A New View of Christmas

The season between Thanksgiving and New Years is one of my favorite times of the year. It is sort of an extended Christmas for me. We begin with our Christmas celebration at my parents with the siblings and all of their children, and their children’s children. Then I take a relaxed approach to preparation since, for the month of December, I usually have less than half the number of sermons to prepare. I use that time to reflect and to plan for the coming year. As I said, it is one of my favorite times of the year.
This year, has been a reality check in many ways. For the first time in years, all of my siblings would not be at our Christmas at Thanksgiving Celebration at my parents. Then, I received word that a dear friend’s health was failing quickly. Top that with my youngest daughter’s health being undiagnosed, and another hospital stay. One dear saint who always had a word of love and support went home to Jesus on a Thursday, and then our friend passed away early the following Sunday morning. It was a busy week with many other things taking place and the day of one funeral brought news that a special young lady for whom I had performed her wedding 12 years earlier had passed away leaving her husband and a nine year old and a five year old. I would need to travel out of town to officiate at the graveside.
Needless to say, when the week of Christmas rolled around, all we had done in preparation for our traditional Christmas was place an undecorated evergreen in the corner of our family room. No presents purchased, no decorations. . . just a bare tree.
We were hoping for a special Christmas, since our oldest son is scheduled for boot camp March 1st, and our second son the Marine Corps and Paris Island January 19, not to mention a trip to Israel Jan 2-13. Not much time when I return and every day precious to spend with the “boys.” I made the mistake of telling the MSGT that I thought my son would make a good soldier. My son interrupted and said, “Marine Dad, not a soldier, a Marine.” It is hard to imagine him away—five years active duty. Life is certainly changing. This would not be like previous Christmases.
This morning my wife and I awoke earlier than the rest and began to prepare the Christmas meal when the phone rang. A young man said, “Pastor, I hate to call you on Christmas Day, but can you come up to Johnson City Medical Center? My Dad had an brain aneurism and isn’t going to make it.”
My wife woke the family and brought them into the family room where we read the Christmas story from Luke 2, and exchanged the fewest Christmas presents we have had since children had blessed our family.
Leaving the rest of the Christmas meal preparation with my wife, I got in the car and headed out for the hospital, Christmas Carols on the radio. I passed all of the businesses closed for the day. Few cars were on the road. I thought, I wonder if this is what it will look like after the rapture? No, not enough people left behind. Then I passed Waffle House. It was opened and jam-packed. I wondered why all of those people were there instead of home with family enjoying a day of feasting. Was this their normal Christmas, or had they gone through a Christmas season that forever changed their celebration of the day.
I arrived at the hospital and heard the story of how this dear man who had been blind was attending his nephews funeral yesterday when the aneurism burst. I thought of the last conversation I had had with him. Each week his wife or son would lead him into the worship center where he would sit one row from the back center, bottom section. He loved the messages from Revelation. A few weeks ago, he told me how much he longed to be home with Jesus.
We had a time of comfort from the Scripture and then went to ICU where only the ventilator was keeping him alive. As the dear family gathered with me around the bedside, I asked them their plans. They said, “that is one of the reasons we wanted you to come. We must decide when to take him off the machine. There is no chance for him to survive and the Dr. wants us to make that decision.”
We talked about proceeding or waiting and what it would be like for future Christmases if he were to go to heaven on Christmas day. Then the sweet wife said, what better Christmas present for him than to go to heaven on Christmas Day.
It was all this preacher could do to keep it together. This Christmas has surely been different. I don’t know that they will ever be the same again This year, so many deaths, so much hurt, so much sickness, two sons leaving for military service. Then this preacher got a great Christmas lesson. This is why the baby was born. He was born so that we might have life, and life eternal. Death is not the end, it is the great gift of eternity—the reason the baby was born.
I sat in the car for a moment in silence. I called home to tell my wife to put dinner in the oven, I was headed home. She said, “By the way, I’ve invited a couple over who were going to eat left-overs.” I wanted to share the Christmas meal with friends.
From now on, Christmas will be different for me.

Thoughts on Christmas Eve

Christmas was born in the mind of God. We have taken Christmnas out of the hands of God and put it into the hands of man. For many, it has become a day to which we look forward because it means a day off work, a vacation from school, and a chance to visit relatives. I love these things as much as anyone, but do we come to the point in all of our coming and going and celebrating that we are like the little girl who looked at the decorated tree and all of the presents under it and asked, "Where does God fit into all of this?"

The reason for Christmas is that God loves us so much that He became one of us. The wonder of it all. What is our response at Christmas? The angels announced it, the spontaneous song of Joy rang out. The shepherds went to Him. What will be our response?

Will this Christmas be just another holiday, or a Holy Day? In this day of overwhelming problems--crime, inflation, unemployment, personal issues-- our world needs hope. And pardon me, but Santa Clause just cannot supply that hope. But Jesus does. God cared that we have Christmas. He cared so much about us that He did something for us that no one else could do. He sent His only Son who was willing to be born to die for us. Can we break out of our self-containment to reach out to others in love? Not because it makes us feel good, but love others as He loved us--a love undeserved, unrestrained.

We so often hear, "What did you get for Christmas?" We rarely hear anyone ask, "What did you give for Christmas? This year when people ask you, "What did you get?" What better opening line for you to share with them what God gave you. Let me tell you about the best gift I have ever received. God gave me eternal life through His Son, Jesus.

Merry Christmas.

The Wonder of Christmas

In the story, The Fire We Can Light, Martin E. Marty related the Jewish Hasidic story of a famous rabbi to illustrate the need for strict observance of the ritual law.
The original master went out to the woods, lighted a fire, and said a paryer when confronted with a great problem.
His successor, a generation later said, "The fire we can no longer light, the place we know, and we can still go and say the prayer."
By the third generation, they said, "The fire we can no longer light, the place we can no longer go, but the prayer we can say." So the master stayed home and said the prayer.
The fourth generation said, "The fire we can no longer light, the place we can no longer go, the prayer we can no longer say, but we can tell the story and that is enough."

As we approach Christmas, there is a great danger that we will content ourselves with just telling the story again. Has Christmas lost its wonder for you? Don't just KNOW Christ this Christmas, SHOW Christ this Christmas.