| Back to Home Page | Back to
Book Index |
Christmas
Consider Again Christmas
When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of
Jesus in A.D. 353
who would have ever thought that it would become what it is
today.
When Professor Charles Follen lit candles on the first Christmas tree in
America in 1832
who would have ever thought that the decorations would become
as elaborate as they are today.
It is a long time since 1832
longer still from 353
longer still from that
dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus the king was born. Yet
as we approach December 25 again
it gives us yet another opportunity to pause
and in the midst of all the excitement and elaborate decorations and expensive
commercialization which surround Christmas today
to consider again the event
of Christmas and the person whose birth we celebrate.
Brian L. Harbour
James W. Cox
The Minister's Manual: 1994
San
Fransico: Harper Collins
1993
p. 254.
There is a stage in a
child's life at which it cannot separate the religious from the merely festal
character of Christmas or Easter. I have been told of a very small and very
devout boy who was heard murmuring to himself on Easter morning a poem of his
own composition which began 'Chocolate eggs and Jesus risen.' This seems to me
for his age
both admirable poetry and admirable piety. But of course the time
will soon come when such a child can no longer effortlessly and spontaneously
enjoy that unity. He will become able to distinguish the spiritual from the
ritual and festal aspect of Easter; chocolate eggs will no longer seem
sacramental. And once he has distinguished he must put one or the other first.
If he puts the spiritual first he can still taste something of Easter in the
chocolate eggs; if he puts the eggs first they will soon be no more than any
other sweetmeat. They will have taken on an independent
and therefore a soon
withering
life.
C. S. Lewis
Recovery of Christmas'
Meaning
In New York's Hayden Planetarium a special Christmas holiday show was enhanced
by an added feature. A giant lollipop tree was projected onto the planetarium
dome
surrounded by a horizon filled with brilliantly colored toys which came
to life and cavorted to the tune of "Jingle Bells." At the climax a
huge figure of Santa Claus faded out in a snow storm
and the star of Bethlehem
broke through into a sky that produced exactly the Palestine sky on the night
of the nativity. The designer of this show may not realize that he dramatically
staged the supreme Christmas message our world needs to understand: The
recovery of the lost meaning of Christmas. This is not said in any criticism of
Santa Claus; the effect must have delighted the hearts of all the children who
saw it
without doing violence to their love of Bethlehem. But for adults it is
a tragic loss to substitute "Jingle Bells" for "Hark! the Herald
Angels Sing
" and a lollipop tree for the manger of Bethlehem. The
instinct is right to fade out these things in the light of the Christmas star.
It is about God's incarnation that the angels sing--God with us.
Robert E. Luccock in James W. Cox
The Minister's Manual: 1994
San
Fransico: Harper Collins
1993
p. 218.
Taking Christmas to Heart
A popular play and movie this time of year
one I always enjoy watching is A
Christmas Carol. There is one scene that has always fascinated me. The Ghost of
Christmas Past has just paid a very discomforting visit to Ebenezer Scrooge.
Clearly the old miser is shaken by the entire ordeal. But when he awakens from
his sleep does he take the message to heart. No
he simply dismisses it by
saying: Bah
humbug
it wasn't real.
"Just a bit of last nights undigested beef
" he says to himself
"There is more gravy about you than the grave." A vision to be taken
to heart or simple indigestion. You tell me.
Brett Blair
Sermon Illustrations
1999.
Meaning of Christmas -
Materialism
A television interviewer was walking streets of Tokyo at Christmas time. Much
as in America
Christmas shopping is a big commercial success in Japan. The
interviewer stopped one young woman on the sidewalk
and asked
"What is
the meaning of Christmas?"
Laughing
she responded
"I don't know. Is that the day that Jesus died?"
There was some truth in
her answer.
Donald Deffner
Seasonal Illustrations
San Jose: Resource
1992
p. 16.
Heavenly Peace
A little boy and girl were singing their favorite Christmas carol in church the
Sunday before Christmas. The boy concluded "Silent Night" with the
words
"Sleep in heavenly beans." "No
" his sister
corrected
"not beans
peas."
Michael P. Green
Illustrations for Biblical Preaching
Grand Rapids:
Baker
1993
p. 57.
The mystery of the
humanity of Christ
that He sunk Himself into our flesh
is beyond all human
understanding.
Martin Luther
Table
Talk.
Take the year 1809. The
international scene was tumultuous. Napoleon was sweeping through Austria;
blood was flowing freely. Nobody then cared about babies. But the world was
overlooking some terribly significant births.
For example
William
Gladstone was born that year. He was destined to become one of England's finest
statesman. That same year
Alfred Tennyson was born to an obscure minister and
his wife. The child would one day greatly affect the literary world in a marked
manner. On the American continent
Oliver Wendell Holmes was born in Cambridge
Massachusetts. And not far away in Boston
Edgar Allan Poe began his eventful
albeit tragic
life. It was also in that same year that a physician named
Darwin and his wife named their child Charles Robert. And that same year
produced the cries of a newborn infant in a rugged log cabin in Hardin County
Kentucky. The baby's name? Abraham Lincoln.
If there had been news
broadcasts at that time
I'm certain these words would have been heard:
"The destiny of the world is being shaped on an Austrian battlefield
today." But history was actually being shaped in the cradles of England
and America. Similarly
everyone thought taxation was the big news--when Jesus
was born. But a young Jewish woman cradled the biggest news of all: the birth
of the Savior.
Adapted from Charles
Swindoll.
To avoid offending
anybody
the school dropped religion altogether and started singing about the
weather. At my son's school
they now hold the winter program in February and
sing increasingly non-memorable songs such as "Winter Wonderland
"
"Frosty the Snowman" and--this is a real song--"Suzy
Snowflake
" all of which is pretty funny because we live in Miami. A
visitor from another planet would assume that the children belonged to the
Church of Meteorology.
Dave Barry in his
"Notes on Western Civilization"
Chicago Tribune Magazine
July 28
1991.
To perceive Christmas
through its wrappings becomes more difficult with every year.
E. B. White
The Second
Tree from the Corner.
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 had been
pleasure
God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was
forgiveness
so God sent us a Savior.
Source Unknown.
In December 1903
after
many attempts
the Wright brothers were successful in getting their
"flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled
they telegraphed this
message to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will
be home for Christmas." Katherine hurried to the editor of the local
newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said
"How
nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big
news--man had flown!
Daily Bread
December 23
1991.
Two women who were having
lunch in an elegant hotel were approached by a mutual friend who asked the
occasion for the meal. One lady replied
"We are celebrating the birth of
my baby boy." "But where is he?" inquired the friend.
"Oh
" said the mother
"you didn't think I'd bring him
did
you?" What a picture of the way the world treats Jesus at Christmas.
Source Unknown.
Christ was content with a
stable when he was born so that we could have a mansion when we die.
Source Unknown.
Pastor Clifford S. Stewart
of Louisville
Kentucky
sent his parents a microwave oven one Christmas.
Here's how he recalls the experience: "They were excited that now they
too
could be a part of the instant generation. When Dad unpacked the microwave
and plugged it in
literally within seconds
the microwave transformed two
smiles into frown! Even after reading the directions
they couldn't make it
work. "Two days later
my mother was playing bridge with a friend and
confessed her inability to get that microwave oven even to boil water. 'To get
this darn thing to work
' she exclaimed
'I really don't need better
directions; I just needed my son to come along with the gift!'" When God
gave the gift of salvation
he didn't send a booklet of complicated
instructions for us to figure out; he sent his Son.
Source Unknown.
Long ago
there ruled in
Persia a wise and good king. He loved his people. He wanted to know how they
lived. He wanted to know about their hardships. Often he dressed in the clothes
of a working man or a beggar
and went to the homes of the poor. No one whom he
visited thought that he was their ruler. One time he visited a very poor man
who lived in a cellar. He ate the coarse food the poor man ate. He spoke
cheerful
kind words to him. Then he left. Later he visited the poor man again
and disclosed his identity by saying
"I am your king!" The king
thought the man would surely ask for some gift or favor
but he didn't. Instead
he said
"You left your palace and your glory to visit me in this dark
dreary place. You ate the course food I ate. You brought gladness to my heart!
To others you have given your rich gifts. To me you have given yourself!"
The King of glory
the Lord Jesus Christ
gave himself to you and me. The Bible
calls Him
"the unspeakable gift!"
Source Unknown.
In Support of a
Sentimental Christmas - Getting Rid of the Bah Humbugs.
Many years ago the Puritans thought that they were ruining Christmas with all
their pagan rituals. They especially objected to the fact that the holiday
usually came on a week day
therefore distracting people
they thought
from
the Lord's Day of Sunday. But they did more than annually complain about it as
we do. They took action and got rid of Christmas altogether. In Puritan
settlements across 17th century America a law was passed outlawing the
celebration of Christmas. The market place was ordered to stay open for
business as though it were no special occasion and all violators were
prosecuted. It was against the law to make plum pudding on December 25th. The
celebration was not referred to as Yuletide but as fooltide.
So we want to reform Christmas and clean it up do we? Well
is this how far we
want to go? Do we really want to be rid of it altogether. Then will Christmas
as the Puritans thought
be saved from us and our sinful ways. So what if we
spend $40 billion annually on presents. Can you think of a better way of
spending all that money than on gifts of love. And most of them are just that.
And so what is all the lights and tinsel does create a fairy tale setting that
soon disappears as does the so called Christmas spirit. At least it lets us
know
if only for a brief time
what life can be like if we only try.
So let the message ring out this day
not that we are destroying this holy day
but rather
that we can never destroy this day. Behold
I bring you good
tidings of great joy which shall be for all generations. For unto you is born
this day
in the city of David
a savior who is Christ the Lord.
Sermon Illustrations
1999.
Hopelessness - For a
Sermon on Mary
The message of Christmas is that God intrudes upon the weak and the vulnerable
and this is precisely the message that we so often miss. God does not come to
that part of that part of us that swaggers through life
confident in our self
sufficiency. God leaves his treasure in the broken fragmented places of our
life. God comes to us in those rare moments when we are able to transcend our
own selfishness long enough to really care about another human being.
On the wall of the museum
of the concentration camp at Dachau is a large and moving photograph of a
mother and her little girl standing in line of a gas chamber. The child
who is
walking in front of her mother
does not know where she is going. The mother
who walks behind
does know
but is helpless to stop the tragedy. In her
helplessness she performs the only act of love left to her. She places her
hands over he child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come.
When people come into the museum they do not whisk by this photo hurriedly.
They pause. They almost feel the pain. And deep inside I think that they are
all saying: "O God
don't let that be all that there is."
God's hears those prayers and it is in just such situations of hopelessness and
helplessness that his almighty power is born. It is there that God leaves his
treasure. In Mary and in all of us
as Christ is born anew within.
Sermon Illustrations
1999.
What have you heard and
Seen this Christmas?
Oh
you say
had I been there at Bethlehem that night I would have seen. I
would have understood. I would have known it was the Christ child. Would you?
There is one way of knowing:
Ask yourself what you have seen and heard this Christmas Season.
o When you
watched the 6:00 news did you see chaos and strife
or did you see sheep
without a shepherd.
o When you went
out to do your shopping did you see only hordes of people in the stores
or did
you notice the worried expressions on some of their faces--worried because they
are facing this Christmas without employment or enough money and they don't
know how they are going to make ends meet.
What did you hear this
Christmas?
o Did you hear
only the blast of music and carols
or did you hear the silent sighs of the
lonely and the bereaved who may be dreading Christmas because it accentuates
their loneliness.
o And in the
midst of the sounds of honking horns and people arguing over parking places
did
you hear faint sounds of laughter coming from Asbury Church missions projects
because you furnished food and toys for families and children.
You see
so often what you
see and what you hear is not dependent upon the event but upon you. If you did
in fact hear the cry from the lonely
the laughter of poor children
if you saw
the sheep without a shepherd
then
and only then
might you have noticed the
events that took place in Bethlehem that night. If you lacked that spiritual
seeing and hearing then you probably would have been with the 99% who were
present but who saw or heard nothing out of the ordinary.
In the end perhaps one of
our carols words it best: No ear may hear his coming
but in this world of sin.
Where meek souls shall receive him still
the dear Christ enters in. Amen.
Brett Blair
Sermon
Illustrations
1999.
Judge Throws Out Suit
Against Christmas Holiday
CINCINNATI
Ohio - Ruling that Christmas is celebrated by non-Christians as
well as Christians
a judge in December 1999 threw out a lawsuit challenging
the constitutionality of observing Dec. 25 as a federal holiday. U.S. District
Judge Susan Dlott said in her dismissal of the lawsuit that just as Christians
observe Christmas as a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ
non-Christians
celebrate the occasion to welcome the arrival of Santa Claus.
Therefore
she said
Christmas cannot be regarded as a holiday that establishes
one religious faith above all others in violation of the demand for a
separation of church and state enshrined in the U.S. Constitution's First
Amendment.
The judge used some original poetic verse to make her point
writing:
"Whatever the reason
constitutional or other
Christmas is not
an act of Big Brother."
Richard Ganulin
48
a lawyer who filed the suit
said he would appeal the
dismissal to the Cincinnati-based U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on
grounds that the judge did not treat the issue with the "strict
scrutiny" it deserved.
"She never said what she really meant when she implied that Christmas
should be considered as a secular holiday as much as a religious
occasion
" said Ganulin
who is a member of the city of Cincinnati legal
staff but filed the suit last August as an individual.
Ganulin said he realized he had "a long row to hoe" in his quest to
end the federal observance of Christmas as a holiday
but expressed hope that
the case ultimately would be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
A Washington-based organization of U.S. Christian employees was granted its
request to be added to the lawsuit as a defendant along with the U.S.
government.
11.51 p.m. ET (0451 GMT) December 6
1999 By Bob Weston - Reuters News.
"Without God's
explanatory word
God's redemptive action could not be recognized for what it
was. The clearest revelation of God (the incarnation) is nevertheless the most
opaque to man.
J. I. Packer
New Bible
Commentary
p. 15.
Repentance
The glory and strangeness of Christmas point in a side-door way to the mess we
are in. Indirectly
this season whispers to us about the "out of focus
world" in which we live. It is not easy to explain the mess we are in.
Many have tried. Few
if any
have succeeded. In his book
The Coming Faith
Carlyle Marney suggests that humankind "is the most savage of the beasts"鍟hat our bite is poisonous
our hands are clubs
our feet are
weapons.
According to Marney
"nothing in nature is so well equipped for hating or hurting" as we
are. Confuse us
and we lash out at anything. Crowd us
and we kill
rob
destroy. Deprive us and we retaliate. Impoverish us
and we
burn villas in the night. Enslave us
and we revolt. Pamper us
and we may
poison you. Hire us
and we may hate both you and the work. Love us too
possessively
and we are never weaned. Deny us too early
and we never learn to
love. Put us in cities
and all our animal nature comes out with perversions of
every good thing. Mr. Marney clearly has a pessimistic view of human nature.
Marney
it seems to me
is
partially correct
but there is also great good in humankind. Our bite is also
sometimes sweet; our hands can also offer a caring touch; our feet may be
helpers. Nothing in nature is so well equipped for loving and healing as we
are. Confuse us and we often run for community; crowd us and we usually seek
solutions. Deprive us
and we organize for a better tomorrow. Impoverish us
and we bargain collectively. Enslave us
and many of us will practice
nonviolence. Pamper us
and we may instead seek strength. Hire us
and we
usually work hard. Love us
and we are fulfilled. Deny us
and we seek. Put us
in cities
and we try to enjoy life.
Society is a great
composite picture of our power to harm. Society is also a great composite
picture of our ability to do good. Art
culture
philosophy
order
and
religion have all been used to tame the tiger within us. They have been used as
expressions of the common good. We have tried many ways to tame the beast and
express the good: the Ten Commandments of Moses
the great code of Hammurabi
Assyrian codes
Egyptian codes. Hindu laws
Oriental Yin-Yang
the corpus of
Roman law
Stoic philosophy
the Greek notion of people㻡ll these were attempts to tame the savagery within or to make a
statement about what is meet and right. As noble as these thoughts were
none
of these civilizers civilized.
Something more is needed if we are to come out of the wilderness we are in.
That something more is spoken of by John the Baptist...the way out of the mess
we are in is the way of repentance.
Joe E. Pennel
Jr.
The Whisper of Christmas
The Upper Room
1984
pp.35ff.
The "fear nots"
in the infancy narratives:
5.
The "fear not" of salvation: "And the angel
said unto them
Fear not: for
behold
I bring you good tidings...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).
6.
The "fear not" of the humanly impossible: "Fear
not
Mary:... the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee
and the power of the Highest
shall overshadow thee:...For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke
1:30
35
37).
7.
The "fear not" of unanswered prayer: "Fear not
Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a
son
and thou shalt call his name John" (Luke 1:13).
8.
The "fear not" of immediate obedience: "Joseph
thou son of David
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife:...Then Joseph
...did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him" (Matthew 1:20
24).
NPS.
n his book
Science
Speaks
Peter Stoner applies the modern science of probability to just
eight prophecies regarding Christ. He says
"The chance that any man might
have ...fulfilled all eight prophecies is one in 10 to the 17th. That would be
1 in 100
000
000
000
000
000." (one hundred quadrillion) Stoner suggests
that "we take 10 to the 17th silver dollars and lay them on the face of
Texas. They will cover all of the state 2 feet deep. Now mark one of these
silver dollars and stir the whole mass thoroughly... Blindfold a man and tell
him he can travel as far as he wishes
but he must pick up [that one marked
silver dollar.] What chance would he have of getting the right one?"
Stoner concludes
"Just the same chance that the prophets would have had
of writing those eight prophecies and having them all come true in any one
man
...providing they wrote them in their own wisdom."
Peter Stoner
Science
Speaks.
Some gifts you can give
this Christmas are beyond monetary value: Mend a quarrel
dismiss suspicion
tell someone
"I love you." Give something away--anonymously. Forgive
someone who has treated you wrong. Turn away wrath with a soft answer. Visit
someone in a nursing home. Apologize if you were wrong. Be especially kind to
someone with whom you work. Give as God gave to you in Christ
without
obligation
or announcement
or reservation
or hypocrisy.
Charles Swindoll
Growing
Strong
pp. 400-1.
Americans used 28
497
464
rolls and sheets of wrapping paper
16
826
362 packages of tags and bows
372
430
684 greeting cards
and 35
200
000 Christmas trees during the 1989
Christmas season.
Garbage Magazine
quoted in Signs
of the Times
12-1991
p. 7.
When was Jesus born? No
not on December 25. Though Christians had adopted that date by A.D. 336
Christ
was born "when shepherds watched their flocks by night." In other
words
most likely in the spring. And no
He wasn't born in the year A.D. 1.
The Bible tells us that Herod the Great ruled Palestine when Jesus was born
and Herod died in 4 B.C.--so Jesus had to have been born not long before that.
Blame Dionysiuys Exiguus for this one--he's the sixth century monk who came up
with the idea of splitting history into A.D. and B.C. He just chose the wrong
date to do so
that's all.
Signs of the Times
Dec
1991
p.
6.
Twas much
that man was
made like God before
But that God should
be like man
much more.
John Donne.
Praise God for Christmas.
Praise Him for the
incarnation
for the word made flesh.
I will not sing of shepherds
watching flocks on frosty nights
or angel choristers.
I will not sing of a stable bare in Bethlehem
or lowing oxen
wise men trailing star with gold
frankincense
and myrrh.
Tonight I will sing praise to the Father
who stood on heaven's threshold
and said farewell to his Son
as he stepped across the stars
to Bethlehem and Jerusalem.
And I will sing praise to the infinite
eternal Son
who became most finite
a baby
who would one day be executed for my crime.
Praise him in the heavens
Praise him in the stable
Praise him in my heart.
Joseph Bayly.
Ah
dearest Jesus
holy
Child
Make thee a bed
soft
undefiled
Within my heart
that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy doth leap
My lips no more can silence keep
I too must sing
with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song
Glory to God in highest heaven
Who unto man His Son hath given
While angels sing with pious mirth.
A glad new year to all the earth.
Martin Luther.
Can This Be Christmas
What's all this hectic
rush and worry?
Where go these crowds who run and curry?
Why all the lights -- the Christmas trees?
The jolly "fat man
" tell me please!
Why
don't you know? This
is the day
For parties and for fun and play;
Why this is Christmas!
So this is Christmas
do
you say?
But where is Christ this Christmas day?
Has He been lost among the throng?
His voice drowned out by empty song?
No. He's not here --
you'll find Him where
Some humble soul now kneels in prayer
Who knows the Christ of Christmas.
But see the many aimless
thousands
Who gather on this Christmas Day
Whose hearts have never yet been opened
Or said to Him
"Come in to stay."
In countless homes the
candles burning
In countless hearts expectant yearning
For gifts and presents
food and fun
And laughter till the day is done.
But not a tear of grief or
sorrow
For Him so poor He had to borrow
A crib
a colt
a boat
a bed
Where He could lay His weary head.
I'm tired of all this
empty celebration
Of feasting
drinking
recreation;
I'll go instead to Calvary.
And there I'll kneel with
those who know
The meaning of that manger low
And find the Christ -- this Christmas.
I leap by faith across the
years
To that great day when He appears
The second time
to rule and reign
To end all sorrow
death
and pain.
In endless bliss we then
shall dwell
With Him who saved our souls from hell
And worship Christ -- not Christmas!
M. R. DeHaan
M.D.
Founder
Radio Bible Class.
The Christ-child lay on
Mary's lap
His hair was like a light.
(O weary
weary is the world
But here is all aright.)
The Christ-child lay on
Mary's breast
His hair was like a star.
(O stern and cunning are the kings
But here the true hearts are.)
The Christ-child lay on
Mary's heart
His hair was like a fire.
(O weary
weary is the world
But here the world's desire.)
The Christ-child stood at
Mary's knee
His hair was like a crown.
And all the flowers looked up at Him
And all the stars looked down.
G. K. Chesterton in The Wild Knight.