The Church's Praise

The Church's Praise Luke 2: 1-7 What will Christmas mean to people generally this year I wonder, after all that has happened during the year? Well I suspect that for most little will have changed. It'll still be about enjoying oneself, as much as one is able, letting ones hair down, having a good time with as many people who either we're allowed to meet with, or else who we feel comfortable meeting with. And there'll be those as usual who'll behave in ways that perhaps they wouldn't usually do who sleep it off afterwards if necessary. And for many that'll be about it. There'll be no serious thoughts on their part about just what our yearly celebration of the birth of a baby long ago is really about. No real thought of what it might actually mean for them, for their present for how they're living their lives in the here and now, or for their future what its implications might for the rest of their lives, and deaths! No, for so many, Christmas each and every year at its best is simply a sort of sentimental, sugar coated day with good food, good company, good rest, good will to all, for one day of the year. And even though the rest of the year might have been a total wash out Christmas is still expected to be different. It's a day to look forward to, to prepare for, to get excited about, a day when one can try to maybe make up for the days that have gone before. And perhaps for this reason alone it's not too surprising that there are those within the church generally who believe that we should do away with Christmas altogether. That, with all the commercialism that surrounds it these days, Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning which actually runs counter to the whole message of the Bible story which, they argue, should lead to feelings of wonder, awe and reverence, not to partying, should lead us to turn to God, not to family and friends. And yet as we look at the characters who our Bibles introduce us to when telling the story of that first Christmas day, we meet do we not with so much excitement concerning the events of that day and all that they meant. There they were the Shepherds, the angels, the child's parents, all excited in the days before television, before presents and turkey, excited out in the cold fields, excited surrounded by many who would have disapproved, excited in a cold stable, excited, in the case of the angels, when they'd have spent a stupendously exciting existence anyway constantly being in the presence of the living God. So the question is: where did their excitement come from, these witnesses of Christ's birth, and how do we get a hold of such an excitement as they had, when perhaps the normal secular Christmas this year doesn't feel quite as exciting as usual? Well for one thing Mary, the shepherds, and no doubt the angels as well, would have had a great expectation that such a thing as happened that night would happen sometime, just as God had predicted. And that anticipation was probably heightened by the Roman occupation of Israel. Because God had acted on so many occasions in the past to save them from their enemies, so it was surely only a matter of time before he did so again. And then there were all God's promises of one who he'd send to restore the position of his people to that which he'd intended at the creation. That which he'd sworn to give them when he brought them from captivity in Egypt into the Promised Land, that land that was flowing with milk and honey. That land where he'd truly be their God and they his obedient people. Yes, the human witnesses to the birth of Jesus would've known, probably for most of their lives, what the Scriptures told about God sending his Messiah, the one who would come to the rescue of his people. And so, though times were difficult for them, the latest hardship being that they were made to go to their own towns at the whim of Caesar Augustus so that they could take part in a census designed to help place them under even greater control, well they still had hope. Such that when Messiah came they recognised his coming as what they'd been waiting for and they were full of genuine excitement, they were full of genuine, lasting, joy. For the most part this Christmas, people won't have such a sense of expectation, and even when children's eyes are bright with excitement on Christmas morning this won't tend to be because they're thinking of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather because of their pleasure at the wonder and anticipation of presents to be opened, surprises to be enjoyed, gifts to be admired and played with. And one of the reasons surely for this lack of expectation is that today in our country most people simply aren't even aware of the real meaning of Christmas. They're not tuned in to the events of Mankind's history that we find in the Hebrew Bible, the Old Testament. They're not aware that human beings have all failed their creator, their God, to whom they're accountable. They're not aware that they actually need a saviour, let alone that one was born to save them. They don't get excited about the fact that life can be much better, much more meaningful, for them without them having to strive after it, without them working all the hours they can to make their, and their family's life better, without them receiving that which the world has to offer them. So why aren't they aware? Well perhaps they're simply not interested enough to find out, or perhaps there's no-one there to tell them. After all what do we hear from the media at this time, that through which most of us get our information? Not much about the true reason for Christ's birth that's for sure, that he came to save the lost. No acknowledgement that we are lost. Yes we hear and read all the time about the injustices that exist in the world, and about the great problems that, tragically, so many people face just to survive. But there's no mention of sin, the reason why we're in this mess in the first place. At least not of personal sin and of everyone's personal accountability before a God of judgement. For so many people the threat to mankind is from the impersonal forces of nature. And their god, the source of their hope, is the wisdom of science. An easier god to follow, they feel, because it allows them to be in charge of their own destiny. But then before we put all the blame on the media, and on people and events out-with our control, we surely have to ask ourselves: what is the church doing to tell others about the true meaning of Christmas? Are too many churches imitating the world's approach to the event of Christ's birth ... rapping it up in attractive ways but attracting nobody? People usually come into the church at this time who wouldn't normally have anything to do with it, but then how many of these leave feeling challenged by Christmas's true message? Oh, says the church, but we try to make them feel loved and accepted ... and we achieve that in some measure. But is that enough? The truth is that this offer of love and acceptance for all, this attractive, glitzy, church approach to Christmas is sadly, to our eternal shame, what we're churning out by the bucket load at this time. But surely, instead of this, people who come to the church looking for something, should be leaving it having found something real and concrete, having been challenged, having been cut to the quick on realising that the dirty cold and uncomfortable nature of Jesus' birth was caused by the dirty, cold and uncomfortable nature of their, and our, sin against God. Something which could only be dealt with by God himself taking the initiative and giving himself for us. Not forgetting of course that they should also be leaving feeling loved and accepted by God's people, for after all we should love as God has loved us. So then, the witnesses there at the birth of Jesus anticipated his coming and were excited because of this; but they were able to be like this because, secondly, they were tuned in to the realities of life and of existence. In other words they believed in the supernatural. So that when the supernatural broke into the temporal, into their everyday lives, they were prepared to accept it; because it made sense to their way of looking at life, it was the normal way to think. To them God, Jehovah, the great "I am" was their God and had always been their God since the time of Abraham and before. He was the one who arranged and governed every aspect of their lives, who perceived their thoughts from afar, who was familiar with all their ways, as their frequent reflections on the psalms would remind them. In contrast these days thoughts of the supernatural tend to be related to magic, to horror stories, to 'Trick or Treating', to things that go bump in the night. Ideas and concepts that people tend to grow out of or to rationalise, to work out explanations for, to come up with reasons for so as to remove the mystery. Which is perhaps a major reason why so many find it easy to dismiss the whole idea from their thinking of there being a living God who's the reason behind all of our realities, and to whom we'll all one day have to answer. As far as many people are concerned today, we're able to sort out our own problems, to determine the direction and purpose of our own lives, to live intentionally so as to be a blessing to others or else to cause them difficulties. Hence the upsurge in the number of people who call themselves humanists, who hold the view that human beings have the potential to evolve into something better. Which leads to the idolisation of particular individuals, setting them up on pedestals, as well as the rush to follow those who offer a vision of heaven on earth arising from so called new understandings of how the human mind works. But, again, is the church sometimes guilty of the same thing? Of, as it were, "dumbing-down" God? Of making Him, and his ways, seem to be more straightforward and predictable than is the case? Of trying to take the mystery away so that, to our minds, he's more accessible to ordinary people? Of making God more people-friendly, such that in the process we make it even easier for people to dismiss him? For instance in the way's that the church sometimes talks about God the Father and about our Lord Jesus Christ and the ways that it presents him to others; stressing perhaps his wonderful friendship and love and saying little about his Lordship and about his requirement for his own to be obedient to him. Or maybe in the ways that the church sometimes worships him, treating him at times maybe with less than the honour that's due to him. Perhaps, too, in the ways that the people of the church live their lives portraying God as someone who's prepared to overlook their foibles, as someone who can see the funny side of their less than faithful service. Maybe when the church and its people are seen as those who take the relationship that they claim to have with the supernatural God wholly seriously; showing him to be the one who's totally other than we are, as being Almighty beyond our imaginations, as being far beyond our understanding, perfect in holiness. And yet one who, by grace, has come to us so that we can know and experience him by faith as God, then maybe more will take Him, the message of Christmas, and the church, seriously. Lastly the witnesses of Christ's birth were excited by that birth because, of course, they were witnesses. They were there, they saw it; they experienced it all, it happened to them. "Well", says the scoffer "that's something that we can't get excited about". And the person out there, who doesn't think much of what we have to say about the real meaning of Christmas, says to us "Well ok but you're talking about history here, about ancient history. But we've moved a long way since those days. Our culture is completely different. Our ways of thinking have developed so much. We've computers and new knowledge. We're sophisticated, we're no longer living in the dark ages, we're a more developed society. Perhaps they were witnesses but we're not, and so it can mean nothing to us." But then, well, we only have to direct them to Acts chapter 2 don't we which tells of the experience of Jesus' followers on the day of Pentecost. When Peter explained to the crowd what had happened to them quoting the prophet Joel and saying, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy." And then finishing, "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." Because the wonderful thing about the risen Jesus who'd been born in Bethlehem and which, we're told, about three thousand people discovered on that day of Pentecost, is that although today's men, women and children might not have witnessed his birth, they're still able to experience the reality of his presence with them because of his death and resurrection. In other words the news of the reality of his birth is just as relevant today as it was when it occurred. Because the fact is that people today, as has been the case down through the centuries, can know that God sent his son to earth just over two thousand years ago, and not just think about it. That people can know that he died and rose again and ascended into heaven and now sits at the right hand of the Father, and not just talk about it and hope that it's true. Because the risen Lord comes to live within those who accept him, in the person of God's Holy Spirit bringing peace to our hearts that not even the wisest of men and women can begin to understand, without God's enabling. And this is the message which the church has the privilege to declare this Christmas time. A wonderful message, which it should be so excited about. But is it? How certain does the church seem about its' message? Where is the enthusiasm for the gospel, the message of Christmas? For how many does the excitement stop at mince pies, shortbread and candles, a service of carols even? May we, who have experienced God's peace, know a genuine excitement at what God has done for us through his Son Jesus Christ this Christmas. And may we demonstrate that excitement by how we celebrate ... as a church, as God's people, as his beloved children. Amen