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.
No comments:
Post a Comment