Sunday, December 18, 2016

Not Just Another Christmas

Merry Christmas and Welcome!  Today we will have something a little bit unusual (at least for Clemson Community Church).  We’re going to have a message which is not part of an ongoing series.  It’s not that this has never happened before, but I would say that it only occurs a couple of times a year at the most.

Today’s title for the message is “Not Just Another Christmas.”  On Thursday, Carl and I were joking around a little bit about how slight changes by omitting a word or varying your inflection when reading the title significantly changes its meaning.


For example, you could take out the word “just” and say instead “Not another Christmas.”  Maybe that causes us to think about there being no more Christmases.  That might be sad to think about.  However, another way to think about it would be that Jesus’ return (as mentioned in Acts chapter 1) would maybe not “end” Christmas but it would certainly transform it.  The Christmas season is often called Advent season in the church.  Advent is a reference to Jesus coming to earth.  Jesus’ return is called the Second Advent. When He returns, He is going to take all believers to be His own.  No more suffering, no more pain.  That would be a good thing, right?

Again without the word “just,” you could read the title with different inflection and make it seem more like, “Oh no, not again!”  Not another Christmas.  They just keep coming.  All the shopping and decorating and social gatherings and activities and, and, and …

What if we take out the word “not” and then say the title like Eey-ore.  Just another Christmas.  Here we go again.  Same old thing, one more time.  Déjà vu, all over again.  Have you ever felt like that?

What if we take the title as it is written, “Not Just Another Christmas.”  I mean to say let’s not let this Christmas be simply one more Christmas in a monotonous sense.  Every time we think about Jesus coming to save us, beginning with that first night, it is a wonderful and beautiful thing to consider and behold whether it be in December or July.

Let’s pray and thank God for our opportunity to reflect once more with joy at what He has done for us:

Lord Jesus, thank You that You came to save us.  Thank You for being willing to be born in a barn and laid in a feeding trough.  Thank You for giving up the glory of heaven to come and demonstrate Your great love. I pray that our hearts will always be filled with wonder when we reflect on Christmas.  Please make this Christmas not simply another Christmas, but part of the everlasting song of praise and glory to You for ever and ever.  Amen.

I want to take a moment and look at the history of Christmas.  And, in keeping with our modern culture, I turned to google and searched for the history of Christmas.  The first link led to history.com.  I was surprised to find very little in the way of history on their page, but I did find a definition which seems a reasonable cultural definition: “Christmas is a Christian holiday honoring the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas evolved over two millennia into a worldwide religious and secular celebration, incorporating many pre-Christian, pagan traditions into the festivities along the way. Today, Christmas is a time for family and friends to get together and exchange gifts.”

This is more or less what most folks (and maybe a lot of people who would call themselves Christian) think about when they think about Christmas.  Christmas has become a worldwide retail juggernaut.  Cultures which are not historically Christian are beginning to bring in aspects of western Christmas celebrations.  In fact, this week, I got an email Christmas card from a Japanese supplier.  It had a picture of a Buddha statue in front of a multi-storied pagoda with a clip art Santa hat on the statue and clip art ornaments hanging on the edges of the roof going up each level of the pagoda.

Christmas has become, to some, a phenomenon that has little to do with Christ.  For many people, Christmas is predominantly a time to hang out together and exchange presents.

In order to get some actual history about I had to move beyond history.com.  The name Christmas is a contraction of Christ’s Mass.   Mass is the Latin reference to the celebration of the Lord’s Supper.  That name has been in used since at least 1000 AD.  Modern style guides and many Christians today look down on writing the abbreviation X-mas.  However, X-mas is not a modern abbreviation but an ancient one taking its basis from the Greek where Christ is translated Christos.  Christos starts with the letter chi which looks like our letter X.

Christmas was not observed as a separate celebration in the first or second century church.  The earliest known Christian festivals were attempts to celebrate Jewish holidays, particularly the Passover which would coincide with our Easter celebration.  That Passover/Easter celebration often combined thanks and worship focused on all aspects of Jesus’ earthly life from Incarnation to Resurrection.

The date we observe for Christmas is also not the confirmed birth date of Jesus.  Around AD 200, Clement of Alexandria wrote:  “There are those who have determined not only the year of our Lord's birth, but also the day; and they say that it took place in the 28th year of Augustus, and in the 25th day of [the Egyptian month] Pachon [which would be May 20th] … Further, others say that He was born on the 24th or 25th of Pharmuthi [which would be April 20th or 21st].”

The ancient church fathers also posited April 18 or 19, March 25, January 2, November 17, November 20 as well as December 25.  And, I know I’ve read of a September date at some point.  (As my birthday falls in September, it had a hook in my mind.)  In short, we don’t really know which night of the year Jesus was born.

As to why December 25th is celebrated, Augustine wrote around 400 AD, "Hence it is that He was born on the day which is the shortest in our earthly reckoning and from which subsequent days begin to increase in length. He, therefore, who bent low and lifted us up chose the shortest day, yet the one whence light begins to increase."  In the Roman calendar, the winter solstice was on December 25th.   Celebrating Jesus birth at the time of the shortest day does have a symbolic meaning as the birthday of Jesus.  Jesus is the light of the world.  He has come to bring light and life to all mankind (John 1:4).

The separate celebration of Jesus’ birth on December 25th began in the sometime in the fourth century (AD 300s).  So Christians have been celebrating Christmas for 1700 years!  Isn’t that amazing?  That gives yet another feeling to our title, “Just Another Christmas.”

Over the centuries, different traditions have come and gone.  The reasons behind some of the things we do are not so well understood.  The use of evergreen showing everlasting life in Jesus.  The color red represents the blood of Christ which was shed for the forgiveness of our sins.  Gold was among the gifts that the wise men brought to Jesus.  White represents the purity and holiness of Christ.  Some other traditions have also been “adopted” into the celebration of Christmas.

Through these consistent symbols and images, as well as the familiar music and words, maybe Christmas can begin to seem a little repetitive.  For those who have Christmas decorations, don’t we just get the same ornaments and things out and put them up in a way which is quite similar to the way we’ve done in years before?  Some may choose to have a live Christmas tree which has to be new each year, but anymore, artificial Christmas trees have become the norm.

And yet, our kids get so excited about decorating each year.  They look forward to it and relish all those “old things” which have been around for years.  There is an excitement and wonder that accompanies these preparations.  It’s like preparing for the biggest party of the year.

There is nothing wrong with decorating.  As you can see, we have plenty of decorations here around the church.  And yet, if we focus Christmas to any one aspect whether it be decorating or music or gift giving, it would be missing the best part.  It would be like getting a gift and then not opening it: “Let’s just keep it here under the tree.  Isn’t it pretty to look at?”  Would any of us do that?  I don’t think so.  We are going to open our gift.

And so, what makes this Christmas or any other Christmas, not just another Christmas?  I think it has to be the choice to open the gift of Jesus freshly and receive and enjoy that gift for what Jesus intended it to be.

My sister sent me a text the other night.  She asked me if I knew someone that we went to high school with.  Over the next several minutes, we had a text conversation.  She sent me a couple of pictures.  She gave me some explanation.  Even though my sister doesn’t live in our hometown anymore, it turns out that my niece and nephew go to elementary school with the kids of a couple who went to my high school and apparently remembered me.  My graduating class was 450 people, so it was possible to not know someone especially if you didn’t have common interests or activities.  When I couldn’t ever figure it out, my sister asked if I had my senior yearbook.  I had no idea.  A yearbook is not something you pull down off the shelf to look at with any frequency.  The general statistics on Bible use are pretty low, but I would imagine yearbooks get less use than the Bible.  Turns out, yes, I do have my high school yearbook for my senior year.  I looked through the whole thing, but still couldn’t really figure out if I knew this guy other than a vague feeling of, “Yes, I have seen him before.”

[Writing this story for the message, I think I finally figured out how that guy knew me and I didn’t know him.  My physics teacher my senior year had to have emergency gall bladder surgery, and he was out six weeks.  During that interim, I actually taught the physics class.  Mostly, I just worked homework and worksheets on the black board.  When the teacher came back, several of the people in the class said they wished I could just teach the rest of the class because they had a lot better idea of what was going on when I was teaching.]

But, as I thumbed through the pages of the yearbook, I read again over what the people wrote who had signed my yearbook.  It’s been twenty six years since I graduated from high school.  It’s probably been twenty or more years since I read those notes.  Some were silly.  Others referred to events that I can no longer remember.  But arching over all that was a recurring theme which I had not noticed (and perhaps was unable to recognize) all those many years ago.

What had I missed?  I had missed the gratitude that people expressed toward me.  Note after note after note said thank you for helping me with this.  Thank you for helping me with that.  Thank you for being patient with me.  Thank you for explaining this to me.  Thank you for answering all my “dumb questions.”  One guy wrote thanks for being a friend to him four years prior.  He had just moved to the area at that time.  He had gone on to be in the upper echelon of our class while I had not.  But, he still took the time to write in my book and say thank you.

My high school experience wasn’t horrible by any means.  But I left school thinking that no one of my peers really cared all that much about me.  I wasn’t popular.  I wasn’t at the top of my class.  My two primary social identities were as a band geek and a nerd.  I wasn’t a “somebody” in my view, so I calculated that no one ought to appreciate or care about me. 

But now here I am looking back twenty six years later, and I realize that a lot of people did care about me.  They cared enough to express their gratitude.  It wasn’t a failure on their part to communicate.  The message was there readily available for me to receive and enjoy it.  My problem getting the message was my failure receiving their message.  I couldn’t get the message because I wouldn’t allow myself to get the message.

I read John 5 the other day, and I marveled again at the exchange between Jesus and the man at the Bethesda pool.  Imagine there’s a crowded room full of sick and disabled people.  It’s probably not smelling great.  There are likely hushed (or not so hushed) moans.  In walks Jesus, He goes to a particular person, He speaks to him, “Do you want to get well?”  The man replies with his understanding of why he can’t get well.  He more or less says, “I’m trying, but my plan just doesn’t work.”  He doesn’t really answer Jesus’ question, at least not directly.  Do you ever fumble with an answer when you get a question you’re not prepared for? No one probably ever asked him before if he wanted to get well.  I can imagine the man not even really being able to finish his thought out loud. 

Probably while the words are still on the man’s lips, Jesus says to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”  And the man is cured at once and picks up his mat and walks.  He didn’t have to obey Jesus.  He didn’t have to get up, but the man received the message.  He took it in and he believed it and he acted on it.  He got up, and he walked.  That man received Jesus’ gift of healing and opened the gift that very day at that very moment.

How should we accept the message of Christ’s love? Paul, writing to the Corinthians in II Corinthians 6, talks about how he and his fellow workers were open in their love toward the Corinthians.  Then, he says that the Corinthians are withholding their affection toward him.  Paul exhorts them, “Open wide your hearts also.” (II Corinthians 6:13)  We will not receive the gift newly and freshly unless we open our hearts. Psalm 81:10 includes a promise from God about being open to Him.  There He says, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” Psalm 107:9 says God “satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.” Are you hungry and thirsty for real food and real drink?  Jesus said in John 6:55, “my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.”  God is ready to satisfy us this Christmas and every Christmas.

In preparation for this message, I read a sermon from George Whitefield, the famous evangelist who was an integral part of the Great Awakening of the American colonies to faith in Jesus.  He ministered during the middle of the 18th century.  His title:  “The Observation of the Birth of Christ, the Duty of All Christians; or the True Way of Keeping Christmas”


His sermon is filled with warnings.  His warnings are varied, but at the center is the message, “Don’t fill your heart with things other than Jesus.”  “Don’t satisfy yourself with things which cannot sustain, cannot last.”  He warns to stay away from sin, not to overindulge in luxury, not to enjoy good things in excess whether food or drink or entertainment, not to neglect our responsibilities whether at home or at work while pursuing pleasure.  “Let the good things of life, you enjoy, be used with moderation.”  If Whitefield thought this was a big problem in his day, I wonder what he would think about our culture today.

What is the big deal if we’ve over filled ourselves with things other than Christ?  Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, wrote about true joy.  I think this gives a good understanding of the consequences:

“Joy dwells in God and comes from Him, possessing spirit, soul, and body.  Once this joy has grasped a person, it grows, it carries him away, it throws open closed doors.  (There is a joy that knows nothing of the heart’s pain or need or anxiety; but it does not last, it can only drug one for a moment.)”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

This temporary, unknowing joy is the substitute joy which we often find ourselves almost mindlessly imbibing on.  “I’m so tired, I’m so busy, I just need a little boost,” we think.  But these so-called joys do not last, they drug our pain only for a moment.

How do we depend on and experience true joy?  Whitefield’s sermon was also filled with exhortations.  The central point of his exhortation is to make sure you are putting Jesus first above all things.  He says, “reading God’s Word, praying, and God-centered conversation” should be our focus.  Give to the poor.  Don’t be idle even in “seeking God”.  Be diligent.  But work in moderation as well.  “Inquire strictly into your end and design in spending your time; see … whether it proceeds from a true love to your Redeemer, or whether there is not some worldly pleasure or advantage at the bottom.”

Of the Bible, George Whitfield says, “This is a history worth reading, this is worth employing our time about.”  Reading will then stir our hearts to prayer and to action.  God’s Word is living and active (Hebrews 4:12), how can it not accomplish its purpose?  God says it will; His Word will not return void (Isaiah 55:11).  Emptiness can only result if we neglect the Word such that it stops its work in us.

This is the Christmas joy which we all are eager to enjoy. 

“The joy of God has been through the poverty of the manger and the affliction of the cross; therefore, it is indestructible, irrefutable.  It does not deny affliction when it is there, but it finds in the very midst of distress that God is there; it does not argue that sin is not grievous, but in that very place of sin is found forgiveness; it looks death in the face and it is just there that it finds life.

“It is of this joy we speak, a joy which has overcome.  It alone is credible, it alone helps and heals.”—Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Have you ever been responsible for a kid and they either put something in their mouth that they shouldn’t or they put too much of something in their mouth to where they get choked?  I have no idea how many times a kid has spit something out into my waiting hand, but it’s been plenty.  As a general rule, if you stick out your hand and tell a kid to spit something out, they’re going to do it.

How about us?  God is waiting to fill us.  He want us to open wide our mouths and be filled.  Are they already full?  Do we need to spit some things out?

Here are a few closing words from George Whitefield:

“This is a season, for which, there is no more allowance for wasting of your precious time.  Let us celebrate and keep this festival of our church, with joy in our hearts:  let the birth of a Redeemer, which redeemed us from sin, from wrath, from death, from hell, be always remembered; may this Savior's love never be forgotten!”

I would like for us to take communion now.  It will be a little different than you are used to.  I’d like for you to stay in your seats and bow your heads.  I’m going to come around and serve the bread and the cup.  You can take a piece of bread and a cup, and when you are ready, you can eat and drink.

If there are things you need to “spit out”, then confess them to the Lord.  (The rest of us would appreciate it if you would hold off on any sound effects.)  Just give those things up to the Lord.  If you’ve not held your heart open to the gift of Jesus this Christmas season, please take a moment and open wide your heart to Him.  If you need His help in doing either of these things, then ask Him to help you to be willing or to see what you need to release.

If you’re already experiencing the wonder and joy of the coming of our Savior, then praise God and worship Him by remembering His coming as a baby to ultimately become the sacrifice for us at the cross.  Psalm 105:3-5 says this,

Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice.
Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.
Remember the wonders He has done.

While we are praying and taking the bread and the cup, “remember the wonders He has done.”

Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”  (John 6:54)  Those words sounded ridiculous in the ears of his hearers when He spoke them long before the Last Supper, long before the crucifixion.  And yet, Jesus has given us His body and His blood, and these bring us to eternal life.

One final quote from Bonhoeffer:

“We may joyfully believe that there was, that there is, one to whom no human suffering and no human sin is strange, and who in profoundest love has achieved our redemption.  It is such joy in Christ, the Redeemer, that alone protects us from the dulling of our senses by the constant experience of human suffering and also from accepting as inevitable the suffering in the spirit of resignation.”

Let’s pray.

Lord, we know that each heart here is unique.  But, You know each heart.  God, each life experience is unique.  But, You intimately know each life.  I pray that Your Holy Spirit will rightly prompt our hearts in response to You.  We so very much want to avoid the thought that this is “just another Christmas.”  I pray for Your indestructible and irrefutable joy to well up in our hearts as we take communion together.  Give us courage in decision making.  Grant us wisdom in how we should be set apart from the world.  Let us not be lulled to sleep by the charms of this world, but rather embolden us to shine your light brightly this Christmas season.  Help us all to receive freshly the gift of Your love, Your Son, this day, this Christmas and every day.

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