This week I have been traveling again. We got stuck for an extra two days in one of our layover locations because the military travel COVID test policy was updated when we were in mid-flight… But instead of getting upset, I reminded myself that there are no coincidences and took advantage of the situation.
We had a local Chaplain and his assistant come pick us up and we got a tour of a local town and got to eat at an amazing Middle Eastern Restaurant.
I love going new places and experiencing things like this, so it was a great way to spend a layover. I also had a chance to catch up with an old roommate from my training location back in the U.S. before we deployed together. I’m sure that is one of the reasons I was delayed here.
Also, because of these circumstances I was up in the middle of the night when the live stream event of “Christmas With The Chosen” first aired on YouTube, so I watched it live. I’m sure it was a sight to see a grown Soldier in uniform trying to hide the fact that he was crying in a military airport while looking at his phone at 4 a.m.! But it was beautiful, and I hope you all get to see it: "Christmas With The Chosen: The Messengers" - YouTube
Today we had a fireside with the local Stake Presidency on Zoom. We have been working together to connect with all the local Service Member Groups of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in three different countries. We had a few Service Members pre-record Christmas Hymns, and I gave a message that I’ve been preparing for the last couple of weeks. I definitely felt divinely inspired to write and give this message. It is included below if you are interested in reading it.
Christmas Sermon 2021
I am grateful to President Willden who recommended this fireside and helped coordinate this so that we can connect together as we are far away from home. I hope we can get a sense of how many of us are united together in this deployed environment as we connect our Groups of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints here in this format. I am grateful for the technology that makes this possible.
Several of us had the opportunity last week to attend a Christmas Party in the local Ward and it felt great to celebrate this Season with other families. I think that feeling of connection is very important for all of us right now, which is one of the reasons why we are doing this today.
I don’t know about all of you, but this is my first deployment. I have spoken with many of you who are in their first deployment as well, and some of you have been through several. Besides my two years as a missionary in Brazil, this is my first time away from my family for the holidays. Although those two Christmases in Brazil were some of my most memorable, this feels different. I now have a beloved wife and four children at home who are going through all the holiday traditions without me.
I sometimes catch myself wishing I could be there with them during this time, making gingerbread houses, singing Christmas Carols, doing acts of service, watching Christmas movies, going to play in the snow, reading the story of the Nativity from the Scriptures on Christmas Eve while we all act it out, opening presents on Christmas morning and seeing the excitement on their faces, playing with them and the new toys they received throughout the following days, playing games together as a family etc. I feel a longing for family connection during this time, and yes, it feels like I am sacrificing my time with them to be here.
I have been reflecting on this word often lately: “Sacrifice.” Joseph Smith was often quoted to say, “Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven.” The Lord said, “Behold, now it is called today until the coming of the Son of Man, and verily it is a day of sacrifice.” The word sacrifice comes from the Latin words sacer, which means “sacred,” and facere, which means “to make” – in other words, to make things sacred, to bring honor to them. This suggests that that which we sacrifice for becomes sacred to us.
We must remember that sacrifice is much more meaningful when we remember what we are giving to the Lord, instead of reflecting on what we are giving up. I believe we are all making sacrifices to the Lord to serve our Country, to protect the cause of freedom, and the principles we hold dear that were ordained by God.
When I reflect on the meaning of Christmas and the Nativity, I think of all those who sacrificed much for that wonderous event that changed the course of human history; in an austere place that we are all now much closer to than most of us will ever be during our entire lives.
I think of the young teenage virgin Mary who, having become pregnant before she was legally married to her betrothed Joseph, sacrificed her reputation of virtue in her community and among her family so that she could be “The handmaid of The Lord” and be subject to His will. She sacrificed time from her family and community to be with her cousin Elizabeth through much of her pregnancy. I remember how uncomfortable my wife sounded on the 45-minute car ride to the hospital in the middle of the night as her contractions started in preparation for the birth of our first child. I can only imagine the sacrifices Mary made to ride for days on a donkey to give birth in a dirty stable with no hospital, no physician, no midwife, no family other than the comfort of her husband, Joseph, and a promise from The Lord through the Angel Gabriel.
I think of the sacrifices of Joseph, who trusted in the promise of the Angel and took Mary to wife despite knowing she was pregnant before they were married. They must have had a secret wedding so as not to call attention to the matter. He sacrificed to bring his beloved Mary on a five-day journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, no doubt worried about her condition, frustrated about the lack of room in the inn, and trying to do his best to care for his wife in her moment of labor and pain. As a carpenter, I doubt he had much training in delivering a child, yet he sacrificed for his wife and for that Child to be brought into the world. I can empathize with Joseph’s sacrifices a little more now knowing what it feels like to try and care for my family, despite feeling completely helpless or powerless to do so and simply trusting in the Lord to help me fulfill that divine responsibility.
I think of the Shepherds who sacrificed time with their flock to “go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And… came with haste… [and then] they made it known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.” If you know anything about ancient shepherds in this area of the world at that time, leaving their flock was indeed a great sacrifice for they loved their sheep and cared for them, often at the risk of their own lives.
I think of the Wise Men from the east who somehow were familiar with the prophecies of the King of the Jews who was to be born and that a new star would appear at his birth. They sacrificed to make what appears to be a two-year journey to seek this Child. They sacrificed gifts of great worth: gold, frankincense, and myrrh, all of which were gifts fit for a king. And if they were well enough off to afford gifts like these and be referred to as “wise men,” they must have also been sacrificing the comforts of home to make such a perilous journey through the desert we are now living in.
I think of Simeon, a “man [who] was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel.” We are not told how long he had to wait, but he apparently sacrificed much of his time in prayer and pondering to receive the revelation that he would see the Lord’s Christ before he should die, and came by that same Spirit to the temple to await the coming of the Holy One of Israel. He was filled with the Spirit as he prophesied in the temple that day and blessed Mary and Joseph.
I think of Anna who was there that day with Simeon and was a widow for 84 years and sacrificed all her time to be at that temple to “serve God with fastings and prayers night and day.” She would have been forgotten completely in history, but because of her sacrifices for decades, she has been preserved in history as a “prophetess…and gave thanks likewise to the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.” She lived to testify of the Messiah and invite all there that day to look unto Him for hope and salvation. I hope I can do my part to do the same as her.
I am sure there are others who are not preserved in the scriptural account who also made sacrifices for the coming of our Lord into the world.
But above all, I think of Him who made the sacrifice to condescend from his place at the right hand of the Father, the Creator “who laid the foundation of the earth, who made the heavens and all the hosts thereof, and by whom all things were made which live, and move, and have a being,” , the Firstborn of the Father in the Spirit, and the One who volunteered before the heavenly hosts to be our Savior. The One in whom we trusted in order to choose the Father’s plan and come to this earth knowing He would come here to join us too. The One who would live a sinless life and be sacrificed as the Lamb of God to atone for all of God’s children and bring us back with Him to the Father if we would simply look to Him and choose Him.
I think of His sacrifices he came here to experience in which he suffered “pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind [that he may] take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. And… take upon him death that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and… take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know how to succor his people according to their infirmities… [He] suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance.”
I think of His sacrifice that he described in His own words: “For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all, that they might not suffer if they would repent. But if they would not repent they must suffer even as I; which suffering caused myself, even God, the greatest of all, to tremble because of pain, and to bleed at every pore, and to suffer both body and spirit – and would that I might not drink the bitter cup, and shrink – Nevertheless, glory be to the Father, and I partook and finished my preparations unto the children of men.”
I think of the sacrifice that a perfect and exalted Father made to send His Only Begotten Son in the flesh into this fallen world, in the humblest of circumstances that surely was not deserving of the King of Kings but was a part of the plan according to His condescension. And why would He do this? Because “God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.”
Love. That is the reason and purpose behind all of these sacrifices. God loves us, Jesus loves us, every person in the story of the Nativity did what they did out of love. So, as I ponder on the small sacrifices I am making here in this deployed environment, I am honored to make them for my family whom I love, for my Country which I love, for all of you whom I love, for the principles of freedom which I love, and above all, for the God and Savior whom I love. These things and the people I am sacrificing for are even more sacred to me now.
I invite each of us to reflect on our sacrifices and give them to God in love, instead of focusing on what we are giving up, especially during this Christmas Season, so that our sacrifices may become more sacred to us all. May the love of God and the love of Christ fill our hearts this time of year, and always; and I hope we continue to share that love with others. I testify that Christ lived, and died, and lived again for all of us, that He still lives today and leads this Church, that He is ever with us in our “afflictions of every kind,” and that He is waiting with open arms to welcome us back into His presence as we follow His covenant path. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
