A man named Charles Tucker decided recently that with all the ‘hustle and bustle’, it would be good to remember why Christmas is a good idea. He said that without Christmas…
• The ‘dried’ fruit market would completely collapse
• Boring, uneventful lives would have no stress at all
• Santa would be a large man with no fashion sense
• Three words; “No Christmas bonus!”
• You’d have to spend your own money buying stuff that doesn’t fit
• Your cat wouldn’t know the joy of coughing up tinsel
• Number 1 reason; without Christmas there could be no Easter!
I’m ‘sorry’ if this shatters any illusions; but as Joseph and his heavily pregnant ‘wife-to-be’ Mary travelled to Bethlehem there was no choir of children singing ‘Little Donkey, little donkey on the dusty road.’
You might already be thinking, “Hey! How dare you! Bah humbug”; but in the gospel account of the birth of Jesus there is no donkey mentioned, and neither is there an innkeeper. There probably was a donkey, or donkeys, and there probably was an innkeeper, but they are not mentioned. What is mentioned is that a census was being ‘taken of the entire Roman world’ (Luke 2:1); ‘and everyone went to his own town to register’ (Luke 2:3). For Joseph that meant travelling from Nazareth to Bethlehem because he was a descendant of King David (Luke 2:4). Bethlehem was King David’s town (Luke 2:4).
So we know that people were travelling. Some, like Joseph and Mary were travelling great distances, returning to their native town or village to register their names with the authorities.
In the build up to the birth of Jesus people were travelling back to their ‘home town’.
There was therefore traffic on the roads. People were coming and going, and in Bethlehem guest houses were full (Luke 2:7).
As we think about the scene we might remember news coverage showing the lines of cars coming out of Houston before hurricane Rita hit. Thousands of people were moving along, driving, walking, and sleeping on the side of the road. People everywhere told stories about how there was no room for them when they looked for a hotel. After a week of travelling, Joseph and Mary experienced the same thing. (This Illustration was written by Kevin Higgins @ sermoncentral.com)
I wonder if December, or the last week, or perhaps for some of us the whole of this year has been a story of hustle and bustle? Long hours of driving between appointments? Preparing to travel at Christmas? Preparing the guest room? Clearing the in-tray?
Shopping, cooking, cleaning, decorating, wrapping?
The birth of Jesus took place in a smelly old cow shed in the midst of hustle and bustle. Jesus is good news in the midst of hustle and bustle, and it was Jesus himself who 30 years later spoke to a man named Nicodemus about spiritual birth: (John 3:3) Jesus wanted Nicodemus to know that a spiritual birth is required for us to enter the kingdom of God, and it’s the reason why we sing these words from the 3rd verse of ‘O little town of Bethlehem’:
O holy child of Bethlehem,
Descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin, and enter in,
Be born in us today.
Whatever hustle and bustle you might be facing, Jesus can be born in you today. Will you ask him in?
Is there room in your heart for him? Is there room in your life for him?
I love the account of the Angel of the Lord appearing to ordinary ‘working class’ shepherds (Luke 2:9). They were nothing special. They had no privileges. They had no influence amongst decision makers. They were very ordinary people who were getting on with their lives, and yet for some reason the Angel of the Lord comes to them with a massive ‘tip-off’! Understandably they were terrified (Luke 2:9). The glory of the Lord shone around them!
I don’t know about you but I’ve not had such a dramatic experience of God’s presence. However, I’ve had many reminders that God is near, that he is at work, and that he longs for us to be in relationship with him. I wonder if you recognise God’s activity in your life during this past year.
Some of you will know about the incident concerning my seven year old son Matthew, but I think it’s worth repeating:
Recently, Matthew went for his first ever ‘sleep-over’ to a friend’s house. He had a great time! When I picked him up in the morning this is what he said to me, and I quote: “Daddy, before I went to sleep last night I prayed in my head to God, “God please be with me when I move to my new house and when I go to my new school.””
I was very proud! Then, he says, “Daddy, almost immediately Isaac said to me, “Matthew I’ve just had a flash in my head and God wants me to tell you that he will be with you.” Daddy, I think God was telling me that he really will be with me.”
God was at work in the life of my son. God is at work in the lives of each one of us. Do we recognise it?
Sometimes when I tell people about my experience of God, I feel a bit like Lucy when she had returned from the wardrobe for the first time (The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe). She really had been to Narnia. It really did exist. It was an amazing place, and yet it just sounded too far fetched for her brothers and her sister.
“Batty!” said Edmund, tapping his head. “Quite batty.”
“Don’t be silly Lucy,” said Susan.
Peter said, “That’s going a bit far.”
Lucy had been there. She really had experienced Narnia. When I saw the film with my two boys on Tuesday of this week I understood Lucy’s frustration as they would not believe her story at first.
Jesus Christ really is good news for the world. In the hustle and bustle of life he is good news. For ordinary people going about their business he is good news.
In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas." (If you’re thinking, “What’s a telegraph?” it was a bit like a text message.) Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big news-- the Wright brothers had flown! (With thanks to ‘Daily Bread’, 23 Dec 1991)
Let’s not miss out on the big news!
Let’s not miss out on ‘the reason for the season’!
Shall we pray?
