Luke 1:26-38
Isaiah 7:14
“Christmas Is Not Your Birthday: Expect a Miracle” (based on Mike Slaughter's Book "Christmas Is Not Your Birthday)
What do you suppose God looks like?
Artists have given a shot at attempting to give us a physical picture of God in countless ways.
Centuries before Jesus’ birth the prophets spoke of the Messiah as:
“Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.”
In Isaiah 54 we are told that the Messiah would also know suffering and rejection, and Isaiah 61 tells us that His mission would be to the poor and marginalized.
Still, what this Messiah would look like and what His mission would be were diverse and contradictory.
This is one of the reasons why many people didn’t recognize Him when He did come.
What is your mental picture of God?
What do you think God is like when you are praying to God?
Is God a critical, condemning judge or a merciful, loving parent?
Does God favor some people over others, or does God love every person the same?
Like I said, Jesus wasn’t what most folks expected.
Everything about Jesus’ life stood in stark contrast to worldly values.
Jesus arrived on the scene…
…not in great strength but vulnerable and weak.
He was not born with a “silver spoon” in His mouth, but in a cave for animals.
Jesus was a Palestinian Jew Who grew up in a community of marginalized and oppressed people.
As a matter of fact, Jesus spent the earliest years of His life as a refuge in Africa, running from political genocide.
And growing up He lived in a little village as a member of a working class family.
When Jesus got older, He resisted the world’s obsessions with wealth and power…
…and instead identified with the weak, the powerless, the widows, the orphans, the tax collectors, the prostitutes, the lepers.
He didn’t condemn sinners but defended, forgave, healed and saved them.
So what does God look like?
God looks like Jesus!!!
He is Immanuel, which means, “God with us.”
In Jesus we see, not only the face of God but also the fullness of His humanity.
We see who you and I were created to be.
Jesus is God.
And that is the BEST NEWS there ever was and ever will be!!!
It’s been said that too often we view Jesus like Santa Clause—a genie in a bottle, here to fulfill three wishes.
All we have to do is name it and claim it, believe it and receive it.
Oftentimes, I think, we tend to create this Santa Clause Jesus in our own image…
…like a golden calf Messiah who promises to fulfill our every whim…
…an idol who supports our quest for material wealth outside a relationship with God.
Many of us even have a Savior who roots for our favorite football team!
Just think of the way we describe Santa Clause: "He sees you when you're sleeping...He knows when you've been bad or good!"
But Jesus is not some mythical watchdog Who judges our niceness or naughtiness and gives out rewards and punishments accordingly!!!
Jesus did not come shimmying down the chimney bearing gifts for good boys and girls.
God's gifts can't fit in a stocking, but must be received in our hearts!
It goes without saying that the "picture" we have of God has nearly everything to do with the shaping of our faith and values.
If our picture of God is distorted, then our perspectives on life will be skewed as well.
I'm not a Scrooge, but the magical, American, commercialized Christmas experience is unattainable!
Think about it.
We stress ourselves out and even go into debt to create that warm and fuzzy feeling both for our families and ourselves.
But that feeling doesn't last.
The real meaning of Christmas gets lost in the chaotic clutter of shopping, spending, rising debt, making exhausting preparations, and building stacks of gifts that most of us don't need or will not ever use.
How many of you still find shirts in your closet that you have never worn, given to you who knows how many Christmas' ago?
Could it be that in the chaos of the holiday season, we miss the true gift of Immanuel, God with us?
Alan and Deb Hirsch point out in their book Untamed: "Of all the ways culture influences the church, nothing has had more of an impact on us than that of a consumerist vision of society."
It's been said that the "idol of consumerism is one of the hardest to topple."
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Movement said that the wallet is the last thing to be converted in a person's life.
Has your wallet been converted to Christ?
Has mine?
Do you know that Jesus talked more about money and materialism than any other single topic except the Kingdom of God?
"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
Christmas is about a miracle...don't let the world edge the Miracle Worker out of His own birthday!!!
The dictionary defines "Miracle" as "a visible interruption of the laws of nature, understood only by divine intervention and often accompanied by a miracle worker."
In other words, a miracle is a unique event in the world that God does through people like you and me.
That's right--YOU are God's miracle worker!!!
God wants to birth a miracle through you!
If you don't feel qualified, don't sweat it.
All God needs is your availability and commitment to act.
Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him."
Jesus was talking about the Holy Spirit.
The same Holy Spirit that conceived the miracle in Mary's womb indwells in every devoted follower of Jesus Christ!!!
Mary was just an ordinary young gal, but God births miracles through ordinary people!
And most of us can probably relate to being ordinary.
From the time we are small children we become cruelly boxed into a pecking order of who's cool, smart, and beautiful--and who's not.
Throughout Scripture, God chose ordinary, seemingly unqualified people through whom to do miracles: the ineloquent Moses, the youngest child David, and the barren Elizabeth...
...and, of course, Mary.
Just a few verses down from our Scripture passage for this morning, Mary sings, "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant."
Mary came from a very common family, wasn't married, didn't have a formal education, and was not a religious leader.
What does that say about God's choices and perspective on what it means to be a beautiful and influential person?
It's awesome!!!
Mother Teresa was among the most influential people of our era.
Nothing about her physical stature could be considered beautiful or powerful, yet God chose this little Albanian woman to be one of the most powerful representations of Jesus and the Resurrection that this generation has seen.
In our Scripture passage we are told that "God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.
The virgin's name was Mary.
The angel said to her, 'Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.'"
In the same way, Jesus comes to ordinary folks like me and you today in order to use us for God's purposes.
We must only be willing to be used.
Now grace may be free, but it is never cheap!
The message of Christmas is about a sacrificial gift.
It's easy to feel excited about a newborn baby warmly wrapped in a manger of straw.
But the cradle comes with a cost.
You cannot separate the cradle from the Cross!
Because the Cross is the center of the Christian message.
Can you imagine the ostracism and rejection that Mary experienced as an unwed teenager?
Becoming pregnant with the Messiah was most definitely not the miracle that she had been hoping for.
"Is this what it means to receive God's favor?" she must have wondered.
And what about Joseph?
At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of the Messiah Who was born not only to die sacrificially for us but also to show us how to live sacrificially, and thus to truly live!!!
Sacrifice is not a pleasant word for most of us.
Just the idea of it can make us uncomfortable.
So it's not surprising that, when all is said and done, most folks would rather have a holly, jolly Christmas than to give themselves as a "womb" for a miracle of God.
But the joy which comes through giving ourselves for God's Kingdom cannot be compared.
This Christmas, Clair and I have decided we will match in our giving to the church, dollar for dollar what we spend on gifts for ourselves and others.
The miracle that God wants to birth through every Christian is...
...more Christians.
Our mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, and the local church is the place where disciple making most effectively takes place.
Therefore, when we give to the church, we get the most bang for our buck!!!
I am praying and asking that every one of us will do the same thing this Christmas.
At the very least it will make us spend less on our Christmas gifts.
Just think of the miracle God can work through us if we adhere to this call on our lives!!!
The Bible clearly teaches us that in order for our lives to be meaningful we need to give them away!!!
Meaning is not found in personal comfort and material luxuries.
So it should be no surprise that a meaningful Christmas is not found in mindless spending, eating, and stress.
Rather, we find meaning when we give sacrificially to those in need and for the spreading of the Gospel to those who live in darkness and despair...
...because by doing so, we are giving to Jesus Himself....
...and it is His birthday, after all!!!
Amen.
