Advent # 3 Resource - Christmas Is Not Your Birthday, Mike Slaughter,
Abingdon Press, 2011
The Mess that Mary’s Mission Created
Christmas is weighed down with expectations! Somehow every year we think this one will be different.
I’ll finally find the perfect gift.
Christmas dinner will be perfect.
Nobody will be cranky, disappointed, or difficult when they come to visit.
Christmas Vacation, the comedy starring Chevy Chase, released in 1989, is a hilarious story of the missed expectations of Christmas. Clark Griswold is determined to make Christmas memorable and he does but not in the way he hoped. In one moment after another, the hapless father finds that his best efforts go wrong. One of the reasons the movie has remained in circulation for two decades is that we can all identify. Like Clark, we have a set of ideals that prove to be illusions unattainable in this present world! Cranky relatives, tempers that flare, exhaustion conspire against our dream of ‘peace on earth, good will to men.”
Pastor Mike Slaughter writes - “Consumer-focused marketing and Victorian Christmas traditions have replaced the Biblical meaning of “God with us.” In our attempts to create magical Christmas experiences we run ourselves into the ground- emotionally, physically, financially, and relationally.”
Will we make the choices that will allow us to find the meaning, the joy of Christmas, in the middle of our imperfection? Will we give up our fantasy of the ‘perfect’ Christmas and experience God’s gifts right where we are?
Here’s what I know. If we follow the story of Christmas told in the Gospels, if we let the real events, rather than our traditions and imaginations, shape our celebration, Christmas will enrich instead of deplete.
TEXT - Luke 1:26-34; 38; 2:6-7 PB 1588
I did a Google image search using the phrase ‘nativity scene’ this week. I chose the bulletin cover photo (show on PPT) from among the pictures I found. Not one of them was anything near realistic. Ever been in a real barn, full of livestock? (Or as is likely the case with Jesus’ birth, in a cave used to house domestic animals?) It’s nothing like the pretty pictures or the nativity scene here at the front of our church. Barns houses animals. I have shoveled what animals produce thoughtlessly. I know the pungent smells of a barn.
Jesus arrived on earth in a barn/cave. Since it was part of the premises of an inn, there were donkeys present. Donkeys were everywhere in Palestine, the beast of burden used by everybody, the utility trucks of the time. And, while there could have been sheep, that’s more of a stretch, since sheep were almost always tended in flocks outside of town by shepherds. There might have been a goat or two, tethered to the wall, as they would become tomorrow’s dinner entree! Possibly there were chickens perched for above. And yes, animal smells were richly redolent. It wasn’t a place I would choose for a baby’s birth.
Then there are the circumstances of his conception of which we read a moment ago. The angelic announcement created a mess for Mary. Virginity was highly valued. If a girl wanted to marry right, she did not involve herself with men. She waited for her father to find the right man and her marriage was arranged, not for love, but for security and family stability. If you got pregnant and were unmarried, there was a huge social stigma attached, and real complications for your future. So imagine this young woman (probably around 15) going to her respectable parents and telling them, “I’m pregnant and God is the father of my child.” (PAUSE)
Yep, that’s exactly the response she got. And, why not? There are all kinds of excuses offered for getting pregnant, but blaming God is quite a novel idea.
Pastor Slaughter offers this arresting observation about her life. “God’s blessing would only continue to bring pain into Mary’s life – all the way to the foot of the Cross.”
∙ Her fiancé nearly called off the marriage.
∙ She left town to go to her cousin’s home near Jerusalem before her pregnancy showed.
∙ She lived in a small village with ongoing questions about her son’s paternity.
∙ And finally, she wept at the Cross as she watched him die a horrible death.
And, all of this was because she was ‘highly favored,’ and the Lord was blessing her!
Seems that God’s idea of blessing is much different than ours – and, in fact, it is! (Repeat)
The whole story of God's arrival as the Savior of the world is turned into a nice tale about angels and wise men that ignores the scandal, the pain, and the mystery of the God who was willing to experience the pain of a broken world. Jesus did not arrive a pampered prince in a palace. He came to a peasant family, in circumstances that were certainly less than ideal, even for that time and place.
By failing to see the reality, we miss the amazingly inspiring faith that people like Joseph and Mary had, a faith that allowed them to become a part of God’s work to save Creation. What higher privilege exists?
Want a life that truly matters?
Want to know the deepest purpose, to live with eternal life?
Bringing true transformation to the world happens only if we enter into that world, just like Jesus did, not superficially, not shedding a few emotional tears, not by avoiding hard things but by loving boldly enough to let yourself be drawn into real need.
Christians are compelled to take the Light to the darkness. This is the amazing, often untold, story of Christmas! We save the world, as He did, by entering into it and sharing the Light. The process by which transformation becomes possible is often not pretty, will be difficult, and costs much of us, as it did Jesus.
But as we partner with His Holy Spirit, we find He empowers us, He enables us to remain persistent in pursuit of His will, and -best of all - we know that we will triumph over evil.
Let me repeat a line I said a moment ago: seems that God's idea of blessing is much different than ours – and, in fact, it is!
Many mistakenly come to the conclusion that a life of faith will always produces favorable circumstances, that faith will free us from every difficulty of life.
There’s a very popular perversion of Christianity that teaches that faith allows us to claim prosperity, perfect health, and pleasant situations. “Name your blessing,” the preacher’s urge. “If you can conceive it, you can receive it,” they say. “God has the blessings of Abraham prepared for you, if only you are bold enough to take possession of them.”
Seems to me they confuse the promises of Heaven and the pilgrimage of Earth! A serious reading of the chapter in the Bible often called, “the faith chapter,” Hebrews 11, shows us that faith produces profound obedience, a willingness to walk with God through the mysteries and messes of this world, hanging tightly to His promise that He will bring us safely home. There we read, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1, NIV) "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." (Hebrews 11:6, NIV) Then, speaking of the many who did the work of God, the Bible says, "All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them." (Hebrews 11:13-16, NIV)
Christian, we are called into the family of God, given the grace of God, so that we can join Jesus in His redemptive mission. “We love,” the Bible says, “because He loved us first.” He invites us to be preachers of the Kingdom, those who bring freedom to captives, hope to the hopeless, who offer peace with God to those separated from Him by their sins. Could there be a greater source of joy than to see people transformed by love? Is there a greater gift to receive or to offer than the gift of genuine love?
If we reduce our celebration of Christmas to finding a perfect tree, to having a pleasant dinner with family, to getting that 55" flat screen television set - we might find some momentary happiness, but we will not come close to the meaning of Christmas.
Mary’s faith allowed her to say an unqualified ‘yes’ to God. She did not carefully calculate risk versus benefit before committing herself to His divine will. My prayer for us this day is that He will find in you and in me that kind of intense faith so that we will join Him in His work.
Rather than trying to make Him the giver of trinkets and granter of temporary relief from life’s difficulties, I pray that we will join Mary in saying,“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” (Luke 1:38, NLT)
Here’s a direct challenge for this coming week.
Focus on helping someone that you know is struggling with life.
Ah, the temptation will be to look for the ‘quick fix,’ or to throw some money at the situation. That’s so American. Be Christian, instead!
∙ Commit to praying for wisdom for yourself and on behalf of that person.
∙ Come alongside, not so much with loads of advice, but with intense and wise love.
∙ Help appropriately, not making them into the person you think they should be, but walking with them through the experiences God will use to shape them into the person He desires.
Prepare for things to be messy, stinky, and at times, downright intolerable! And when it is, just remember that Jesus, the Savior of the World, came to us through a barn that was full of manure!
Christmas joy is not getting, it is giving.
It’s not about finding some glow of happiness, it’s about discovering the joy and peace of God. Our deepest joy will be discovered in the faces of those who come to know the love of God because we loved them with His love. Could there be a better Christmas than that? Amen
