This week, a mother called the church. Her voice was quite frantic. “I have a thirteen-year-old daughter. I’m a single, working mother. I’ve reached out to every agency there is in Springfield. Nobody will help me. Who is going to give my daughter the Christmas she deserves? What am I going to tell her when she wakes up on Christmas morning, with nothing under the tree?”
She was already in fifth gear, going a hundred mph. I didn’t even have a chance to pick my jaw up off the floor. I did the only thing I knew to do. “She’s thirteen?”, I clarified. “Ah, I’ll transfer you to Seth, our Student Minister!” Actually, she’d left a voice mail. Which is often good—because in situations like that, I prefer we spend time praying before responding. We reached out later. No, we didn’t blindside poor Seth.
A few weeks back, Paul Boatman and I went up toward Chicago, to a large warehouse run by Samaritan’s Purse. We spent a few days unloading pallets of Operation Christmas Shoeboxes. We were part of an enormous army of volunteers. We’d open each box, inspect the contents, remove questionable items, and make sure they were packed full of toys. That’s about as close to becoming a Christmas elf you can get this side of the North Pole!
The whole time they are showing videos of how millions of these shoeboxes are shipped to children all over the world. It’s a logistical miracle. First, they’re transported via enormous cargo planes, ships, trucks… then they’re loaded upon cars, horseback, bicycles, canoes… then many are carried across mountains on the backs of workers. But imagine! Millions of boxes! Ten, Fifty, 100 million? Yet there are billions of children in the world. Billions.
Samaritan’s Purse doesn’t just hand out boxes. The overwhelming percentage of kids who receive a shoebox goes through a 10-12 lesson Vacation Bible School. The workers stay in these villages to teach these kids about Jesus. These shoeboxes are given out in sensitive countries—where workers are literally risking their lives telling people about Jesus.
If you get to know me, I’ll warn you that I’m a thinker. That doesn’t mean I think I’m smart or smarter—it just means I dwell on things too deeply, and far too long. Phone calls like the one I described eat at me. On a human level, I don’t know what it’s like to be a single mom, to not be able to give any gift. I’m not going to judge that. I don’t know what it’s like to be a child, and not to get a gift, for my Christmas, to feel empty. But I do know that this is exactly what an ordinary Christmas looks like for vast majority of children in our world.
But here is what troubled me most. I was thinking about how much cooler it might be to play Santa (as opposed to being a pastor.) It’s not that our church can’t play Santa (my autocorrect keeps changing Santa to Satan). We reached out to that mother. Our church filled hundreds of Operation Christmas Shoeboxes. But we are primarily a spiritual people, with a profoundly spiritual gospel. Yet we are surrounded by Amazon-Primed/One-Click-conditioned people who are desperately hungry and thirsty, and desperately concerned, MOST for their material well-being! How could any enterprise, hoping to maintain a shred of credibility and revelation, dare not play Santa?
All this month I’ve been re-reading the Christmas story. This week it was Matthew’s Gospel. Matthew’s gospel begins with a genealogy of names. The names (beginning with Abraham) span 52 generations. There was a time, before I got acquainted with the Bible, when I’d read those names and they wouldn’t mean anything to me. Abraham. Isaac. Jacob, Judah, Perez, Zerah, Tamar… Or how about Salmon, Rahab, Boaz, Obed, Ruth… Or how about Ruth, Obed, Jesse, King David, Uriah’s wife (WHAT? Does she have a name?), Solomon…
The problem is the Bible tells all of these people’s stories unfiltered. When I grew in Sunday school, the colored characters on the flannel graph deceived me into thinking these people were a bunch of saints who lived perfect lives. But the Bible doesn’t present a flowery picture of these people at all. There are some high points of course—but what the Bible really teaches is how each and every one of these people most profoundly needed something that certainly fits on a tree, but doesn’t fit so well under a Christmas tree.
In Matthew 1:20-21, an angel of the Lord appears in a dream to Joseph—who’s just found out his fiancée Mary is pregnant with a child not his own—the angel makes this ominous announcement. “Joseph, Son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
Again… and only you can answer this… Is this the kind of Christmas you or I need to be most concerned about people knowing, and celebrating? That in generation after generation, Jesus quite unexpectedly intervened… until he finally CAME (was born) into our world… to save us from our sins once and for all. To bring mercy and grace and salvation!
I’m just being candid. But if you really weigh the actual life of each person mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy… their life as actually chronicled in the Bible… again, not the stories cleaned up and sanitized for a child’s flannel graph board… or even if you are honestly reflecting on your own life’s journey… can any of us say that Matthew 1:21 is the Christmas any of us deserve?
I’ve read the Christmas story (of Jesus) hundreds of times. When the angels make their announcements, as the word spreads, even as John the Baptist preaches, and Jesus Himself comes of age… there is zero presumption being made. The moral fabric of our universe has been torn. Our sin has eternally separated us from our Father. Our sin has rendered us harassed, helpless, desperate within. Our sin has fractured every relationship between men across face of earth. Our sin has rendered us prone to suffering, subject to cruelty, and destined for death. There is nothing we need more than God to mend what’s been torn.
The Christmas we deserve? No, Christmas is more like God giving us the kind of grace and mercy we could have never expected. Mt 1:21, “...She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Sins? Is forgiveness really my greatest need? Granted I may not deserve grace, I probably shouldn’t expect it either… but is it the greatest thing I need? In Matthew’s gospel we move rather quickly from the story book “manger” to the desert preaching of John the Baptist. Matthew 3:2, “repent!” Matthew 3:3, “Make your paths straight.” Matthew 3:6 people come being baptized and confessing their sin. Matthew 3:7, the warning to escape the coming wrath of God. Matthew 3:8 produce fruit consistent with repentance—back up your profession with deeds! Mt 3:19 the ax is at the root of the tree. Mt 3:11 be baptized for repentance! Mt 3:12 be baptized by the Spirit that the fire of God may refine your sinful life. It’s too clear. Mt 4:1-10 we’re a people to who so easily succumb to temptation, Mt 4:16 a people living in the shadow of death, Mt 4:24 a people suffering great affliction.
Do you know the only thing you can do to be “blessable” is that you become poor of spirit, you mourn over sin, you humble yourself, you hunger and thirst for the righteousness your sin filled life most needs, you come before God seeking his kind of mercy, his kind of purity, and his kind of peace.
Thank God were not getting the Christmas we deserve. As I read along in Matthew, I thought maybe God’s word would let up on my wounded pride a little. I mean, God I’m a good person, right? Not perfect, but pretty good, pretty deserving still, right?
Matthew 5-7. We’re not living lives as salt and light—we’re not living lives that cause people to praise their Father in heaven. This is the testimony of Scripture, not my testimony. We’re lawbreakers! We’re so angry and murderous and litigious. We’re lustful, adulterous, immoral, separated, divorced, and violent. We’re a lying, swearing, oath-breaking, faith-breaking people. We’re resistant, cold-hearted, vengeful, and calloused. We’re biased, prejudiced, and cruel especially to outsiders. We’re self-absorbed, vain in our worship, greedy, boastful. We’re prayerless, self-reliant, unforgiving, merciless. We’re anxious, worried. Judgmental—not knowing God’s goodness as Father—not trusting him as Provider.
In Matthew’s gospel the only person close to a hero is the Roman Centurion, who upon meeting Jesus, declares, “I’m not worthy for you to come to my home.” In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus must clean the leper. Only Jesus can answer the disciples, “Lord save us, we’re going to die.” Only the Son of Man has authority to forgive. Only Jesus can have mercy on the two blind men, Mt 9, who called out in unison, “Have mercy on us Son of David.”
Friend… Jesus has not come to call the righteous, but sinners. It will be more tolerable on the day of judgement for Sodom and Gomorrah than for a person who doesn’t repent. Every story in the Bible, every Law, every syllable ever uttered by every prophet—points to our need for a Savior to forgive and heal what’s torn.
For the mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart. I tell you that on the day of judgment people will have to account for every careless word they speak. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” … For this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are hard of hearing, and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back—and I would heal them … For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20 These are the things that defile a person… you unbelieving and perverse generation, how long will I be with you? How long must I put up with you?
Mt 1:21, “…She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” Christmas isn’t about what we can put under a tree. It’s not about what you or I deserve or don’t deserve. If we have ears to hear---it’s about the one who God first put in a manger, only to later be put on that tree, for our sins. This Christmas, God has not left us empty, with nothing… he’s given us everything!
Some words of Jesus to fill your Christmas…“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 Blessed are the humble, for they will inherit the earth. 6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. 7 Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. 8 Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. 9 Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. 10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for the kingdom of heaven is theirs.”
“Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Here is my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations. He will not argue or shout, and no one will hear his voice in the streets. He will not break a bruised reed, and he will not put out a smoldering wick, until he has led justice to victory. The nations will put their hope in his name.
“Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.”