Bless this mess.Christmas 2022

Scripture

Luke 2:8–20 NIV

8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” 13 Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, 14 “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” 16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Pray.

Introduction

We love a beautiful nativity.

Some of my favorite nativities are the ones that do not go quite as planned.

Have you seen the video of Mary attacking the sheep that steals Jesus?

A couple years ago our son was able to make his mark on the history of messy nativities.

(Show picture)

This cute little, COVID appropriate donkey, had certain plans that did not fit with the script for the night at the nativity play. Explain....

I love these so much, because what our kids do as only kids can do, remind us of the real nativity that was surely messy in many different ways.

That is why I prefer the live ones with children over and beyond some of our beautiful nativity sets that we have. Our nativity sets really resemble some of the ways that we picture the Christmas scene. Like a perfect script where everything works just as so. Cue Mary and Joseph, Cue the star, cue the angel, cue the singing.

Really we have overly sanitized the Manger scene.

things are not as neat as they seem and really there has been a lot of filling in the blanks on our part to this story.

Frederick Buechner aptly describes this temptation:

Perhaps it is the very wildness and strangeness of the grace that has led us to try to tame it. We have tried to make it habitable. We have roofed it in and furnished it. We have reduced it to an occasion we feel at home with, at best a touching and beautiful occasion, at worst a trite and cloying one. But if the Christmas event in itself is indeed as a matter of cold, hard fact all it’s cracked up to be, then even at best our efforts are misleading. -Frederick Buechner

(Beyond Words, p. 61)

Tonight, just two things I want us to see. 1) the messy Christmas, and 2) The importance of our response

A Messy Nativity

The truth is, everything is messy!

Messiness of expectations

The longing for a messiah, in the line of David

To reclaim the throne of Israel and restore the nation

To drive out the enemies and restore the temple

Messiness of the birth situation

Where and to whom

Messiness of the census and the travel

Messiness of politics. Herod and fleeing to Egypt.

And the answer to all of this is the baby born in Bethlehem. The answer to all of the mess is love.

Messiness of expectation of messiah….he comes to love

Messiness of the birth situation….it is the love of a family and their love of God

Messiness of the politics…yes he will come to be the true LORD, not herod or ceasar. But one that will flip the world on its head with love.

Why is this so important?

Honestly, because God came for the mess.

And this is invaluable good news tonight....

because here is the temptation today, we get out of bed in the morning and there is plenty of mess. And I am not talking about leggos on the floor that I step on walking in the dark of morning.

war

pandemics

politics

economy

that is all corporate, what about individually?

The most common mental illness in America is anxiety:

The ADAA reports that 19.1% of americans are dealing with anxiety disorders.

Example: Chronic anxiety is contagious....

Some of you just got much more anxious than you were a few minutes ago, sorry about that. Is the world a mess, or are we a mess?

YES

And the invaluable news tonight....

Good news tonight: We worship a God that did not stay above the fray, but embraced it.

He did not choose a 5 star experience at the marriott

He did not come to the privileged

He did not choose stability

He did not pick a calendar date full of peace and economic thriving and democratic flourishing

When you hear the story tonight, when you consider the birth narrative, and the gospel telling of Jesus birth do not sterilize it, we need a God that enters into the mess and that is what he did.

It is love that bridges every gap. It is love that crosses inequalities. It is love that can transform social and racial inequality. It is love that will bring republican and democrat together. It is love that will allow you to pass on courtesy laughs to that crazy uncle at dinner tonight or tomorrow….dont look at him now. It is love that has bridged the gap between us and God. It is love entering in the story that we celebrate tonight and that Luke is pointing us towards.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, describes the profundity of this truth:

Only the humble believe him and rejoice that God is so free and so marvelous that he does wonders where people despair, that he takes what is little and lowly and makes it marvelous. And that is the wonder of all wonders, that God loves the lowly…. God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings. God marches right in. He chooses people as his instruments and performs his wonders where one would least expect them. God is near to lowliness; he loves the lost, the neglected, the unseemly, the excluded, the weak and broken.” ― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God Is in the Manger: Reflections on Advent and Christmas

Christmas is our worship and response to God entering into our mess

The design of Luke 2, the structure communicates something very important to us.

3 sections:

1. Setting (1-7)

a. Census in the days of Caesar of Augustus. Quirinius is the governor of Syria. This causes Mary and Joseph to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the town of David

b. While they were there the baby is born.

2. Annunciation (8-14)

a. Angel of the Lord appears and announces to some shepherds

b. Then the heavenly hosts appear and begin to sing or praise

3. Reactions (15-20)

a. Shepherds go to see the babe

b. Shepherds leave to share good news

c. Mary begins to contemplate all that is happening

Center for attention in the birth narrative of Luke’s gospel is not what you think:

The climax for the birth narrative is the announcement and the response

There is very little said about the actual birth. Maybe it was because luke knew that years from now we would celebrate by having children act all of this and a detailed version of birth in a barn or cave is probably too much.

Maybe it is because of the eye witness testimony.

Or maybe the center of attention for Luke is not Jesus’ birth, but the angelic annunciation interpreting that birth for the shepherds, and their reaction to the good news. Luke is writing to an audience about the incarnation. About what it means that Jesus has come and what his life, death, and resurrection means.

The climax of our story is the announcement and how the people that hear the announcement receive that good news.

Verse 10 again:

“But the angel said to them, do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.”

Friends, today around the world people are gathering to make much of the birth of Jesus. And yet I wonder how many people will disregard the interpretation of the birth and fall short of ordering our lives around this truth.

See the gospel writers are very clear about what the good news is. It is the birth of a king, of a messiah, of the one that they have been waiting for, of the one that we desperately cling to today.

But as clear as they are about this, they are also clear that....

it is good news with or without you.

I feel like that is Luke’s instruction for us. Receive the good news! The messiah has been born. He is the Lord of all. He has come.

Come and see him once more. Ponder the beauty in the middle of all the mess. Consider how God has broken into our story in the most unlikely of ways.

Closing

And so tonight, our opportunity to respond to the proclamation begins even now. Lighting candles and singing together. But what about later tonight and tomorrow?

Here is the deal: I imagine there are some in this room that are able to embrace this truth fully. You know why? There is no denying the mess they are in so they cling to this or they lose all chance of hope. Their desperation is great enough. Loss of a loved one. Diagnosis, divorce, addiction.

But what about the rest that have not reached the depths of desperation yet. Our temptation is to nod our head at the truth and go back home to the monotony.

What about the family in here that is getting by in survival mode? What about the person that is quietly drowning in debt or the person dealing with a job they cannot stand? What about the person that is driven to anxious ruin because of politics or the economy. What about the husband and wife that are just surviving, but they are surviving…so we shrug our shoulders at this messiah because we are not desperate enough to stare too long into the manger for fear that this messiah came for someone else.

So the challenge for me tonight, as I prepare that brisket for tomorrow, as I assemble that toy that really should have been put together by real elves because it is ridiculous and has 8 million pieces and will take me until 4am (Hypothetically of course...sounds specific, I know). The challenge for me, maybe someone else in the room....

Stop sterilizing this story because when I do I separate it from the chaos of my life. But instead give my chaos to that king in the messy manger

What brings me hope, what gives me joy, what provides peace, what fills me with love is knowing that my God came into the mess, for the mess.

And listen…it does not matter how crazy things are for you. It does not matter how you come in here tonight, the light has come into the world and the darkness will not over come it. How will you respond? Will you cling to it?

Because we have a choice my friends....to either be overwhelmed by the mess, or to embrace the one who is right in the middle of it.