These are uncertain times. And in uncertain times uncertain people do irrational things, destructive things. People who are drifting, people who have no anchor, people who have no center - in uncertain times, such people do things which destroy.
The pages of the calendar are turning toward January 15, and we are not certain whether there will be war. And if there is war in the Middle Fast, we are not sure how long it may last or how many may die. We are not certain what the outcome will be. The one thing we do know is that it will be devastating. And, to tell the truth, I fear irrational and destructive actions from uncertain, frightened people. I am afraid of Saddam Hussein and I am not all that confident of George Bush. It is not that I want to be disloyal or unpatriotic. I just do not know whether these men are well anchored, and in uncertain times, scared people, people who feel threatened do some very dangerous and destructive things.
The streets of Washington seem even less secure than they did a week ago, as this week our confidence was assaulted by the spectacle of teenagers driving by a junior high school and shooting at other teenagers and at even younger children. These are deadly and uncertain times, when this can happen, and you and I do not know which is worse: to fear the loss of innocent children on the streets, or to fear the loss of their innocence itself. But we do know these are uncertain times, and that when even children take security into their own hands, there is· certain to be destruction. Youngsters without anything to hope for, young people without anchorage and rootage at home, will lash out and destroy.
The uncertainty of these days comes home to you and to me in another way, too. I am thinking about the financial uncertainty of these times. This is a fear that I hear many of you talking about. You may not have to go to war, and you may live in a neighborhood that seems not to be threatened with violence. But maybe you are afraid that after years of being careful and frugal with your resources, even that is unclear and uncertain.
Isn’t it a terrible irony that we have taught each other the value of being thrifty, and we’ve even taught it to all the Central American refugees who have made their way here? And then all of a sudden all these people from El Salvador and other Central American countries find out that what they had thought was a bank wasn’t a bank at all, and their savings are gone. These are uncertain times where money is concerned.
Businessmen in what was supposed to be a recession-proof city built scores of office buildings which they cannot fill, creating debts which they cannot pay, tumbling banks which cannot collect, and canceling jobs for hundreds of workers. Uncertain times.
And if you and I get scared about that, if we are people without anchorage and without perspective, if we are persons who have no center, we will probably end up stuffing what money we have under the mattress and trying to protect ourselves. Why? Because people who are frightened do irrational things, destructive things.
And that is why Christmas this year brings a special poignancy and power. That is why Christmas speaks with such eloquence and significance to the needs of our day. You see, what God has done in Jesus Christ is to provide security for us, to make an anchor for us. What God has done in coming in Jesus Christ is to make a statement about living in uncertain times. God has said, "All my wealth I will give, I will become poor, so that you may be secure." The prophet Isaiah spoke of it when he announced that the spirit of the Lord God was on His anointed to bring good news to the poor, and the apostle Paul was right on target about this when he told us, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich."
What God has done in His coming in Jesus Christ is to say to us, "Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of a great joy, which shall be to all people". Fear not, for unto you is born this day a savior, Christ the Lord. Fear not. In uncertain times, fear not. For his poverty is the key to your wealth.
I
When our God comes in Jesus Christ, for one thing, He is saying, "I am here to invest in you for the long haul." God comes in the flesh in order to say, "I am no fly-by-night, I am the eternal one. I am certain and secure. And I have not given up on you. And so I will invest all of my wealth and become poor, so that you may be secure."
Think about the condition of the world when Jesus was born. It was a world not unlike our own. There was always war somewhere, and the threat of war always stared over the horizon like some hungry monster ready to gobble up everything in its path.
The world when Jesus was born was a world, too, in which there was no guarantee that you would live with any degree of prosperity. Famines and floods, droughts and upheavals could occur regularly, and no one was really secure. Finances were an uncertain and shaky business at best.
Most of all, the world when Jesus was born was a sin-sick world. Its moral structure had deteriorated rapidly. The old standards were in decay, and neither Israel nor Greece nor Rome could count on old standbys like loyalty and honor and truth and integrity. It was a war-weary, life-threatening, sin-sick, world.
And you know what? If I had been God, I think I would have given up on it. If I had been God, I would have hurled down a couple of thousand lightning bolts and taken care of this mess. My patience would have run out on a world like this a long, long time ago. But that’s all because I am scared and I am uncertain, and, as I have said, uncertain people do some irrational, destructive things.
But not our God. Our God has chosen to be involved with us for the long haul. Our God has chosen to invest his resources with us and in us for the long term. Our God is giving all that He is and all that He has in Christ Jesus, and He is saying, "In the midst of everything that is uncertain, of one thing you can be sure: I am not giving up on you.”
Oh, hear the message of Christmas. You must not lose courage. You must not become scared and irrational and fearful. God is not defeated. God has invested everything that He is and has, God has poured it all into one tiny fragile infant life, and has risked it all, because He believes in us and in our possibilities.
Think of it: God has seen our weariness, our lostness, our insecurity, and still He is willing to risk it all for us. That means, I believe, that we can stand for something, that we can be islands of calm in the middle of the storm. That means, I believe, that we can take the long look, we can take the long perspective, and we do not need to feel as though everything that we value is about to be swept away.
Isaiah says it this way about God’s people: "They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display His glory." You and I, once we truly understand that God in Jesus Christ is investing for the long term in us, that God is pouring all of His resources into us, we can become oaks of righteousness, strong and firm, the planting of the Lord, to display His glory.
I told you a few weeks ago about an investment I had tried to make. I said something about scraping together a couple of thousand dollars and trying to put it into a mutual fund so that there would be something to retire on some day. And I reported that right away, thanks to political and military conditions in the Middle Fast, that investment had dwindled by about ten percent or so. And so I waved that report in the face of the man who has been advising me financially, and I said, "Hey, what about this? My $2000 became 1900 and then it became 1800 – that is not exactly what I had in mind. I’m scared by that"
His reply was, "Well, you have to wait. You have to invest over the long term. You can’t expect quick gains in this kind of market. You can’t expect to make quick money. You said this was for your retirement. So you have a few years. Just sit tight. Just wait. Just stay calm and stay steady and it will turn out: Just stay steady."
Oh, do you see? God has chosen to invest in us over the long haul. God is not going to give up on us. God in Jesus Christ is not going to withdraw himself from us tomorrow or the next week or the next month. God is going to say by the stuff. And you and I just need to stay steady. You and I can be oaks of righteousness, standing tall and firm, unshaken by the meanness of the streets or the leanness of the banks, because our certainty is in a God who will risk it all in the infant of Bethlehem. Praise be to God, who is investing for the long term! Praise be to Christ, who, though he was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, so that by his poverty we might become rich.
II
There’s another way to look at this too. There’s another way to understand how God is providing for our security and is banishing our fears. You see, what Christmas means is that the God who comes in Jesus Christ is willing to invest in what obviously is a very risky thing. God is willing to pour Himself into something that is very, very risky. That is, God has poured Himself into a child. And that’s risky.
You know what that’s like, many of you. You know what kids can do to you. Every one of us here who is a parent knows what an awesome risk it is to raise a child. I do not mean only the financial risks we take, though that is of course a part of it. I mean the emotional risks, the possibilities of disappointment. And as I have gotten to know many of you better, I’ve found out some of the hidden hurts associated with children. Children betray us, children disappoint us, children do not fulfill our expectations. Children are risky.
And yet who of us who is a parent would wish that we had not had children? We know that despite the risk, children are the best hope we have. What tremendous possibilities there are in any child!
And so I am trying to remind you that our God invests Himself in the infant Jesus, telling us that precisely where we risk the most, that is where we can expect the most, telling us that He is willing to become as poor as a naked infant in order to give us the wealth of all the nations.
Oh, I tell you, as long as I preach I will never cease to marvel that the infinite power that created the vast universe, hurling into space thousands upon thousands of stars and planets, has confined Himself to a tiny fragile body, likely to catch cold and get sick and be vulnerable to all of the shortcomings of a human life. I will never cease to be astounded at the notion that the God of eternity, the God of all power and authority and dominion, should so limit Himself as to come as seven or eight pounds of limp human flesh, needing to be fed and clothed and healed, needing to have its scraped knees bandaged and its whimperings comforted. What a risk our God took, coming as a child!
And yet what hope that child harbors! What possibilities there are resident in that child, in any child! I cannot shake the idea that God chose to come in a child life just in order to prove to us that what we think of as poverty is really infinite wealth. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor, that we might in turn become rich.
And so when our God births Himself in Jesus Christ, He is identifying with the risks. He chose to come as a child, with all the risk involved, to show us that through our children there is hope in the midst of all our disappointment.
Isaiah says it this way: "They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, and the devastations of many generations.”
It is often said that Christmas is for the children. I guess we usually mean that Santa Claus and bright lights and toys and all the rest appeals to the children. But I tell you, Christmas is for the children in another way, too. Christmas reminds us that our God invests in a child, our God invests in those who are coming along behind us. And our God has hope, unfailing and unflagging hope, that these children will build up the ancient ruins and repair the devastations of many generations.
And so today, look into the face of a child, and take heart. Look into the face of someone younger than you are, and see where God has placed His energies and His resources. And whatever you’ve had to spend for education, whatever it has cost you to bring along another generation, consider it well spent.
Look into the face of the children of the church, and see what our God is about. Read in their faces the hopes and dreams of all the years, into which God in the infant Christ poured Himself, and know that whatever it costs us to provide for them, whatever dollars and time and energy and knowledge we pour into them, even though some of them will surely disappoint us, Christmas says it’s all right. Christmas says, "Fear not". Christmas says that God has given up His wealth, and poured it into this poor, unprivileged child in a third-rate province in a far corner of Rome’s wealthy empire, and that that is where the ultimate wealth of the nations shall be found. Shall we in this congregation be afraid to do as much for our children; shall we fear the risk of working with the children of this neighborhood? Of course some of them will disappoint us. Of course they will. But a risking God says, "Fear not". Go ahead. Take the chance. You really will not lose what matters.
These are uncertain times. And in uncertain times uncertain people do irrational, destructive things. Ask King Herod, who drew the sword against thousands of infant children because he was afraid for his position. Ask The Donald Trump, whose art of the deal has landed him with millions of debts and a highly public and expensive divorce. Ask Iraq, whose leader has snatched what he thought was security and an avenue of wealth on the Persian Gulf, only to have hundreds of thousands of troops parked at his back door. Ask the bankers and the financiers and the stockbrokers, who tried to make big money while the big money could be had, only to find themselves in financial baths of enormous proportions. Ask them all where their wealth is now.
And hear the song of the angels on this Christmas day, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of a great joy, which shall be to all people, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."
"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the poor … and you will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. You shall build up the ancient ruins … you shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. You shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory.”
"For you know …” … you know …on Christmas Day above all you know … “the grace of our lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich.”
