through his life, he had a rough life. Also tells, you know, Jesus shared his humanity, or in our humanity, in every way, not just the good parts.

The exhaustion, the fear, the vulnerability. He knew what it meant to rely on others. Just like we have to rely on others. Today he knew what it meant to live under a broken system and bad leadership. That matters because when I walk into a chaotic scene, the first thing people want to know is, do you understand what's happening to me and can you help me?

And I don't know. I've been a patient and I've also been on this side of the world. And no matter how many times you do it, we're just as nervous as they are because we kind of know what's going to happen, but we don't. And when you get there, and let me just tell you, sometimes you're dispatched to something that you're like, okay, we'll come in and take care of that and we'll be good. We'll take you to the hospital, take 10 or 20 minutes, and you come in and it is mass pandemonium.

What you were told you were going to wasn't what you get. So you have to be very flexible.

You can't just come in and check boxes. Those people know. And I don't know if whoever had to call an ambulance, you know, you know, as a patient and you know, as the responder, you know, if the confidence isn't there, they know what's that going to do? That's going to make things worse, right? Because anxiety is already high.

And now, oh, great, I got dumb and dumber and now, oh, boy. Thanks. Okay. But Hebrews also says that he was not ashamed to call us brothers. Not ashamed of fear, not ashamed of our weakness, not ashamed of all the mess that we bring with him or bring with us as a father and a husband.

Part of our job as parents is to be loving and nurturing and protecting. Right? And you can't protect them from everything. You guys know Chandler full time job? Yeah.

So Mary and Joseph did everything right, and danger still came. Somebody was trying to knock off their child and he was just born. That's not good. Obedience does not make it easier. Faith.

Those are important words to us as a church, right? Because we live on faith. We plan faith, we hope faith. Can't see it, but we have faith that it's there. Correct?

Faith are important words to the people of the church and all of our followers. Sometimes we act like this is supposed to make life neat and predictable. Doesn't. But Scripture tells us the truth. Faith doesn't remove the mess.

It promises that God will be with us through the mess. Hebrews also says Jesus became human so that he could break the power of fear, especially the fear of death. Not by Pretending death isn't real, but by walking straight through it and coming out on the other side. I've seen fear in every emergency. I've seen how fear shows up in hospitals, in houses, car wrecks, beside the road, overdoses, so on and so forth.

I understand it.

Fear isolates us. Fear convinces us that we're alone. Fear tells us that the moment defines this moment, defines everything. So everything that you fear right then that. That's your moment, right?

Because you're not protected, you're insecure. Nothing's. Nothing's going right.

But Jesus says otherwise. And I bring you to part of my story. On September 9th of 2021, I had a small dot right here on my right hand. The medical nerd that I am. Dah.

I'm fine. Work like that for two weeks, kept getting worse. Finally was forced to go to the hospital. And forced. Yes.

So I drove to osu. They were there. ER was pretty empty. They were close by. Remember?

Still having all the COVID stuff. So luck went in, told him I thought I had a blood clot. That is a cool thing to have happened, man. You tell them you're having a blood clot or you're having chest pain, Boom. I didn't have to wait.

Little dude comes micro wheelchair. We go zipping through. After several tests, they find that the blood clot, yes, although it was here, was one inch from my heart all the way through my right arm down to my fingertips. And the doctor that dealt with me said, if you would not have come today, right now, in approximately two to three hours, you're gonna die. Well, I'd have died at work, so that would have been fun.

Okay, so I bring you to this. Also, I have some relationship advice. So just remember, do not do what I did. We'll get to that. So they run the test.

I need to go into emergency surgery. I am by myself in uniform, trying to get this over with. I got things to do at work. We got things to do. Let's go.

Kristin had taken Chandler to the doctor because we thought he had Covid. So we were all separated. They rushed me in. You're having emergency surgery. Cool.

Give you a minute to call your wife, let her know what's going on. I didn't have the heart to make that phone call. And here's where the advice comes in. The only thing you get from this message today is do not do what I did. I'll tell you.

So I'm in the little room, take all my clothes. I'm in a little gown, you know, Everybody knows my business now. They wheel me in this little room, and I have an attendant, they hand me my phone. I could not make the phone call. I had been told that I was almost gonna die, possibly wasn't gonna make it.

And you got a couple minutes to call your wife. Cool. So I did what every normal male does. I texted her, bad idea. Bad idea.

Going into emergency surgery. Have blood clots from here down my arm. Don't know if I'm gonna make it. I love you very much. See you if I make it.

Oh, let me tell you. Did not know that was a problem. That's coming later. Of all the problems that I get. So as I'm in this little room, the doctor comes in, and they're going to do interventional radiology.

They're going to go in, come up through my heart, do this whole thing, and just take blood clots out. He tells me. He tells me this. If you survive. Remember those words?

If you survive, we're going to have to do this for several days, okay? So they zip me into the room. I'm laying on the bed because of COVID there's no ventilator to put me out. So they do this cool little engineering thing and give me oxygen, give me a whole bunch of drugs. Never give me morphine.

By the way, I apparently have an alter ego, or more than one. My wife. Whoo. Let me tell you about my stories at OSU while we're going. My stories are cool and funny.

Her stories are the truth. We have a totally different view on what happened at osu. So I go into surgery not knowing if I'm coming out. So while I'm in the room, that is the fear. Fear hit me.

Not scared of very many things, but that was it. Because here we go. If you survive. Now imagine that I've got a child, two children. Got a wife.

By myself in a room, in a gown. I was a little worried. So as I'm thinking, what? Wow, man, I could have done a lot better in life. I could have been a better husband.

I could have been a better person. I could have been a better boss. Everything comes, just smashing through. And then I had an overwhelming calmness. And for some reason, God be with me.

I recited the Lord's prayer.

Going in there. That's how it is. I don't know if I'm gonna wake up. Don't know. Take it to my wife.

I love her. I'm good. Great husband. Told my wife I love her. So six hours later, they wheel me up to the room.

I survived the first round. They tell me, hey, 6:00am tomorrow morning, you're going back, buddy. Five days later, we were done taking blood clots out of carry for the first round. We've done it twice, let me tell you.

I was hammered. They'd give me enough drugs. I've seen all sorts of funny things. There was this lady standing by my bed. She's a little mad.

I couldn't understand why she's mad. Why are you mad? You literally gonna text me that you might die and you love me? Yeah. Don't do that.

Don't. If this is, this is the key. Don't do that. Make the phone call. Yes.

So after. After many weeks. You see the nice windows on the south side of osu? Those are my windows, by the way. We did it.

So of all of my problems that I've had over the years, faith and fear. When I was born in 1971, I was supposed to not make it through the night. I lived in a little sunbeam roaster. They flipped me over, back and forth in Chelsea Naval Hospital in Massachusetts. Still here today after 54 years.

Although my guardian angels, they're in therapy, they. Yeah, they. They probably need all the help they can get. So all that to say this.

Jesus was born into a mess. Jesus shows us that God does not abandon the world when it's broken. God doesn't wait for things to calm down. God shows up in the middle of the chaos and says, you are not alone. I can attest to that.

That's where hope lives. Not in denial, but in the moment.

So as United Methodists, we talk about grace that goes before us, walks with us, stays with us. Right? Prevening grace, all three.

That's the grace. Grace that shows up in Egypt. Grace that shows up with grieving patience. Grace that walks into a mess and refuses to leave. So today, whatever mess you're carrying, personal, family, health related fear, here's the good news.

Jesus was born into this mess. He understands it. He stands with you through it. And he will not let the mess have the final word. Thanks be to God.

Thank you.