12/25/60

Scripture: Read Matthew 2: 1-12

Christmas is a lovely season! True, it is paradoxical in our 20th century observance of it. We are disturbed over it, yet delighted. We become wearied in it, yet rested. We are swamped with meetings in observance of the Christmas season, yet we love the meeting with folks. And the opportunity to see visiting loved ones, friends and neighbors in the festive season is a treasured one. We become critical of some of the commerce of it and we are captivated by color and carols. We are willing to travel great distances to be at home in our hearts. We may be proud and callous much of the year, yet we worship reverently. We are charmed by Christmas!

It has been so for a long time. There was much wonder at the birth of Christ. The Magi, when they saw the star, “rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.” Shepherds, having been to the stable manger where the babe lay, “returned glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen.” The aged Simeon, in the temple, beheld the child and said, “Lord, now lettest thy servant depart in peace --- for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.” [Luke 2: 29-32]. And Mary, having seen and heard so much that caused her to wonder about her precious infant, “kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Christmas is a song! It is music in many languages and places. It is sung in the frozen wastes of the far north and in the summer heat of sub-tropical lands. Its music comes to people of every race and condition. The music of the spirit is not dependent upon local observances or temporal traditions, but upon the deep and abiding character of Christmas.

1) It began with creation in the heart of God. Remember the majestic poetic words: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light.’ And there was light.”[Genesis 1: 1-3].

It continued as man slowly became aware of the purpose of the Creator for him: “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” [Proverbs 14: 34]. The lips and hearts of prophets thundered it when they saw their fellow men using God-given power to destroy, rather than to create.

In the midst of degenerate times, God broke into the realm with an event that brought an angelic chorus, singing, “Unto you is born a Savior --- Peace on earth, good will toward men.” Christmas is creative.

2) It is also unselfish. It had its beginning in the outgoing heart of God. “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son ...” [John 3: 16]. Joseph accepted the humbling circumstances of the baby’s birth, standing loyally by Mary and the infant. The Magi left home and comfort to travel great distances to see, and to present gifts to, this new light of the world. Shepherds left their flocks to hasten into a village where Jesus lay.

Christmas is selfless. It is not only the birth story, but the life story of him who said, “He that would find his life must lose it” (that is, spend it). “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself” --- “Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.” “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

Do we, in the 20th century, “exchange gifts?” Or do we “give gifts?” There is a difference! Do you keep the house and tend the garden and care for the children because you have to? or because you want to? There is a difference! To recognize or discover the difference is to recognize the selflessness of Christmas.

Christmas is not alone a song of creation and a celebration of selflessness, but it is (3) a symbol of hope. If there can be a spirit of genuine brotherliness at Christmas time, why not always?

Two things most severely oppress a man -- his sin and his mortality. Christmas sings of relief for both --- of forgiveness for repented sin, and of immortality for a saved soul. Christmas is a symbol of better things to come. Angels said to shepherds, “Fear not, for unto you is born a Savior.” The substance of the Savior’s teaching is “fear not.” Not only shepherds, but all of trusting mankind can look ahead with great hope in a Christ who assures forgiveness of sin and who looks into eternity saying, “Where I am there ye shall be also.”

Is it any wonder the Phillips Brooks prayed in his Christmas hymn:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem; descend to us we pray;

Cast out our sin, and enter in, be born in us today.”

And so we may see in Christmas (1) a song of creation, (2) a celebration of unselfishness, (3) an assurance of hope. And the power of this vision, when we let it become experience, is transforming.

A beggar once sat daily in the street across from an artist’s studio. He didn’t know it, but the artist was painting his picture. When the picture was finished, the artist called the beggar in to see it. The beggar did not recognize the painted likeness of himself. “Who is it?” he kept asking. Slowly the recognition dawned on him. “Is it me?” he asked; “can it be me?” “Well, that’s the man I see,” said the artist. In an act of faith, the beggar exclaimed, “If that’s the man you see, that’s the man I’ll be.”

In Christ, God has painted a picture of the person He wants you and me to be --- creative, selfless, trusting and confident in hope. To observe Christmas is to see the portrait of Christ in all of its beauty and to breathe a prayer: “If that’s the person you see, that’s the one I’ll be.”

This is the fullness of Christmas for us. And it has filled countless lives in history and in the imagination of men. On this Christmas day I want to read to you a story. For a few minutes, let us all be children, listening to a story told years ago by Count Leo Tolstoy.

[“Where love Is, There God Is”]

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, December 25, 1960.