The Faith of Christmas (Rev. Dr. Charley Reeb)
But the angel said to them, “Fear Not! For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.” -Luke 2:10-11
One of my favorite Christmas stories is about the young boy who was given a very important role in the church Christmas play. He was to be the angel and announce the birth of Jesus. For weeks he rehearsed the line that had been given to him (our Scripture lesson today), “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy!”
The grandparents got in on it and any time the family was together and the boy was there they would dress him up in his costume and he would rehearse his part for them, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” They were certain that when he grew up, he would be a star.
The great night came for the Christmas pageant and everybody was in place. All the grandparents and extended family were there. Visitors had come in and all the children were in costumes, complete with bathrobes for the three kings and fake wings and halos for the angels. All the mothers were excited and everyone was really into this thing.
As the pageant started, the excitement was electric around the room. The dramatic event in the first part was the announcement of the angel, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.” The spotlight hit this young boy and as he stood center stage in the middle of all this excitement, his brain froze. Every grandparent, aunt, uncle and neighbor came to the edge of their seats, wanting to say it for him. You could see them in unison, mouthing, “Behold, I bring you good news of great joy.”
Still, his brain was frozen; he couldn’t say it. He tried it, but it just wouldn’t come. So, finally, in a heroic moment he filled his lungs with breath and blurted out the words, “Have I got news for you!” (Tom Long, “When Something is About to Happen”).
And what is this news? A Savior has been born! Christmas proves that God is crazy about you. God is crazy about us. God is crazy about the world. Christmas means God put on flesh because God refuses to be God without us.
This is revealed in the greatest Christmas carol ever written. Think for a moment. What do you think is the greatest Christmas carol ever written? “Silent Night?” “Joy To the World?” “White Christmas?” “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer?”
The greatest Christmas carol was written by a Jewish peasant girl named Mary over 2,000 years ago. We heard about Mary in our text for today. After she believed and accepted God’s call to birth the son of God, later she sings a beautiful song to God called the Magnificat.” In “The Magnificat” all Mary can do is talk about what God has done.
There is a touching verse in “The Magnificat.” It is verse 48. Mary said, “For he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.” Other translations say, “He has been mindful.” The one I like the best, which I believe best de-scribes Mary’s experience is “He has taken notice.” Can’t you feel Mary’s emotion? “God, you have taken notice of me — a poor teenage girl. You have taken notice of me!”
If there is one consistent theme throughout the Bible it is that God loves us and takes notice of each of us. Now that sounds simple enough, but you would not believe how difficult it is to convince people that God loves them.
What does John 3:16 say? Well, first let’s remember what it doesn’t say. It does not say, “God so loved the perfect people.” It does not say, “God so loved the religious people.” It says, “For God so loved the world!”
Love came down at Christmas to show that God takes notice of us and wants to be in our lives. God wants to redeem us with his grace, encourage us with his love, guide us with his wisdom, and use us with his power.
Christian faith is not a philosophy that someone thought up. Christian faith is revelation. God revealed His purpose and plan, His love and His grace, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
If you still have a hard time embracing God’s love for you, just consider the lengths God went to demonstrate his love for you.
There was a story years ago in the Canadian version of the Reader’s Digest of a large moose that wandered into a residential area in Calgary, Canada. The moose ended up on the lawn of a lady named Lorna Cade. A Fish and Wildlife officer was dispatched to try to coax the magnificent animal back into the wild. After two hours of absolutely no progress, the officer finally shot the moose with a tranquilizer dart. The moose bolted down a lane and eventually collapsed on another nearby lawn.
The reporters who had been following this event interviewed the lady at the house where the moose collapsed. They asked her what she thought about the moose which had passed out on her lawn. “I’m surprised,” she answered, “but not as surprised as my husband will be. He’s out moose hunting.”
Her husband had gone out looking for moose and a large moose had come to him!
That is the message of Christmas. While humanity spends its time seeking after God, God comes to us in Jesus Christ. God doesn’t send a card, letter, email or text. He doesn’t send one of his angels. God shows up himself.
God came to us when we could not reach up to Him.
Colossians says that Christ is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15).
You want to know what God is like? Look at Jesus. Read the gospels and see God in flesh and blood reaching out to the world and saving it.
At the end of the day, what matters is not which church we belong to, what theological doctrine we hold, or what theological system we believe in. What matters is knowing and experiencing God’s love in Jesus Christ because we are lost without it. Only Jesus can bring the peace, hope, joy and love we crave. We are incomplete without Jesus.
I imagine that every parent’s nightmare on Christmas Eve is a certain box with those three scary words printed on top: “Some Assembly Required.”
Don Shelby tells the story about the father who had ordered a tree house for his children for Christmas one year. The time came to assemble the tree house. He laid out all the parts on the floor and began reading the instructions. To his dismay, he discovered that the instructions were for a tree house. However, the parts were for a sailboat!
Commenting on this story James Moore wrote, “To put something together, you have to have the right parts and the right instructions. This is where faith comes in. The only way you can put life together is through faith. Faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior… that’s what makes it work. That’s the way to assemble your life, to root it in Jesus Christ through faith, to tie it to Jesus Christ, to ground it in Jesus Christ.”
The same is true for you and me. We were designed to be connected to the One who made us. We were made to be in relationship with God. “There is a God shaped void in all of us that only God can fill.”
I can prove it by asking one question: What would the world be like if Jesus had never been born? Ever thought of it that way? Imagine this world if Jesus had never been born.
Many atheists claim that faith and religion are bad for the world. Well, they just haven’t thought through it. Do you know what would be missing in this world if Jesus had never been born? No Christmas cards, caroling or concerts. No Christmas gift giving, candle lights or twinkling trees. But also no Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Easter, Halloween, or Thanksgiving. Each one of those holidays is based on or tied to Christianity. But that is just on the surface.
Reflecting on this question Greg Asimakoupoulos writes, “Women and children would not be valued as human beings but instead be treated as property. You see it was Jesus who elevated women and children to their rightful place of worth and value.
“If Jesus had never been born, we would not have the sermon on the mount. Health care and education would be less important. The rights of the elderly would be overlooked.
“Jesus’s influence on this world is mind boggling!
“Can you imagine a world without Paul’s words on faith, hope and love and the greatest of these is love?
“Can you imagine a world without the writings of Augustine, Aquinas or St. Francis?
“Can you imagine a world without the masterful pieces of art throughout history that have been influenced by Christianity?
“Can you imagine a world without Handle’s Messiah?
Can you imagine a world without the Hallelujah Chorus?
Can you imagine a world without Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard, Yale, and Princeton? They were all founded by Christians to train Christians.
Can you imagine a world without the Red Cross?
Can you imagine world without those who abolished slavery?
Can you imagine a world without Bonhoeffer and those who stood against Hitler?
Can you imagine a world with AA and the 12 Steps, both influenced by the Christian faith?
Can you imagine a world without Billy Graham’s Crusades, Martin Luther King’s Christian movement against racism, or Mother Theresa’s Christ like compassion to the poor and dying?
“Most of all, can you imagine living in a world without knowing God is love, approachable, compassionate, or living in a world without the assurance that we have been forgiven and redeemed?” (Finding God in “It’s a Wonderful Life”).
Without Jesus all of that would be missing from our world.
If Jesus did that for the world, imagine what he can do for your life! Religion is reaching for God; Christianity is God reaching for us. Jesus is not a gift we find, but a gift that finds us! Imagine what your life would be missing without him. Or maybe I should say – Imagine what your life IS missing without him.
“Fear not,” said the angel to the shepherds, “For, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)
Do you feel lost? Are you tired of searching for answers, for truth, for happiness and joy? Stop searching. God has come to you in Christ. Embrace God’s embrace of you in Christ. It is the greatest gift in the world.