What A Mess
Deacon John kicked of his advent theme this year: “A Messy Christmas.” We always want Christmas to be perfect. How much money, time, and energy go into chasing this unattainable ideal? The first Christmas was pretty messy, and life today is pretty messy. A great analogy would be the snow we had this week. It was really pretty on Wednesday. Today it’s salt crust and dust over everything. In our minds we often have serene pictures of the First Christmas. – Silent Night, Holy Night, in that little town of Bethlehem. Upon a midnight clear, angels from the realm of glory are heard on high, and the faithful come to adore him.
Yet is that really real to us? Should we take the nativity off the sterile mantle and look at it like this instead?
Mary and Joseph, tired from a long journey dictated by a distant foreign overlord make it into Bethlehem.
Covered in road grime and dust, they settle for space in what we would consider the garage. The sound of the labor contractions competes with the noise of the animals. A young girl struggles to push the Son of God out of her body.
Jesus enters the world as a poor infant, caked in Mary’s blood, and is wrapped (swaddled) in ripped and torn cloths. He is placed in a manger filled with hay, and stained with animal saliva. Joseph is allowed back in the stable. (Jewish men were not allowed to be midwives. True Even today). Shepherds show up, I am sure causing some confusion. And Mary and Joseph wonder of the future. They are so far from home….
All this doesn’t need a little drummer boy to make this a more uncomfortable scene.
And yet…..
Around them the town goes on, the world continues to spin.
At the same time as his birth, somewhere else in the world:
A child is going hungry, a man is digging a grave for a loved one, a soldier is lying on a battlefield wondering if he will make it through the night. A widow worries that she cannot provide for her family. An alcoholic stares at the empty bottle and contemplates going home…before ordering another. Two members of the same family are screaming at each other, fighting for control. Disease keeps one individual from his family, and does not allow him to keep down a meager meal. A prisoner longs for a home he will never see again. A slave gets a few hours’ sleep before being made to toil again. While another individual brazenly sells their body to a stranger for a few short hours. A homeless individual shivers in the cold. A thief takes what does not belong to him. A spouse asks for a divorce.
These things are happening right now as well.
Pain
Sin
Guilt and Shame
Death
The Devil, ever lurking, pushing, punishing, tempting.
It is into this world Christ chose to come. No one forced Him. He willingly left the Father, left heaven. To come to a creation that He made perfect and we made into a mess.
Merry Christmas – It’s the most wonderful time of the year.
And He did it with a message:
“Glory to God in the Highest, and peace upon the Earth to whom he is pleased.”
He came to wipe away tears. He came to remove burdens.
He seeks out the wounded and the lost.
He came to shout Joy to the World. He came to give us hope. That’s the gift of Christmas. God got messy. He was not afraid of the dirt, but chose to wear it that we might be made clean. He lived ugly that we might live forever.
He was laid in a manger.
He was carried through town by an uncertain teenage girl. Fearful, like every new mom, that she would drop him.
He lived for 33 years among His creation. Was cut and bruised and was dirty.
He was rejected, betrayed, beaten, abused.
He was lifted up upon the cross.
He was placed in a cold earthen tomb.
But it couldn’t contain Him. HE LIVES….that you might live to. And someday He will say God rest ye Merry Gentlemen, but first he gave us a great commission. We are to go, tell it on the mountain. To tell everyone that love came down on Christmas.
This world is messy.
Christmas is messy.
But because God chose to get messy; not that we have to ask the question “What Child is this?” but so we may loudly proclaim: We Have Hope.
I hope your Christmas is a high point in your life. But if it isn’t, if you are living Christmas this year in darkness, may this be an encouragement to look up. To remember the words of Isaiah 9 (ESV):
But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
He does it for you.
Come, thou long expected Jesus!
-Pastor Dan