Welcome and Merry Christmas to all of you. I know that we probably have some guests who are visiting family and friend with us today. Thank you for joining us for the celebration of Christmas.
It goes without saying, we're probably very much in the most hectic hours of the most hectic day of the most hectic week of the most hectic season of the year, a time that will fly by in no time at all. When it comes to Christmas, it's all good. That's why we want to do everything and be everywhere and please everyone. It's all good. The problem is, it just doesn't all fit.
Maybe there's no avoiding the busyness when it comes to the holidays, and we just go ahead and concede that point. But we don't have to be anxious, angry, or annoyed about it all. So if that's you, if at any time in the past few days, you have found yourself anxious, angry, or annoyed, if you're anxious, angry, and annoyed right now, sit back, relax, take a deep breath. Because for the next few minutes, at least, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to say anything, you don't have to go anywhere.
We need a plan for the holidays, for sure, but for a more sustainable and successful living, we need a strategy, and we're calling that strategy "your best 'yes.'" It's all about judgment but not just decision-making. It's much more about sensitivity, even shrewdness when it comes to decision-making, discerning not just the good from the bad, but the good from the greater good, and the greater good from the greatest good. Tonight, I want to talk about one particular "yes" that we can make that we think is not only your best "yes," but your best "yes" ever, the best "yes" of all.
There are four gospels in the Bible, four different accounts of the life of Jesus – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And they all tell the same story, but they tell it from different perspectives. Luke tells the story of Christmas that we know best and love most because it is Luke's Gospel that is quoted extensively by that famous theologian, Linus, in "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Luke is the most poetic, the most descriptive, probably the best storyteller of all four gospels, but also the most historically detailed. He goes to great lengths to show that even though he's describing miraculous, fantastical, amazing events, they're not fantasy. They're not fabled or fiction. They're real events that are rooted in history.
Luke wrote, "In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled." So Luke tells us that Mary and her husband, Joseph, traveled to Bethlehem because that's where Joseph was from. And there at Bethlehem, Mary gives birth to the child, Jesus. But then, Luke takes us to a completely different scene. He says, "So there were shepherds in that region, living in the fields and keeping a night watch over their flock."
We tend to have this idolized, Hallmark Christmas card view of them. The job of shepherding, however, was about as low as you could go in Jewish society at the time. To begin with, their jobs were sometimes quite dangerous, but often just deadly dull. The shepherds were definitely societal outcasts, but they were also religious outcasts. Their job rendered them religiously unfit, religiously unclean, according to the Jewish law. So they were barred from worship at the temple in Jerusalem. In other words, the church people didn't want them around.
The shepherds that Luke is telling us about, those shepherds keeping night watch in those fields between Bethlehem and Jerusalem on that first Christmas night, were no ordinary shepherds because they were charged with no ordinary sheep. Those sheep were special sheep. They were specially bred to be sold at the temple in Jerusalem for worship sacrifice. So those sheep were called the "lambs of God," the lambs of God who made up for, who atoned, who took away the sins of the people.
It was to those shepherds, of all the people in the whole world that Christmas night, that the most important announcement ever is given. Luke writes, "The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid." The angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all people."
Deep down in our hearts, we are looking for good news. And that's what Christmas is. Maybe this is puzzling to you, or perhaps it comes as a surprise because maybe when you think about God, church, religion, whatever, all you think about is bad news. You never go to church. You are like those shepherds. You are un-churched, and you are un-churched because church is boring and bad for you. It's never been presented to you as good, much less great. It has more often come across as bad news, bad news of great guilt. But that's not what Christmas is about, and it's not what Christ is about for sure.
When Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago, all kinds of people including some very unholy people, some very un-churched people, flocked to him. They followed Jesus because he offered good news of great joy that included them. Good news of great joy, not just for some special people, not just for the religious rule-keeping people, not just for the morally righteous, holier-than-thou people, not just for the church people. Good news of great joy for all people.
The angel goes on to tell them exactly what this news is. He says, "For today, in the City of David, a savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord.” So the good news for the shepherds is that they have a savior. The good news for you is that you have a savior too. At first blush, maybe that doesn't sound so great. Maybe it doesn't even sound good because to say you have a savior, is to suggest you need one. But if you think about it, you would probably eventually acknowledge and agree that a savior could come in quite handy.
We know we need a savior to move us beyond our own poor choices and past regrets, to help us understand that we are not the sum total of those bad choices and we are not defined by our past. We know we need a savior to quiet that voice that says we'll never measure up, that voice that can sometimes be doubt and sometimes despair. We know we need a savior to rescue us from the times that we fall short of God's best for us, or we don't quite meet our own expectations for ourselves and who we want to be as parents or friends, or students, or employers. We know we need a savior to save us from the fears and frustrations, and the anger, and the anxiety that hound us, from the sadness and sorrow that can haunt us. We know we need a savior and the message of Christmas is that, whoever you are, wherever you have been, whatever has happened to you, whatever you have done, a savior is exactly what you have.
Maybe you've said "no," to Christ, the church, God, religion because the message you heard was, "You're not good enough.” Maybe you've said "no" because you thought the whole deal with faith and religion was knowing stuff that you really weren't interested in. Maybe you've said "no" because you see Christianity as some kind of club for church people, it's a kind of club for the smug, and you're really not interested. Of course, you're perfectly free to say "no." But why not first make sure you're not saying "no" to a false representation of the Christmas message? The real Christmas message is still the original one. It's the message the angels gave the shepherds, "Today, in the City of David, a savior has been born for you, who is Christ the Lord."
The message is that, first of all, God doesn't want something from you. God wants something for you. Take a look at the end of the story. The shepherds receive the good news and allow it to change their lives. They receive the good news and they act on it, and that changes things for them. At least, it starts to. It leads them to worship and service. And most of all, it leads them to share the news that they've been given.
Saying "yes" to the gift of Christmas like the shepherds did, saying "yes" to the gift of Christmas that is Jesus Christ, doing something as simple as starting to talk to him on a daily basis can change a lot. It can begin to change everything for you in 2019 and beyond. You know, the whole point of this whole Christmas deal that we have gathered today to celebrate is only to help us understand or to understand once again that God seeks to walk with us on a daily basis, and nothing is beneath his purview. He seeks to walk with us on a daily basis toward better choices and more successful, sustainable living. Because in every single situation and each and every step of the way, God really does have in mind for you your best "yes."