“Who is Christmas
Really For?”
Isaiah 61:1-3
Luke 1:46-55
“Who is
Christmas really for?”
Many will
answer, “Christmas is for children”, because they are the ones who seem most
excited and enthusiastic. It is children
who wake up way too early to begin the day and children whose eyes light up
with Christmas candles and their first sight of Santa Claus. Christmas is for children many say, so what
do you do when the children are all grown up and have moved far away? How can you have Christmas if there are no
children in your life?
“Who is
Christmas really for?”
If you
glance at the magazines when you check out at the grocery store and browse
through the pages that describe the perfect holiday you will find instructions
on how to decorate the perfect tree, create perfect table decorations, wrap
perfect presents, and prepare the perfect Christmas dinner. Read enough of these magazines and watch
enough commercials and you’ll soon realize that Christmas seems to be for those
who can afford it, who can spend a lot of money on it. If that is true, what do you do if you can’t
afford it? Can you have Christmas
without going into debt and spending too much?
“Who is
Christmas really for?”
Some will
say it is about family. You don’t need a
lot of money or even the giggles of little children ripping the paper off their
presents. All you need is family
gathered around the tree or table. So,
what do you do if the most important member of your family is stationed in
harm’s way or rests eternally in a cemetery? What do you do if your family is
divided by divorce or hard feelings? Can
you have Christmas when you family is not there?
“Who is
Christmas really for?”
When the
prophet Isaiah described the coming Messiah he mentioned neither money or
family, nor even children. He did not
describe trees or lights, presents or cookies. God will send, he said, a
Messiah, a savior, redeemer would come for those who are brokenhearted or bound
by powers beyond their control. The
Messiah will come for those who mourn and are afflicted. Christmas, it turns out, is for those who
have the hardest time finding the Christmas spirit touted at shopping malls and
in holiday movies.
Before we
look at the prophet’s promise for Christmas, let us pray:
Franticly, fearfully we search for
the spirit of Christmas, O Lord. We work
hard to create it, but find our preparations only exhaust and cast us into
debt. We fantasize about family and friends around the tree, but in reality
some are separated by distance or death, or grudges we cannot let go. So, we
pray for the spirit that can only come through Christ. Help find the center of our holiday and our
lives in him. Amen.
Two weeks
ago I set the scene for the back end of the prophecy of Isaiah. The people of Israel, you remember, had been
conquered, captured, and carried away to Babylon, present day Iraq. There they languished in captivity for
seventy years. When Babylon itself was
defeated by Persia, present day Iran, Cyrus the king told the people they could
finally go home. So they did.
“Over the
hills and through the dale to grandmother’s house they went.” With each step homeward anticipation
grew. To pass the time they shared their
grandparents’ stories about the Promised Land, “flowing with milk and
honey”. They recited the litany of
liberation that God had promised and provided to Moses and their ancestors who
had also been held in slavery. They sang the song of Moses and Miriam, “In your
unfailing love, O Lord, you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your
holy Temple. So, I will sing unto the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the
horse and rider fell into the sea.”[1] With each step homeward “visions of sugar
plumbs danced in their heads.”
When
finally they crested the last mountain at Moab looked across the Jordan River
to the golden city of Jerusalem, their joyful singing was suddenly silenced by
the sight Solomon’s great Temple in ruins. When they saw their homes destroyed
leaving only burnt scars upon the land; when they saw fields overgrown with
weeds and flocks scattered, a mournful, tearful lament began to fill the air.
Like hurricane survivors they were shattered by the enormity of the
destruction. In shock they wondered, “Where will we live? How will we live? They faced only obstacle and challenge. They had nothing but emptiness and loss.
That is
when the prophet Isaiah spoke of a coming Messiah:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted and
oppressed; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to
the captives and release to the prisoners; to comfort all who mourn.”[2]
You will recover the Lord
said. Your lives will be restored, even
born again. I will come in the form and
life of a chosen one, a Messiah, to renew and make whole.
Those of you familiar with the
Gospels know that Jesus cited this verse when he began his ministry at the
synagogue in Nazareth.[3] And where did he get the idea for this
mission statement? Did he just read this
passage and conclude – “that’s me”? Well, maybe that’s what happened. But, I
believe his mother Mary had a role in shaping his identity and helping him to
understand and fulfill the promise and potential that God had placed within him
because that’s what mothers do. They bring out the best in us.
The passage of scripture in the first chapter of Luke that was read this
morning is called the magnificat because Mary begins, “My soul doth magnify the
Lord.” This is a cradlesong, I believe,
that she sang to the child Jesus, “He lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry
with good things.”[4] While rocking her baby, she sang this lullaby
again and again. These words became so ingrained in his memory they help shape
and form his mission. He understood that
God sent him to “seek and save the lost”.
God sent him for those who are alone and afflicted, for those who are
bound by powers beyond their control, and for those who mourn. They are the ones for whom Christmas is
really for.
How did Isaiah put it? He will “give them a garland of beauty
instead of ashes, oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a mantle of praise
for those with a heavy heart.”
Ashes, in scripture, are a symbol
of loss and the grief that follows.
After Job lost wealth and health and family, the Bible says, he mourned
in ashes. Eyes downcast, shoulders
slumped, everyone who walked by could see how hard he had been hit.[5]
Ashes are all you have left when the fire has consumed all that was
important.
To those who have suffered so, the
Messiah promises garlands beauty, oil of gladness, and garments of praise. Make no mistake, he’s not talking about holly
wreaths, or scented candles, or even Christmas sweaters festooned with trees
and blinking lights. These outward symbols
of garland, oil, and praise express and inward reality that becomes possible
when Christ comes into someone’s life.
Oil was used for healing and anointing and praise is the instinctive
response that follows. How this happens
is not always understood.
For example, a while ago I saw an
advertisement by a comedian whose name I do not remember, but the title of her
show I’ll never forget. She calls her
nightclub routine, “Jesus is Magic.” I’m
not sure why she chose that title or what she meant by it, but I suspect she is
poking fun at those who believe Jesus will by a wave of his wand make all
problems go away. She probably doesn’t
believe that, nor should she, because that is not what Jesus came to do.
How does the Bible put it? Well, Eugene Peterson reads it this way:
“Now that we know what we have –
Jesus, this great High Priest with ready access to God – let’s not let it slip
through our fingers. He is not out of
touch with our reality. He’s been through weakness and testing, experienced it
all – all but sin. So let’s walk right
up to him and get what he is so ready to give.
Take the mercy, accept the help.”[6]
I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. We’ve all met people who’ve done, who have
“taken the mercy and accepted his help” and so have endured far more than most
of us could ever imagine. Yet, they emerge with faith strong and vibrant and
continue on while others collapse in the ashes. We’ve all met folks who seem to
have experienced “beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment
of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
It’s not that they no longer suffer
or feel loss or pain. Jesus did not wave a magic wand. Rather, they have
learned to place their loss and pain and suffering upon Jesus confident that
while he may not make it all go away, he will provide the strength and comfort
to help them carry it. Most of all they
know he knows. He understands what we
are going through. We need not face our
problems all alone for “he will never leave us nor forsake us.”[7]
Consequently, as God said through
the prophet Isaiah. He will give beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garments of praise for the spirit
heaviness so that we might be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that he may be glorified.”
This image
of a great tree is used in scripture to describe the spiritual condition of
God’s people. It can be positive image,
“trees righteousness”; or it can be used to describe a negative condition. At the beginning of this prophecy, Isaiah
said, “you shall be like an oak whose leaf withers, and like a garden without
water.”[8] They were November trees, lifeless in
winter. Why? He told them. They did not,
“cease to do evil, learn to do good.”
They did not, “seek justice and correct oppression.” They did not “defend the fatherless and plead
for the widow.”[9]
Now, after
their seventy year time-out period in Babylon, the prophet points to the tree
in spring time, with leaves budding and reaching to the sky. The tree becomes a
sign of life and renewal and growth. The
people of Israel were not the only ones to do that.
Most of
you, for example, will decorate a Christmas tree. We have a couple here in the church. But,
when you read the Christmas story you will find no description of decorated
evergreen trees. There evidently was no Christmas tree next to the manger under
which the wise men could place their presents of gold and frankincense and
myrrh; because neither Luke nor Matthew mentions a tree at all. Still, trees
are part and parcel of Christmas today. Why?
It goes back to the Druids of
course, who worshipped particular trees believing them to be inhabited by the
spirits of the forest. When missionaries
to the Celts arrived in what is now Great Britain and observed this practice,
they did what the Apostle Paul did in Athens.
You remember when he saw all the statues of the many gods the people
worshipped; he neither dismissed nor discounted this polytheistic
practice. He did not make fun of them or
ridicule. Rather, he found a statute in
a corner that they created to cover their bets, lest they forget to honor one
of the gods and make him angry. At the
base of this cover-your-bases statue was a plague that said, “To the unknown
god.” Paul read the words and smiled and
said, “Let me tell you about this unknown god whom you already worship.”[10]
Christian missionaries who knew
their business did the same thing wherever they went. So, when they saw the Druids decorating
evergreen greens in the dead of winter a they took advantage of this
opportunity to tell them the story of Jesus and his birth and the star in the
sky and the shepherds. They described
his life and death and resurrection and told them that as sure as the leaves on
the pine tree and spruce will be forever green, so will they live forever because
of Jesus Christ. Like these trees, they
said, will you be able to stand tall against any winter winds that might blow.
Anyone who knows anything about
trees will tell you their strength comes not from trunk or branches, the part
of the tree we can see. The strength
will come from the roots, the part of the tree we do not see. The power of
faith is like that, so the writer of the very first psalm observed, “Blessed is
they who delights in the law of the Lord.
They are like trees planted by streams of water.”[11]
In other words we find our strength
and our spiritual roots grow deep as we read, reflect, remember and follow the
word of God. This is where we find
strength to bear fruit, to do something that matters for God. This is how we glorify our God, and you can
do that whether you will share your Christmas with children or not, whether you
will share your Christmas with all of your family or not, whether you can spend
a great deal of money on decorations and presents and trees – or not.
You can glorify God with a dollar
dropped in a Salvation Army kettle, you can glorify God by helping us serve
meals to the homeless on the week between Christmas, you can glorify God with a
prayer and praise him by singing “O Come all ye Faithful” and mean it.
Christmas, you see, is for everyone
who is willing to receive Christ. The
Christmas spirit is the spirit of Christ and he has come for everyone, but
especially for the poor and brokenhearted, for those bound by powers beyond
their control and for those who mourn loss of any kind. To them especially he promises, “Beauty for
ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness, that you may be trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord,
that he may be glorified.”
Let us pray:
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel!
Amen.[12]
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