Historically, our church has hosted a Christmas Eve candle light service that is always well attended. Because of health and safety issues associated to the pandemic, we opted to vary in our traditional approach. Instead of meeting in the comfort and beauty of our sanctuary, last night we opted to use the church building as the back drop and sing Christmas carols in the church parking lot. We did so adhering to social distancing and as an extra precautionary measure, sing through face masks. It fell into the category of inconvenient.
Historically, God has always overlooked the inconvenient in fulfilling his promises and making provision of his gifts. It was to shepherds in the field keeping watch of their flocks by night that the angel appeared with the message: “Fear not, for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”
From the looks of the story, the first Christmas in Bethlehem fell into the category of inconvenient. When Mary and Joseph arrived in Bethlehem for the census, Luke writes “there was no room for them in the inn”. Consequently, we find them subsequently seeking shelter with the animals and placing the infant in a feed trough.
The word used for “inn”, literally means guest room. Bethlehem was Joseph’s family home. In all likelihood, he had probably hoped to find lodging with an extended family member, but because of the census, Bethlehem was filled with folks coming back home to register. Long story short, there were no accommodations available and the Christ child was born in a stable.
Inconvenience - God always works around that. The sound of Christmas music in worship is soothing for the soul because it highlights God’s greatest gift for our greatest need. We need a Savior.
The word “Inconvenience” has been written in bold letters all over most of calendar year 2020. Yet in the midst of our circumstance and reality, God meets us at the point of need. God does not abandon us when life gets difficult, but promises to sustain us and see us through.
· Christmas music triggers Memories – Memories of Bible verses proclaiming God’s love and the gift of his son.
· Christmas music triggers Memories– Memories of family traditions and shared time with loved ones.
· Christmas music triggers the reminders of Peace, Joy & Hope
The message of Christmas is a message of hope. Aren’t we told: For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
Joy is one of those often-used words at Christmas. The Christmas carol entitled “Joy To The World” is one of the songs that we sang last night. “Joy to the world! The Lord is come Let earth receive her King! Let every heart prepare Him room And heaven and nature sing And heaven and nature sing And heaven, and heaven and nature sing”
Yet, in all honesty, we have to admit that in many ways there doesn’t seem to be an over-abundance of joy in our world. Sometimes we are strangers to the concept of joy because we focus on circumstance rather than focusing on God.
Capt. Gerald (Jerry) Coffee was a prisoner of war in Vietnam. He actually spent 7 years years in captivity – mostly locked in a small cell. He shares his pilgrimage in his book entitled “Beyond Survival”.
At Christmas in 1968, his third Christmas in captivity, he was given some candy bars which were wrapped in silver paper. He folded the silver into a small star. He made three of them and attached each of the three stars to straws. He focused on the message of Christmas and the indwelling presence of Christ as he looked as the stars illuminated by the single bulb that lit his cramped cell.
He remembers with gratitude the brightening of his Christmas with the candy wrappers and describes what he felt that night:
“Here there was nothing to distract me from the awesomeness of Christmas, no commercialism, no presents, very little food. I was beginning to appreciate my own spirituality for the first time because I had been stripped of everything by which I had measured my identity: rank; uniform; money; family. And yet, I continued to find strength within. I realized that although I was hurting and lonely and scared, this might be the most significant Christmas of my life.”
In that lonely cell, far away from family and friends, Gerald Coffee experienced Christmas joy. Consequently, for each of us, that same possibility exists today.
Merry Christmas,
Don