AM Sermon preached at Central Christian Church December 1, 2013
A Different Kind of Christmas sermon series Message 1 “Expect the Unexpected”
Okay so I went to the store Wednesday evening to pick up a few things we were wanting to have in our Thanksgiving dinner and when I walked in the door of Wal-Mart, the first thing that caught my eye was this (hold up paper), the early edition of the paper with all of the Black Friday sales ads in it. Or should I say, the pre-Black Friday Thanksgiving Day sales and the Black Friday sales ads. My first reaction when I saw this was “wow that paper’s huge!” I knew right then, I had to spring for the $1.50 to have one---not so I could plan my Black Friday shopping spree because we’d already made plans to spend Friday in Indiana visiting with Lori’s side of the family. No, I wanted a copy of this paper for this morning, to hold it up and use it to illustrate that this is what the world has made of Christmas. Now please don’t take me wrong and immediately tune me out. I don’t see myself as some type of Grinch or Scrooge who stands in opposition to all the gift giving that goes on. I’m not saying this is all bad, folks. And I’m not going to stand up here and tell you shopping on Thanksgiving Day or Black Friday is a sin. What I am saying is that this newspaper in many ways symbolizes what Christmas has come to mean to many people in the world---and that’s more than sad, it’s tragic.
Very quickly let me share some bits and pieces from the ads--- Guitar Center suggests that if you buy from them you’ll be able to “give the greatest feeling on earth...” ToysRUs suggests by shopping at their store you can “make all their wishes come true!” Sports Authority claims “there’s nothing like the gift of sport.” The Sleep Number store claims their New Tech-e Pillow is “Everyone’s must-have gift.” Then of course not only are advertisers suggesting that through your purchases at their stores you can make everyone feel wonderful most of them are saying you can do an even better job of that if you buy at their store because their store offers special financing----the front page of h.h. gregg’s ad says you can save up to 40 percent or more and have 24 months special financing; elsewhere in the add they offer 12 month special financing and 48 month special financing. Rothman furniture store’s ad boasts 5 year’s of special financing! Special financing is another way of saying buy now and pay later and pay later and pay later and pay later and pay later... This Hallmark store ad came in the mail it advertises using phrases like “surprise them all season long,” “here comes the fun” “get in the holiday spirit” and my favorite this is bound to tug at their heartstrings and make them want to spend, spend, spend catch phrase was this one “Show them how special they are.” I look at all this and I can see why Mike Slaughter wrote in his book “Christmas Is Not Your Birthday,” “Christmas has been hijacked and exploited. We have professed allegiance to Jesus but celebrate his birth with an orgy of materialism.”
This morning we’re beginning a new sermon series called “A Different Kind of Christmas.” And that title expresses my hope for us this year and every year to follow. My hope is that we will this year draw a line in the sand and say this is it, this is the year I’m taking a stand and refusing to allow myself to get lured into the world’s way of looking at Christmas. This is the year that I begin re-evaluating my Christmas routines, traditions, spending habits and practices and if there are things I’ve been doing which do not honor God or go against His purposes for my life then this is the year I begin to chip away at them or cast them completely aside. My hope for us is that we will not only refuse to give any further ground to the world’s consumeristic approach to Christmas but that we will also begin to reclaim lost ground. And I hope that if you’re not with me on this now that you will be by the time the holiday rolls around. This is my hope for us for two reasons---one because I believe it will honor and please God---and two because I believe our doing so will enable us to experience more peace and joy than any toy, gadget or thing could ever bring. Friends and family members may not understand us if we make these heart-shifts and life changes. People may think we’re a little weird. But to me that’s okay---in fact that’s really what being salt and light are all about---I mean we’re told we should shine as stars in the universe---and to me that means we don’t just mix in with the crowd and we don’t just go with the flow---it means we live and act differently---besides, when you read the stories about Jesus in the Bible you find that a lot of people didn’t understand Jesus. And a lot of people thought He was weird too. But in the Kingdom of God, weird works. Now that may sound strange coming at you from a preacher. I mean we usually you the word weird in a derogatory way. But the Encarta Dictionary simply defines weird as “strange or unusual.” And in a non-derogatory way that describes the way God works. God Himself says “My ways are not your ways.” Or in other words God says my ways are different from your ways. My ways will come across as unusual---strange, weird to you. So when the world says “here’s how you have a great Christmas” expect that God’s way will be different.
Okay, so what do you say we start doing some digging into the Christmas narratives in our Bibles? Matthew 1:18-21 reads this way “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. 19 Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”” The language of those verses and some of the cultural practices they refer to may be a little confusing so let me kind of bring it up to date, Matthew’s saying in effect, “I want to tell you about Jesus’ special birth. Jesus’ mom, Mary and this guy named Joseph were planning on being married. The two of them were committed not only to each other but to sexual purity as well. They had agreed to wait for their honeymoon to have sex. So you can imagine the shocker it was to Joseph when before the wedding night ever happened, Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant! Mary claimed she’d not been with any man and that her pregnancy was something God had miraculously brought about, but Joseph wasn’t buying it. By law Joseph could have had Mary stoned to death but instead he’d decided he’d not make a big scene out of it and he’d just quietly call off the wedding. Before that happened though, God sent an angel to set Joseph straight on the matter. The angel told Joseph that what Mary had told him was true. She was going to give birth to God’s Son who was to be given the name Jesus. The angel also told Joseph Jesus was going to save people from their sins.”
One of the first things that ought to be evident to us when we think about the verses we just read is that there are a lot of unexpected things taking place. Mary’s becoming pregnant before her marriage to Joseph certainly wasn’t something anyone expected. Joseph’s being visited by an angel who told him Mary was going to give birth to God’s Son, wasn’t something he ever expected to happen. The purpose for Jesus’ being born---to save people from their sins---that wasn’t what people were expecting. The fact is the whole Christmas story is packed with God’s doing the unexpected. Mary’s pregnancy wasn’t the only miraculous one that we read about in the first few chapters of the gospels---there’s Mary’s cousin Elizabeth who also experiences a miraculous pregnancy. Mary’s conception was miraculous because it happened while she was still a virgin and Elizabeth’s conception was miraculous because it took place years after she’d been through menopause. And those unexpected expectancies are just the beginning of the surprises God brings out---there are unexpected announcements in the stories of Jesus’ infant life...for example there’s the angel’s announcement to the shepherds that a Savior has been born...and there are the announcements by Simeon and Anna in the temple...and when we’re talking about the unexpected stuff in the stories related to Jesus’ birth we just have to mention the birthing place for Baby Jesus---I mean I don’t think anyone would have dreamed that God would have His Son born in a stable area. There’s also in the Christmas story lots of unexpected journeys--there’s Joseph and Mary’s journey to Bethlehem, then their later journey to Egypt---there’s also the wisemen’s journey from the East to find the newborn king.
There’s no doubt about it---the Christmas story is full of God’s doing the unexpected.
But especially this morning I want us to see that one of the things God seems to love to do is introduce joy where it is not expected and in ways it is not expected... Take for instance Elizabeth’s pregnancy in her old age. She and her husband had been trying for years to have a child. As they got older they eventually gave up on the idea. But then God stepped in and gave them a son. Unless we’ve faced childlessness, I’m not sure we can fully comprehend their joy at their son John’s birth. And how about God’s sending an angel to Joseph to tell him to go forward with his wedding plans? It had to do Joseph’s heart a world of good to learn that Mary had not been unfaithful to him. And how about Mary’s unexpected joy-filled moments like when Joseph came back to her and told her what it was that caused him to change his mind about becoming her husband?---or when she paid Elizabeth a visit, and Elizabeth knew immediately that Mary was pregnant with God’s child. And let’s not forget the shepherds and how they found great joy in being in the loop when it came to Jesus being born. The wisemen were thrilled to find that the star they had followed led them right to the place where the new king, Jesus, was born.
Sometimes God unexpectedly introduces unexpected joy into people’s lives through the miraculous. A post menopausal birth. A virgin birth. An angel’s visit. A star that lights the way to Jesus. But you know, sometimes though God works through people to bring unexpected joy into other people’s lives. God worked through Mary’s older cousin Elizabeth to bring Mary some much needed encouragement. God delivered joyful reaffirmation to both Joseph and Mary through a group of obedient shepherds who shared with them how angels had visited them and told them how to find the Christ-child. Much to their joy, God provided the means for Joseph, Mary and Baby Jesus to live in exile in Africa through the gifts the wisemen gave to Jesus.
And friends that’s one of my hopes for us this holiday season---I hope that just as God worked through different people that first Christmas to bless others, God will use us and work through us to unexpectedly bring joy into the lives of other people. I’m hoping that God will work through us personally or will work through resources He’s already given to us or makes available to us this holiday season to meet some needs and answer some prayers. What’s more, I’m hoping that we’ll rethink what the first Christmas was all about and where God’s heart was in all of it and we’ll choose to realign some of our holiday celebration with His purposes. The truth as we find it in the Bible is this---Jesus wasn’t born to give us a holiday. Jesus was born to save us from our sins. He came into the world not to give us a holiday warm fuzzy or make us feel all “Christmasy,” He came to meet our need for a Savior. As a grown man Jesus never lost sight of His purpose in coming---He said, in Mark 10:45, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Yet we need to understand that Jesus came not only to die a sacrificial death, He also came to set an example for us of how to live sacrificially. Jesus told His disciples, As I have loved you, so you should love one another. He made sacrifices for our benefit and so in following His example, He wants us to make sacrifices for the benefit of others too.
And certainly friends Jesus didn’t come so we’d dive deeper into debt. In one of Jesus’ first public appearances in the temple He said He came to set people free---and I don’t think that the freedom Jesus wants us to enjoy is limited to freedom from our sins. I think He wants us to be freed from the ways of the world which can entrap us. And there is no doubt that the lure of the world’s goods and the ready availability of buying on credit if we don’t resist them can enslave our financial future. Those too good to pass up offers of buying on credit if not kept in check can become an almost unbearable burden. They can multiply our stress level, create a source of conflict in our homes and lead to financial ruin. And what’s more our debt load impacts our ability to meet the very real needs of others. So if you haven’t already bought more than you can afford this holiday season, I encourage you to keep your spending within your means---and by that I don’t mean keep your spending within your credit limits, I mean don’t buy on credit. The best way to pay for your gifts is with cash. And if you don’t have the cash to buy that gift now, than I encourage you to either choose to wait until you can pay for it with cash or choose not to buy at all.
As we approach this holiday season I’d like for us to be thinking about how far removed today’s gift giving has come from the gift giving that took place that first Christmas and how we might in some ways reclaim that first Christmas type of gift giving. Think about this---the gifts given that first Christmas we these---God so loved the world that He gave us His Son---Jesus so loved the Father and us that He gave up the glories of heaven and He emptied Himself of His godly power to become a helpless infant born to a poor couple in an oppressed nation---and there’s the gift giving of the wisemen to think about too. Those guys didn’t give gifts to each other that we know of. They only gave their gifts to Jesus and they did it as an act of worship. How differently we approach gift giving today.
I did some research and learned that the average American family plans on spending just over $800 on Christmas decorations, food and gifts this year. About 70 percent of that $800, around $560 will be spent on gifts. Almost 40% of shoppers will pay for their gifts using credit cards---never mind the fact that the average American household already has over $15,000 in credit card debt that they’re paying about 15% interest on. Americans spend on average $100 on throw away goods, like paper plates and disposable cups and wrapping paper. And check this out the number one shopping trend... the thing that nearly 60% of all shoppers plan to do this holiday season---buy something for themselves. Now the things I’ve shared may not sound like all that big of a deal to you but we Americans aren’t the only ones caught up in the world’s way of celebrating Christmas---we’re not the only ones in the world to get caught up in materialism and consumerism. Seriously the hijacking of Christmas which Mike Slaughter writes about really hit me when I put together two different statistics that I came across this week---here’s the first...around the world people will spend approximately 2.6 billion dollars on Christmas wrapping paper this year. $2.6 billion dollars to pretty up our packages is that not mind boggling? Now let’s use another statistic to put that first one in perspective---while we’re spending 2.6 billion dollars on wrapping paper, every five seconds of the holiday season, in fact every five seconds of every day, a child somewhere in the world dies of hunger. Is it just me or does that also make you think there’s something terribly wrong in the world’s way of doing Christmas?
Please don’t misunderstand what I’m trying to do this morning. I’m not trying to lay a guilt trip on you. I’m not trying to depress you or turn you against the Christmas holiday. What I’m trying to do is to get us to rethink how we’re observing it. What I want to do is lay out a challenge for us to start looking at ways we can make it less about us and more about God. Maybe we can decide to spend less on gifts and give more to the needy. Maybe we can spend less time watching holiday movies and going to parties and spend more time volunteering and helping others. Maybe we can save the money we were going to spend on wrapping paper by wrapping our gifts in Black Friday ads and then we can use that money we saved to meet the need of a family in a third world country. It’s just a thought...
Some of you may have heard already and for those of you who haven’t I’m going to go ahead and let the cat out of the bag concerning this year’s Christmas offering. The elders decided that this year’s Christmas offering would be given to IDES to help people in the Philippines in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan. IDES is a Christian mission that helps people in emergency situations and they’ll have people on the ground seeing to it that goods are being delivered where they are needed. I’m so glad we made that choice, especially after seeing what happened two weeks ago. Many of you are aware that two weeks ago my sister-in-law and her husband lost their home in the tornado that hit Washington, IL. When Lori and I went up there to help them sift through the rubble, I became so much more aware of the reality of the need in the Philippines. The devastation in Washington, IL is an incredible sight. A 1000 homes were lost and if I got the numbers right about 10,000 people were displaced. Seven people have died as a result of the tornado that hit Central Illinois. On the other side of the world, countless homes were lost in the Philippines where entire cities were pretty much leveled. At last look I saw that the death toll is now over 5,600 and millions of people are still desperate for help. Now get this---an article in yesterday’s Huffington Post showed in a survey that 67% of Americans don’t plan on doing anything to help even though that storm was one of the worst in the history of the world. So you see, here’s a chance for us this holiday season to be different. Here’s a chance for us to shine, to be salt and light. Here’s a chance for us to let God to work through us to answer some prayers. James had no idea what things would be like in American 2000 years ago when he wrote his letter to Christians, he didn’t even have a clue that there would a nation known as the United States and yet his ancient words speak I think the heart of God to us as we approach this Christmas---James writes, James 1:27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Put very simply God wants us to help the hurting and He doesn’t want us to buy into the world’s ways of thinking and living.
Let me wrap things up this morning by saying that----Finding joy in God’s gift to us, finding joy in giving ourselves back to God, finding joy in giving to those who are really in need than rather than those who don’t really need anything----that’s the kind of different Christmas I believe God wants us to have this year. I plan to pursue that kind of Christmas this year, and I hope you will join me on that quest.
NOTE TO THOSE WHO READ AND OR CHOOSE TO MAKE USE OF ANY OR ALL OF THIS SERMON: I am sharing this sermon with the hopes it will be an encouragement to others. I apologize for any blatant typing errors! If you find any I’d appreciate hearing from you so I can correct them. I try to give credit where credit is due, noting writers and or sources to the best of my ability. I have for years been drawing from a wealth of sources including this website. I recognize that my mind and writing processes are fallible. I may occasionally fail to properly identify a source. Please do not take offense if you see anything of this nature. I never intend to plagiarize. Having said that I want you to feel free to draw from my message. When appropriate I hope you will give credit as I do. But most of all I hope Christ will be lifted up and God will receive the glory in all things.
