Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. "Characters & Images of Christmas" Luke 2:1-20
Tonight’s the night! The last few weeks, during the season of Advent, we’ve heard a lot about preparation, and the time leading up to Christmas is indeed a time of preparation. That’s really the theme of Advent, preparing for the coming of the promised savior. I think for those of you who worship here regularly, and heard me preach during Advent, you are probably ready to start throwing stuff at me or asking for a new preacher for Christmas if you hear me preach one more sermon about preparation for a while. But, as if you couldn’t tell by the decorations, the hymns we’ve sung, the music you’re hearing on the radio this time of the year, the lights all around town and out in the country, we’ve finally come to the night were the countdown is over, and we lit all 4 candles on the Advent wreath and tonight, the Christ candle in the center is lit, telling us Christmas is here! Christ is born! That’s plenty reason to celebrate! So now that the time of preparation is over, let me ask you. How did your preparations for Christmas go this year? Did your parties come off as you planned them? Did you get all your shopping done and your Christmas gifts wrapped? Did you get all your Christmas cards made out and sent in the mail? Did you get your decorating done, the Christmas goodies baked, or your lights hung? Are you ready for the Christmas dinners, family gatherings, and all the special traditions that make Christmas what it is in your homes and your lives? I don’t think there is another time of the year that gets so much hype, so much preparation, so much fuss made over it, so much stress involved, than Christmas. (Unless you’re a pastor, then maybe you might want to say the Lent/Easter time of the year is pretty stressful too, but enough of trying to win a sympathy vote for myself and back to the task at hand.) This time of the year brings a lot of demands on our time, on our finances, and retailers bombard us with the latest lists of popular gifts that we absolutely must get for those special people in our lives this year. So, in all this, let me ask you this question, where in all of your Christmas preparations, and celebration, is Christ?
I thought originally giving my sermon tonight the title “the Images of Christmas”. Christmas is very much, at least in our society, about images. We really have to fight to keep Christ in Christmas anymore. When I mention Christmas, no matter what time of the year, it seems we think of Christmas trees, presents, Christmas light displays, warm fuzzy Christmas carols, Christmas parties, Christmas goodies, Christmas cards, you name it. I was even frustrated with the Hallmark Christian Card Studio CD-ROM I have at home when I sat down to make bulletin covers for tonight’s service late last week. Would you believe the image I chose and that appears on your bulletin covers was the only one related to Christ and Christmas on the entire CD? Even this image has the Christ child and Mary and Joseph as a background image, and not the main focus of the artwork. It seems we tend to leave Christ out of the picture entirely, or just think of the baby in the manger as a cute little tradition anymore. The world wants us to do that, because in having to speak of a savior, it speaks of our need for a savior, and that takes away the world’s ideas of joy at Christmas. To the world, Christmas is about joy, peace, and goodwill to each other. Talking about this sin stuff doesn’t fit in with that, so the world has some characters and images of its own to get us to lose focus on what Christmas is all about. Tonight, I’d like to look at some of these images and preparations that we’ve made for Christmas as we explore the Christmas story I read moments ago.
There’s another fellow who seems to get a lot of publicity this time of the year. He’s pretty popular with the world you know, it seems like you see his image wherever you go. In fact, he’s my Godfather! Well, at least my Godfather dresses up like him every year. You know, the guy in the red suit, white beard, reindeer, a sleigh, the elves, and presents. Children and adults too, this time of the year even sing songs about him. Let me recite the words to a popular Christmas tune for you to give you an idea of whom it is I am talking about in case you haven’t figured it out already.
You better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout. I’m telling you why: Somebody is coming to town.
He’s making a list, and checking it twice. He’s going to find out who’s naughty and nice. Somebody is coming to town.
He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He knows when you’ve been bad or good; so be good for goodness’ sake.
Yes, you better watch out. You better not cry. You better not pout, I’m telling you why. Somebody is coming to town.
Think about the words to that popular tune for a moment. Christmas is, according the world at least, supposed to be a time for peace, joy, happiness, and warm fuzzy feelings. Is this guy in this Christmas tune a nice guy? Someone that you would put your trust in? Think about it for a moment. He’s an all-knowing type of individual that knows when you sleep, when you are awake, and knows all about you. He makes a very careful list of who’s been naughty, and who has been nice. If you’re “nice”, you get presents! But if you’re “naughty”, you get a lump of coal. No middle ground, no borderline, its pretty black and white with this guy. You’re either naughty or nice. Not only that, but he’s a very touchy sort of judge: If you just cry or pout, or if for some reason he doesn’t like you, it’s enough to get you yanked out of the “nice” category. No talk here about mercy, or pardon, or forgiveness in this song: Be good for goodness’ sake-or suffer the consequences.
Yes, You better watch out, You better not cry, You better not pout. And you better face the facts. We do cry, we do pout. In fact, there’s nothing like the hectic and crazy holiday season to bring out the crying, pouting, impatience, and annoying characteristics in all of us. Did any of you do any last minute shopping in the last few days? If you did and saw some of the craziness that goes on in the stores, you understand my point. Or watch some movies that play this time of year or hear stories about what happens when two people fight over the last hot toy for this year’s Christmas season. The season of peace, which Christmas is often referred to and thought of being, turns into the season of stress and naughty behavior. If Christmas becomes all about someone who grades you on your behavior, well, let’s just say that we would all be able to keep our coal-fired appliances running well into the New Year.
Another image of Christmas that goes along with this stern fellow is Christmas presents. Often times, for many in our society, and throughout the world, this is what Christmas is all about, presents. We make the getting ready and preparations for Christmas into something that we do to deserve what comes next, which is what we want. We’re encouraged to buy gifts for those whom we like, and the more we like them, the better and the more gifts we should get for them. But those who we don’t like or are not popular, well, you can forget about them, they don’t deserve it. We act good for a month or so, thinking that we earn what we get at Christmas. And the better we are, the more gifts we should get, and if we don’t get what we want, then watch out! I am sure at some point in your life, when you opened your Christmas gifts, you were hoping for one gift in particular. And you were left disappointed because there was something you really wanted that was not under the tree for you that Christmas. The other day I was reading stories about bad Christmas gifts. One story really stuck out in my mind to describe the whole image of disappointment. You see, one year, a husband waited until the very last minute to buy his wife a Christmas gift, and he found himself Christmas Eve in K-Mart, looking for what to get for his wife. His wife awoke the next morning to find, wrapped under the tree, a new toilet seat. She had been complaining they needed a new one because the one they had in their home was cracked. She was hoping for something special, perhaps a necklace, or diamond earrings, and had been dropping hints, and all she got was this unusual token of affection! I don’t know about you, but I would be pretty disappointed to get a toilet seat for Christmas. Now as humorous as this may sound, think about it. When we don’t get what we want, disappointment sets in and it seems to spoil our Christmas, steals away our joy, and almost becomes what Christmas is for us, not getting what we wanted or what we felt we deserved. Even if we do get wonderful gifts at Christmas, the newness and novelty of the gift wears off and eventually, gets thrown aside and forgotten about. Things of this world break. Eventually, the toys children get at Christmas become worn out or broken, or the sweater you were given gets snagged on something and becomes unraveled. And so, next year, Christmas will come and again, the cycle will repeat itself, we’re never quite satisfied and want more out of Christmas, a gift that will keep giving, that will have meaning. If only we could find such a gift.
Well, the good news I have for you tonight is, that gift has been right here all along. That gift is why many of you have come here tonight. We are here this evening not to hear about disastrous Christmas gifts, or of some arbitrary judge of who is naughty or nice, but of a better gift, a better person of Christmas who comes. Did you catch in this all so familiar story what the angel told the Shepherds outside of Bethlehem? “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be the sign to you: You will find a Babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger. (Luke 2:10-12)
Note what the Angel does not say about this baby. The angel doesn’t say “unto you is born one who will examine your lives and see if you’re nice enough for God to like you.” Nor does he say “Unto you is born another judge to point out your faults.” He does not say either “Unto you is born a good role model; and if you follow His example, then you’ll be nice, not naughty.” The angel says “There is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
You don’t need another judge or another role model in that manger. Centuries before, God gave the Ten Commandments to tell us right from wrong. The things we should and should not be doing, and for all those centuries, all mankind could do was prove over and over again that we could not keep the Ten Commandments. You and I are cut from that same cloth, made of the same sinful human flesh. We don’t, we can’t obey God as we ought to, and one more role model or judge will not make us any better.
We also don’t need a baby that stays in that manger. Our sinful flesh will also tell us “that’s a nice story. Why that mean inn keeper, how could he keep that baby and mother out in that cold, drafty barn? There’s no way I would ever do that.” Well, there’s a lie that the world wants you to believe. You see, the world wants to leave that baby in the barn. The world’s idea of Christmas often times doesn’t even include that baby anymore. It stops short of telling you what that baby will do, or why that baby was even born. He’s not here to be a role model, he’s not here to be a judge, or a cute story. He’s here to be your savior. The greatest gift ever given.
This baby that we sing about tonight, doesn’t stay in that manger. This baby is sent here with a purpose. Long before this event, all the way back to the fall of man into sin, God promised us a savior. Someone who would pay the price of our sins once and for all. That Savior is there, in the manger. The Son of God, in human flesh, from the splendors of heaven, now laying there in the manger, in a barn, with the smells and not so pleasant things associated with a barn. Have you ever stopped to think about that? Despite the fact that the world was not prepared for his coming, God sent His son, because it was time that the world should have a Savior. God didn’t send a savior because we were ready, or because we were prepared, or because we were worth or because we had earned one. God sent His son because we needed a Savior, and He had promised a Savior. God sent us a savior because God is gracious, merciful, and loving, unlike the world’s characters of Christmas. God sent a Savior so that the savior might reconcile the world to God. The world needed a savior, because sin had separated everyone from God, and no matter how hard we tried, we couldn’t make peace with God, or pay the debt of our own sins. This baby will not just stay in the manger, this baby grows up. Did you catch the second verse of our sermon hymn? Let me sing it for you again: Why lies he in such mean estate, Where ox and ass are feeding? Good Christian, fear; for sinners here, the silent Word is pleading. Nails, spear shall pierce him through, The cross be borne for me, for you, Hail, hail the Word made flesh, the Babe, the son of Mary.” (LBW, #40, v. 2) That baby will grow up, live the perfect, sinless life you and I can’t, and bear the punishment our sins earned us on the cross. Nails will pierce those tiny hands, a spear will go into his side, a crown of thorns placed on his head. This baby is destined for the cross, to save you from the punishment your sins has rightfully earned you, so that you can have His righteousness, have favor with God, and no longer be in bondage to sin, and free to be a redeemed child of God. Unlike the gifts the world wants to give to you, this gift never breaks, it never is in the wrong size, you never outgrow it. This gift will remind you that although you do break, we get sick, we sin daily, and eventually, we will face death, none of that in the end will have any power over us, because the greatest Christmas gift of all time, the gift of God’s one and only Son, has already taken care of that. No matter what troubles you in this life, Jesus has the means to set you free and give you the gift of eternal life, assurance and trust that despite what may happen to you here on earth, your eternal destiny is already taken care of on the cross, your battle against sin, death and the devil is already won.
This Christmas, we will receive many gifts, and we will hear many messages. The world will try to tell us we don’t need Christ to make Christmas a celebration, and use images that try to get us to forget what Christmas is all about, to turn the focus on us, on what we think we deserve to get, and if we don’t get it, then something’s wrong and Christmas is ruined, stealing our joy. However, we know that without Christ, there is no Christmas, no real joy, no real peace, no real assurance of what will happen to us. The images of the world are flawed, and the gifts the world has to offer us will break someday and become useless, but the baby in the manger will never break, will never forget us, or disappoint us, and offers us the greatest gift of all, forgiveness of all our sins, and life everlasting. As you go about your Christmas celebrations, may it be with the joy that the greatest gift of Christmas has already been given to us, God’s son, wrapped in swaddling cloths, lying in a manger, destined for the cross, so we can be redeemed children of God. May God grant that for Jesus’ sake this Christmas season and always. Amen.
