Luke 1:26-38
“Christmas Is Not Your Birthday: Giving up on Perfect” (based on Mike Slaughter's book)
How many of you have seen the movie Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase?
The movie has become a holiday favorite.
It’s a parody about the false expectations that we often build up around the traditional family Christmas experience.
Many of us can probably identify with the character Clark Griswold, who does everything within his control to give his family the gift of a perfect Christmas.
The movie starts with Clark taking his family into the wilderness in search of the “perfect Christmas tree.”
After a road rage accident, that ends with the family station wagon crashing into a snow bank, the Griswolds set off into the wilderness on foot.
After a long march in the snow, Clark finds the perfect tree, only to realize that he forgot to bring a saw.
From wrestling with strands of Christmas lights that don’t work to suffering extended visits from difficult relatives, the Griswolds continue to face experiences that cause many to think: “Been there, done that.”
How many of you have had the yuletide experience of trying to assemble a bicycle at 2 a.m. on Christmas morning…
…only to learn that you probably should have paid the assembly fee?
Like Clark, our intentions to plan a “good, old-fashioned family Christmas” may not always live up to what the consumer-focused marketing companies have made it out to be.
But then again those visions of Christmas often replace the biblical meaning of “God with us.”
And what a shame if they do.
Because after weeks of preparation, all for the purpose of creating one perfect day in an imperfect year, someone probably will be upset because they didn’t get the present they wanted, a toy is already broken, Grandpa drank too much, and Grandma got run over by a reindeer!!!
The Christmas season can also be, for many, a reminder of painful memories.
These words from a Facebook friend echo this kind of pain:
“The Christmas when my dad left our family was a very sad Christmas.
I was about 6 years old.
My aunts and extended family went out of their way to see that we still had presents and a Christmas tree.
While grateful for the gifts, it was not the presents or the tree that stuck in my mind, but the lesson I learned years later…that God can and will help you get through the dark times in life.”
Has Christmas ever brought the unexpected to your life?
If so, you may know that even in the midst of the unexpected, God shows up!
Sickness, death, divorce, unemployment.
Life gets terribly messy, but in the midst of our mess, God is here!
No matter what we are struggling to overcome, no matter what life issues have come our way, God promises to show up!
And Christmas is God’s vivid reminder that amid uncertainty, God comes to bring us peace, purpose, joy, hope, wholeness and salvation!!!
Have you ever thought about how messy Christmas really is?
I know we often sanitize Christmas by taking Jesus’ birth out of its biblical and historical context.
Christmas card images portray peaceful settings where “the cattle are lowing” right next to “the little Lord Jesus asleep in the hay.”
But in reality, Jesus was born in a stable, a cave where animals were kept.
And wherever animals are kept, there is dung.
And where there is dung there are flies…and I need not go further…
The point I’m trying to make is that walking in the way of Jesus is neither safe nor predictable.
As a matter of fact, it can be down- right messy!
In the first Chapter of Luke we see how complicated the situation of Jesus coming into the world is.
“In the sixth month, 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.”
How emotionally prepared, do you suppose, Mary—a twelve to fifteen year-old girl was for this life experience?
Gabriel said to her: “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”
What part of “do not be afraid” do you suppose Mary didn’t understand?
Do you think the thought ever crossed her mind that her parents might not believe her explanation?
We already know that her fiancé Joseph, rejected her earlier explanations from Matthew Chapter 1.
Miracles often happen in the middle of a mess, and Jesus’ birth was no exception.
But it does begin with the angel’s assurance and promise: “Greetings you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
This is the first step in faith—knowing that God is with us, that we are all favored, and that God is the One Who comes to us for relationship, no matter what the circumstances!!!
The message of Christmas can very well be encapsulated in these two verses: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
The second is: “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.
If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
God not only came to us 2,000 years ago, but God is still here!!!
Jesus is knocking on the door of every person’s heart.
God is pursuing a relationship with every one of us!!!
And God is pursuing a relationship with every person who is outside our doors.
What are we going to do about this?
Are we willing to give what it takes in order to go and make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world?
Will we go into the dark and strange places with God’s Good News?
Will we reach out to the poor, the homeless, the children?
God’s favor can’t be earned.
God comes when we are doing everything wrong!
God comes whether we are being naughty or nice.
Why?
Because God loves us and we are highly favored!!!
And so is everyone, from the person addicted to meth, to the man holding a sign out by the highway.
But this does not mean that bad things will never happen to us.
Just look at the situation from Mary’s point of view.
She had worked really hard to do what was right, yet it seemed like wrong still showed up.
We are told in verse 34, after the angels announcement, that the only thing on Mary’s mind was, “How can this be since I am a virgin?”
Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?
Maybe you have done everything you know how to do to be both faithful to God and true to your family…
…and then you are notified four weeks before the holidays that you will be laid off at the first of the year.
Or, your husband tells you that he doesn’t love you anymore and wants a divorce.
Or, your 4 year-old is diagnosed with some disease.
Or, the high school guidance counselor calls and says that he believes your son is using drugs.
“How can this be, God, when I have tried so hard to do what is right?”
Can you even begin to feel Mary’s pain?
“What’s mom going to say?”
“My fiancé is seeking to divorce me, and the penalty for adultery is a tortuous execution!!!”
“How can this be?”
But even when life didn’t make sense, Mary chose to continue to serve God.
“I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May is be to me as you have said.’”
Mary didn’t quit through the lean and dangerous years of Jesus’ upbringing.
Mary didn’t quit when the religious leaders accused her Son of blasphemy.
She didn’t quit while standing at the foot of her Son’s Cross, when life seemed demonically insane!
Mary is an excellent example of serving God even when life doesn’t make sense.
And after-all, life isn’t about you and me.
We miss life when we use God to get what we desire instead of allowing ourselves to be used by God for God’s desires.
This is an imperfect season of life, and some of us may not feel like celebrating Christmas, but remember it’s not our birthday; it’s Jesus’ birthday, and by celebrating Christmas, we are celebrating someone else Who suffered too!!!
The angel said to Mary, “Greetings, you who are highly favored.”
God’s love and favor doesn’t necessarily mean that the path of faith and following Christ is going to be neat and predictable.
We are to “take up our cross” are we not?
We are signing up for the most radical life possible when we say “yes” to Jesus!
But, someone has, perhaps rightly stated that, “Church culture in North America is a vestige of the original Christian movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a club where religious people can hang out with other people whose politics, world-view, and lifestyle meet theirs.”
Let’s not live into that statement, as we seek to be the Church of Jesus Christ for this community.
Because following Jesus Christ is messy business!!!
And even in the midst of the unexpected, the messy, and the devastating, we can fully expect God to show up—no matter what we are struggling with!!!
This is what Christmas is about—God shows up!!!
Praise God!!!
Amen.
