Christmas Is About Accepting Things We Don't Like

Christmas It’s About Accepting Things We Don’t Like

12/20/ 2020 Matthew 1:18-25 Colossians 3:12-17

2020 has been quite a year for us. How many of you have had to accept some things that you did not like, that were forced upon you this year? Some of us did not like the quarantines, the masks, the social distancing, and the way we had to attend work or school because of Covid-19.

Some of us did not like the cancellation of our proms, our games, our parties and our family gatherings. Some of us did not fully enjoy being limited to our house with our family members.

Well guess what. Covid-19 has actually been preparing you for today’s message on Christmas. When we think of Christmas all kinds of memories and fantasies come to mind. We think of family time together, visiting relatives, eating lots of food, getting and giving presents, Christmas carols, decorations and having a wonderful time.

Yet when we go back into time in the first century, we find a very different atmosphere was present. Some people were inconvenienced, angry and upset, that they had to leave family members to go register in the towns in which they had been born. Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman World and everyone had to go back to the town in which they had been born.

Some were hungry, because there were no fast food places along the way. Travel was difficult. There were not a lot of hotels and motels on the route, and Siri and Mapquest had not been invented yet. Imagine walking 20 miles and ending up in the wrong little town because at the fork in the road you went right instead of left. Caesar’s decree had been forced upon them, and they had little choice but to accept it.

We sometimes have this false view of God which probably comes out of Santa Claus. We think Christmas is simply about making us happy with a wonderful gift.

But if we look into the Scriptures, we find that God is not always interested in making us happy or causing us to feel as though we are super blessed. God is interested in changing us so that we can be used by God.

One of the greatest gifts that you can give this Christmas to someone who gets on your nerves at times is the gift of acceptance. It can be liberating for you and a blessing to the other person. You see God is not always going to change another person to make them more to our liking. Disappointments are going to be a part of our relationships to one another. There are no perfect families, marriages, homes or relationships.

God had sent the angel Gabriel to Mary, a young virgin who was engaged to be married, and told her that she would give birth to a son who would be the Savior of the world.

Mary explained to the angel, he had the wrong girl, because she had never had sex, and therefore couldn’t be pregnant. The angel told her, the Holy Spirit would come upon her, and she would become pregnant through a move of the Spirit.

Mary was delighted to be used by God, and she told the angel, “Let it be done according to your word. I am all in as your servant.” Everything is great for Mary, until she has to try to explain this to Joseph.

This good news of being pregnant by the Holy Spirit was anything but good news to Joseph. Didn’t this angel know where he lived? If she was telling the truth, why didn’t God say something to him? This all sounded mighty convenient, since she had been gone for the last three months anyways.

Women, how would you feel being accused by the person you love and expect to marry, of having had sex with another man? This person that you thought you knew, you now seem not to have known him well at all.

How could he think so little of your honor and your relationship to God to even have those kinds of thoughts about you? Where was the trust in your relationship. This isn’t the kind of thing where a person says “I’m sorry” and you move one.

Men, how would you feel probably having heard a rumor that your finance, Mary, might be pregnant. We know how fast gossip travels. Three months earlier, Elizabeth had talked about a special son Mary was going to bear. That news may have reached Joseph before Mary did. Why was she there for 3 months?

What would be your reaction if your fiancé told you, she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit? Especially when you have been living apart since the start of your engagement period to make sure she was not pregnant. You knew the two of you had not come close to having sex.