OK, here we go.
Wait! One sec.
OK! OK, here we go!
Yeah, this is, this is it!
This is, this is wrong. This is. No! Wait. Wrong! Wrong.
OK, I'm feeling it, I'm feeling it.
I think, I think we're getting close. I think we're getting close. This is ...
this is ...
It's still not right!
One sec!
OK ...
now it's Christmas!
Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents.
Merry Christmas!
So I—in my head, I've got all of these Christmas songs
(high pitched singing) "Christmas time is here. Something else and something—"
from Peanuts, Charlie Brown Christmas. Awesome. One of the highlight moments of the entire,
all the Christmas movies, is when Linus comes out and he starts reciting from Luke's Gospel
about the real meaning of Christmas. Awesome. Perfect. Great.
My number one least favorite Christmas song of all time is
(gruff singing) "I want to buy these shoes for my mama please.
It's Christmas Eve and these shoes are just her size."
When the children come in at the end,
(high opera singing) "I want to buy these shoes for my mama," oh my gosh,
Gets me, gets me choked up.
I don't like being choked up for ridiculous Christmas songs.
Next ridiculous Christmas song:
(80's ballad singing) "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart and the very next day you gave it—" OK!
George Michael, what makes that a Christmas song?
The only thing that makes that a Christmas song
is the first words of the song are "Last Christmas, I gave you my heart."
The entire rest of the song's not about Christmas at all!
Little Drummer Boy: Here, come, they told me pa rum pa pa pum, right? I get it.
He comes with a drum
to the baby's, their baby's sleeping,
so what do I do?
I start
playing the drums.
Yep. No!
Joseph is like getting up,
he's gonna chase you out of the cave manger area,
boy,
'cuz you don't play drums for a little baby!
You don't do that.
I don't think, I don't think that LULLS any babies to sleep.
Actually I really like that Christmas song.
Some of these, I actually kind of do like a little bit.
Little Drummer Boy, I like this song because what does he say, "I played my best for him."
Actually, that'll, that totally gets me choked up,
like when he's like, "I played my best for him," and there's something about that,
something about like, "Yeah, I'm gonna play my best, I'm gonna give my best to the Lord."
That's really good, because the Lord deserves our best, of course,
that we want to come before the Lord.
That's why I got dressed up for you guys.
I want to give you my best.
The hat,
the best!
We want to give God our best,
but there's something about Christmas that reminds us
that where did Jesus come? He didn't come to the BEST.
He didn't come to the best palace, he didn't come to the best place to be born.
He didn't go to the best place to be laid in, when he was born.
A manger is not the best place.
He came to the worst.
And there's something about, when we approach the Lord, that we want to give him our best,
of course we do. Of course we do.
I want to play my best for him. Of course, you do. That's awesome, that's so great.
But I'm gonna invite you to do this new thing this Christmas.
This Christmas, don't just give God your best,
I invite you: give God your worst.
Because what did Jesus come to do?
Yeah, he came to redeem our best and make it even better,
but he also came to take our worst
and set us free.
So if you think that you're ... the fact that you have a worst
disqualifies you from celebrating Christmas for real—
like if you have real pain in your life, if you have real abandonment in your life, if you feel real sin in your life,
if you have real brokenness and woundedness in your life
that actually makes you MORE qualified to celebrate Christmas than someone who doesn't.
Because why? Because the Lord, yes he takes our best, he desires our best
but he also desires your worst.
So I invite you this Christmas, play your best for him,
let him have it, give it to him, offer it up to him,
but also give him your worst.
Play your worst for him.
Give him even the things of your life that you are not proud of,
that you're actually are ashamed of, maybe
because if we do that, then we give them our lives, we give him our all
and then everything is able to be redeemed.
This is, this is the message of Christianity.
God doesn't just want your best,
he also wants your worst
because he can change that too.
It's awesome.
So, from all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Father Mike.
God bless and Merry Christmas.
(deep belly laugh) Ho ho ho! Ho ho ho!
(grumpy deep voice) Ho! Ho! Hoooo! What's that from?
Christmas Story, that's right!
You're right, Christmas Story, that's right.