TITLE: COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
SCRIPTURE: ST. LUKE 2:3
++++We are now in full swing with our “COME HOME FOR CHISTMAS” Campaign. Post cards have been and are being mailed out to many of our friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, inviting them to come visit and perhaps connect and become part of the First Baptist Church family during this Christmas and Holiday Season. It is always good to come home.
++++It was the year 1943 when BING CROSBY scored a top ten hit with the song entitled – “I’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.” Originally written by a gentleman named KIM GANNON to honor soldiers overseas who longed to be home at Christmastime, "I'll Be Home for Christmas" has since gone on to become a Christmas standard.
++++The song is sung from the point of view of a soldier stationed overseas during WWII, writing a letter to his family. In the message, he tells the family he will be coming home and to prepare the holiday for him, and requests SNOW – MISTLETOE – PRESENTS UNDER THE TREE. The song ends on a MELANCHOLY note, with the soldier saying, "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, IF ONLY IN MY DREAMS.”
++++It is normal to have a longing for home, especially during the Christmas Holy Days. Before God created mankind, he had a plan on the drawing board. His plan was to create an environment in which He would place mankind. The environment would be self-sustaining and man’s primary function would be to communicate with God the Father. After God created man, He created woman as a helpmate for man.
++++The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” God put Adam to sleep and took one of his ribs and from the rib formed woman. Now man had a mate and God had mankind created in his own image. Adam and Eve were placed in a beautiful environment called the “GARDEN OF EDEN”.
++++The Garden of Eden was the first home created on earth and Adam and Eve were privileged to live in this beautiful home. This home had everything anyone could ask for. God provided shelter in the garden as well as many trees with edible fruits. The water supply was plentiful due to a river that flowed through the garden. God placed Adam and Even in the Garden of Eden to work the soil and take care of the garden. There was no need for them to worry about weather conditions, storms, hurricanes, or tornadoes because conditions were like a well-controlled greenhouse.
++++Adam and Eve had a wonderful setup. It included a beautiful home and a Father who walked with them daily. God not only walked with them, but they also walked with God giving Him all the honor and glory He deserved. Since God created Adam and Eve, he knew their hearts, he knew what they could do, and he knew what they would do, so in his major plan he allotted a minor plan that would take care of what he knew would happen. God did not want puppets on a string, so he gave mankind the privilege of making choices. We all know the choice they would go on to make.
++++This action was the Fall of mankind. This was the original sin and this sin caused them to be separated from God and to lose their happy home in the Garden of Eden. God did not destroy mankind, but He could have. Instead, God put the next phase of his plan into action. This part of the plan was to give mankind an opportunity to regain status in God’s eternal home.
++++Our Scripture reading indicated that an order or decree was sent out from Caesar Augustus to count the people. Caesar Augustus was the emperor of Rome. The Roman Empire extended all over the Mediterranean Sea area all the way over to Britain and eastward into Asia. Under the leadership of Caesar Augustus, the Roman Empire was very WEALTHY – POWERFUL - AUTHORITATIVE.
++++Now, come travel with me through our text for just a few minutes. It had been a long, hard day on the road, and the TWO TRAVELERS WERE EXHAUSED. It was a long trip no matter when you traveled, but this time of year the roads were so clogged that it took even longer. Three days had passed since they left Nazareth. Two more days and they would be in Bethlehem. When they left, it hadn’t seemed like such a bad idea. In fact, he liked the notion of a final trip before the baby came.
• It was almost, well, it was almost romantic
• Typical male thinking
• Now that he and Mary had spent their third twelve-hour day on the road, all the romance had vanished
++++FOR MARY’S PART, SHE JUST WISHED IT WAS OVER. Traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem took 70 miles through some of the most desolate country on earth. She, of course, was pregnant. Anyone could tell by looking at her that the baby wasn’t going to wait much longer.
• She was in that stage where you can’t get comfortable no matter what you do
• Walking hurts - Standing hurts - Sitting hurts - Lying down hurts
• Eating is hard and Breathing isn’t much better
• So now in the ninth month, she rides a donkey on the path by the River Jordan
++++Both Joseph and Mary had to make the trip to Bethlehem to be registered or counted and to pay their taxes. They left their home in NAZARETH to go to their lineage home in BETHLEHEM. You might think this was a cruel call by Caesar Augustus, but in essence, it was a part of God’s plan. This was the time when God would bring his Son into the world. Mary was pregnant and near the end of her pregnancy during this trip. Joseph and Mary were poor people, so when they entered the town looking for a place to stay, no one really bothered to notice she was pregnant and they probably did not care.
++++It had all started not long ago when word came that the GOVERNMENT NEEDED SOME MONEY. That was no big deal. The government always needed money. Only this time the word didn’t come down from HEROD in Jerusalem. It came from a faraway place called ROME where a man named CAESAR AUGUSTUS was Emperor.
• Joseph knew his name but that was all
• Like all good Jews, he had little use for Rome
• But the Romans didn’t come often to Nazareth and he was not a political fanatic
• Not a Zealot
• No, he was a carpenter
• Which meant he was not a man the Romans would ever notice
++++But he’s on the road because Caesar Augustus decided to take a Census. From the census he would get a list of names which would be used to collect taxes. With the money he raised, Augustus would build the mighty Roman Empire.
• It was said of him that when he came to Rome it was a city of brick - but when he left it was a city of marble
• He reigned as emperor for 58 years and was the greatest Caesar of them all, greater even than his granduncle, Julius Caesar
• He truly deserved the name Augustus, which meant “exalted one”
++++The crowd was large and there were probably many other pregnant women, and they were mostly poor people in the multitude, so who cared, no one really cared about the poor.
• God never said life was going to be easy for any of us
• Life is not always easy for a pregnant woman of this day and age, and it was not easy for Mary
• Mary was a very young woman and this whole pregnancy scenario was new to her
• Like any other first-time mother-to-be, Mary probably did not know what to expect
++++However, Mary accepted the news of this strange pregnancy since she had never known a man, she accepted in faith with the words, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
• She believed God could do anything, including the impossible
• God is the same today as he was yesterday, and as he will be tomorrow
• We should be like Mary and willingly accept the hand God deals us
++++Well….Let’s get back to our journey. Just over the next hill and Joseph would be back in his hometown. And then, there it was. He paused for a few moments to take it in, a smile playing across his lips. Even if the trip was a bother, it was good to be coming back home. As he entered the village with her riding the donkey, an odd feeling of Fear and Excitement swept over him. Excitement because he was back where he had grown up and fear that he would forget people and they would forget him.
• It didn’t take long to see that things hadn’t changed much
• It was just a small town, really, one of dozens of small towns in the region
• But still it was home to Joseph and he was back again
++++We long to belong. We want someplace where we fit
• We want someplace where everyone knows our name
• One put it this way, “Home is not where you live but where they understand you”
• Robert Frost wrote, “Home is the place where, when you go there; they have to take you in”
++++Scripture says in ST. LUKE 2:6-7 - “While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.”
• The birth took place in Bethlehem in a dirty stable, but who around town really cared
• Caesar Augustus could have cared less about another baby born in Bethlehem
• Other people in Bethlehem didn’t really care because babies were always born
• What was so special about this one?
• No one knew except…Mary
++++On the night Jesus was born, Caesar Augustus was a towering powerful figure in the Roman government. People never thought that this little child would live on for eternity in his kingdom, but the name of Caesar Augustus would only be an echo in time past. The name Jesus will never be forgotten.
++++God has always been in control. Caesar Augustus’ decree went out because the timing was right according to God’s master plan. People had to report home so the prophesy concerning the Messiah could come to fruition. Home for Joseph and Mary was in Bethlehem because they were of the line of David. It was in the obscure little stable that God came home to mankind.
++++IT IS A WONDERFUL FEELING TO HAVE A HOME. Why is this true? What is there about home?
• For one thing, a home is very familiar to the people who live there
• A home is the place where we are the most familiar
• A home is very comfortable and pleasant because of the material things, like carpeting, furniture, curtains, TV, soft couch, rockers, Lazy Boy lounge chairs
• A home is a place where family communicates with one another, shows love and affection for each other, engages in games and activities, attends to the needs of each other
• A home is a place where family laughs together and cries together
• A home is a place where family worships together, and shines with the love of Jesus
++++There are times we go on vacation, or visiting, staying with family or friends, or staying at a motel or hotel, but we are always anxious to get back home.
• There is no place like home
• During this time of year, Christmas, most people want to spend at home
• Military personnel stationed in the far corners of the earth wish they could spend Christmas at home with their families
• People travel from one part of the country to the other to spend time with their families at their home
• Sometimes people can’t get home for Christmas for whatever reason
++++No matter how wonderful our Christmas will be or have been in the past, can I tell you that CHRISTMAS CELEBRATIONS ARE OFTEN INCOMPETE. Even if we could return to a place where everything seemed complete, we would find that someone is always missing:
• We are homesick, not for some home of our past, but for a home we have never seen and cannot readily imagine
• This is something more than nostalgia, and more profound as well
• What we long for is not merely a Christmas from our past, but a gathering up of our past, present and future into a harmony that is not achieved in the days of our lives
• What we long for is to have the broken and scattered pieces brought together in ways that we are unable to do
• And that is why I have concluded that our homesickness is, in some way, a yearning for God
++++So, this young family set the stage as to why we have this yearning to COME HOME FOR CHIRSTMAS. Seven hundred fifty years (750) before, the Prophet MICAH 5:2 - said that the Child shall be born in Bethlehem! Caesar Augustus didn’t know it, he didn’t realize it, but when Micah said, seven hundred fifty years before, that the Child shall be born in Bethlehem, the decree from Caesar Augustus sent the holy family from Nazareth to Bethlehem, that the word of the prophet might come to pass according to the commandment of the Lord.
• Yes, the Prophet knew that Mary and Joseph had to COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS.
++++But more than even all that, Christmas, as Luke tells it, is not just about Mary and Joseph coming home, safe in the family, it’s not even about our homecoming for Christmas.
• It’s about God
• Lord of Lords
• King of Kings
• Prince of Peace
• Savior, coming home
++++WE COULDN’T GET TO GOD, SO GOD CAME TO US - coming among us in this mundane, ordinary family story we cherish as the nativity. What we call “INCARNATION” is somebody sleeping on the foldout sofa downstairs in the playroom. That somebody is little “GOD WITH US.” Our God came out of the cold to dwell among us.
--COME HOME FOR CHRISTMAS, there we will find -
• The Baby Sleeping
• The Mother Dreaming
• The Father Thinking
• And God Watching over it all
