Word of Salvation – Vol. 21 No.04 - October 1974

 

Sense And Nonsense Of Christmas

 

Christmas Sermon by Rev. C. Moerman, Th.Grad. on Luke 2:18

(with apologies to Dr. J. J. Buskes)

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:1-20

Psalter Hymnal: 337: all; 335: 2 and 3 (after Law);
             339: all; 336:1 and 3 (after sermon); 341: all; 345:5

 

Congregation of the Christmas Child,

Yes, the shepherds HAD BIG stories to tell.

For it IS something when you, all of a sudden, experience a bit of heaven already here on earth.

A BIT OF HEAVEN ON EARTH.

And isn't that typical of what Christmas is about?

HEAVEN CAME DOWN: Angels, choirs singing, light, and a message so wonderful.  'GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE.'

 Who says that miracles do not happen?

The shepherds may have to wipe the sleep out of their eyes, but then they go.  'Let us see this thing that has happened, WHICH THE LORD HAS MADE KNOWN'.

MIRACLES ALRIGHT....!

God had spoken to them, and now: 'let us go'.

And with the BIG words still ringing in their ears, they went to see a LITTLE child lying in a manger.

And you need FAITH for that...!

When they arrived they saw it all: MARY, JOSEPH and the BABE, (as it has been told to them).

GOOD NEWS. . .  GREAT JOY. . . CHRIST THE LORD IS BORN TODAY.

Oh, I do not know whether they all fully understood.  Most likely not.  But they understood at least that
            BIT OF HEAVEN ON EARTH;
            GOD INTERVENING SOMEHOW;
            A CHANGE HANGING IN THE AIR;
            GOD CRASHING (cutting) INTO THE HISTORY OF MAN;
            THE STATUS QUO CRUMBLING.

They heard it, they saw it, they felt it....:
            HEAVEN CAME DOWN and GLORY SHONE AROUND.

And that's NEWS alright. . . GOOD news.

No wonder that on the way back from the stable THEY STARTED TO SING THE FIRST CHRISTMAS CAROLS ever, (i.o.w.  they told all people concerning this child).  The heart bubbling over.

Just like the people, the soldiers of the Salvation Army are doing in the weeks before Christmas:  Causing a ray of sunshine to break into the darkness of human existence.

(And you know where THEY usually go to?  The districts of ill fame.  Those for whom we turn up our nose.  I am sorry they will sit next to you in the Kingdom of Heaven.  You still want to get there?

See the red lights glowing up?  That's where the Army goes. . . and, singing, and clapping. . . and bringing A BIT OF HEAVEN IN A HELL OF A PLACE).

The heart bubbling over.  Hear.  Christmas carols: GOOD NEWS.  People go outside or open the windows when hearing the singing and the music.  What's going on?

'SILENT NIGHT, HOLY NIGHT.  ALL IS CALM, ALL IS BRIGHT'.

But it's NOT that quiet on that first Christmas night.  The shepherds are passing by and 'made known the saying, (told all people), concerning this child'.

The FIRST evangelists. . .
            WE HAVE GOOD NEWS:
            'Christ, the Saviour is born'.

And ALL who heard it wondered...  All WONDERED.  It doesn't say they believed.

The shepherds became the first human messengers, bearers of good news.  And all who heard were AMAZED.

“How is THAT possible?”
"That's interesting.”
“I like that bit of an angels choir.”
“Remarkable, to say the least.”
“You are sure, you know. that, eh...  there’s nothing wrong with you?  Up there?'”
“You are sure, you were awake?”
“What about hallucinations?”
“A babe in a manger, you say.  Poor darling.”
“What did you call Him again?  A Saviour...?”

And ALL wondered.

The Gospel train started to roll.
  Yes, it started in Bethlehem.
  Even before the cross.

And... reactions, reactions...?  They ALL wondered!

SO SHALL MY WORD BE THAT GOES FORTH FROM MY MOUTH; IT SHALL NOT RETURN TO ME EMPTY. .  .and they ALL wondered.  When YOU hear the Gospel, what do YOU do with it?

Let us face it.  It is the most amazing story you can think of:
            SIN – SAVIOUR – SALVATION – SERVICE.

But you have to do SOMETHING with it.

It does not need much imagination to believe that the division started already then.  The division of which Simeon still had to prophesy: 'This child is set for the fall and rising of many in Israel.'

Already THEN: 'He who is not for me is against'.  DIVISION.

They ALL wondered.
  And it is NOT too much speculation to say
            that some may have rejected the Christmas story as PLAIN NONSENSE.
  ‘Something wrong with the shepherds alright.
   Better send the whole bunch of them to a psychiatrist, or so.'

It cannot have been easy for the shepherds.
  To tell people stories of heavenly splendour is not so difficult.
  And about a choir, so beautiful and pure.
  They won't forget that for the rest of their life.
  So extra-ordinary; so special.
  But then... in contrast: JUST AN ORDINARY CHILD.
            Is THAT something to get SO excited about?
            And a manger. . . and a mother. . . !
            It is all so PLAIN and COMMON,... SO ORDINARY.
            Maybe poor;
              and they also heard something about 'no room'.
            But further?

Yet they told the people 'CONCERNING THIS CHILD'.

For that's what counts: THE CHILD.
  All the other happenings of the night are there to bring out HIS importance.
  What they heard, they passed on:
     GOOD NEWS. . . GREAT JOY. . . BORN THIS DAY (and we have seen it)
     A SAVIOUR. . . CHRIST. . . anointed from God. . .
     LORD. . . BIG BOSS. . . RULER. . . SAVIOUR. . . CHRIST. . . LORD.

Three words loaded with meaning.
And this day it happened, (we are witnesses).

They ALL wondered, were amazed.
BUT... they do not quite understand it all.

And if you do not understand Christmas, if you do not know why it all happened, its sense is lost.  And it even may become NONSENSE.

Shrugging of the shoulders.
Shaking of the head.

It's an amazing story.
  O yes, and that's why too many already had a go at it and chopped and changed, added and took away, and knocked the meaning out of it altogether.

The Christmas NONSENSE.
  Look around you, and you'll agree.
  The annual ritual of commercial madness;
            Dressed-up Santa Clauses;
            Christmas specials;
            Sacred music piped into the big stores;
            Tons of food and gallons of drink  offered at discount prices
               to make this year's Christmas the best one ever;
            And the window displays of the stable and the manger;
               and of course the sweet, cute little child, how romantic;
               and further a donkey with glassy eyes...!

TO BRING HOME THE MESSAGE OF THE BIRTH OF THE SON OF GOD.

HOW DEGRADING...WHAT NONSENSE. . . !

Is it any wonder that the world considers it an amazing story?
They all WONDER alright.
But then they shrug the shoulders and write it off as PLAIN NONSENSE.

And even the church has contributed to the NONSENSE of the Christmas.

It is no longer the message of SIN and SALVATION.

No longer that the status quo is crumbling.

But a sweet annual ritual repeats itself:
            WITH TREES AND CANDLES;
            WITH SPECIAL CHRISTMAS EVE SERVICES.

And for a few days the world is drowned
            with the sugar-sweet message
              of PEACE ON EARTH and GOOD WILL TO MEN.

But even as the people sing their carols, many of them look already with present-hungry eyes at the parcels under the tree.

It is no longer: O, HOW shall I receive THEE. . .
  but much more: O, WHAT shall I receive now.

As someone said, 'Christmas had become; a candle, a clock and a church, and we all hang them in the tree.  THAT'S CHRISTMAS.

Does it really make sense?  Or is it complete nonsense?

And ALL who heard it WONDERED at what the shepherds told them.

But to "wonder about it” does NOT GO FAR ENOUGH.
  You must be DUMBFOUNDED, FLABBER- GASTED;
  Christmas must KNOCK YOU FLAT.
  Only then, maybe, Christmas is going to make sense to you.

Christmas, to many, just would not be Christmas without going to church.
  This is why you see crowded services on this day.
  For many people it is the one-time-of-the-year-occasion
            that they DO go to church..

AND... they may WONDER; they even may MARVEL...
But it is just NOT ENOUGH.

Just "wonder" allows you to go either way.
  From the cradle to THE CROSS,
    or from the cradle BACK to your sinful self.

Christmas is A LOT, LOT MORE than just being AMAZED about it.
Christmas is JESUS CHRIST IN THE FLESH.
Christmas is GOD IN THE FLESH..!
Christmas is THE BEGINNING OF JESUS VERSUS SATAN.
Christmas is the INAUGURATION OF (if you wish) GOOD VERSUS EVIL;
THE BEGINNING OF THE ACTUAL SALVAGE REPORTS,
            (to lift up, to bring back to the surface)
                         of that drowned part of history, called Paradise.
Christmas IS:
GOD MOVING INTO ACTION
            to DO AWAY WITH MY SINFUL PAST, MY GUILT...!
GOD MOVING INTO ACTION
            THAT I MAY GLORIFY AND ENJOY HIM N O W...!
GOD MOVING INTO ACTION
            TO DO AWAY WITH THAT WHICH MIGHT SPOIL MY FUTURE: 'DEATH'.

Christmas is LIFE... .and therefore IT IS LIGHT IN THE DARKNESS.
Christmas DOES make SENSE. . . !
It is the most sensible feast there is.
            For it celebrates THE FEAST OF LIFE...
            THE BEGINNING OF NEW LIFE.

On Christmas Day the voice of God, which many centuries before had called Adam already.  Adam, hiding in the bushes.  The voice which had pleaded with Adam to come back to his senses: 'Adam, where are you?  Come out of your hiding place, Man.  For I will put enmity between the serpent, that old devil, and the seed of the woman.  And the seed of the woman will be victorious.  Come out, Adam'.

That same voice starts calling clearer now.  Much clearer on that Christmas Day: 'Man, where are you?  Come out of the hiding places of sin and death and misery, and TRAVEL TO BETHLEHEM”.

It's there that the roads to Heaven and Hell will meet, and. . . CROSS.

The voice of Christmas is the voice calling man back to his senses.
  Come away from the carnival of madness,
            and the turkey, and the plum pudding, and the candles.
  For if it doesn't go further than that, that's exactly the nonsense of Christmas.
  The nonsense which at very best gives me a good feeling
            that I have been in the church again today;
   or the nonsense which practises a 2-day ceasefire of war or quarrels
            and substitutes this with goodwill to men,
            all in honour of a cute, little baby who meant so well.

Get away from the NONSENSE of it, and let its SENSE come back again.

For Christmas just does not deal with 'a' birth.
  A birth, so romantic, so nice.
  For it deals with a BIRTH...
            WHICH GOES FAR, FAR BEYOND OUR UNDERSTANDING .

It's the MOST ASTOUNDING EVER...
            THE BIRTH OF THE SON OF GOD.
            GOD IN THE FLESH.  HOW IS IT POSSIBLE???

It's the birth which rocked the court of Herod;
 the birth which shook the observation towers of the wise men from the East.

GOD INCARNATE. . . GOD IN THE FLESH...!
That's it, and nothing less.
And the Son of God came because WE brought sin into the world
            and WE turned this earth into a constant battleground.

And when sin had entered upon the scene to spoil the beauty of life, Jesus said: 'then I come too. . . TO TAKE SIN AWAY. . . TO BECOME ENGAGED IN A HEAD-ON COLLISION. . . TO RESTORE PEACE AND HAPPI- NESS'. . .!

And that's no NONSENSE. . . that makes SENSE.

That's the most sensible thing a man can think of.
  TO TAKE SIN AWAY...
  TO TAKE SIN AWAY, not only for the shepherds,
            and the wise men, and Simeon, and Anna;
               but also for the Toms, and the Dicks and the Harry's of today.
            Their Saviour. .  .OUR Saviour.
            Their God. . . OUR God.

CHRISTMAS: 'And the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us'.

O amazing miracle: GOD BECAME MAN. . . . to SAVE man.

Christmas knocks me flat:
 IT'S AMAZING;
 IT'S ASTOUNDING;
 IT'S MARVELLOUS;
 for now: IMMANUEL. . . GOD IS WITH MEN.

The old world is in danger of collapse;

Satan is rushing his reserves to stop the holes, to defend the weak spots.
  But it's Christmas TODAY. . .
  The old world IS tottering, swaying...!
  For the BREAK-THROUGH has STARTED.

'Incarnate God, put forth Thy power,
 Ride on, ride on, great Conqueror,
 Till ALL know Thy salvation.
 Amen, Amen.
 Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
 Praise be given.
 Evermore by earth and heaven.'

Amen.