Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Glenn Pease

Paradox is simply the recognition that opposites can both be true.

The Christmas story is loaded with paradoxes.

The most profound revolving around the Christ-Child Himself: The eternal Son born into time and the Infinite Spirit embodied in finite flesh.

The creator of all space having no room in the inn; the invisible made visible; the perfect made incomplete and the limitless made limited.

The list goes on and on even to the most minor details like the paradox of that first Christmas being both a night of silence and a night of song.

If you read through the Christmas hymns in a hymnal you will see these two themes stand out often, some with a focus on the silence and others with a focus on the song.

For example, O Little Town Of Bethlehem, specializes in silence.

"O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.

Above thy deep and dream-less sleep the silent stars go by."

The third stanza goes, "How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given!

So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of His heaven."

Then there is, of course, the most famous of all, "Silent night, holy night, all is calm all is bright.

Round yon virgin mother and child, holy infant so tender and mild, sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace."

The other focus which is on sound, shatters the silence of that holy night with loud songs of jubilant joy.

You have for example, Joy To The World, where the heavens and nature sing.

You have, Angels We Have Heard On High, sweetly singing o'er the plains and Hark, The Herald Angels Sing, and in Come All Ye Faithful, the second stanza, "Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exaltation, o sing all ye citizens of heaven above."

This duel focus on both the silence and the sounds of Christmas should clue us in to the duel nature of Christmas.

It is a day and a season for both contemplation and celebration.

It is a time for both reflecting and rejoicing.

It is, in other words, a season that is meant to have an impact on both our minds and out emotions; Our thinking and our feeling.

Let's focus first on-

I. CONTEMPLATION.

This simply means to meditate, think about, and study spiritual things.

This was the focus of Mary on that first Christmas.

In the midst of high emotions with the angels and the shepherds making a lot of noise about the birth of Jesus, verse 19 tells us, "but Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."

She represents the quiet and thoughtful side of Christmas.

Mary was not in on the anthem of the angels.

She did not hear all heaven ring as the angels sing.

The focus of Mary was on the baby in her arms, and all the implications of being a mother to the Messiah.

If the challenge of parenting makes you worrisome at times, imagine how Mary must have felt.

The wheels in her mind were turning rapidly as she wondered, what now?

How do I enter into what God is doing in the greatest event of all history-the Incarnation?

This calls for contemplation and not just celebration.

It takes some profound thinking on the part of all us to make the coming of God into history relevant to our purpose for living.

Much of the meaning of Christmas is wrapped up in the way God came into this world.

An unknown author wrote,

"Christ could have come riding on a rainbow,

the winds driving His chariot, the Milky Way

serving Him as a heavenly boulevard, while the

glittering stars like so many jewels clustered around

Him.

He could have advanced upon this world with

great pageantry, accompanied by innumerable

bands of trumpeting angels, with bright, shining

cherubim His attendants, so that every eye would

have seen His true glory.

"But instead he chose to arrive on this planet

almost unobserved.

Silently, wrapped in the swad-

dling clothes of humility, He willingly shared the

poverty of a humble family, content to be cradled

in the foul-smelling stable of a little obscure town

called Bethlehem!

He stooped so low that He might

reach us in our depravity, lift us out of the mire of

sin, and set our feet on the heavenly pathway.

What

condescension, bringing us redemption!

The song writer says, 'Out of the ivory pal-

aces, into a world of woe, only His great eternal

love made my Savior go.'

Paul in Phil. 2 says this is to be the Christian attitude in life.

We are to contemplate on the condescension of Christ, and do likewise by forsaking selfishness, and striving to focus on the needs and interests of others.

We are to be little Christs trying to demonstrate anew to the world what Jesus did for the world on that first Christmas.

This means we are to have the spirit of Christmas all year long.

What is the spirit of Christmas?

It is a host of things but we want to focus on what Paul says in Titus 3:4 where he writes, "when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us...." The Christmas spirit is the spirit of kindness.

The coming of Christ was the appearing of God's kindness.

Everyone of the characters in the nativity scene were characterized by kindness.

If it was not for Herod, every person in the entire Christmas story would be characterized by kindness.

He alone was mean and cruel.

The Innkeeper gets a bad rap for he is often portrayed as being mean.

It is mere negative speculation that he turned away the holy family.

The positive speculation has more evidence.

The manger was likely connected with the inn and they could not have settled in there unless the Innkeeper had said, "there is no room in the inn but we can't let you go off with no place for the night.

Let me show you to the stable where you will at least be warm."

It is likely the Innkeeper was hospitable and kind.

It is likely in that every other person in that scene was kind.

The shepherds and the wise men came in the spirit of kindness.

The wise men even brought gifts that Mary and Joseph needed for their time of exile in Egypt.

The angels were kind enough to share the good news of Christ's birth with the lowly shepherds.

The spirit of kindness covers all the Christmas characters like a garment.

This spirit has been picked up by the tribesmen of Liberia and a missionary has translated their concept of Christmas as follows-

"Whoever on the night of the

Celebration of the Birth of Christ

Carries warm water and a sleeping mat

To a weary stranger,

Provides wood from his own fire

For a helpless neighbor,

Takes medicine to one

Sick with malaria,

Gives food to children

Who are thin and hungry,

Provides a torch for a traveler

In the dark forest,

Visits a timid friend

Who would like to know about Christ,

Whoever does these things

Will receive gifts of happiness