Each year PNC Wealth Management calculates the cost of buying all 364 items repeated in the song “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” The financial services company tracks the items - including gold rings (up big), swans (more expensive than you think) and maids a-milking (at minimum wage) as part of its Christmas price index. And the new retail cost of $107,300 (before sales taxes.) It has gone up 6.1 percent since last year, when the cost was estimated at $101,000.
But how much does Christmas cost you? Exchanging of gifts is a relatively new Christmas tradition. But it is one we have embraced with enthusiasm. Presents for the kids? Check. A few thoughtful gifts for your spouse. Check. A little something for your parents? Check.Your siblings? Check. Gifts for your coworker? Check. Your neighbor? You end up writing a lot of cheques.
On November 11, 2012 American Research Group reported survey results indicating the Average American would spend $854 on Christmas gifts. (Up 32% from the previous year) Throw in the cost of travel, food, parties, etc and you probably find the result to be a tidy sum. Almost any way you wrap it, Christmas can break the bank as a costly holiday.
But the true cost of Christmas is not measured in what it requires of us financially. The true cost of Christmas is measured in what it required of Jesus to be in relationship with us. A good description of that cost is in the opening verses of the gospel of John.
As we look at these costs, note that we must be willing to pay them as well in order to establish and maintain healthy relationships with others.
THE COST OF TRAVEL
Travel is a lot of trouble: Packing, loading, the time, and the expense. Why do we do it? In order to be some place we want to be. John 1 begins with a description of where Jesus was before he traveled to earth.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. John 1:1-2 NIV
Jesus went from being with God to being with Us. That is why we embrace the word Immanuel during the Christmas season because it celebrates that distinct season in which God came to be with us.
Some of you are not traveling anywhere for Christmas. Some of you are going some shorter distances. Some may travel across many miles. But no one will make a Christmas Trip further than Jesus did.
About twenty years ago a Children’s choir musical named “The Great Late Potentate” by Karen Dean featured a song about the distance Jesus traveled to come to earth. The lyrics included these phrases:
He stepped right out of eternity, He walked down through history
He traveled down through infinity and past every galaxy
He must have sped past a million stars, past Jupiter, Pluto, Mars
Up over, out beyond outer space, from some grand forever place
Now ask yourself: is there a journey I need to take? Do I need to cover the distance to someone I am avoiding? Do I need to make a trip to mend a relationship that is broken or strained? It may cost you some pride and some courage to make that trip. Make it anyway.
A friend of mine recently posted the reminder of what it means that Jesus traveled to earth.
It’s not enough to say God is in heaven and all is right with the world:
The rumor is that God has left heaven to set the world right.
THE COST OF SHARING SPACE
When you go somewhere you probably look for accommodations that are clean and comfortable and probably private. But Christmas may mean lots of individual congregating in an individual home, sleeping on a couch or an air mattress. It may mean the challenge of many people, few bathrooms, and a limited supply of hot water.
John closes his prologue with The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. John 1:14a NIV If you take that word for "dwelling" and pull it apart, it literally means "to set up camp." Have you ever been camping? We're talking real camping, not "motor-home, microwave and full-size shower" camping. Real camping involves sleeping bags, tents and making your own outhouse. If you are going to camp with someone, you are going to get close to them.
Jesus did not simple come into our world and live on in a deserted or isolated place. He chose not a luxurious palace with all the amenities, isolated people and their problems. He could have lived in an “ivory tower” apart from the brokenness of humanity. But He didn’t. He came into a common family among common people.
It was not enough just for Jesus to come to earth. He came to where we are and lived among us. It meant doing the messy work of entering our world so that he could live the perfect life we couldn't live, and die the death that we deserve. Real relating begins by sharing space.
I commonly affirm the principal that But there is no substitute for presence. But there is a cost to it. Our missionaries go into the world of those they seek to serve.
To what “space” do you need to go? Do you need to re-enter the life of one of your parents or children? Do you need to connect with a neighbor who needs to know God? Is there someone against whom you are holding a grudge?
Entering the “space” of another indeed is costly. But that didn't stop Jesus at the first Christmas and it shouldn't stop us. How do we go about “sharing space” now? Here are some suggestions:
· Shuffle your schedule to spend more time with family.
· Starting some awkward conversation the intent of which is to resolve some long-standing tension to heal a challenging rift
· Take someone to lunch so you can have a meaningful conversation.
· Help your neighbor with his/her Christmas decorations.
I had an Uncle who went by his initials: J.D. He was a former marine who served in combat during the Korean War. He was tough and no nonsense. One day in my mid-teens he and I worked together making a repair in her bathroom. We shared close quarters that night, working together to fix the problem. Later he bragged on how much help I was. I noted that something changed for the good in our relationship from that evening on.
Sharing space is really sharing life. And it is it is there that you ultimately share your heart.
THE COST OF SHARING YOUR HEART
This too is a cost Jesus was willing to pay. I remember a children’s Christmas song entitled, The Stranger In the Straw. Yes, Jesus may have came as a stranger, but He did not continue as a stranger. He shared His life and His heart for us. He did not watch from a emotionally safe distance. He drew intimately close, desiring that His love to be reciprocated. Unfortunately that did not happen. John says,
He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive Him. John 1:10-11 NIV
That has got to be one of the saddest verses in all of scripture. Jesus was willing to risk His heart, willing to pay the cosst of being misunderstood and rejected.
Later, John writes in His epistle:
Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another 1 John 4:11 ESV
In other words, relate with others as Christ has related to us. Share your space, share your experience and share your heart. Yes, at times it means you will get your heart broken. You will need both to extend forgiveness and to ask for forgiveness. But that is the way a relationship endures and thrives.
Here is your homework: Pick at least one person and say; starting this year I am going to embrace every opportunity I can to cultivate that relationship. Be aware: to invest in another’s life like that is costly. But it is the only way to experience genuine relationship. And aside from our salvation, quality relationships are life’s greatest blessings.
Remember, the greatest cost Jesus paid was not going to the cross but coming to earth. What are you willing to allow Christmas to cost you?
· What did Christmas cost Mary? It nearly cost her marriage to Joseph. It cost her some of her reputation because people would not assume it was the Holy Spirit that caused her pregnancy.
· What did Christmas cost Mary and Joseph together? It cost them their home. When they learned that Herod's soldiers would soon arrive, with infanticide on their minds, their brief sojourn to Bethlehem stretched into years of exile in Egypt.
· What did Christmas cost the magi? Many months, perhaps even years, of arduous travel. And the shepherds? They had to risk descending from the high meadows into the town below, where they would be subject to abuse and ridicule from the more settled populace.
By making this investment into God’s kingdom.you will discover that it is much more valuable than twelve days worth of birds, gold rings, musicians, maidens, ladies, and lords. You will find the greatest gift of your truest love: a place in His own eternal family.
He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him. Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— John 1:11-12 NIV
