Christmas: Merciful Interruption

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. – Luke 2:8-11

This is my favorite time of year. I love the anticipation of Christmas. I love the mood, the decorations, and the music. I love the reminders of the gospel I find in the songs we sing and the traditions we keep.

BUT, of course, you may say, this time of year is rife with commercialism, consumerism, and materialism. Especially in America it seems that we’ve just about ruined Christmas. We’ve stripped it of all its meaning. And I think to some extent that is sadly true. I used to get so mad about Christmas every year because it never seemed like anyone cared about the meaning of it all. I’d always overhear neighborhood mothers saying things like,

“I am so not ready for Christmas this year.”

And another would respond, “Oh, I’m not either. I’ve got so much to do.”

Have you heard that? It’s like there’s this checklist in all of our heads entitled, “Things We Need To Do To Be Ready For Christmas.” And the older we get, the more we get this idea in our head that if Christmas is going to be good, we’ve got to make sure that we are the ones to make it good. And then we get really obsessive about the preparation and miss out on the whole deal. It’s like spending weeks planning, packing, and preparing for a vacation, and then forgetting to get on the plane.

We always seem to miss the fact that Christmas is bigger than us. Christmas is not what we make of it. It just is. It’s self-sustaining. Have you ever stopped and wondered what is so magical about this time of year? It’s a strange question. Think about it. It’s the dead of winter. The days are short; it’s windy and cold; you dread going outside at all, and then you get in the car and hear, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year” playing on the radio, and you can’t help but think, “Ahhh, at least there’s Christmas.” Christmas comes at the worst time of the year and makes it the most wonderful time of the year. And it’s not because we decided, “I’ve got an idea: I’m going to give Christmas my all this year – I’ll make it wonderful.” But rather it’s because Christmas itself is wonderful. It meets our longings. It fills our needs. It invades the dead of our winter, bringing light to the darkness and warmth to the cold.

My family usually doesn’t get this and I assume we’re probably not the only ones. Though we’ve done a lot of things well, holidays have never been “the most wonderful time of the year” for us. In fact, it’s usually the “crap-crappiest season of all.” It’s a nightmare! We’ve spent years trampling over the beauty of Christmas by last-minute shopping, chronic over-buying, stressful last-minute decorating, intense boot-camp style wrapping, and of course, ridiculous family feuds about one thing or another. We go through the whole mess just to “make it a good Christmas,” and by the time we get to church on Christmas Eve I can’t quite remember what we’re celebrating! You’ve all probably experienced this type of stuff to some degree, so hopefully you can smile along with me. And we do get to smile, because we know, at the end of the day, Christmas is still Christmas. It’s like the “deeper magic” of Narnia. It is beyond us and it cannot be undone.

And this is my point. Do we ever really get “ready for Christmas?” Can we ever be ready for God to come and make His dwelling among us? Well, not if ready means cleaning up our act and making ourselves worthy of His visit. No one is. I’m not and you’re not. But thankfully, that’s not what Christmas is all about. Christmas does not celebrate a God who comes to those who have prepared for him, to those who have cleaned up their act, to those who are ready and willing to welcome him in. That’s not the story. When God came to earth, no one was ready. Everyone turned him away. The best he could get was a dirty stable.

But you see, this is good news for all of us. That’s why we celebrate! He didn’t come for those who were ready. He came to invade the ugly lives of those who didn’t give a crap. He wasn’t given a warm welcome. He wasn’t welcomed at all. But he came anyway. Sometimes you’ll hear it said in churchy things, “You know God is a gentleman. He’ll knock on the door, but he’ll never come in unless you let him.” Well, the Christmas story says otherwise. In the Christmas story, when God comes to earth, he breaks down your freaking door. He’s no gentleman; he’s a rescue worker. Jesus comes and shatters every barrier between you and him, because all he wants to do is get to you. You cannot escape the Love of God. That’s what Love means, and that’s what the Christmas story is all about. He has invaded time and space to set you free from everything that’s making you hurt inside. He has come to meet your every longing – and He will. That’s why we sing:

Rejoice, Rejoice, Emmanuel has come to thee…

And:

The hopes and fears of all the years
Are met in Thee tonight.

The famous passage in Luke’s gospel explains that an angel came and appeared to some shepherds who were sleeping out in the fields. They were no one special - just some random shepherds. It had never occurred to me before how random this whole scene is. Why those dudes? God is coming to the earth and the angel finds some random shepherds to tell? It’s not like they were especially prepared for the whole thing. They were scared out of their minds! But the angel comes to them with this news, kind of like, “Hey, you guys are members of this planet. You’re gonna wanna hear this…” And then he says, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.” Your world has a Savior. He was just born. And this news is for all people. It doesn’t say “good new of great joy for some people, for those who make themselves worthy.” It says “good news of great joy that will be for all people.”

The message is this: Hey random shepherds “Do not be afraid. Your world has a Savior.” Hey rich kings from far away lands, “Your world has a Savior.” Hey poor African AIDS orphans, “Your world has a Savior.” Hey newly pregnant unwed teenager in America, “Your world has a Savior.” Hey fanatical Muslim terrorist, “Your world has a Savior.”

God has come down. God interrupts. God invades our distracted, self-indulgent lives and makes us His own. He turns everything upside down. Through Jesus, he rewrites the story of the world so that sorrow, pain, darkness and death give way to cookies, gift giving, bright lights, and singing. And that’s what makes Christmas so beautiful. Jesus has come and He’s making all things new. So Merry Christmas.