Holiday Rush or Christmas Rest?

Pastor Phillips’ Sermon
Sunday, November 27, 2011

[Video] “Wait. Christ was born in a lowly manger, not a shopping mall. Our lives are so filled with chaos that we’ve nearly missed the greatest gift of all time and for what? Presents? Yard decorations? Tinsel? Hot chocolate? Rudolph and Santa Claus? Why do we prefer plastic over purpose, stuff over sacrifice, toys over truth? Are we overlooking Christ’s birth only to celebrate the meaningless each year? Do we go through the motions of the season year after year, routinely placing our wants over the needs of others? Are we on a collision course of forgetfulness, allowing the celebration to hide Christ once again? Last year, over $460 billion was spent on Christmas while half the world had yet to hear of Christ’s name.”

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

That’s a struggle, isn’t it? With all the hoopla about Black Friday and all the different things going on, sometimes Jesus seems to be in the background, if anywhere, in our celebrations. Black Friday. Quite an event. At our Thanksgiving celebration, I kind of noticed first it was just one person, my sister-in-law, who is just real gung ho about it and while the whole world is eating and enjoying Thanksgiving and we’re all talking and playing cards and watching family videos and things like that, she has the paper spread out on the floor and she’s looking at all the sale papers from all the stores and she’s plotting out her strategy and how she’s going to make the most of that day and get the best bargains. She has a list of everything she needs.

This year, my daughter caught the bug. Well, she had it all figured out, budgeted just a certain amount for each person and all that. So we came back from southeast Iowa celebrating Thanksgiving to find our living room filled with all their trophies, all the things they had gotten on sale or bargains and the stories they told about the way people were behaving at those stores, it’s just unbelievable. It’s just crazy. It kind of makes it hard to keep our focus on spiritual things when we get all revved up about material things. It takes a lot of energy to put into staying up all night and hitting all those stores, and this is just the beginning of our holiday season. We’re just getting started.

So many activities, so many demands on our time, so much stress. How can we stay in touch with the spiritual importance of this season? It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the parties you have to attend, the decorations, the rehearsals, the visiting relatives and, oh yeah, work. It’s hard to keep our focus. What can we do to keep our focus on the promises of God? What can we do to make sure that we don’t lose track of what this season’s really all about?

Well, I’ve come up with some suggestions, some strategies for you to try at your house. The first one is create a touch point in your home. Maybe you already have something like this, something you set up every year, like your nativity scene, where you sit and you can just look at the figures and think about the story and reflect on that and just kind of tune into God for a moment. Create something like that in your home.

The Israelites back in the time when they were entering the Promise Land had something like that. This is from Joshua 4, “When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, ‘Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up the twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan right from where the priests stood and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.’ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, ‘Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites. This will serve as a sign to you. In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.’ So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the Lord had told Joshua. They carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.”

Later on in the chapter, it says, “He said to the Israelites, ‘In the future, when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground. For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful so that you might always fear the Lord your God.’”

They created a touch point. This pile of twelve stones, one representing each of the tribes, so that as time went on and maybe the average person didn’t remember those stories, they could ask one of the leaders or one of the elders or the teachers, “Tell me, what do these stones mean? We treat them like a holy place. What is this?” “Well, when our forefathers were entering into the Promise Land, those carrying the ark of the covenant, when their feet touched the Jordan River,” which was at flood stage, by the way, “the water stopped up. It dried up and the whole nation of Israel crossed over on dry ground and then we took twelve stones from right there in the middle of the river where the ark of the Lord stood and we built this pillar so our people would never forget what God does for us, what He’s done in the past and what He will do in the future.”

So what I’m encouraging you to do is create something like that in your home so when you come home after a busy day or when you’re all revved up to go out to see the latest movie that came out for the holidays, whatever, you have this reminder in your home and you can go and maybe just take a moment and reflect and stay tuned into what the season is really all about.

That is the second point, tune in. Find a Christian radio station. Maybe you haven’t listened to those before but there are all kinds of Christian radio stations in Des Moines. All you have to do is do a little dial cruising or surfing or you can Google online Christian radio stations in Des Moines and you can find a few because this time of year, what do you think they’re going to be talking about? They’re going to be talking about Christmas and all the traditions in the history of Christians observing Christmas and playing Christmas music and all kinds of things like that. That’s a great way to keep in contact with God. Tune in to one of those Christian radio stations.

In my own experience, this is how it’s helped me. I can remember as a young pastor down in Houston, Texas listening to the Christian radio station and I’d read something in my daily devotion that kind of really spoke to me and then I heard it in church in our Scripture readings and in the hymns and then I was listening in on the Christian radio station and I heard it there and I’m thinking, “Boy, God, you really had a message for me and now I got it,” because I heard it in all those different places. There are all kinds of things that people benefit from when they tune into those Christian stations. If you go on their website, you see testimonies of how it helped them through different times in life. And that’s the same thing it can do for us, as we tune into these Christian stations, we can hear programs that can be encouraging for whatever’s going on in your life.

The third point I want to make is to dig in, actually dig into God’s Word this Advent season. You get it on Sunday and if you come on Wednesdays to the Advent services, you will get it then, too, but we have an opportunity right now. We have some devotion booklets in the entry area out there. This one’s called Transforming This Christmas and it’s from the Lutheran Hour of Ministries. It’s an opportunity for you each day to do a devotion that tunes you in to what God is talking about and what’s going on in the season and I thought I’d just demonstrate one of those for you. I timed it. See if you have enough time in your day for three minutes. That’s not much, is it?

I have to put on my old man glasses. Okay, now we’re good. First, it starts out with a reading from Psalm 80:1-7. This is today’s devotion from the Lutheran Hour of Ministries devotion booklet, so we’ll do this one together. “Hear us, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock; you who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us. Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved. O Lord God Almighty, how long will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. You have made us a source of contention to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.”

Then the devotion itself says, “Are you hoping for the perfect fairy tale Christmas this year? You know, it’s the kind with the award-winning decorations inside and outside your house, family gatherings and parties filled with laughter, everyone excited about your presents and keeping your budget from sinking in the process? Odds are the next 28 days aren’t going to run that smoothly. There never seems to be enough money. The gatherings and parties often have more tension than laughter and those presents your kids wanted on December 7 aren’t always the same ones they want on December 24. Maybe that’s the heart of your problem. We mistakenly think we can only have a perfect Christmas if we could avoid any problems in December. The trouble is we’ll never have that kind of December in this world. There will always be problems of one sort or another, unemployment, strange relationships, health problems or loved ones who won’t be with us this year. But despite these obstacles, you can enjoy a Christmas filled with joy, peace and hope. These devotions are all about doing just that, transforming this Christmas to make it everything it should be, even in the middle of the chaos of life. But you have to know one thing first. There is nothing we can do to transform this Christmas ourselves. Someone else has to do it, a little baby born in the far away town of Bethlehem. Come along with us in the coming weeks and see God transform this Christmas for you, no matter where you are or what you encounter in the next four weeks.”

Here‘s the prayer: “Lord God, come to me and transform my Christmas this year. Fill it with joy and light no matter what my circumstances are. I pray in your Son’s name, Amen.”

Isn’t that a great way to spend time with God, just dig into His Word a little bit, read and understand it? This is what it says in 2 Timothy 3, “But continue in the things which you have learned and have been convinced of, knowing whom you’ve learned them from and that from a child, you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise into salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, correcting, for instructing in righteousness, that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for all good works.”

Paul encourages young Timothy in that passage to continue in what he learned as a child. We learned these things as children, didn’t we? The story of Christmas, the story of the wise men, all the different things that happen around this time of year. We learn these as children and Paul urges us to continue in them, so I encourage you to stay on track with God this season by digging into His Word.

The fourth idea is to jump in. Maybe your life isn’t so busy. Maybe you’re like my wife and I and the kids are out of the house. WoooHooo. The youngest is off to college. Well, she’s only a half an hour away so we don’t win the whole battle but you know the idea. We have this whole day to ourselves. Whatever we want to do, that’s what we do. We don’t have to worry about running them around and doing all these different things. Maybe you need a few things to help fill out your schedule, to help make this a meaningful Christmas that focuses on Jesus.

Well, we have some ideas for you. This is the Holiday Opportunities brochure and they’re all over the church if you want one, and you could look through there and find a few things that you might want to participate in, like the Wednesday services or like the different concerts we offer, the children’s programs and things like that. You may not have children anymore in the children’s program, but it’s still fun to go see them isn’t it, to see those little ones say their lines and sing their verses and to see the parents how they react just like you did when you were parenting your young children.

Maybe you could go Christmas caroling December 17, 2:00-5:00 p.m. We’re going to go visit all the homebound folks in our congregation and even beyond our congregation, other people in the community, so there’s an opportunity to do something fun this Christmas.

Or maybe buying gifts for the giving tree, helping families that are less fortunate to celebrate their Christmas. Jump in. Find something to stay in contact with God and just to grow in the depth and richness of this whole holiday season.

The fifth suggestion is to join in. Join your fellow Christians in worship. Now you know we have worship on Sunday. We have six services every weekend but, in addition, during the season of Advent, we had two on Wednesday, one over the noon hour, a half hour service and when you leave, you get a lunch. Pretty good deal, huh? Yeah, you can come on your lunch hour, come to church and grab a lunch on your way out.

Also, at 6:00 p.m., we have an hour long service from 6:00 to 7:00. So opportunities to join in with God’s people, enjoy all the things we enjoy on Sunday now also on Wednesday. Hebrews 10:25 speaks to this, “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the day approaching.” Now that day is referring to the Lord’s second coming. Right now, in this time, we’re looking forward to celebrating His first coming, too.

Maybe, though, this season’s kind of challenging for you. Maybe you’ve gone through some very painful things this past year. Maybe this is the first holiday season since your divorce or the first holiday season since your parents died or your sibling died or your child died. And there’s an empty space where they used to be.

A few weeks ago, we had something called Surviving the Holidays and that’s what that was all about, helping people who have either lost a loved one or people who have gone through a divorce, helping them through this time of year. So we had a wonderful seminar at that time, but we still have the books for that seminar. They’re called Survival Guides. So if you’re looking for one, if you’d like one to help you with your grief or help you with your divorce, stop by the office. We have plenty available.

Psalm 37 directs our hearts and our thoughts in the midst of our time of suffering and pain. Psalm 37:4-5, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this.” Do you want to escape the rush of the season? Do you want to get away from all that commercialism, all the things that are so stressful and busy? Do you want to have the best Christmas ever? I have one suggestion: Keep it simple. Keep it humble.

As we were driving back from seeing my in-laws in Fairfield, we were talking with our daughter, the freshman in college, and she was just talking about all our fun experiences as a family and she said, “The best Christmases and the best Thanksgivings were when we lived in Minnesota.” Now when we lived in Minnesota, they were 3 and 6, the girls, and we had nothing. They had a great Christmas, a great Thanksgiving. We’d go out and cut a tree and all kinds of fun things, and it was very simple. And I think that’s how you stay on track with God. You just keep it simple and you stay connected to Him and you allow Him to fill you with His joy and His peace. Amen? Amen.