Christmas time is one of my favorite times of the year. Since I was a child I could not wait for Christmas to come, I would begin making my list in September and update it as the Sears, JC Penney, and Toys r us catalogs begin to arrive in the mail. Christmas was a big deal for us we didn’t have a lot of money and didn’t get much throughout the year but Christmas made up for all that, my parents would set aside money every year to spoil us.
In many ways I continue that tradition with my own family, our wallets stay tight throughout the year but at Christmas time we open them up and air them out. I love the atmosphere of Christmas, I listen to the music whenever I am in the car, I enjoy the bargain hunting, but most of all I enjoy shopping for my wife teasing her all month long about the “surprise gifts” I was not suppose to get her, and now shopping for my little girl and next year we get to do it for Isabel and her baby brother or sister.
It’s the giving I love the most we sacrifice throughout the year and we do without, but Christmas gives us a chance to relax a little and enjoy this season.
But this season is more than the giving and the gifts. It’s a time when Christians who for the most part should have been honoring Christ all year long get to really rejoice even more and use this time of year to share Christ with others.
We hear people all the time complain about the commercialization of Christmas, and to that I say I can’t help what the world does with this holiday but I know I can do my best to represent the spirit and message of this season.
This reminds me of a story I heard about a lady who frantically rushing around the mall was trying to finish last minute Christmas shopping. She along with everyone else was trying to find the “hot Gift of the season. She hurried about in the store dragging her little girls behind her. FINALLY she succeeded in finding the gift. She snatched the last one just before another person reached for it. Feeling victorious she rushed to the elevator; as the car doors opened to the elevator there was the rush of people getting off and the simultaneous rush of people getting on. The lady grabbed her daughter’s hand, shouted for her to come on and she shoved her way in. As the doors closed someone shouted “Whoever got this Christmas thing started needs to be shot! A Quite voice from the back of the elevator said” Don’t worry…they already crucified Him. An awkward silence filled the elevator.
When Pastor asked me to speak, I was surprised and honored but what amazed me most was it was just a few days before I was thinking about what I would say at this banquet and I could see myself standing here and sharing with you, I had begun to put together what I would share, but as some as you know me it did not take long for me to forget what it was I was putting together.
So as I began to retrace my thoughts and pray I begin to think of something different I began to challenge myself to take this message of our Saviors birth and start looking for hidden nuggets and deliver a deep and profound message that would leave you in awe, then I thought about going a different direction and talk about why we like the imagery of Christ as a baby, or even taken holiday songs and showing you the Gospel message, I even began to think of a sermon while watching an old Disney cartoon called Small One about the unwanted donkey that was bought by Joseph to carry Mary to Bethlehem.
But I was reminded of my original message as I looked at our Christmas tree and the gifts under it, I began to think about how gifting has become almost an art form. How gifts are now elaborately wrapped even if you are one to use gift bags you still look for a nice bag to show how much you care about the person.
1Pe 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
Bag of Trash – Nobody would place a bag of trash under the Christmas tree, even if you put a bow on its still trash.
• This bag represents sin and the dirty discarded and unwanted things of life; just as Adam and Eve used fig leaves to hide their sin, this bow represents our best efforts to hide ours. No matter how we try to hide our sins or whatever our approach is it doesn’t change what is inside. But under this tree God will pick through and discard the junk but will clean up what can still be used. Isa 1:18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Re 3:5 He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.
Empty Box – You would never place an empty box under a tree. No matter how great it looks, the fact it is empty makes it disappointing, you would never do that to a child or anyone else on Christmas.
• This box may be Beautiful on the outside but it’s empty on the inside. Just as we too carry with us emptiness a void that we try to feel with sin, etc… But God can take an empty vessel and fill it with purpose, hope, life, strength, etc…Ps 34:22 The LORD redeemeth the soul of his servants: and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate.
Box full of broken glass – We were told never to shake our gifts because they may break but we would never be given or give a broken gift.
• Everything on the outside looks normal but inside it is full of broken pieces. While we reject broken packages God accepts them and takes the time to put it back together. Ps 34:18 The LORD [is] nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Jesus was sent to bind up the broken hearted
Used item – We may regift a gift but we know not to cross the line and give a used unwanted item. We know a gifts value is not determined by its price but when we give something that we know that it no longer holds any value we are giving a worthless thoughtless gift.
• God takes the used, valueless, and worn out and refurbishes it and makes it new by cleaning up and replacing the damaged pieces. There may still be some scratches but He buffs them out, there may be some dings but He smoothes them out. 2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. Jesus said Behold, I make all things new.
What God gave was the ultimate gift. He gave His Son. John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator, if our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist, if our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist, if our greatest need would had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer, but our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.
He came from a mansion to manager, from the streets of gold to a stable cold, from royal robes to swaddling clothes, from His Father’s world to a Jewish girl, from the angels’ praise to the shepherds’ gaze, from that city afar to a wise man’s star, from perfection to rejection, from the throne room of God to the stable’s sod, from all that’s good and pure and holy to all that’s base and vile and lowly, from His humble beginnings to His sacrifice on the cross, He took a crown of thorns and made it a Crown of Glory for you and
