Christmas at the Mall
Matthew 2:1-12
December 2, 2007
Now this is my own personal opinion, but I believe that one of the most fearsome places in Fort Wayne is Glenbrook Mall. I go to the mall and it takes me about 15 minutes to reach my limit. When Toni drags me to the mall, I generally end up either in the soft chairs in front of the Christopher and Banks store, or in one of the soft chairs down at the Barnes and Noble bookstore. I am so glad that Barnes and Noble now have a store out at Glenbrook because they have everything a guy needs to wait out his wife. You can get a comfortable chair, no end to reading material, a cup of coffee, a muffin, and a bathroom! It’s a great place.
Toni usually calls me Scrooge during this time of year. I just don’t care much for all the decorations and parties and Christmas trees and other stuff that have come to define Christmas for us. If it were up to me, we would cut a picture of a Christmas tree out of a magazine and tape it to the living room wall. But that’s not good enough for my wife.
We always have to go out and find a Christmas tree. Had an artificial tree for a few years, but she didn’t like it because it didn’t smell like a real tree. So now, we trudge out to the Christmas tree farm, lash an incredibly expensive tree to the top of the car, and hope that we get home before it slides off into the middle of Leo Road.
But regardless of how much I dislike all of this stuff, I still get dragged to the mall during December. Last week Toni gave me discount coupons from a couple of different jewelry stores at Glenbrook. “Just in case you would want them,” she said. I guess she’s getting jewelry for Christmas…from the mall.
I have some statistics for you. They are five years old, but still tell a story. Did you know that in 2002, the toy industry recorded $30.6 billion in sales by retail stores in the United States? $10.3 billion of this total was from the sale of video games.
Did you know that in December of 2002, U.S. retail sales in department stores totaled $32.4 billion?
Did you know that during the Christmas shopping season of 2002, $13.2 billion was spent in electronic and mail order shopping?
Did you know that in December of 2002, 1.9 million people were employed at department stores?
Did you know that in 2002, there were 46,438 malls and shopping centers in the United States, which was an increase of almost 10,000 since 1990?
Now those statistics are a little old, but I think they can still help us understand just how central mall and shopping centers are in the lives of ordinary Americans like you and me.
I know that we all get sucked in to the mall scene at Christmas. Before Thanksgiving, the decorations were up and Christmas music was being piped in over the PA system. Santa has arrived. Television commercials are in full swing telling us that we have to give particular gifts for Christmas or else look like a cheapskate.
Some of us actually do like the mall scene. Every year, on the day after Thanksgiving, my sister picks my mom up at 6 am to head for the mall to get in on all the pre-holiday sales. My family thinks I’m weird because I think they’re nuts.
But just think about the messages that the mall sends to us about the meaning of this holiday season. If you believe all of the mall hype, you might think that Christmas is all about spending yourself deeply into debt. The malls do in fact; go out of their way to get you to believe that you can buy love from another person.
If you look carefully at people in the mall at Christmas time, you will notice that there are quite a few of them who have worried looks on their faces. We go out of our way to find just the “perfect” gift to someone – or – we struggle to find a gift to give to someone we really don’t like, but feel obligated to. It all creates anxiety. You might come to believe that Christmas means that love hurts. You might come to believe that Santa Claus is the real meaning of Christmas. You might think that the one thing Christmas teaches our children is how to ask for more stuff.
Now I know that we begin Christmas with all sorts of good intentions. I know that we really do want to show people how much we love, care for, and appreciate them. I know that we really are looking forward to finding just the right gift that will make both giver and the receiver incredibly happy. But somehow, something has happened between the Advent of the best gift humankind could ever receive, and the frenzied shopping of modern life.
You might be thinking that this is just another one of those sermons that the preacher has to preach each year. After all, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I weren’t having a hissy-fit over all that Christmas has become. But people are people and sin is sin and we always have to be aware of the temptation to get sucked into the Christmas spirit which really isn’t Christmas spirit at all. We all have to watch out because it is so easy to lose our way, forget our roots, ignore our past, and substitute warm feelings for true worship of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
Christmas is an interesting holiday. So much has been added to the story in pious attempts to make it into a tale fit for Hollywood. In the early church, the Christ – mass, from where we get the name Christmas, was really only a minor celebration. Easter – the celebration of the resurrection - was front and center as the most important Christian festival. Christmas stayed a second-tier celebration until around 1223 when Francis of Assisi received permission to set up a manger scene at a midnight mass.
In the last nine hundred years, some additional stuff has been added to the celebration.
• St. Nicholas was probably an early bishop known for pious acts of selfless giving was brought into the mix.
• Special treats were given out in the shape of bishop’s sticks which we now call candy canes.
• The evergreen tree came into use.
• Martin Luther added candles to the tree.
• Holly was added with its bright red berries signifying Christ’s blood.
• Mistletoe was added as a sign of new life.
And then there are the wise men – wise guys, wise folk, whatever you want to call them. The Bible calls them magi which could mean “magician” or “magians” which was a group of priests from Persia, or perhaps the closest meaning – “astrologers.” That one probably fits the best since they were introduced as coming to Bethlehem following a star.
They gave gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh which have led to the traditional belief that there were three of them. Those gifts by the way have been given spiritual meanings. It is a natural thing to associate gold with monarchy because after all, we proclaim Jesus as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Frankincense was used as a holy perfume in worship settings. Myrrh ties the birth of Jesus to his death because it was a substance used in the preparation of a body for burial. But none of that is supported by the text. Perhaps, they are nothing more than gifts fit for a king.
The magi have been labeled as kings, which probably comes from Old Testament texts like Isaiah 60:3: “And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” But in reality, we have no solid evidence that they were royalty.
They have been named as descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth – the three sons of Noah. Later traditions have given them names: Melchior, King of Persia; Gaspar, King of India; and Balthasar, King of Arabia. All of this helps fill in the story of Christmas, but it all goes way beyond what we learn from the text.
What we do know about these magi is that they entered into a scene of political and social hostility. They probably had little idea of the political situation in Judea at that time; perhaps hadn’t even heard of Herod.
Herod the Great was in reality Herod the Not-So-Great. He ruled as a puppet of Rome and therefore would go to any lengths necessary to prevent Roman hostility. The older he got, the more paranoid he became. He executed three of his sons. He has some Pharisees killed for treason because they refused to swear a loyalty oath to him. A group of young people, who pulled down a golden eagle that had been erected by Herod, were burned alive.
This was not a nice guy. He did not take kindly the fact that three foreigners came looking for the one who was born to be King of the Jews and an usurper to his throne. Matthew says that when Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all of Jerusalem with him. Their sense of security was being threatened. Herod’s power was being endangered. The status quo was in jeopardy. We know that, upon Herod’s orders, his soldiers went on a rampage in the area surrounding Bethlehem, killing all of the babies two years and younger. This “slaughter of the innocents” was meant to once and for all stamp out any talk of a rival to his throne.
Yet, regardless of the antagonism of the world, the magi brought their gifts. Regardless of the wishes of the ruler, they came to pay homage. Regardless of those forces that sought to lead them astray, they remained steadfast in their quest to worship at the feet of the one born to be King. Regardless of their personal danger, they came to bow down at the feet of true royalty.
What does your heart long for? What is the best gift you ever could receive? Is it a new diamond ring? Is it a brand new car? Is it a trip to a faraway exotic country? Is it a new home? Is it a paid-up line of credit? What does your heart long for? If you could ask for anything in the world, what would it be?
The best gift in the world doesn’t come from the mall. There is no department or specialty store in the country where you can find the greatest gift. You can’t even find the greatest gift at Wal-Mart or Target.
I hope that you go ahead and enjoy the holiday season with all of its fun and surprises because this really is a great time of year. Go to the mall and do all of that stuff. But remember that the season isn’t about the mall. The season is about Jesus Christ.
God gave us the greatest gift imaginable. Jesus was sent, not only to offer us salvation, but also so that we could see God more clearly. There is no greater gift. There is no better way to celebrate Christmas than to remember that the road doesn’t lead to the mall, but to the manger.
