Episode 1. Mediocrity Begets Mediocrity
The world has so much mediocrity to offer us. And when it comes our way – it’s easy to become part of a culture of mediocrity. And in the middle of all that – how easy it is to forget that …
We live in a world where increasingly mediocrity is the norm. Now that’s not to say that some people don’t work hard, of course they do. And it’s not to say that some people don’t achieve extraordinary things, of course they do. Some are brilliant. Some are bad. But have you noticed, the more choices we have the more complex our life becomes? And the more complex our life becomes, the more detached we become from one another.
I was in a hardware store recently buying some grout for the tiles in our bathroom, just a few dollars. And when I went to the checkout there was a young lady there to serve me. Now I use that term ‘serve’ very loosely. But the young woman at the next checkout she had no-one to serve so she was over here talking with this young lady.
And the whole time I was paying for my purchase these two just chatted away. I think they were a little shocked when I pulled them up because what was happening was that the customer was being treated like, like an interruption to their social life instead of as a customer whose patronage is what pays for their wages.
The more sophisticated our world becomes, the more entertainment options and purchasing options we have, the more detached we become. Not just in the affluent west but in societies where traditionally people have been much closer.
And we’re not just the ones on the receiving end of this mediocrity either. The great temptation is to become part of this culture of mediocrity. To be more concerned about fulfilling our own desires and our own needs and less focused on caring for and loving other people.
I mean, sadly Churches are full of mediocrity. Had an email from a man recently who’d been through some terrible tragedies in his life. As a young boy his parents and sisters had been killed in a car accident. He moved from one foster home to the next and when he grew up he finally got married and his wife and children were out one day and they were killed by a drunk driver.
I mean, can you imagine the pain and the anguish and the misery. The man lost his family twice. And so he ended up, for a time, in a mental health unit. And from there he went to one Church and then another and another and each time he was rejected because of where he lived, to the point where he now even struggles to believe that there is a God.
Come on, let’s examine our own lives. It so easy for us to be annoyed by the mediocrity that others dish up to us and yet it’s so easy for us to dish it up to others as well. See mediocrity begets mediocrity. It’s no more true than the lead up in Christmas, rushing around doing last minute things.
Down here in the southern hemisphere we’re getting ready not only for Christmas, presents and food and all those preparations for goodness knows what. But most of us will be heading off on our summer break. A few well earned weeks of sun, surf and sand. So these next couple of weeks, they’re a frenetic time. You rush around. Maybe in the northern hemisphere it’s not quite as mad but almost. It’s Christmas time after all – presents to buy, family get togethers to organise, lots to do.
So we go down the shops and there are crowds and they’re pushing and shoving and the sales assistant behind the counter, well they’re exhausted. I mean some of them have been working literally around the clock with stores open 24 x 7 in so many places.
So by the time Christmas arrives we kind of just fall over the line. ‘I’ve only just made it. I’m exhausted’. Too tired to think about Christmas; too exhausted to celebrate what Christmas is all about. Anyhow it’s all about spending money on our credit cards, money that most of us don’t have. If you’re living in a country similar to mine you know exactly what I’m talking about.
Mediocrity begets mediocrity. And so the whole idea of Christmas is so easily lost isn’t it? So what if I said to you that Christmas is about receiving the best of the best? The very best that God has to offer. Now it sounds like a great idea but it just doesn’t gel does it?
What if I said to you that Christmas is about a love so great that nothing is too much to give? Sounds wonderful in theory and maybe you’re even someone who believes that that’s what Christmas is all about. Let me ask you this, is that what you’re experience of Christmas actually is? Is that the sort of Christmas that you’ve lived out year after year in the past? Because the answer for 99% of people is, ‘no it’s not’.
And perhaps you’re someone who’s living in a place without the wealth that I’ve been talking about. You’re probably sitting there wondering, ‘man, how can these people live like that?’ Cause there are millions of people listening to this program today who are living in poverty, in war zones afraid of their lives, people who may even be persecuted for believing in Jesus. And you hear some guy from Australia talking about receiving the best of the best from God at Christmas time, a love so great that words can’t describe it. And you look around and you think to yourself, ‘What is he talking about?’
Well what I’m talking about is this. It comes straight from God’s Word, the Bible, and it tells us what Christmas is all about. It comes from 1 John, chapter 4 beginning at verse 9. Have a listen to this, it’s fabulous:
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
There it is! That is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is God telling us something but what’s He telling? Have another listen. It’s really straight forward.
“God’s love was revealed among us in this way that God sent His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.”
See Christmas … Christmas is God telling us how much He loves us. Gods love was revealed among us in this way. And He tells us of this infinite love that He has for us by what? By mere words? By giving me a tie or you a bottle of perfume all wrapped up nice under the tree? No, He tells us about His love in this way, by sending “His only Son into the world so that we might live through Him.” He tells us of His infinite love by giving us something or someone of infinite value; a gift so great that you can’t put a price on it – His one and only Son.
Now over these next few weeks heading up to Christmas we’re going to spend some time together, some time out from all the madness and carry on that we carry on with, unwrapping this Christmas present of great value. Because the problem with Christmas presents is this. Someone can give you a present but if you just leave it under the tree, if you never unwrap it, what use is it? It’s useless. It just gets thrown out. We need to open the present in order to receive it and the very first Christmas present, God’s one and only Son, is no different.
Because when we unwrap this present, the only Son that He sent into this world, we discover that we can live through Him; that we can have a new life through Jesus Christ.
See this whole Christmas thing has got nothing to do with religion. It’s got nothing to do with rituals. There were no rituals in that stable on that starry, starry night. There was just a baby. Just this baby born into the world who came to save me and came to save you.
And so I’ve called this series “Receiving The Best Of The Best”. It’s about Gods best. There is no better ‘best’ than this one. And my prayer is that as we share together some of the stories of this miraculous coming of God in the flesh, it would be kind of like, like unwrapping that present in our hearts.
And my prayer for you and for each one of us is that in doing that together we’ll be receiving the best of the best. God’s best – Gods one and only Son whom He sent into this world so that we might live through Him.
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