Danger in the Manger! Luke 2.11 1.2.2a 12.12.2021

1 Entice: Danger! Danger! Danger! There is danger in the Manger! I fear Rudolph's glowing nose and the Grinch's thievery far less than my own aimlessness, listlessness and tendency to distraction. The Danger is far beyond committing holiday mall-i-cide, or over-commercialization.

2 Engage: Some of the very things we like best and treasure most about Christmas threaten us with a lack of perspective and distorted focus. Most of what is important about Jesus, what is central to His story in the Scriptures does not revolve around Christmas.

3 Expand: The message of the angels, the gospel they preached, and the good news they proclaimed that night was clear, understandable, and specific.

Luke 2:11 ESV

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

4 Excite: The danger is more than paper cuts, indigestion, or materialism.

The danger in the manger is that we celebrate the holiday without worshiping Jesus.

Explain: This evening, as we pause with just a few weeks to go, before the holiday celebration really gets wound up, let me remind you of a few real risks, ever present dangers in the manger.

The first danger is...

1 That we make Jesus a Symbol rather than a Savior.

1.1 The Bible is full of symbols. I will be preaching from John’s Gospel in the coming weeks. No book in the Bible contains more symbols than John. So, symbolism itself is no problem—it certainly does not trouble me. And Christmas is full of symbols. I love those symbols. Shapes. Sounds. Scents. Costumes. Colors. Celebrations.

1.1.1 We will decorate cookies (very concrete!) in the shapes of stars, Christmas trees, bells, angels, and wreathes.

1.1.2 Many of us have been spinning Christmas music for weeks.

1.1.3 I know that some, perhaps many, of you have been burning candles intended to fill your home with “Christmas aromas”.

1.1.4 Silver & Gold, Green & Red are colors which highlight the trim of the season…

1.1.5 And some will dress in costumes; from the shepherd’s dress worn for Christmas programs and nativities to ugly Christmas sweaters for parties and gatherings.

1.2 Symbols signify. They help us communicate. They compare, contrast, highlight, elevate, illustrate & connect. Jesus used symbols so often in His teaching whether simple comparisons, rustic parables, or full-blown stories that if you removed the symbolic language from His teaching there is scarcely anything left.

However,

1.3 Jesus Himself is not symbolic of anything:

He's the point!

The OT in law, prophet, and poem-through sacrifice, miracle and circumstance all points to Him. When we forget this when we allow this central truth to elude us during the Christmas season then we find the mangers of our minds cluttered, our understanding of the story diluted, and our Savior slighted.

1.4 God sent a Savior. Not a symbol of a Savior. Jesus is the reality to which every Biblical allusion alludes and the point of every Biblical promise.

Next there is the danger....

2 That we turn "Baby" Jesus into a mascot rather than a Messiah.

2.1 Again. To repeat, the Shepherds were promised the long-awaited Messiah. Not something else, not something less.

2.2 Now? Now…in the 21c "The baby Jesus" is just another cute character in an ever-expanding, overly commercialized, constantly televised cast of amusing, enduring, seasonal mascots.

2.2.1 Santa Claus of course. Charlie Brown and his gang. The Grinch, his little dog, and Mary Lou Who. Frosty, Rudolph, Ralphie, the little drummer boy, the littlest angel and yes…Buddy the Elf. Many of the people who celebrate Christmas like their Messiah’s the same way they like their abominable snowmen…toothless, harmless, cute, cuddly, and impotent.

2.2.2 We make a major mistake when we allow Jesus to become just another face in the crowd, another cozy character at Christmas. When His story is just another holiday tale, we impoverish our understanding of His mission and our own stake in it.

The angels themselves proclaimed him “Christ the Lord.” The rest of the Gospel unfolds what that means. We see Jesus in circumstances of ministry defined by compassion. We see Jesus in instances of teaching defined by authority. We see Jesus in the throes of His passion which is defined by sacrificial service. And we see Jesus through resurrection as Savior and Lord.

Christmas has so much promise to link His birth with His teaching, to remind us, not just of the hangers-on around the manger but the mangy group that followed Him back and forth across the Galilee, through Samaria, to Judea and back again. Christmas reminds us why we should have joy, how we have gotten peace, and to what end we should enjoy the blessings of the Gospel.

Last of all there is the danger

3 That we become so focused on the Cradle that we lose sight of the Cross.

3.1 The charm of the improvised cradle should never overshadow the cruel necessity of the cross the point of His coming-the very purpose of His presence was reconciliation.

Reconciliation happened on a cross outside Jerusalem not a barn in Bethlehem.

3.2 We are not a liturgical people. Our brotherhood cherishes free-church organization and do-it-yourself worship. One of the benefits enjoyed by our liturgical brothers who follow the “Church Calendar” is that the whole thing is designed to make an explicit link between Christmas and Easter, Cradle and Cross, Incarnation and Resurrection. We must do it ourselves and do not always make it so clear during the Christmas season.

3.3 In the grand scheme of redemption the Cross towers over the cradle. One famous scholar defined a Gospel as "a passion Story with a long introduction." Two of our four Gospels don't even mention His birth. All of them focus on the Cross. Paul mentioned that Jesus was “born of a woman.” He described Him as a descendent of David. The gospel he preached? Christ Crucified. His hope? Christ risen.

Joy to the World!!!

Now that we are fully aware of the Danger of the manger, I'm willing to run the risk-if You are-of singing Carols of praise and songs of yule celebration. I am willing to risk gathering around the tree to open presents, drink some eggnog, and watch The Christmas Story night and day.

Christ is Born? Yes. Born to be Savior & Lord. Born as the incarnate presence of God & King. Then and there for here and now so that we may truly have Joy to the world!

This is God’s Word for us tonight December 12, 2021.