THE JOURNEY TOWARD CHRIST
Sermon Three: Birth
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
December 23, 2007
As a pastor, I am always dealing with distractions. I don’t mean distractions that keep me from getting my work done. I mean people who are constantly getting distracted from what matters in life. I’m not being critical. We all get distracted sometimes. But a key skill in moving forward spiritually is learning to identify what kinds of things are and are not worth your time and effort. Who are the most mature Christ-followers? Those who are able to stay most focused on Christ.
Let me give you some examples. Before I do this let me say that I love hearing from people. Please don’t hear these things and think, “I’d better not contact Dave with questions – I don’t want him judging my issues as distractions.” Please don’t think that way. If I think you are needlessly, distracted, trust me, I’ll tell you so! You won’t have to worry about what I’ll think because you’ll know.
One thing that endlessly distracts people is prophecy. People get so caught up in that. When is Jesus returning? Who will the antichrist be and where will he (or she) be from? Will the Biblical idea of the tribulation happen literally or in some metaphorical way?
Another is arguments and debates. Things circulate on the Internet all the time where one person or another is spouting off about this issue or that. Does healing still happen today or just in Bible times? Does God still strike people ill and dead today like he seemed to occasionally do in the Old Testament? Should “In God we trust” be removed from our money? Should “one nation, under God” be removed from our pledge? Should the 10 Commandments hang in public schools? What does Wildwind think about speaking in tongues?
Ironically, another distraction is finding God’s will. Who does God want me to marry? What college does God want me to go to? What car should I buy? What job should I take?
There are a million things that distract us from what really matters in the spiritual life. The strange thing about all these distractions is that none of them are wrong to think about in themselves. But right now as I speak, there are people sitting in this congregation who are in darkness. Some are Christians who are still in the darkness of various destructive habits. Some are spiritually uncommitted and are in the darkness of life without God. Some are in bad marriages and are in the darkness of denial about that. All across this room today there are individuals and families who, more than anything, need a real encounter with a real God who can make a real difference. And instead of dealing with the fear and frustration that might come from reaching out to that God, some people want to toy around with silly questions that aren’t going to bring God one step closer to them. In fact sometimes the questions will keep him at bay. See, these are pseudo-spiritual things we tinker with. They revolve AROUND God, they seem to be theological questions, and they give us the feeling that we are dealing with God in our lives. But they keep at a safe distance a God who, if you give him a chance, will be born into your heart and grow there and shake you up and rock your world view and alter your perceptions and quicken your conscience and soften your heart and change your mind and generally just mess you up and move your cheese. This is what God does when he is born inside of us. And how freaky is that, so we tinker.
I proposed to Christy when we were very young. Just 19. And I didn’t know anything about getting down on one knee or doing something special or anything. I just didn’t know about it. So on a fall evening at my parents’ house I asked Christy if she wanted to go for a walk. We went outside and walked up and down the street in front of my parents’ house. I was wearing a jean jacket, and I had the ring in my pocket. I kept reaching inside wanting to slip it out and propose but I was so nervous I couldn’t do it. After about a half hour Christy said, “I’m getting cold, let’s go inside.” I said, “No – let’s just keep walking for a while.” So we walked. And I couldn’t do it and again she said, “Let’s go – I’m cold.” And I said, “Let’s just keep walking,” and I was just blabbing on and on about anything I could think of -- absolutely anything to keep her close enough in a place where I might eventually get the guts to say what I currently couldn’t seem to get out of my mouth. I just kept tinkering and tinkering and tinkering – messing around the edges. Not getting to the point. Not taking the risk of asking the right question – the one that would get me to the goal and score me a wife. I just kept tinkering.
And that’s some of you today. You’re just tinkering. Any spiritual topic will get you going because you want to feel you’re moving toward God, but you’re just tinkering, because you’re afraid. So any quasi-religious-sounding email will get you charged up. You’ll spend time arguing with your friends about things in the Bible, but God’s not alive in your heart. You might have a marriage that is coming unglued but instead of focusing on God’s desire that your marriage be healthy and whole, you’re spending time studying things in the Bible that will have no impact on your marriage. Some of you are addicted – to gambling, to alcohol, to pornography, to the praise and admiration of others. And instead of going humbly to God with your brokenness, some are wasting time in quasi-religious debates and discussions that are having zero effect of birthing God into their situations, getting lost in distractions.
Do you know why I’m talking about distractions today? Because we’re headed into Christmas. One of the most distracting celebrations in the Christian faith. Why? Because many people believe the most important thing about Christmas is that Christ was born. Do you believe that? Do you believe the most important thing about Christmas is that Christ was born?
It’s not. The thing that matters most at Christmas is not that Christ was born, but whether he has been born in you. Christians complain about leaving Christ out of Christmas. But that’s the least of our worries. The real danger for all of us is that we’ll keep Christ in Christmas and then leave him out of our lives. Because you can send out Christmas cards, you can visit a living nativity, you can go to a nice Christmas Eve celebration at a nice church that says nice respectful things about God. You can read the Christmas story before you open presents. You can hang a sign in your front yard that says, Christ is Born. But is he? Because if Christ is not born in you, then it really doesn’t matter whether he was born in Bethlehem or not. All this stuff can end up being just more distraction. Ways we convince ourselves that we’re into something spiritual without letting God have any real impact in our lives.
Three weeks ago the sermon was called Darkness. We are all in darkness before Christ comes into our lives. There’s nothing harder than seeing and admitting our own darkness and need for God. Last week the sermon was called Searching. Christ came into the world and those who were looking for God were able to find him, as are we today. But spiritual searches are always characterized by fear and frustration – it’s part of the journey. So we come to today – Birth. The celebration of Christ born in Bethlehem. Which ends up just being a big distraction if Christ is not born in you. If he’s not, what difference does it make? And if Christ is going to be born in you, we must set aside those little pseudo-religious things that actually distract us from God. Now assuming you are prepared to do that, let me talk to you about birth for a moment. It’s church and it’s the Sunday before Christmas so let’s look at the birth of – I don’t know – heck, how about Jesus?!
Luke 2:8-18 (MSG)
8 There were sheepherders camping in the neighborhood. They had set night watches over their sheep.
9 Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them. They were terrified.
10 The angel said, "Don’t be afraid. I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for everybody, worldwide:
11 A Savior has just been born in David’s town, a Savior who is Messiah and Master.
12 This is what you’re to look for: a baby wrapped in a blanket and lying in a manger."
13 At once the angel was joined by a huge angelic choir singing God’s praises:
14 Glory to God in the heavenly heights, Peace to all men and women on earth who please him.
15 As the angel choir withdrew into heaven, the sheepherders talked it over. "Let’s get over to Bethlehem as fast as we can and see for ourselves what God has revealed to us."
16 They left, running, and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in the manger.
17 Seeing was believing. They told everyone they met what the angels had said about this child.
18 All who heard the sheepherders were impressed.
As I read through this, my attention is drawn to verse 10. “I’m here to announce a great and joyful event that is meant for ______________? EVERYBODY!
What does that mean, to say it’s for everybody? It means that it is to have a direct impact, a direct effect in the lives of all people. Think about a poem that the writer claims was written for everybody. What would that mean? It would mean that his intention is not only for people to celebrate the anniversary of the writing of that poem every year, but for people to read it, take it in, make it part of them, and be changed by it.
Those shepherds, they were right there, man. They saw the whole thing. But really, so what? I wonder if they were changed, or if they just carried with them this cool experience they had. Because what really matters is not that the shepherds were at the scene when Christ was born into the world, but whether Christ was born into their hearts and minds and lives. Do you figure forty years later they ended up selling tickets in some lame booth somewhere, telling people the story about the night they saw the Christ-child? Or do you figure they didn’t have time to open that stand because they were enthralled with him, watched him grow up, kept tabs on him, and worshipped him for the rest of his life and the rest of theirs?
God wants to break through the chaos of our lives. God wants to be born into our hearts and minds and lives, but often we’ll settle for just talking about him, holding him at arm’s length, keeping him at a distance. Distractions are readily available. We make them up. Did you know that? We aren’t kept from knowing God by all the distractions, we manufacture distractions to keep from dealing with God. Everything in our lives can turn out to be a distraction, even Christmas. Even ministry.
There are millions of people all across our country right now who claim to follow this person whose birth we celebrate this week. But rather than be transformed by him, they will celebrate his birth and then go back to crusading against gays and running websites condemning Rick Warren and other Christian pastors, and railing against music they don’t like and against those who have different political views, and bashing their non-Christian co-workers, and/or worshipping the God of money, or sex, or power, or fame, or whatever. Anything will do! That’s why the most important thing about Christmas isn’t that Christ is born, but whether Christ is born in you!
Christ is born is nothing more than an historical fact. It’s a fact that one day long ago, a man named Jesus was born. But what’s important is that he was born for YOU. You can sit at church and hear about Christ being born and think about it, and then go home and forget it. Or you can do something with the fact that Christ was born FOR YOU.
I want to ask you this morning: are you in danger of missing the point? If you’re the kind of person who kindly observes Christmas as the birth of Jesus but then does not allow it to affect you, then you are missing. Because the point is not that Christ was born, the point is that Christ was born FOR YOU! Now I’m not talking about trying to make yourself feel a certain feeling. I don’t usually have deep feelings at Christmas time. In fact I frequently go long periods of time without having deep religious feelings about anything. This isn’t about what you feel. It’s about whether Christmas is just one more distraction – one more thing that keeps you from experiencing God – from Christ being born in you. Maybe a couple weeks ago you had to work, then last week you weren’t in church because of the snow, and now this week things are just so crazy because of the holidays. And God waits, not to be born to earth, but to be born in YOU.
So my question for you this morning is what is distracting you? What are the things you have used as distractions to keep God at arm’s length? What things (even religious-type things) have you busied yourself with to keep from dealing with the reason Christ came to earth, which was to be born in you? A busy marriage? Kids in sports? Work? Politics? Religion?
The news that Jesus was born is ancient. But God wants to be born today in you if he hasn’t been. God, who brought light to a dark world; Jesus – who Nicodemus and millions of others have wondered about and searched for; Christ wants to be born in you. And if he isn’t born in you, then what happened on that first Christmas Day just doesn’t matter.
Let’s pray together. And I’m going to ask if anyone wants to set aside excuses and distractions and come up here and ask Christ to be born into them. What a great thing to do this time of year. Maybe some just want to come forward and pray for specific requests, that’s fine too. Christian, non-Christian, not sure what you are – we can pray for Christ to be born, and to grow, in us this morning
