Christmas Day 2020

Death and Birth

Twelve years ago, I remember celebrating Christmas for the last time while before having children. We were a bit under 4 months away from having our first child. At the time I had all four of my grandparents still alive, and while one had serious health concerns, the others were pretty healthy for their age.

But then, just a few weeks later, I get a phone call that my pop had passed away. Now that was actually very confusing for me, because it was the one that I called grandpa who had the serious health problem. I tried to correct my dad, but he said, no, it’s your pop.

Just another month or two later, the one I called grandpa also passed away, all before I had my first child.

This whole time, my sister had also been trying to have a child.

I believe it was the day after the death of the one I called grandpa died, my sister found out she was pregnant. A few weeks later, we had our first baby.

It was a strange time in many ways. We went from losing two men that we loved very much, to having new life come into our family and our extended family.

We don’t always understand suffering. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. But I find it interesting that in the midst of suffering, God will do something to remind us that he is doing something new.

It might not always be obvious. But when we look, even in the most dire of situations, we find signs of God bringing hope.

I don’t need to remind you that 2020 has been one of those years. It’s been like a roller coaster ride with many twists and turns, including the one we had last week.

But throughout the year, if you have cared to look, God has been showing signs of hope all the time.

One story that I have loved is the fact that due to people travelling a whole lot less, the levels of pollution have drastically decreased. Almost as if the plant has had an opportunity to take a breath.

Or look within the church. Now I don’t want to pretend that it hasn’t been hard (or I should say, continues to be hard), but it has been great to see church look at new ways to reach out to others. Even our own church: who would have thought we would be live streaming our services?

There are stories of some churches almost becoming revitalised, with a new sense of purpose and vigor.

In many ways, this really typifies what Christmas is actually about.

We’re in a dark world which is crying out: and into this world comes a baby. And with this baby comes hope.

Isaiah

This is the narrative that we find in the bible.

You see, the Bible is no stranger to difficult times. I’m not denying that 2020 has been tough, but when you think that the Israelites spent 400 years of slavery in Egypt, followed by 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. Then when they finally entered the promised land, they were almost continually barraged by foreign powers until eventually they were taken into exile. But not only that, the Jews have continued to face attack after attack for millenia. I think they know a thing or two about difficult times.

But if I just look in the Old Testament, we see God popping up with increasing frequency with this message - there is hope coming. There is hope coming!

It’s what kept them going.

Now one of these early voices, and perhaps one of the most prominent, was Isaiah. He started prophesying a little more than 700 years before the birth of Jesus. He spoke into the Israelites situation with remarkable clarity, and left a lasting impact on this troubled nation.

He gives a message that tells them that more tough times are coming, but he keeps on littering the message with little signs of hope.

In chapter 7 for example, we get the famous verse: and the virgin will be with child.

But it is in chapter 9 that I’m going to have a little explore this morning.

But to get the full impact of our passage this morning, just look at the very last verse of Isaiah 8. It says: “then they will look towards the earth and see only distress and darkness and fearful gloom, and they will be thrust into utter darkness.”

That descriptions feels rather apt for our world at the moment.

We had literal darkness with the bush fires when smoke engulfed whole communities. We’ve had metaphorical darkness with a pandemic and racial tensions.

But the while Isaiah 8 ends on a very low note, chapter 9 quickly spins it around.

Verse 1 starts: “Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress”.

Here’s a start for anyone struggling with everything.

In verse 2, the words are put in poetic form: “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.”

The people in Isaiah’s day were given hope.

A picture of hope

From verses 3 to 5, we then get a description of what this hope will mean.

This picture is actually one of peace and security.

In verse 3 there is joy. Specifically in view is the farmer’s joy on that day of harvest.

Now, I’ve never been a farmer, but I look at their situation and see that it must be such a difficult job. There are so many things that can ruin their crops. Up until recently, the farmers had been facing a drought. Some farmers spoke of not even being able to plant a crop due to lack of water.

But then the rains come. But for some farmers, just as crops are ready for harvest, a storm comes and wipes it out.

And so with all of the threats, you could imagine what it must be like to finally get a crop!

In verse 4, the picture seems to be suggesting that it will be unexpected. It recalls Midian’s defeat. Midian was the opposing foreign power in the days of Gideon, which is a story of victory against all the odds.

In verse 5, the picture is of peace. The clothes needed for battle are burned up because they are no longer needed.

For those walking in darkness, this is what they can expect. Joy, unexpected victory, and peace.

Baby

That might be a nice picture, but I wonder if it left the people hearing thinking - but when can we expect it? What should we be looking out for?

To create this sort of picture, you might think you’d be looking out for a mighty warrior.

In fact, it would seem that by the time Jesus did come, people were actually looking out for someone who would be a great leader and lead them to something special.

But in verse 6 it is not a warrior or a powerful leader. It is a baby.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given”.

It was the baby that was to be the sign of hope. A baby would hold it all.

It seems quite bizarre in many ways. It says of this child: “and the government will be on his shoulders”.

And there we see the juxtasposition of this image. A baby is essentially a symbol of weakness. A baby can’t do anything on its own. And yet it carries the government. Only in God can this image make sense.

Names

This baby then, is given four names. And remember, names are very important. Today, I think the number one reason for choosing a specific name for a child is probably because it sounds good. But particularly back in this time, names were highly significant.

Wonderful Counsellor.

Mighty God.

Everlasting Father.

Prince of Peace.

We could of course explore each of these, but the names are clear. In this child, we can see all of the hope that we need. He is our help. Our provider. Our comforter. Our everything.

Verse 7 then continues the amazing picture of this child. In it we see a number of themes being weaved in. The promise to David. The importance of justice and righteousness. The aspect of eternity.

But here is the point I want to make this morning. The titles are not the titles that you would expect of a baby and the description that follows is something you’d expect from someone with runs on the board.

This is why it is so important that when we are in the darkness, we need to go looking for that hope.

You see, here’s the thing. When Jesus was born, the vast majority of people would have been completely oblivious. Only a few people were made aware, albeit, in quite dramatic fashion in the case of the shepherds. But also less dramatically in the case of Simeon and Anna who were both faithful servants ministering in the temple.

And so here is the thing for us. We are walking in a time of darkness, and to be honest, I’m not just talking about the events of 2020. I’m talking about the spiritual drought that has been happening long before 2020 came into view.

In this walk of darkness we face many problems. But just like God did for the Israelites all those years ago, God is still putting out signs of hope. Sometimes we might be like the shepherds were the angels make it exceedingly obvious and it finally dawns on us - God is in control. That’s great when that happens.

But sometimes, it’s a bit more like Simeon and Anna who remained faithful their entire lives, waiting for that moment when the sign of hope would come.

And it did for them.

And it will for us.

Conclusion

Christmas is a reminder to us that God has broken into this world and he wants to be with us in this troubled world. The specifics of our problems may be very different to the specific of the problems that were faced to the Jews 2000 plus years ago. But the root cause is the same. We are living in a sinful world.

And that is what Jesus came to change.

That is why he is our symbol of light that is coming into a dark world.

I heard a debate recently about which is more important for the Christian: Christmas or Easter? In some ways its a bit of a case of the chicken and the egg. We might be tempted to answer Easter, because this is the climax of the plan that God had to save humanity, and there is a good argument for that.

But it is Christmas where it all begins. It is Christmas when that light starts to shine in a very dark place.

My hope this Christmas, is that we can allow Christmas to be that seed of hope in us that will grow to something amazing.

Because no matter what happens, we know that God is with us.

Who knows what 2021 is going to hold. I think we’re all thinking it couldn’t possibly get worse. But who knows? But in the end, it doesn’t really matter, because we have hope. We know that no matter how dark things get, there is a light that has come into the world, and Christmas is our reminder of this.

So let me pray...