Christmas Eve - Soon it will be Christmas Day

Introduction

Who has a favorite Christmas story? A movie counts. Shout it out. Favorite Christmas story or movie.

PAUSE

I hear a lot of wrong answers…though Elf is certainly up there. A Christmas Story is a good Christmas story…those of you from FG now very strong feelings about It’s A Wonderful Life not being a Christmas story—

The correct answer, as I’ve shared here before is: A Christmas Carol and I would accept either the original, unabridged book by Charles Dickens or the 1990’s adaptation, A Muppet’s Christmas Carol.

You know the story—you have Ebenezer Scrooge, the old, grouchy, stingy business man who won’t be bothered with anybody else’s problems. He’s visited by four Ghosts, his Old business parter, Jacob Marley—or if you have the Muppets adaptation, Robert Marley…Bob Marley. And then, of course, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Christmas Yet to Come. And in dramatic fashion, Scrooge comes to his senses, has a change of heart, and becomes the biggest advocate for Christmas there ever was.

You might not know, that when Dickens first sat down to write this book…he wasn’t actually thinking about writing a Christmas story. In fact, he was first working on writing a book on the unjust treatment of the poor in England at the time. But after working on it for a while, he decided that an allegorical story, might be a much better way to get his message across. [EXPAND]

But in the process, literary historians notice that Dickens inadvertently started a new trend in the “Christmas” world. See, he was describing all these different Christmas scenes that were, by the standards of people alive at the time, completely over the top…no one actually celebrated Christmas the way Dickens made it look in A Christmas Carol. He intended it to be unrealistic as a way to make his point. But what’s interesting is that his depiction of Christmas celebrations was so compelling, that many would say Dickens actually defined how most people now wanted to think about Christmas! It created a mental picture for the ideal Christmas season.

In many ways he started this phenomena of looking back and sentimentalizing what Christmas used to be like…and ideal that we’d like to get back to!

That’s why we dream of a white Christmas…like the one’s we used to know.

That’s why sing of “Christmas’s long long ago.”

That’s why we keep singing the same songs over and over and over again every year—at least the ones that are on the radio…

It’s why every Hallmark movie is set in the a charming, old world, small town—to draw us out of the modern chaos and get us back to the simpler times.

Our imagination is drawn back to the past of what the Christmas season was. And we love it!

But what I find, then, to be so interesting is that this trajectory for how we want to think about Christmas…year after year…always pointing back…always chasing after what was…what it used to be like…I find it so interesting that this is polar opposite of the way the Bible talks about the Christmas story.

And I recognize that not all of us hear would believe in the Christmas story as the bible retells its, but I think you have to at least acknowledge for a moment that Christmas itself is deeply imbedded with religious themes that really hard to ignore, right? Even the name Christmas itself, having the word Christ in it…or Santa Claus, a reference to Saint Nicolas.

And so whether you put much stock into it or not, how the Bible tells this story actually matters.

So what I want to do tonight for a few moments is look back at a part of this story—a part that is pointing forward—that keeps our eyes point focused on what is yet to come. And what we will see is that the Christmas story is not about methodically recreating what once was, but eagerly anticipating what will be.

And all of this is recorded in the words of the Old Testament book of Micah.

Micah was a prophet who wrote these words around the 7th Century BC. and a major focus of his book to painting a gripping picture of what the world will be like under the rule and reign of God’s appointed leader. A picture of justice and peace. A picture of the world made right.

It says this:

Micah 5:2–5 (ESV)

2 But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days...4 And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth. 5 And he shall be their peace.

And I want you to notice a few things.

This leader Micah writes about—at least in the 7th Century B.C. is yet to come. He’s not there yet…but when he does come, he will come up in an unlikely place.

Bethlehem. A small, out of the way town.

He will come to care for and lead God’s people…like a shepherd leads, protects and cares for his sheep.

But what sticks out to me is the very end of this passage: that His people will “Dwell secure…and He, this ruler, will be their peace.”

Micah wrote in Hebrew, not English…and the word he uses for “dwell” is the Hebrew word, ישב. It’s a beautiful word because it doesn’t just mean to be somewhere it means to put down roots…in a sense, to be home. You know that feeling when you get home…the security that seems to come along with that or, at least is supposed to come along with that. It’s the place you can put your guard down. It’s the place you can rest. That’s what Micah’s talking about…and all of this, because this ruler will himself be our peace.

This is a stunning picture Micah is painting. One of rest, security, no more angst…worry, fear, doubt, pain, sorrow…he’s talking about a world that will come under the reign of this “ruler”!

And of course it is this future reality that the writers of the New Testament saw dawning at the birth of Jesus! And they go out of their way to connect the story of Jesus to this ruler Micah had described hundreds of years earlier.

It’s a Star in the sky that led the three Wisemen to Bethlehem…to see Mary’s child…and honor him as the true and rightful king…as if to say, “What Micah foretold is begining now! God’s work to make things right, to make us right, is beginning now. Ands it’s a work that awaits its full completion when one day, we will no longer be waiting and longing for a world made right, we will be living in it! We will dwell secure…with Him, Jesus, as our Peace. And yet until that day, we wait. Looking forward to what God is and will be doing.

And of course, in talking about this, I think we can’t help but recognize that this is so much not the world we live in right now. So much of what we experience is chaotic…is painful…and even if we have that space that feels like home…there is a nagging reality that it is not forever. It is not the new normal.

How many of us are aware that we are going to go back home tonight only still be in fighting with family. How many of will go back home only to still be worried about having enough to hold you over until next month. You’ve still got a follow-up appointment and things aren’t looking so good…you’re going back home and you’ve still got a lot of junk to work through in your own life because you know you’re far from having it all together.

You see, this is the norm. That is part of life as we know it. This is why there’s a part of me that rolls my eys a bit at Christmas time…because like everything else around us—from the movies we watch, the music we listen to, the ads we see, the decorations around us…right they’re all pointing back to this ideal…magical Christmas moment…they’re pointing backing to how it used to be and calling us to get back to how things used to be…even if it’s just for a brief moment in time!

But you see, I think the richness of the Christmas story the Bible tells is that it offers something so much more than just an opportunity for you to chase after what once was in the imagination of someone else! You don’t need to chase after that thing that isn’t real. But the Christmas story in Bible does not look back to something…it actually looks forward. It is a longing for something that has not yet happened but will. And in that is all the recognition that things aren’t the way they are supposed to be. BUT ONE DAY THEY WILL BE.

PAUSE

And you see, that peace…that ability to dwell secure is available to us now…it is available to us by faith in Jesus when we recognize Him as the long awaited ruler Micah foretold. When we see him as the only one who can truly satisfy our deepest yearnings and longings…when we see Him as the one who promises not to abandon us in our pain and hardship, but to walk with us through it…all the while, He, Jesus, is at work to set the world right.

Friends, this is the Christmas story: it’s not one that just points back to a thing that happened, but it points forward to the work God is and will be doing to set the world right, to set us right.

Let’s pray.