Christmas Playlist - Silver Bells

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Last Thursday, I needed to take a deep breath and remember what we’re getting ready to celebrate. You see, I had this bright idea that on Thursday night I was going to take my two youngest out to buy their Christmas gifts for Mom. I was going to make an evening of the whole thing. We’re going to go to the mall and eat at the Food Court, their choice, not mine. Then we’re going to shop ‘til we drop and we’re going to knock off all the things that are on our list. It’s going to be a great dad-daughter evening.

Well, things didn’t start out quite like I planned. It seems that we had a moderate snowfall on Tuesday and Wednesday, which made travel on Thursday rather difficult, so I got home from work rather late. And it took us extra time to finally make it to the mall but we’re there in the Food Court and we will go to the unnamed restaurant to order our food. We walk up to the counter and immediately, I can tell something’s not quite right because there are six individuals mulling around behind the counter, not really accomplishing anything, and I notice there are other people waiting for their food and they appear to be there a long time. But undaunted, this is the choice of where they want to have their chicken nuggets so up to the counter I go and I give the man the order. Well, evidently, I wasn’t real clear so I gave it to him again and then a third time, real slow. This time, he got it.

I say to the girls, “Go and pick out the perfect table for our feast. I will wait here for the food.” And so I waited. And I waited. And I waited. And I watched the six individuals mulling around behind the counter, not really accomplishing anything and no rhyme or reason. I notice other people coming up to the counter and it seemed to be a random chance of whether they would get their food or not. Some got their food immediately; others joined me in waiting at the side of the counter. But eventually, all of them got their food and, honest to goodness, 20 minutes later, I’m still waiting for the chicken nuggets and I’m thinking, “We have shopping to do here.” It flashes through my mind that I’m going to say to the guy behind the counter, “Listen, pal, you can cancel that trip to the third world country to visit starving children. I have two right here.” But I didn’t. I didn’t. Instead, I just said, “Do you have an ETA on that chicken?” He mumbled something and went back wandering aimlessly behind the counter.

Now I’m not proud of this but, as people started coming up to the counter, I started talking them out of ordering there. I started telling them, “You know, Chick-fil-A is just two doors down and Taco John’s seems to be doing rather well.” And then finally, there was a young gal who looked like she was going to order but was confused by all of the wandering and ambling around and so I said to her, “You really don’t want to order here.” I said, “Trust me, things are not going well for them.” And with a big smile on her face, she said, “Maybe they’re having an off night. We all do, you know.” To which I retorted, “In that case, we have six individuals who are a little bit off in my book.”

Not my proudest moment. I certainly was not a stellar example to my children of what the Christmas season is supposed to be about. Positively, I was not a ray of Christian love and hope to the people behind the counter. Positively, I was a terrible witness to this young gal who was really trying to put things in the right light.

But you see, I was focused on the commodity of Christmas, not the Christ of Christmas. All I could focus on was this was going to be our night together and we were going to get our Christmas shopping done. I had a list that I wanted to check off dutifully so I could say, “Now I’m ready for Christmas.”

I could have checked off everything on that list and then some and still not be ready for Christmas. I needed to take a deep breath and remember what it is we’re about to celebrate. And I wonder if all of us don’t. It’s so tempting to get caught up in the commodity of Christmas instead of the Christ of Christmas.

This morning, I want us to take that deep breath and equip ourselves with three tools to help us focus on Christ, to help us focus on what we’re about to celebrate.  The first tool I would offer to us is to have a sincere heart. To have a sincere heart about everything that we’re doing as we get ready and prepare during this Christmas season. In other words, ask yourself how much of your activity do you just simply do mindlessly. Do you just mechanically go through the motions because this is what you always do? You always put up the Christmas decorations. You always put up the tree. You always send out cards. You always give gifts. You always go to parties. You always have a family gathering. Whatever that list might be, but is there any thought behind it or is it just something at this point in time, it’s just mechanical? This is what it’s all about. This is how you get ready for Christmas so we’ll go through the motions. We’ll do the things we’re doing but we never really give it a second thought.

Well, one, that’s insulting to God. And, two, it’s insulting to the other people who are involved. To just mindlessly go through the activity, to do things just out of obligation instead of with any purpose or intent behind it. Case in point, there have to be Christmas parties. I’m guessing that all of you probably have been invited to one or more Christmas parties, whether it’s for work, whether it’s from an organization you belong to, whether it’s family, whether it’s even something here at church, all kinds of Christmas parties or holiday parties happen. The only problem is I’ve yet to talk to anybody who wants to go. I get the same response. They say, “Yeah, we have this party. I really don’t have time to go but, well, we should probably make an appearance.” Really? Does that mean put on your best Christmas sweater, go to the event, chow down on some of the snacks, compliment the host on what a wonderful party and how grateful you are to be there and then check your watch to say, “Do you think we’ve been here long enough to qualify as an appearance?” So you can go on with the rest of your day. Isn’t that kind of insulting to the host? And isn’t it insulting to the season? Because the purpose behind the party, the celebration, is because we’re excited and we’re getting ready for the birth of Christ. But if we just go through the motions and it’s empty, we’re not getting ready for anything.

Take a deep breath and have a sincere heart, a sincere heart about all that you’re doing so you understand there’s a purpose behind it, there’s meaning behind it. That’s what God is after. God is after a sincere heart. He’s not concerned with the activity, He’s not concerned with the things we do. He’s concerned with our heart. Listen to what He says to the prophet, Hosea. Hosea is prophesying to the people of Israel. This is Old Testament times so this is the time when worship was sacrificial so there are appointed days and appointed times when sacrifices needed to be made and yet listen to what God says through him, “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, the acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” So is God saying, “You know what? I’m tired of the sacrificial system. I’m just going to do away with all of that.” No, what God is tired of is mindless activity, doing something just out of religious obligation to Him because that’s what the people were doing. They did the right things at the right time on the right day but it had absolutely no meaning to Him, just mechanical. This is the sacrifice that we make during this month. This is the time we go to the priest on this day. These are the things we do but no meaning behind it, no understanding of what God had in mind of why He put it in place, just mindless activity. God says, “I don’t want to have anything to do with it.” Because God wants a sincere heart.

If we’re going to refocus on Christ, we have to have a sincere heart. You see, God wasn’t saying that he didn’t want the sacrificial system. He wanted it with meaning. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t send out Christmas cards, give gifts, go to parties, do all the other things but do it with a sincere heart, to understand there is a purpose behind it and this is one way in which you get your hearts ready, one way in which you’re preparing to celebrate the birth of the Son of God.

When you give gifts, give them out of love. No other reason. Give gifts out of love. Gift giving actually predates Christmas. It goes back to Roman society. They had certain festivals that were going on. When the early church established that Christmas would be celebrated in December, it was right around one of these Roman celebrations and, during this particular one, it was the custom that they exchange gifts at that celebration. Now evidently, the gifts at the time were sacred twigs and fruit. I don’t know if you want to try that or not. “Honey, I’m going old school this year. Here’s a twig.” Nah, I probably wouldn’t try it either.

The early church actually frowned upon the exchange of gifts because they saw the tie-in to the pagan festival and they didn’t like that. Or maybe the early church had more wisdom than we thought and they saw what it was going to turn into if they didn’t curb it at the beginning but, either way, they failed. It was such an integral part of society and culture at that point, they couldn’t stop it so they tied it in with the gifts of the wise men and said that’s the reason we exchange gifts with one another. You see, I’m wondering if the early church didn’t foresee where we would come to. Because in 2007, I read that we spent $66 billion at Christmas time. That’s billion with a “b.” $66 billion at Christmas time. And I wonder how much of that 66 billion purchased gifts out of obligation and not out of love.

You know what gifts of obligation are, don’t you? You feel like you have to, that you need to, that you’re obliged to buy something for them, whether it’s for your boss, a coworker, the neighbor, family members, teachers. You feel, “Well, it just wouldn’t be right not to give them something at Christmas.” You have no idea what to get them so you search down the mall endlessly, looking for some trinket that isn’t too expensive but yet it doesn’t look real cheap, something you can box up and put into a bag and you can give to them. It doesn’t have any other meaning behind it other than the fact that you feel somehow compelled that you need to do this.

Or the worst kind of obligated gifts are the ones that are anticipated. In other words, you anticipate who’s going to give you a gift and so you have to make sure you have a gift to give them in return. Otherwise, it looks really bad so this is when it gets really tricky because now you check your list of all the possible people who might give you a gift and you try to anticipate and calculate. “Oh, they didn’t give us a gift last year but they did the year before so there’s no telling whether they’re going to give us a gift this year.” “No, he hasn’t given us a gift in two years.” And you go down and you try to anticipate and then you always get burned because someone who you said, “Nah, they won’t give us a gift,” they get you a gift and you have nothing to give them in return.

You know what, the recipient and the giver could care less about the gift, if you’re honest about it. Because you’ve given the recipient something that more than likely they don’t want and they don’t need and as far as the giver is concerned, they wasted a lot of time and a little bit of money searching to give you something that you don’t want and you don’t need. There’s no meaning behind it.

Give gifts out of love only. The real establishment of giving is by God. God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. God motivated by His love for us gave His one and only Son to take on flesh and blood to redeem us from our sin to reunite us back to Him. So God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son. And then in the first letter John wrote, he said this, “We love because He first loved us.” So there’s the chain. God so loved us that He gave His only Son. We love one another and so we give to one another. Give gifts only motivated by love. And that may be to your boss, your coworker, the teacher, the neighbor next door but let’s do away with all these obligatory gifts. Let’s do away with this whole mindset that we have to or we must or we need to but every single gift we exchange, every package we give to someone else is given out of love. In that case, it doesn’t matter how much it cost. It doesn’t matter if it fits or it doesn’t fit. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a hideous color. It doesn’t matter at all because it is given in love. As God gave us the gift of Christmas in love, then our gifts we exchange are only given in love.

And finally, let’s focus on why Christ came. Why did Jesus come into the world to begin with? It’s so easy for us to pass over this. We can get all caught up in the sentimentality of Christmastime. We get all caught up in the pictures of Mary and Joseph and here’s the cute little baby who was lying in the manger and we have the animals cooing in the background, the shepherds coming, the wise men making their trek there and we get all caught up in the picturesque part of it, but we forget why He came. Why did Jesus come? He didn’t come for a casual visit. He came with a purpose.

You see, the ancient church used to call this season before Christmas, this Advent season, it was a penitential season. It was a time to call people to repentance. Now that’s kind of foreign to us. What do you mean? This is Christmastime. This is the time of being jolly and holly and joy-filled and we’re all supposed to have smiles on our face. Who wants to think about sin? Who wants to think about the bad things we’ve done in our lives? Let’s leave that to Lent. No, not Advent.

But the ancient church said, “No. You have to know why He came.” If you really want to know the joy of God taking on flesh and blood, you have to know the reason that He entered our world to begin with. Jesus Himself reveals it for us many times over. We will just look at Matthew 9. Jesus said, “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. But go and learn what this means. I desire mercy, not sacrifice, for I have not come to call the righteous but sinners.” Jesus came for just one purpose. He came for sinners. He knew that sin separated us from our Father in heaven. He knew that sin would forever condemn us and so Jesus was willing to take on flesh and blood and come into our world so He could save us, so He could pay the debt of our sin and we could be reunited with our Father in heaven. You have to know why He came if you’re going to celebrate His coming.

We have less than two weeks before Christmas. Do you need to take a deep breath and examine your life, examine some of your decisions, some of your choices, some of your actions, some of your thoughts? Some of them aren’t very pretty but then you’ll know why Jesus came. Then you’ll know why it’s so significant that God would take on flesh and blood. Maybe we should have about a week and a half of a penitential time in our life so we really can sing Joy to the World when we celebrate His birth.

Right now, it is so easy for us to get caught up in the commodity of Christmas, but we need to focus on the Christ of Christmas. What do you say we all collectively take a deep breath and remember what it is we’re about to celebrate? Amen.

Copyright 2009 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church