I'm not sure if you're aware of it.
Today is Christmas day.
And we as a western culture
have not celebrated Christmas
until about 400 years
after Jesus' birth.
Up until that time,
Easter was the main holiday.
But even from the beginning,
Christmas is kind of about opposites.
We have the darkness outside
and then the light of the fire
and the light of the Christmas lights.
That's kind of how John talks about it.
He doesn't have
a manger in the whole scene.
In John, chapter 1,
he says this:
For the first time ever,
God, who is eternal
and a spirit,
becomes
a mortal human being.
And I think that's kind of
the beauty of Christmas.
This complexity of it.
The opposites of it.
That for the first time ever,
we have a God
who is lasting forever
now becomes mortal.
That God who is all-powerful
finds weakness.
That there's grandeur
in a stable.
But I don't know if that's the
greatest beauty
of Christmas. I think
the greatest beauty
is that even a child
understands the complexity
of Christmas.
Not just the darkness outside
but the darkness of their own heart.
Not just the light of the tree
but the light of that savior.
Not just the mystery of the presents
but the mystery
that a perfect God
could love someone like me,
someone who obsesses
about Christmas stuff,
who pushes God to the backburner,
someone who does not deserve
any of his love.
That God could become a baby
that one day dies
so that I could become the opposite
from someone who is shunned
to someone
who is forgiven.
Now that's what makes
Christmas merry.
Let's pray.
Dear Lord,
on this day of days,
help us always remember the
miracle and the complexity of
true God becoming human being.
That recognize that was for us
so that we could become the opposite
from one who is shunned
from you
to your own child.
We ask this in your name.
Amen.
Are you kidding me?
I cannot believe
that I'm already let down
with Christmas.
And I'm going to let you in on a secret.
I was already
let down yesterday.
And I don't know what it is.
Here we sit
and
the presents are tossed
to the side.
The music is starting to fade.
As someone described it,
it's like watching
the taillights fade
in the distance.
There's just a disappointment
that comes with it.
And I think it's true
for just about everyone.
Little kids
are disappointed because
the next Christmas
is like a decade away.
And teens can't believe
that the magic of Christmas
has disappeared. And,
even adults.
It's a little macabre
but we start to say to ourselves,
"How many more Christmases do
I actually get to experience?"
Or we think,
"Is this
the last Christmas I'm going to have with
grandma or grandpa?"
Or maybe there's' already
an empty chair at the table.
All this letdown and disappointment.
I wonder how the shepherds felt.
There they are,
the very first Christmas
of all time
and the angel appears to them -
angels,
real angels.
And then the next
highlight of their life
is that little kids play them
in Christmas pageants
2,000 years later.
It's,
they go to work.
Not the next day
but on Christmas night,
they have to go to work
and you think, "Ugh.
The pure drudgery of it."
But this is what the bible says,
Why do we celebrate Christmas
even though we know there's a letdown?
Why there's a disappointment?
The same reason
the shepherds smiled.
The same reason the shepherds found joy. The same reason the shepherds found joy.
Because they see
Jesus.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
help us
no matter what is going on,
no matter what feelings
we're wrestling with
to continue to see Jesus,
the author and perfecter
of life and our savior
and help that be
the joy that we find
in our heart this day.
Amen.
In the most famous of all
In the most famous of all the sections in God's word the sections in God's word
that talk about the birth of Jesus,
it says this,
Luke, chapter 2,
Now the history
and the celebration of Christmas
is fascinating.
I wish I had 20 minutes
to explain it all
but here are the highlights:
About 1,600 years ago,
400 years after
the birth of Christ,
they decided
that on December 25th,
we will celebrate Christmas.
Now this is something
that had been going on,
holidays had been going on
all around western Europe.
So the Norse would drag
giant yule logs.
And they would light it on fire.
And they would party -
I should say, "celebrate" -
for twelve days
until the log burned out.
The Germans gave sacrifices to Odin.
And then down in Italy -
where there was a root of Christianity -
down in Italy,
they had saturnalia.
They would sacrifice
to the god, Saturn,
and they would give out small gifts.
So the Christian church,
right around 400,
said,
"Enough of these pagan holidays.
We need to focus on Jesus."
So they determined
that Jesus
was going to be celebrated.
His birth on December 25th.
Now, was Jesus born
on December 25th?
That would be a "no."
Most scholars think
that he was born in the spring
because there were shepherds
watching their flocks
in the fields.
Does it bother me
that we celebrate Christmas
connected to some pagan holidays?
No, it does not.
And here's why.
Because they celebrated
the fact that the darkest days
were behind them.
And I think that's a beautiful picture
for Christians.
We celebrate Christmas because
the darkest of our days
and also the darkness of our heart
is behind us.
And through God's son,
not just the days getting brighter,
but through God's son
living in us through the Holy Spirit,
through faith in him,
we can celebrate that our brightest
days are yet to come.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father,
we know
that we get to celebrate because
today in the town of David,
a savior has been born to us.
We don't know when Jesus was born.
Maybe it was the 25th
or 26th or 27th,
but we do know when he was,
he was born for me.
Amen.
Recently, someone told me
the hardest
painting to do
is of a sunset.
And the reason is,
you can't quite tell the difference in
lighting between a sunrise
and a sunset.
There's only the most skilled of
artisans have taken this on.
And they are
the guys in Florida
who airbrush your t-shirt.
They're the only ones
who can pull this off.
But for most of us
mortals, we cannot do this.
And I think this is probably
the worst time
of Christmas, is this
time of transition.
You don't know
from the outside observing,
are we getting ready for Christmas
or are we taking down?
We've got the boxes out
and we're just thinking about
countless trips to the basement.
We're thinking about
taking the lights down,
kicking another tree
that sacrificed its life
for our celebration
to put it by the curb.
There's kind of this
awkward transition.
And I think the most
awkward times are
times of transition.
For the disciples,
Jesus is with them for three years.
You can imagine how glorious that is.
He dies,
he rises
and then he's with them for 40 days.
And they're so excited
and he says, "Hold on.
I'm leaving.
Stick around here
until I send the holy spirit."
A time of transition.
Now,
in these days,
as we get ready,
kind of dreading
moving on to the next thing,
it's a time of transition.
But the question is this:
Is this
a sunset
on the best things the earth has to offer?
Or is this really a sunrise?
Because it's a picture of
the greatest things that we have
in Christ.
You tell me.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
Christmas is
an amazing time
but this time of transition
is a hard time.
Help us to put back
these old things
because this ultimately cannot satisfy.
The only thing that can satisfy
is our life
with you, knowing that we stand with you,
forgiven as your dear children.
Amen.
I honestly hate
that I'm so sad after Christmas.
And I don't even know what word
to use but I think the best one
to use is "melancholy."
There's this sense of
melancholy
after the season is gone.
And I
think you might be experiencing
that same thing, too.
Someone once told me the
very best thing that Christmas
can bring is
pointing.
And so just as Christmas
points to Jesus'
life in the manger,
Jesus' birth in the manger,
it should point us to something deeper,
something that can
fulfill us.
Isaiah 35 calls it an everlasting joy.
I think it's about time
we look at Christmas
for what it is:
it is a foreshadowing
of the everlasting joy
in Christ.
And if we can do that,
we've got a whole different view.
Because no longer is
this going to have
unrealistic expectations
to fulfill our dreams
and bring us joy.
Instead Christmas is what it is:
it's a pointer.
It points to a deeper meaning.
And at that point,
we can teach our kids,
we can teach our grandkids,
we can teach everyone
we know
that this just points to
the greatest fulfillment,
the deeper meaning of Christmas,
which is the joy that can
only be found
in Christ and his forgiveness.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus,
we so yearn for fulfillment
on this earth.
But the real joy of Christmas
is that it points to a savior
from sin,
who prepared a way through
his death, through everlasting joys.
Amen.
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