As people across the globe reel from one crisis to another, the Collins English Dictionary just last month (November 2022) revealed its 2022 word of the year: “permacrisis.” Harper Collins, the dictionary’s publisher, defines “permacrisis” as “an extended period of instability and insecurity, especially one resulting from a series of catastrophic events.”
A blog post on the Collins Dictionary website noted that the term rings true because of the war in Ukraine, political instability, and the surge in inflation. It goes on to say the term embodies the “dizzying sense of lurching from one unprecedented event to another,” as people wonder what new “horrors” might be around the corner (Greg Cannella, “Collins English Dictionary reveals its 2022 word of the year,” CBS News, 11-1-22; www.PreachingToday.com).
That’s the world in which we live today, a world in “permacrisis.” Even so, you can find joy in such a world! How? You ask. Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Matthew 2, Matthew 2, where some people “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” in a time when everybody else was troubled.
Matthew 2:1-3 Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him… (ESV).
Let me tell you, when Herod was troubled, everybody was troubled, because they knew heads would roll. Herod came to power in 37 B.C. three years after the Roman Senate declared him “King of the Jews,” even though he was not a Jew himself. When that happened, Herod gathered an army together, captured Jerusalem and ruled the Jews until his death in 4 B.C. As you can imagine, the Jews hated him for this, and there were constant uprisings and plots to overthrown him. As a result, Herod became ruthless in suppressing any opposition. He even killed members of his own family to protect his position, including his own wife and sons. Even on his death-bed, just five days before his died, he ordered the execution of Antipater, another one of his sons.
He was so ruthless, Augustus said of him, “It is better to be Herod’s hog than to be his son.”
Herod was king, and he meant it to stay that way. So when he heard about another “King of the Jews,” a potential rival to the throne, he was disturbed. He hated the thought of it all. He despised even the idea of a new king.
And so do some today. There are some who say they are offended by the symbols of Christmas. This time of year, we hear about the ACLU, the Americans United for Separation of Church and State, and the Freedom from Religion Foundation, opposing any expression of faith. They hate the idea of a Christ who would be King, just like Herod did. Certainly, that’s no way to enjoy Christmas this year or any year, so…
DON’T HATE CHRISTMAS.
Don’t despise it like Herod did.
Now, for most of you that’s not a problem. But some of you may have a different problem, perhaps like that of the religious leaders in Herod’s day.
Matthew 2:4-6 and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel’” (ESV)
These religious leaders are good! They can quote an obscure Hebrew prophecy about where Messiah is going to be born (Micah 5:2), but they never make the five mile trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to see him. Sure, they know their stuff, but they don’t really care. It has become so familiar to them that it ceases to amaze them anymore.
The religious leaders had become indifferent, and that happens to a lot of religious people, especially those who grew up in the church. They’ve heard the Christmas story so many times, it ceases to capture their hearts. And if you’re not careful, you too can develop a “ho hum” attitude about it all. You too can become indifferent to the real meaning of Christmas. You too can become indifferent to Immanuel, to the fact that God really is with us!
He’s as near as a prayer, but how many really pray. Like the religious leaders of old, some don’t even take the time to enjoy His presence anymore. Please, if you want to find real joy in a world in permacrisis…
DON’T BE INDIFFERENT TO CHRISTMAS.
Don’t let it fail to capture your heart.
Pastor John Huffman in Newport Beach, California, talks about the year he and his wife hosted the annual church staff Christmas luncheon at their home. They exchanged “white elephant” gifts, laughing until something stopped all their fun.
The tenth or so person to pick a gift lifted a little baby Jesus in a manger from a gift bag. Pastor John’s wife, Anne, was stunned when she saw it. It looked just like the central figure in the nativity scene that was on their living room table. She left the room to check their nativity set, and sure enough, the baby Jesus figurine was missing. Somehow it had fallen off the table and into the gift bag on top of the tissue paper in which the real gift was wrapped. They all had a good laugh and returned Jesus to the nativity scene.
Pastor John comments: “The more I thought about it… this little incident was quite telling. So often Jesus is swept off center stage in all our Christmas festivities, relegated to a kind of "white elephant" status. How sad when he is so central! (Dr. John A. Huffman, Jr., in his sermon Basking in God's "Good News" Glory, preached on 12-21-08 at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Newport Beach, California).
Please, don’t let that happen to you. If you want to find real joy in a world in permacrisis, keep Christ at the center of your life and your Christmas celebration. Don’t hate Christmas. Don’t be indifferent to it either. Instead, if you want to find real joy, take the time to…
WORSHIP THE CHRIST OF CHRISTMAS.
Take the time to adore him this year. Seek him out, bow before him, and give him your best. That’s what the wise men did.
Matthew 2:7 Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared (ESV)—which we discover later in the text was two years earlier.
Matthew 2:8 And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him” (ESV).
Herod had no intention of worshipping Him, but the Magi did. That’s why they had come. That’s why they had taken two years out of their lives to cross hundreds of miles of desert from what is now present-day Iraq.
Matthew 2:9-10 After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy (ESV)—literally, they greatly rejoiced with mega joy!
If you want to find real joy, then do what the wise men did.
1st of all, seek out the Christ of Christmas. Take the time to look for Him. Diligently search for Him, for “all who seek find.”
I find it amazing that the religious leaders wouldn’t take a few hours out of their day to make the five mile trip from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to look for their Messiah. But the Magi took two years out of their lives and crossed 900 miles of desert in search of Christ.
Speaker Mike Benson tells how one night, as his family was finishing dinner, his eight-year-old daughter left six green beans on her plate. She normally ate her veggies, and Mike did not usually allow this sort of thing to bother him, but this night he was irked and said to her, “Eat your green beans.”
She replied, “Dad, I'm full to the top.”
“You won't pop,” he responded.
“Yes, I will pop!” she said.
“Risk it!” he said. “It will be okay.”
“Dad, I could not eat another bite.”
Mike knew that night they were having her favorite dessert, pumpkin pie squares. So he asked, “How would you like a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream on top?”
“That sounds great!” she responded as she pushed her plate back, ready for dessert.
“How can you have room for a double helping of pumpkin pie squares with two dollops of whipped cream, and not have room for six measly green beans?”
She stood up tall out of her chair and pointing to her belly said, “This is my vegetable stomach. This is my meat stomach. They are both full. Here is my dessert stomach. It is empty. I am ready for dessert!”
We eat what we really want to eat. In the same way, we find what we truly seek. Some people say, “I don’t have the time to seek after God. I’m too busy. My life is so full, I’m afraid I’m going to pop.” But those same people seem to have plenty of time for ballgames, parties, and TV.
Tell me, where is your heart this morning? Is it set on worldly things or on the Lord Himself? Please, if you really want to find real joy this Christmas, take the time to seek the Christ of Christmas.
Then, when you find him, bow before him. Humble yourself in His presence. That’s what the wise men did.
Matthew 2:11 And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped him (ESV).
That’s the only way to come to Christ, humbly and on your knees. Those who come proudly, go away empty. But those who come humbly, go away filled. The Bible says, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). “A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17)
Pastor Matt Chandler writes about a time he and a couple of his friends invited a young woman named Kim to a gospel concert. Matt was hopeful that Kim would come to Christ that evening; however, what occurred was a “train wreck.” Chandler writes:
The preacher took the stage, and disaster ensued… He gave a lot of statistics about STDs. There was a lot of, "You don't want syphilis, do you?"… His big illustration was to take out a single red rose. He smelled the rose dramatically… caressed its petals, and talked about how beautiful this rose was and how it had been fresh cut that day. [Then] he threw the rose out into the crowd, and he encouraged everyone to pass it around. As he neared the end of his message, he asked for the rose back… [But by now] it was broken and drooping, and the petals were falling off. He held up this now-ugly rose for all to see, and his big finish was this: “Now who in the world would want this?” His word and his tone were merciless. His essential message, which was supposed to represent Jesus' message to a world of sinners, was this: “Hey, don't be a dirty rose.”
After the concert, Matt didn't hear from Kim for a few weeks, until one day her mother called Matt to inform him that Kim had been in an accident. Matt immediately went to visit her.
In the middle of their conversation, seemingly out of nowhere, she asked him, “Do you think I'm a dirty rose?” Matt’s heart sank and he began to explain to her the real Gospel. The fact is Jesus wants that dirty rose, because He wants to save, redeem, and restore the it (Matt Chandler, The Explicit Gospel, Crossway, 2012, pp. 206-208; www.PreachingToday.com).
Chuck Colson once said, “The great paradox [of my life] is that every time I walk into a prison and see the faces of men or women who have been transformed by the power of the living God, I realize that the thing God has chosen to use in my life… is none of the successes, achievements, degrees, awards, honors, or cases I won before the Supreme Court. That's not what God's using in my life. What God is using in my life to touch the lives of literally thousands of other people is the fact that I was a convict and went to prison. That was my great defeat, the only thing in my life I didn't succeed in (Chuck Colson, Sermon “The Gravy Train Gospel,” www.PreachingToday.com).
When you come to Christ humbly, He lifts you up. If you want to find real joy this Christmas, seek the Christ of Christmas, bow before him, and finally …
Give him your very best. Give to the Lord a true sacrifice of praise. That’s what the wise men did. Look at them in verse.11
Matthew 2:11 Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh (ESV).
They bypassed the cheap nick-knacks at the camel station on the way in. Instead, they prepared very costly gifts, worthy of a king! The magi gave Christ the best that they had, and it changed them forever.
If you want to experience true joy this Christmas, then you too must give Christ your very best. Start with giving Christ yourself. Trust Him with your life and your eternal destiny. Then consider giving Him a gift this Christmas. After all, it is HIS birthday!
One of the classic Christmas stories is that of Amahl and the Night Visitors. It’s about the three wise men, who were on their way to Bethlehem when they came to the home of a poor woman. She had a little boy named Amahl, who was crippled and could not walk without a crutch.
That night, their humdrum existence was interrupted by a loud knock at the door, and his mother said to Amahl, “Go see who is at the door.” He went, came back and said, “Momma, a king is there.” She gave him a tongue lashing for exaggerating so much and sent him back to the door. He came back the second time and said, “There are two kings out there.” He was in big trouble by then. So for a third time she sent him to the door, and he said, “Momma, there are three kings out there.”
Eventually, after much discussion, she went to the door and invited the wise men in. She was impressed, particularly with the gold they carried, and tried to steal some of it. That’s when one of the wise men, noticing her deep poverty, said, “You can keep the gold. The babe we are going to worship does not need it.” But she replied, “I would never keep that gold. Take it to the baby king, and if I had anything to send myself, I would do it.”
Then her son, Amahl, decided, “I will send my crutch.” It was the one thing he could not do without, but he was going to give it away anyway. So he lifted up his crutch and gave it to the wise men. Then a miracle occurred. His mother noticed it first. He was walking without the crutch, and he didn’t even limp! He had been healed! (W. Frank Harrington, “The Love That Brought Him,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 51; www.PreacingToday.com)
That’s what a simple act of giving can do for you and me. Oh, it might not heal a broken limb, but it can heal a broken heart.
Do you want to find real joy in a world in permacrisis? Then by all means, don’t hate Christmas and don’t be indifferent to it either. Instead, take the time to truly worship the Christ of Christmas. Like the wise men, seek Him out, bow before him, and give Him your very best.
I like what Barrie Shepherd said about this time of year: “It would be easy... to criticize... the waste, the trash, the sad attempt to buy affection in a splash of wild extravagance. Yet, for all of that, this is a genuine time of family fun; a day when games are played together, books are read and puzzles puzzled, a meal is eaten family-style, smiles and kisses are in plentiful supply; a day when memories are brought forth, dusted off, and handed round...”
Shepherd says, “May I find in moments such as these an echo of those ‘tidings of great joy’? I wonder, would the Christ-child, if he sat beneath our sparkling tree, condemn as crass and empty all he saw? Or might he laugh and cheer and clap his sticky hands with glee to see his miracle take place again and life become abundant shared in love?” (J. Barrie Shepherd, “A Child Is Born,” Christianity Today, Vol. 33, no. 18; www.PreachingToday.com).
I believe Jesus would laugh and cheer and clap his sticky hands. So laugh and cheer and clap your hands with Him this Christmas, despite the times. Find joy simply by keeping Him at the center of your celebration and your life.
