Sermon Tone Analysis

Well, here we are at church, gathering for worship, on Christmas morning.

Let’s take a quick poll:

How many of you would say that having church on Christmas has added to your Christmas celebrations in some way?

Now, being honest, I’d like you to raise your hand if having church on Christmas Day has complicated your Christmas plans.

Most years, at 11am, we would probably be opening the last of the presents, or having a second helping of breakfast, or getting in the car to travel out of town to grandma’s house in time for turkey and dressing.

Instead, we’ve paused all of that.

And here we are.

Don’t get me wrong — I’m glad we’re here today.

It’s appropriate that we’re here today.

It’s good that we’re here.

In fact, what a blessing from God it is that Christmas falls on a Sunday this year.

Because in the midst of all the frenzy of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, in the middle of all of the food and the family and the traveling, in the midst of juggling family gatherings with one side of the family with gatherings on the other side — in the midst of all of that chaos, God has given us a chance hit pause on all of that, to come here, and to be reminded what it’s all about.

And so with that in mind, having pushed the pause button our busy Christmas morning activities, consider with me three questions that help us make the most of pausing our gatherings and coming here to worship.

[GO TO SLIDE #1: HAVE WE PAUSED TO CONSIDER THE CIRCUMSTANCES…]

#1: Have we paused to consider the circumstances of our Savior’s birth?

First there was the inconvenient journey.

The inconvenient journey.

Travel is easy today compared to the first century.

But not then.

The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem was long, it was uphill, it was dangerous.

After this service, we’ll get up as a family and go to Asheville.

If we take I-40, from Marion to Asheville, we’ll go up Old Fort Mountain.

Beautiful drive.

And from the base of the mountain at Old Fort to the western side of the mountains at Ridgecrest Conference Center, it is 8.3 miles and it takes us 12 minutes.

We’ll be comfortable in our car and we’ll enjoy the beautiful drive.

Bethlehem is about 2,500 feet above sea level.

Joseph and Mary weren’t in a car.

They were either on foot or they had a camel.

At best, Mary rode the camel and Joseph walked.

And Mary is pregnant.

If you’re female or if you’re married and you’ve had kids, you know there are two kinds of pregnant: pregnant, and very pregnant.

Mary is very pregnant.

And on top of all of this, this was not a fun trip.

This was a mandatory trip.

Far, far, far away in Rome, on the other side of the known world, the tyrant Caesar Augustus rules the empire with an iron fist.

There is no town, no matter how small, where he didn’t suck the life of the people through taxation, and that includes Nazareth.

This census was an order.

You had to go whether you could afford it or not.

Travel took days, weeks, months.

So, uphill, dangerous, required, long, exhausting, painful — this was the inconvenient journey.

It was an inconvenient journey.

But there were also uncomfortable accommodations.

A couple years ago, Shannon and I took a trip to Phoenix for a pastor and pastors’ wives retreat.

The retreat was over on Wednesday and our flight wasn’t until the next morning, so we needed a hotel to stay in Wednesday night, preferably cheap.

Well, let’s just say you get what you paid for.

The smell of cigarettes was baked into the walls.

There were holes where people had, I assume, gotten into fights and smashed their first through the wall.

We were about 90% sure that someone at some point had been murdered in that room.

And the icing on the cake was this: it was next door to a strip club, and the back entrance — you know, the entrance where people can enter discretely so their spouses or family won’t see them going in — that entrance opened onto the parking lot of the hotel.

This is what you get for booking a cheap hotel room online.

We stayed about 10 minutes and left and paid a little more for a nice room at Comfort Suites near the airport.

It was so bad we didn’t even want to stay to haggle for our money back.

We just left.

We had it pretty good because going somewhere else was actually an option for us.

But not for the Savior’s parents.

And once they arrive, there’s no rest for the weary.

Mary goes into labor.

We were fortunate when we had both of our children to live close enough to go to one of the big hospitals in Raleigh.

The best doctors you could have, the best facilities you could have, the most advanced medical care, the best pain relief.

My wife actually slept through the labor of both of our kids.

Obviously, that’s nothing like what people were accustomed to in the first century.

it was dangerous.

The infant mortality rate was here.

The maternal mortality rate was high.

The overcrowded inn was the only option, and it was full.

Mary and Joseph are relegated to a nearby barn where Mary will give birth to the Savior and place Him in a feeding trough for a bed.

Have we paused to consider the circumstances of our Savior’s birth?

Let’s pause and consider this.

Our Savior was not given to wealthy parents, he was born to peasants.

He was not born in a plush Jerusalem mansion, but in a barn.

When God sent His Son, He sent Him to a nobody village carpenter named Joseph and a nobody teenage girl named Mary.

[Hughes p82]

God prefers the nobodies over the powerful!

He prefers the poor over the wealthy, the dirty over the clean.

There’s nothing wrong with being powerful or rich.

But it’s often the poor and the dirty and nobodies who most feel their need for a Savior.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,” Jesus says, “for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt.

5:3 ESV).

[GO TO SLIDE #2: HAVE WE PAUSED TO CONSIDER WHY OUR SAVIOR’S BIRTH…]

#2: Have we paused to consider why our Savior’s birth was first announced to shepherds?

No matter how old I get, I still think the Charlie Brown Christmas special is the best Christmas film there is.

We watch it every year.

I think about the little guy that is chosen to play the innkeeper.

It’s Pigpen, right?

He’s the guy with the cloud of dust always swarming around him?

He says, “Despite my outward appearance, I shall try to run a neat inn.”

I also think of the little guy that plays the shepherd in the play they’re going to put on.

Shermie and Linus, I think.

They’ve got their staff and shepherd’s robes.

And Linus has his blanket.

“This is one shepherd who’s going to keep his trusty blanket.”

It’s cute.

But in reality, the shepherds were not cute.

The shepherds were the lowest of the low.

The shepherds were a stereotyped group of people.

Shepherds had the reputation for stealing.

They were seen as dishonest.

They were seen as unreliable witnesses.

They were seen as unworthy of basic care like comforting someone who was grieving.

And because the shepherds had to always be with the sheep, they couldn’t go to the temple or synagogue and worship.