The Christmas Story

December 24, 2000

Malden Church of the Nazarene, Massachusetts

Behold the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which translated means, "God with us." (Matthew 1:23)

Many wonderful and sentimental things come along with the Christmas Season. There is probably nothing at all wrong with that. There is a warm fuzzy feeling, I suppose, along with the shopper's panic and a general free-floating anxiety.

SENTIMENTALITY CAN BE FAITH'S WORST ENEMY

But sentimentality can be faith's worst enemy, when we mistake a feeling for spiritual reality. The true JOY of Christmas is wrapped up in the name "Jesus," which means Savior, and in the name Emmanuel, which means "God with us!" The true message of Christmas is the fact that in a particular time and in a specific place God came to this earth because He so greatly loves you and me. If we begin with this great Fact of Christmas, then probably the other things we add on as traditions or fun things will be on the "plus side." But Christian remember that Christ is not just one part of Christmas; He is the very heart and life of Christmas JOY.

CHRISTMAS IS ETERNAL, BUT NOT TIMELESS

Christmas is NOT "timeless truth." Eternal, yes. But not timeless. The message God gave us in Jesus is not like a lesson or a litany of good ways to live, or a feeling of love that we might hope would last all year. The message of Christmas is not something which, ultimately, can be learned. It has to be believed! And "it" is a Person, JESUS, who can free us from sin and guilt. EMMANUEL, who is God with us.

Our modern Christmas has become so stylized, so red and gold and white that we forget that in the original Christmas story Jesus came into a world of darkness. We have so many wonderful stories about how Christmas is candles and Christmas is silver bells that we forget that Christmas is NOT timeless truth about "all that is good about mankind" but rather is a particular story about one little Baby being born— and what He did when He grew up! But we all know that story:

MARY BECAME WITH CHILD BY THE HOLY SPIRIT

An angel appeared to Mary. Walter Wangerin, in his book The Manger is Empty, pictures this taking place in Mary's bedroom, where she is happily getting ready for bed, with happy thoughts of an impending marriage to Joseph— when suddenly a light begins to shine and to glow and get brighter and brighter until she realizes a glorious being, very real, is standing right there in front of her.

With her holy consent, Mary became with child by the Holy Spirit. This was not just a sermon illustration, or an "idea," or an allegory of how God asks each of us to submit to His will so that He can do good things with our lives. This was a real growing Baby, and in time it was moving inside Mary's womb, and in three months or so it could no longer be hidden.

People 2,000 years ago may not have had computers or airplanes. But they knew very well about the facts of life. Sometimes in the telling of the story we put down the idea of Jesus as the Son of God, very God, very man, as easier for more primitive minds to accept. [It is an allegory, we say; what difference does it make if Jesus were or were not born of a virgin— or, for that matter, if He ever actually lived in the flesh?]

JOSEPH WAS DEEPLY ANGUISHED

Joseph was deeply anguished. Marriage may not have been the romantic scene then that we picture in our Western Civilization fantasy of love, but Joseph knew that in Mary he had the finest, most wonderful person any fortunate husband could ever want. But the evidence was overwhelming. She was going to have a Baby, and he knew that it was not his Baby. People no doubt were already talking about the probability of a hurry-up wedding.

But Joseph, too, received direct word from God's messenger. Joseph's faith was challenged, but he believed, and obeyed. Or perhaps to believe and to obey are one and the same thing.

PERHAPS TO BELIEVE AND TO OBEY ARE ONE AND THE SAME THING

Joseph and Mary went from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Obedient Joseph took Mary into his home as his own beloved wife, where they lived happily ever after— for about three months, when they had to travel 90 miles south to Bethlehem. It was right at the worst possible time for an awkward, beautiful, nine-months-pregnant Mary. Can you imagine walking or riding a donkey ninety miles in that condition?

A BABY WAS BORN

A Baby was born in a cave, where animals were kept behind a rude public house, probably in the spring of the year 4 B.C., although it could have been 6 B.C., depending on which mishandling of the Calendar you accept. Have you ever been in an old-fashioned barn on a small working farm? Have you heard cattle grumbling over their feeding? Have you smelled the body-warmed air, rich with the smell of manure?

What a "particular place" God chose for His Son to be born! A stable is no place for any baby to be born— but the Son of God?

That Baby was toothless and helpless, at the mercy of His loving mother and step-father. When Jesus came down from His glory, He came all the way down to where we live!

CHRISTMAS IS JUST THE OPENING CHAPTER OF THE STORY OF EMMANUEL

But at the same time, all heaven was watching, and somehow some people were made aware, and others were practically summoned to worship, and to make certain that Jesus would be able to come to human maturity. Christmas, of course, is just the opening chapter of the very real story of the God-Man, our Emmanuel.

And so it came that in the fullness of time, Jesus, aware of His unique connection with the Father Almighty, and in the full power of the Holy Spirit, lived and died and rose again and sent His Spirit so that every son and daughter of Adam's race could find the reality in the name, Immanuel, God with us!

The JOY of Christmas is far, far deeper than we can ever realize. All the rest of the trimmings of the Season are well and good if they do not obscure the Reality that now God is with us! Our salvation, our life, depends on our somehow hooking up with this event we call Christmas. And this morning, either you know this Christmas reality, or you don't!

There are (at least) two ways to arrive at the persuasion that any story is true. The Christmas story is no exception:

There is the approach that says I will make my decision based on what I can see and hear and fully understand. So, because of all the wonder and all the beauty, and all the ways that Christmas truth and Christmas glory "fit together," I find that there is a warm glow of love and wonder in my heart, and I call this the "truth" of Christmas. Jesus is a cute little Baby in a stylized manger bed.

Perhaps this is as much "Christmas" as some people know. Perhaps they have never been exposed to Gospel preaching, and never have read the New Testament with faith. I feel sorry for them. For there is yet another way to come to the Christmas story:

This "other way" comes by being confronted with the challenge to believe. By "believe" I do not mean to simply accept the facts of an historical Jesus, for that search is another quest, entirely. But the challenge to believe that God came to earth in the Babe of Bethlehem is, in a way, exactly where Mary and Joseph and the shepherds and Peter and Paul and every Christian since have been challenged to begin a personal walk with God.

To believe does not mean we cannot also learn more and more about our faith. It does not mean that we cannot apply methods of historical study to ancient writings, even scripture. All truth is God's truth. But to believe means that, like Joseph, God is asking YOU to dare to believe that Emmanuel really has come, and that He is waiting for YOU to let Him into YOUR heart!

The work of Jesus is still very much continuing. His work of atonement is finished, but He is at the right hand of the Throne making intercession for us; He has sent the Holy Spirit to testify about the reality of Christmas and all the rest of God's great work in His Son, and He is coming again in power to reign over all Creation.

This way of faith says, "I have heard God speak to me!" It probably is not in the form of the angel Gabriel, or in a dramatic vision. But God still persuades men and women! God still deals with individual people, convincing, convicting, converting. This way of challenge says "I can, I will, I do believe that in the Babe of Bethlehem God entered into our human history."

And so, because the Baby was God Incarnate, and because He grew to Manhood and accepted His role as Servant and Savior, and because He died on a Cross to bear the sins of the world, and because He rose again from the dead, and because He has presented Himself in a personal, real way to your life you personally KNOW the Christ of Christmas, and so all these other allegories and ornaments can find their place in a gallery of praise.

I am as sentimental as anyone here. But the simple fact of Christmas lies deeper than sentiment. The JOY of Christmas is far, far deeper than we can ever realize. All the rest of the trimmings of the Season are well and good if they do not obscure the Reality that now God is with us! Our salvation, our life, depends on our somehow hooking up with this event we call Christmas. And this morning, either you know this Christmas reality, or you don't!

Advent is for right NOW! More than 1,000 years ago hymns were written to express the deepest longings of the human heart for Christ, called the "O Hymns, or Antiphon Hymns." The most familiar of all we know as, "O Come Emmanuel!" And that name means, "God with us!" God IS with us, waiting for us to ask Him into our lives where we are right now!

It is in that coming— in the certain knowledge that God is indeed "with us" that there is JOY - an audacious thing, certainly NOT the product of our will and energy, but rather the result of realizing that we are not alone, not lost— but that God Himself is here with us. This Emmanuel does not "fix things" necessarily in the way we think they ought to be fixed. He simply says, "If you will open your heart to me, I will come to where you are and I will never, ever leave you again!" We get the idea that if this is true, then maybe we can face the unthinkable. We're still very human, very fragile. But Jesus is, too— human, that is— and he shares his strength with us.

One very human story illustrates the power of love that comes to where we are:

Henry Carter, a pastor and an administrator of a home for emotionally disturbed children, tells of an encounter he had one Christmas Eve that gave him a new insight and perspective. He was busy with last minute preparations for the worship service, when one of the floor mothers came to say that Tommy had crawled under his bed and refused to come out. He followed her up the stairs and looked at the bed she pointed out. Not a hair or a toe showed beneath it. So he talked to Tommy as if he were addressing the bucking broncos on the bedspread. He talked about he brightly lighted tree, the packages underneath it and the other good things that were waiting for Tommy out beyond that bed.

No answer.

Still fretting about the time this was costing, Henry dropped to his hands and knees and lifted the spread. Two enormous blue eyes looked out at him. Tommy was 8, but looked like a 5 year old. He could easily have pulled him out. But it wasn't pulling that Tommy needed it was trust and a sense of deciding things on his own initiative. So, crouched on all fours, Henry launched into the menu of the special Christmas Eve supper to be offered after the service. He told of the stocking with Tommy's name on it, provided by the Women's Society.

Silence. There was no indication Tommy heard or that he even cared about Christmas.

At last, because he could think of no other way to make contact, Henry got down on his stomach and wriggled in beside Tommy, snagging his sport coat on the bed springs on the way. He lay there with his cheek pressed against the floor for a long time. He talked about the big wreath above the altar and the candles in the window. He talked about the carols all the kids were going to sing. Then, finally running out of things to say, he simply waited there beside Tommy.

After a bit, a small child's chilled hand slipped into his.

Henry said,"You know, Tommy, it is kind of close quarters under here. Let's you and me go out where we can stand up." As they slid out from under the bed, Henry realized he had been given a glimpse of the mystery of Christmas.

Hasn't God called us too, as Henry had called Tommy, from far above us? With his stars and mountains and his whole majestic creation, hasn't God pleaded with us to love him and to enjoy the universe he gave us as a gift?

And hasn't he drawn closer through the Bible, and through preaching, and conviction for sin? At then that very first Christmas God stooped to where we live, and came all the way down to live among us. And we have heard, and received, and found assurance of His salvation.

But even this very day, wherever we are in our spiritual journey, One is among us, where we are, that is willing to "get under the bed" with us and stay with us until we have the courage to come out and go with Him, and He will go with us.

PRAYER for Christmas Eve Day:

O Lord, with great might come among us; and, because we often are so easily centered in ourselves, let your light shine on us, to show us how very near You are to us, and how very much You love us. We invite you to enter every part of our lives. O Come and let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen

#155 - A Name I Highly Treasure