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Make Christmas Happen LUKE 1:26-33; PHILLIPPIANS 2:4-8
Make Christmas happen. Will you just let Christmas happen or will you make Christmas happen? In previous sermons, I encouraged you to Wake up! Cast off the works of darkness like quarreling and jealousy, and put on Jesus—live as Jesus would live. Magnify the Lord, be alert for spiritual experiences. Look! Look at what is pure, honorable, right, just. Look for Jesus where he is at work. Let me add one more suggestion: Make Christmas Happen. Follow Christ’s example. We heard read what Paul wrote to the Philippians, 2:6, ”Who, being in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant.” Therefore, following his example, Philippians 2:4. “Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” In other words, make Christmas happen for someone else and Christmas will happen to you. Do the unexpected. What surprises can you arrange for someone this Christmas? What can you do that might be an occasion for God to bless someone's life? I was hanging lights on the eaves the first Christmas we were in our house in Mesa when our next door neighbor whom we had not yet met, came over and said, “Get off that ladder. I’ll do it.” Michelle, a flight attendant, was concerned for me falling off the ladder. She hung the lights. She checks our house regularly, noticed termites, found sprinkler leaks which she then repairs. One Christmas she hung new lights on the porch and garage. What can you do unexpectedly for your neighbors, without thought of receiving anything in return? After spending Christmas Eve in Paris, an American columnist described how they had no Christmas spirit. They were tired from the trip. It was cold and raining when they went out to eat. They found a drab, little restaurant, shoddily decorated for the holiday. Five tables were occupied by two German couples, two French families, and an American sailor by himself writing a letter with a smile on his face. A piano player listlessly played Christmas music. The evening was dismal. Everyone ate in stony silence. A father slapped his son. Then, an old woman came in selling flowers. She wore a dripping, battered overcoat, and shuffled in on wet, rundown shoes. She went table to table. "Flowers, monsieur? Only one franc." Wearily she sat down at a table, ordered a bowl of soup and lamented to the piano player, "I haven't sold a flower all afternoon. Can you imagine, soup on Christmas Eve." The piano player pointed to his jar, empty of tips. When the American sailor finished his meal and the letter he was writing, he walked over to the flower woman, chose two corsages, and asked, “How much are they?" "Two francs," she replied. He handed her a twenty-franc note, kissed her on the cheek, and said, "Merry Christmas. Keep the change." Then he pressed one corsage flat, put it in the letter he was writing and brought the other corsage to the table where the columnist and his family were sitting. "May I have permission to present these flowers to your beautiful daughter?” He gave the columnist's wife the corsage, wished them a Merry Christmas, and left. Everyone had stopped eating. Everyone had been watching the sailor. Everyone was silent. A few seconds later Christmas exploded throughout the restaurant. Do something unexpected. Christmas may be an unhappy time for people who live alone, for the elderly whose families live elsewhere, for those who are estranged from their families, for those LGBTQ who are rejected by their families, for those who are divorced or victims of divorce, for those who are grieving the death of a loved one. Christmas may be a sad time for them. Choose someone and befriend him/her. Go out of your way to share yourself and to give. You might invite lonely folks to your house. If you can't cook anymore, or really can't entertain, take one or two to a restaurant or invite him/her for coffee and cookies. You might plan to spend time on the telephone, and make two special phone calls a day for several days. You might hang their Christmas decorations. Perhaps you will be alone for Christmas. You have a choice. You can choose to feel sad or sorry for yourself, “Nobody invited me.” You can take whatever comes along, depend upon the morsels that might drop from someone's table, give vent to your feelings of bitterness and anger, and end up having a terrible Christmas. Or, you can choose to make Christmas happen. Take the initiative. Say to someone, "I'm going to be alone this Christmas, what about you? Shall we do something together?” By the way, Christmas is not one day. Christmas lasts 12 days. Christmas is a season. There is no law that says you have to put all your eggs in one basket, and celebrate Christmas on only one day. When Ellie and I were children in Minnesota, there was a tradition, families would visit each others homes in the days following Christmas Day to enjoy the decorations, eat Christmas cookies and ooh and ahh over the opened gifts under the tree. Take a risk this Christmas. Like a little child, let the wonder and mystery of Christmas touch the child in you. Be adventuresome. Dream. Fantasize. Let God use you. What do people around you need this Christmas? Do they need a word of forgiveness from you, a word of reconciliation? Have you been holding a grudge? Is someone upset with you? Get it worked out. Do the unexpected, reach out and touch someone. It's not so much what you do for someone that is helpful, but how you might encourage them to live their lives, to take their lives as they find them, accept the responsibility and challenge. Rather than reinforcing people in their self-pity, helplessness, dependence, inadequacy; encourage their self-confidence, encourage their belief in their abilities and skills, encourage them to grow spiritually, encourage them to receive the best Christmas gift of all—to open their hearts and receive Jesus into their lives. Tell them what your faith means to you. Ask God to use you and give you the right words, at the right times. Ask God to fill you with His spirit. And, invite them to come with you to our Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services. Come to be with your church family. We are God's family for each other. Come where we together celebrate and receive the joy, peace, and love of the Christ Child. Throughout the season, make Christmas happen for someone else and Christmas will happen to you! © 2022 Douglas I. Norris |