Christmas is coming pretty quickly; too quickly for me. Most of us get bogged down with the shopping and trying to make sure everyone gets at least a little of what they want. We try to balance out our gift giving with our budget (But that usually doesn’t work out too well). We need to get the house in order, decorations up, buy extra food, and prepare to visit all our relatives. Schedules are tough to work out and you always feel like you are short changing someone.
We worry, we fret and we make our lists and check them twice. We usually feel naughty, not nice. And in all this, it’s tough to remember why we have Christmas in the first place. Oh sure, somewhere in the back of our minds we remember something about Jesus and His birth, but that is not the dominating thought this time of year. We only have 13 shopping days until that day.
We are in the midst of a Christian season we call advent. This is a time of anticipation. Not anticipation of buying and receiving presents or of getting together with friends and family we may not have seen since last Christmas. It’s a time of anticipating the coming of Christ. Christmas is a celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, knowing all that he did for us while he was here on earth. But, this time leading up to Christmas is also a time to anticipate and celebrate the second coming of Christ.
There are a number of times in the Bible where Jesus tells us that He will be back. The next time He comes back will be a time of great joy for some of us and a time of great heartache for others of us. Jesus came the first time to tell and show us how we should live our lives. The next time he will be checking His list to see how we’ve done, but He will only have to check it one time.
So, I look at Christmas as one of those times when we need to take a look at where we are, how well we have done and what we need to change. It’s a time to re-evaluate our faith and belief in God. Christmas is a reminder of what is yet to happen.
If this were your last Christmas here on earth, what would be important for you to be remembered for?
A huge pile of presents under the tree so everyone would remember you?The greatest meal you ever prepared so people would talk about your food for years to come?The biggest party ever?That special gift that someone has wanted for many years?Taking a trip that you and your family have talked about for years?What would be important to you?We place so much importance on what we do for Christmas and seem to forget all the things that the birth of Christ did for us. And we truly forget that He will be coming again. That never seems to fit our thoughts at Christmas time.
Jesus was born to show us the way. He preached about love and honor and truth. It’s hard to find those things at Christmas time. Too many people are busy trying to shop for those perfect gifts and become irritable and pushy in the shopping malls. Watch out when those huge sales happen. You could literally be taking your life in your hands when you try to join in the merriment.
And look at all the ads telling us of the wonders of this product or that one. How much truth is there in those words. How many times have you been disappointed in the gift you thought would say it all, only to find out it didn’t quite do everything the TV said it would?
Christmas usually becomes the most stressful time of the year. We feel we are under so much pressure. Confusion and disappointment are everywhere. Nothing seems to work out quite right. And it’s all because we lose sight of what this time of year is really all about.
To add fuel to the fire, it seems everywhere we turn we hear about people who are trying to take Christ out of Christmas and everything else around us. We have to be careful about praying because it might offend someone else. We must watch that we don’t say God in the wrong places. We can’t have the 10 Commandments displayed. We can’t even sing Christmas Carols in certain schools and public places. The Salvation Army can’t even stand quietly on some corners, ringing their bell and collecting a few coins to help the needy. And don’t try to put up a manger scene anywhere. You know you will get in trouble. Pretty soon stars will be banned from the sky at Christmas time because one may shine too brightly and remind us of what Christmas was about and how it started.
So, it’s no wonder we get caught up in the rat race of Christmas and the buying and chaos at the stores and the feeling of exhaustion and the stress of the season. Christ is nowhere to be found. There is little comfort, little love and certainly no peace in trying to create a perfect Christmas.
How many times in the past week have you praised God? How many times in the past week have you thought about Jesus? How many times in the past week have you felt joyous? How many times in the past week have you felt uplifted and happy?
Young people sometimes show us older folk some of the simplest truths. Last week I asked Katie and Danny if they liked any of the music we play here on a Saturday evening. They both got that funny look and very quietly said “not really.” Then Laurie brought in a CD by the Newsboys and played a song or two for them after the service. They told me they liked the one track and were dancing to it.
I took a look at the song they liked and thought about how great this song was for Christmas. It has a lively beat, but the words were just what we need this time of year to remind us of what we should be looking for all year ‘round.
Let’s listen to this unusual Christmas song. I would invite Danny and Katie to dance and anyone else that wants to join them. This is a time to be joyous and celebrate.
Take My Hands (Praises)
Newsboys
Take my hands, take my feet,
Take the music to the street.
Hear the prayers, feel the sound,
A generation Kingdom bound.
Great and glorious, is my Savior.
Praises on my tongue, from my heart,
For our God who became flesh.
For us all, unto You,
I will sing your praises, sing forever.
Take my will, take my all,
Wrap my life around Your call.
Set apart to sing Your praise,
To live the difference in these days.
Great and glorious is our Savior.
Praises on my tongue, from my heart,
For our God who became flesh.
For us all, unto You,
I will sing your praises, sing forever.
Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing,
To sing aloud, sing aloud.
Oh, for the glory of my God and King,
Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing.
Praises on my tongue, from my heart,
For our God who became flesh.
For us all, unto You,
I will sing Your praises, sing forever.
(Repeat 3 times)One of the lines in the song says “For our God who became flesh”. That is the truth about Christmas and the birth of Christ. This was God, becoming just like you and me, subject to all the things that we go through in our lives. We have all seen television shows that have pictures of the poorer people in the Middle East. Often there are children sitting in dirt, looking hungry. They tug at our hearts and we want to run to wherever that is and help the kids. They remind me a little of what it must have been like when Christ was born.
Most Bible scholars agree that Christ was born into a family that didn’t have much money. Joseph was a carpenter and was probably a little better off than a slave, but certainly not rich. Joseph and Mary had to make a journey into Bethlehem to prove their citizenship. They traveled on a single donkey. The journey was pretty long and Mary was very pregnant. We all know the story about how there was no room for them at the inn and that they had to stay in a barn. That may have been in December.
(One of the congregation asked at this time about whether the birth took place in December or not.
He had heard that Christ was born in June or July. We discussed this for a moment, deciding that
it really was not important. It could have been December or any other month. It was just the time of
the year that we picked to celebrate the birth of Christ. That was all that was important.)
Our boys, Mike and Josh are over in that same area right now. They tell us how it is rather pleasant during the day, but at night it gets real cold. There’s a 30 or 40-degree swing in temperature. Josh told me the other day that they actually had frost the one night. Temperatures are in the low 30’s at night. Quite a change from the 130-degree days they had not too long ago. He said it was taking some time to get used to it.
So here’s Mary and Joseph hanging out in a barn, waiting to fill out some legal form or another and Mary goes and has the baby Jesus. We’ve all seen the pictures of what the manger scene must have looked like, all warm and cozy and bright and beautiful, but I don’t think that is what it was actually like. Remember, this was a barn. It was probably smelly from all the animals. It would have been very cold at night and there was no way you could have built a fire for warmth. It would not have been very clean and certainly not bright. The best they could have done to keep the baby warm was to stuff straw around him and hope it was enough insulation so that he would survive the harsh winter nights in the desert.
I can imagine the poor baby Jesus crying through the night, shivering, feeling hungry and cold. I can imagine Mary and Joseph doing what they could to keep the baby warm and protect him from the wind that must have swept through the loose fitting boards of the barn. Remember, this was God made flesh. He felt the cold, he felt the hunger and he felt the wind.
Then there was the long journey home. Joseph probably walked with Mary riding the donkey holding the baby. They walked through the mild afternoons and in to the cold, cold evenings. There were no 7-11’s to stop at. There were no Holiday Inns. There were no restaurants. Mary and the baby didn’t have a couple of days to rest in a hospital and recover from the birth. They had to move on. Many babies died in those days, but our Lord survived and went on to do many, many things so that we could have all the things we have today.
Jesus was born as poor and lowly as any of our children or us have ever been. But He survived and became a great leader and teacher of life and love. All He asks is that we try to do what He did. We will never be as good as Christ, but He asks us to try. He asks us to live and strive to be as holy as we can. And if we try to the best of our abilities, then He will come again and reward us greatly.
That is what we celebrate this time of year. And that is what we anticipate. The next time He is coming.
And all we have to do is surrender and let Him be the guide in our lives. Let Him show us the way. All we have to do is say “OK, I’ll try it your way, because my way just doesn’t seem to be working.” Stop fighting and just say yes and your life will turn around.
