Not a Christmas Story? A Call to Reconcile.

As you hear what I am about to talk about, you may be thinking that this sounds an awful lot like a Christmas story. On the contrary, maybe what you are about to hear is simply a reminder or a challenge to the message we often take for granted.

With this in mind, I have a confession to make. This last Christmas, I did not decorate my house. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to. It was because every time I went to decorate my house, something stopped me. Call it a feeling if you want. Don’t get me wrong, we had a Christmas tree up, some garland, and some lights inside the house. But on the outside of the house… we had nothing. It remained dark. As the month of December crept closer to Christmas, our neighbour's houses all lit up in expectation, in anticipation of the hallowed Christmas morn. We would drive down the street, and oh, how bright it was. It is always fun to see the Santa decorations hanging precariously off the gutters; the grinch paused in a forever motion of wrecking someone's Christmas. Santa blown up by air emerging from a chimney only to reenter it a second or two later. A giant snow globe that you can’t help but stop and marvel at, wondering how a seamstress stitched something like that together. As you continued to drive along, you saw yet another Santa decoration exiting an inflatable outhouse and reentering because he likely forgot to finish his business, or maybe he was hollering because he needed some tissue paper.

Everything was bright and merry and Christmassy, as one would expect. Then you came to my house. Nothing. No lights. No decorations. You could not even see the Christmas tree from the street window. It was dark. Dreary. Lonesome comparably to my neighbours. I tried to decorate, but every time I would touch that Rubbermaid box of lights and the blow up Santa, grinches, and minions, something inside me couldn’t bring myself to go outside and participate in this annual liturgy. One thing Chelsea will probably tell you about me… is when it comes to Christmas, I am the Christmas elf of the family. I LOVE CHRISTMAS! I love the decorations, the carols, and the excitement the season brings. I love a slice or two of fruit bread, and I love the nativity story, and the live Bethlehems. I even love a good Christmas pageant. One where the kids, youth, and some brave adults work together to tell the Christmas story. So believe me when I say I wanted to decorate. But I kept on thinking about the very first Christmas story.

I kept thinking about the people of Israel. How for 400 years, it was said that God was silent. For 400 years, Israel waited under the tyrannical rule of one nation after another. Whenever I read the Christmas accounts in Matthew and Luke, I got the sense that the Israelites were waiting for the Messiah with bated breath. Yearning to be led out of yet another wilderness they had entered. One of the Psalms points to Israel's occupancy. In it, Israel was mocked for not having a song. We read this in Psalm 137

Psalm 137 NIV

By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion. There on the poplars we hung our harps, for there our captors asked us for songs, our tormentors demanded songs of joy; they said, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land? If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy. Remember, Lord, what the Edomites did on the day Jerusalem fell. “Tear it down,” they cried, “tear it down to its foundations!” Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is the one who repays you according to what you have done to us. Happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.

When I read this Psalm, I got a sense of darkness. Of yearning for what once was. Of a yearning for what is to be. Yes, I am aware that this Psalm was likely produced under Bablyon’s occupancy, and yes, Persia did let the Israelites go back to Jerusalem. However, it was some time before the Israelite people controlled their own land again. They were passed from Babylon to Persia to Rome. For those infants that were talked about in that final verse from Psalm 137, nothing really changed. Leaving that brutal image to be plate out, yet again, in Matthew 2:16-18

Matthew 2:16–18 NIV

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”

The image of the Shepherds was particularly captivating to me. We find them in Luke 2, just after we read about an order that Caesar Augustus had put out to all his subjects, not a voluntary “pretty please,” but an order that probably came with an “or else.” This order, as we read, is a census. Everyone in the Roman world had to return to their place of birth to be registered. So as we recall, Joseph and Mary went up from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Then, in Bethlehem, Mary gave birth to a baby boy, in what seems to be a back alley barn. It’s really not that extravagant. It sounds dark. It sounds dreary, sounds smelly, and, yes, definitely not hygienic. The conditions in which Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus found themselves should pose as a nightmare in terms of risk of infections and illness, especially after everything that giving birth can expose you to. Everyone around Mary and Joseph had no idea what had just happened. To them, it was just another night of inconveniences brought on by the governing forces occupying their lives. People were carrying on with their everyday lives, doing what they needed, unawares. The shepherds were doing just that, carrying on… until Luke 2:8-20 happens.

Luke 2:8–20 NIV

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 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. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.” 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.” So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Just like that, to me anyway, the story goes from darkness to light, from despair to hope. It happens within a blink of an eye.

As I stood outside my house staring at its dark silhouette set back from the street, I couldn’t help but think of how all those people were waiting for the Messiah. I couldn’t help but think of how dark it must have felt. I couldn’t help but think as I looked around at my neighbours, that there is a similarity as you read the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke. There is this sense that people were just carrying on with their everyday lives, doing what they needed—being distracted by the ins and outs of what they called life. Further, I couldn’t help but see how they were caught off guard by the arrival of the Messiah!

The funny thing is, we aren’t far off from what people were going through during the original Christmas story. How surprised do you think we will be when Jesus returns? We are in this time of waiting for the Messiah for all things to be set right. But as life continues, we get distracted by the ins and outs of our everyday lives. We go to work, we come home. We check off whatever needs to be done at home for that day, and then we repeat. Christmas comes, and we start planning for presents that we might or might not be able to afford that year. We consider if we will drive to this family member's house or that friend's house. Some of us may determine that we are simply too busy for church, and then it becomes easier and easier to stay home or do other things rather than gather to worship. More self-inflicted expenses come up, so we take a little more from how much we tithe to cover that Netflix subscription or so on. Life continues.

As we look around our communities during Christmas, it is bright. Certainly, it seems merry and holly jolly. But is it a mask? Each family's house represents a candle as it is lit. Some of these candles represent the Christmas that celebrates the fun folk tales of Santa Claus, the grinch or other heartwarming characters. Others decorate to try to bring some sort of joy into the void of their lives, hiding some sort of social, spiritual, or psychological deformity that they are trying to hide from their neighbours. We, who are described as strangers in this land, sometimes get caught up in the same hum drum rhythm that is playing out around us.

Like those who were waiting for the Messiah, we are also in a time of waiting for the return of the Messiah. We are warned to keep watch to be vigilant, Jesus says in Mark 13:32-37

Mark 13:32–37 NIV

“But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’ ”

This isn’t even the first time Jesus talks about keeping vigilant. We also see in Matthew 25:1-13 the story of the ten Virgins with Lamps.

Matthew 25:1–13 NIV

“At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’ “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’ “ ‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’ “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’ “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’ “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

So I suppose this is my question:

As you lit up your house this last Christmas, what were you thinking of? Were you thinking of how Jesus is the light of the world, come to save all who would believe in Him? Were you thinking of how to accomplish this Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary? Did you think of the sacrifice he would make for you and me, suffering under Pontious Pilate, how he was crucified, died, and buried? Did you reflect on how this Baby Jesus would descend into hell and conquer death on the third day rising up from the grave? Did you remember how He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty? Were you thinking about how Jesus eradicated the darkness that sin casts over this world? Were you thinking of how this Jesus will come to judge the living and the dead? Were you thinking as you joined with your neighbours in lighting your houses that Jesus would one day soon return, and no we don’t know the day nor the hour, but we do know the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few, and he will come like a thief in the night.

You see, I believe in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I believe in the one true church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. I believe that when we give our lives to Jesus Christ, and we truly follow him without reservation, we will be saved. I also believe that so many around us don’t know the good news. I believe that so many of our brothers and sisters who say they believe in Jesus Christ get so caught up in the liturgies of this world that they forget the truth the Bible speaks. I believe that so many are being taught that they can supplement parts of the Bible to make following Jesus feel easier. I believe that the principalities of this world are trying to drown out the good news with flashing lights, noise, and glamour.

I am not saying we need to get rid of our favourite Christmas decorations or have a dark house at Christmas time. I am not saying that we should isolate ourselves from family and forgo that delicious ham or ban welsh cakes. I am saying that I think the Holy Spirit was trying to remind me of something as I stood outside my house staring at its darkness, then looking down the street at the inflated Santa clauses and all the beautiful lights, then back again. I thought to myself, if Jesus were to come today. Would I be ready?

If Jesus were to come today. Would you be ready?

So in 337 days, when Christmas comes around again, what will you be preparing for? Will you be ready?

Let’s pray.