Sermon: Sending Greetings of Love (Christmas is Weird) Dec 16, 2001
Christmas is just plain weird. I mean have you ever thought about it. What other time of year do you sit around staring at a dead tree in your living room while eating candy out of your socks? And look at the Christmas cards we send.
1. Kitten - eat poinsettas it would die
2. frozen pond - no enough water hardly to have a lake much less skate on it
3. a snowman
4. then you have the family pictures: Dafts, Uncle Donald and Aunt Pat
The first Christmas card as we know it was designed in 1843 by the artist J.C. Horsley. It was about the size of a postcard. From this design one thousand cards were lithographed and hand colored three years later for Sir Henry Cole, first director of the South Kensington Museum. However, it was very well received you see. It pictures a Victoria family celebrating the gentle spirit of the season around a table. They are making a toast to health and happiness for their family friends and nation. Flanking the scene of Christmas cheer and celebration were the biblical concern for clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. Church folks in particular objected to the card for the reminder of benevolence was too graphic and hard hitting.
You know we have done the same thing to the Christmas story. We have taken out the graphic hard hitting rough edges out of the story to make it into this serene gentle story of a cute cuddly little baby. We have made the story easy to swallow, easy to understand. Take for instance the angel in today text that was read earlier during the lighting of the advent candles.
Luke 2:8-9 8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
I want you to close your eyes for moment and image the scene the shepherds are out in the field and an angel appears. We tend to imagine….
We learned last week that Luke was a physician and hence very detail oriented. He interviewed eye witnesses in an effort to make his story as factual as possible. While the angel is not identified here tradition suggests that it was the same angel that brought the good news to Zechariah and Elizabeth and Mary. His name was Gabriel. It is a masculine name. The angel was male not female. And his name means “warrior of God.” Now I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen many dainty petite warriors in light flowing gowns lately. Gabriel was probably a large intimating image of a man in army fatigues with a chest plate and blazing sword. The greek suggests that the angel “stood over them” probably up in the air towering over them.
Middle of verse 9 : And the “Glory of the Lord shone around them” When Moses stood in the glory of the lord his face got sun burn wait a minute that was in the movie the 1o Commandments that’s not scriptural but what it does say is that Moses had to shield his face for the glory of the Lord was so intense. The glory of the lord that shown around Gabriel wasn’t a little candle glowing in the dark. It was like one of those mega spot lights that car dealer or store might have out front to announce a really really big sale and you can see it from miles away as it arcs through the sky. The glory of the Lord was a super spot light radiating out from a large intense being and
end of verse 9 and the shepherds were terribly afraid. Literally “they feared a great fear” I mean they were shaking in their boots and they didn’t even have any boots. I mean wouldn’t you be. I mean maybe that’s why we have tampered with the image of the angel in the nativity story. I mean we are talking about one scary image that came in the middle of the night to a group of shepherds.
And talking about shepherds…in today’s nativity scene - young quite clean clean shaven with cute little baby lamb….in reality low life, no bath, smelled, unshaven dirty, rough looking - rough life showed in their faces…thieves….not sitting around gazing at the sky most asleep while a couple remained on night watch for predators - wolves.
And why shepherds - This is the most important event in all of history, even in all of the heavens. Never before had God gone to earth as a human much less a baby. And who does God send a birth announcement too. Not the king, or statesmen. Not to governors or heads of state but to shepherds. Moses was shepherd tending his flock when he came upon the burning bush. David was a shepherd in the field when he was made king.
Throughout the old testament the God the coming messiah is described as a shepherd - Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want. 2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
Ps 37 God himself is a shepherd a feeder to all those who trust
Jerm 23:1 Messiah the prince that great and good shepherd of the sheep.
The humble birth of the most exalted figure ever born is given to a group of common old dirty shepherds to remind us that Christ came for all of us not just the wealthy, wise upper crust but to the everyday joe blows of society and in the midst of all this glorious humble appearing we have the greatest christmas card greeting of all
vs. 10 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. 12 This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”
In coming to the shepherds Christ comes to us in the most initmate of all greetings “I bring you…
A greeting of love John 3:16 “For God….
When we strip away the candles, tinsels, stockings and presents we come to the real message of Christmas for all “for God so loved us”
13 And Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, NOT SINGING
14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men (meaning all of humanity) on whom his favor rests.”
15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”
16 So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.
And all who heard it were amazed…how long has it been since you have been amazed by the Christmas story - the real Christmas story - stripped of all it’s nice and pretty wrapping - amazed that God could love you so much that he sent his son as baby into this world to die for you.
When they had seen him, they spread the word - so amazed that you spread the word. Have you been so amazed at the love that God showed you that you gave it away like the shepherds?
God’s love changes us. It should exhilarate us. It should lift us up and it should so fill our hearts that the love flows out from us.
Dennis E. Mannering was teaching a class for adults, when he did the "unpardonable." He gave
the class homework! The assignment was to "go to someone you love within
the next week and tell them you love them. It had to be someone you have
never said those words to before or at least haven’t shared those words
with for a long time."
Now that doesn’t sound like a very tough assignment, until you stop to
realize that most of the men in that group were over 35 and were raised
in the generation of men that were taught that expressing emotions is not
"macho." Showing feelings or crying (heaven forbid!) was just not done.
So this was a very threatening assignment for some.
At the beginning of our next class, Mannering asked if someone wanted to share
what happened when they told someone they loved them. He fully expected
one of the women to volunteer, as was usually the case, but on this
evening one of the men raised his hand. He appeared quite moved and a
bit shaken.
As he unfolded out of his chair (all 6’2" of him), he began by saying,
"Dennis, I was quite angry with you last week when you gave us this
assignment. I didn’t feel that I had anyone to say those words to- I had told everyone who needed to know that I loved them, and besides, who were you to tell me to do something that personal? But as I began driving home my conscience started talking to me. It was telling
me that I knew exactly who I needed to say ’I love you’ to. You see, five years ago, my father and I had a vicious disagreement and really never resolved it since that time. We avoided seeing each other unless we absolutely had to at Christmas or other family gatherings. But even
then, we hardly spoke to each other. So, last Tuesday by the time I got
home I had convinced myself I was going to tell my father I loved him.
"It’s weird, but just making that decision seemed to lift a heavy load
off my chest.
"When I got home, I rushed into the house to tell my wife what I was
going to do. She was already in bed, but I woke her up anyway. When I
told her, she didn’t just get out of bed, she catapulted out and hugged
me, and for the first time in our married life she saw me cry. We stayed
up half the night drinking coffee and talking. It was great!
"The next morning I was up bright and early. I was so excited I could
hardly sleep. I got to the office early and accomplished more in two
hours than I had the whole day before.
"At 9:00 I called my dad to see if I could come over after work. When he
answered the phone, I just said, ’Dad, can I come over after work
tonight? I have something to tell you.’ My dad responded with a grumpy,
’Now what?’ I assured him it wouldn’t take long, so he finally agreed.
"At 5:30, I was at my parents’ house ringing the doorbell, praying that
Dad would answer the door. I was afraid if Mom answered that I would
chicken out and tell her instead. But as luck would have it, Dad did
answer the door.
"I didn’t waste any time - I took one step in the door and said, ’Dad, I
just came over to tell you that I love you.’
"It was as if a transformation came over my dad. Before my eyes his face
softened, the wrinkles seemed to disappear and he began to cry. He
reached out and hugged me and said, ’I love you too, son, but I’ve never
been able to say it.’
"It was such a precious moment I didn’t want to move. Mom walked by with
tears in her eyes. I just waved and blew her a kiss. Dad and I hugged
for a moment longer and then I left. I hadn’t felt that great in a long
time.
"But that’s wasn’t his point or even my point. Two days after the visit, his dad, who
had heart problems and didn’t tell him, had an attack and ended up in the
hospital, unconscious. And the gentlemen didn’t know if his father would see tomorrow. But he had a peace just knowing that his dad knew he really loved him.
Who do you need to send a real greeting of love to this Christmas?
