This sermon is based on Luke 2:8-14: Let me begin this morning with a beautiful old Christmas legend… the ancient legend tells of how God called the angels of heaven together one day for a special choir rehearsal. He told them that he had a special song that he wanted them to learn… a song that they would sing at a very significant occasion. The angels went to work on it. They rehearsed long and hard… with great focus and intensity. In fact, some of the angels grumbled a bit… but God insisted on a very high standard for his choir.
As time passed, the choir improved in tone, in rhythm, and in quality. Finally God announced that they were ready… but then, he shocked them a bit. He told them that they would sing the song only once… and only on one night. There would be just one performance of this great song they had worked on so diligently. Again, some of the angels grumbled. The song was so extraordinarily beautiful and they had it down pat now… surely, they could sing it many, many times. God only smiled and told them that when the time came, they would understand.
Then one night, God called them together. He gathered them above a field just outside of Bethlehem. “It’s time,” God said to them… and the angels sang their song. O my, did they sing it! “Glory to God in the highest… and on earth peace and good will toward all…” And as the angels sang, they knew there would never be another night like this one, and that there would never be another birth like this birth in Bethlehem.
When the angels returned to heaven, God reminded them that they would not formally sing that song again as an angelic choir, but if they wanted to, they could hum the song occasionally as individuals. One angel was bold enough to step forward and ask God why. Why could they not sing that majestic anthem again? They did it so well. It felt so right. Why couldn’t they sing that great song anymore? “Because,” God explained, “my son has been born… and now earth must do the singing!”
Once each year, Christmas comes around again to remind us of that… God’s Son has come to earth… and now we must do the singing! And look at how we have tried. Without question, one of the best and most beloved parts of the celebration of Christmas is the music! The good news of Christmas is so awesome, so full of wonder, that it’s not enough to just talk about it. We have to burst forth in song. We have to sing it.
Think of it. There are…
· The powerful anthems of Handel and Beethoven and Mozart and Rutter and Bach… and Davis and Landes.
· The beloved carols like O Little Town of Bethlehem, Joy to the World, The First Noel, O Come All Ye faithful, and Silent Night.
· Then there are pop songs like “Jingle Bells,” “Winter Wonderland,” and “I’ll Be Home For Christmas.”
Recently, I was in a department store doing some Christmas shopping. Christmas music was playing and I was getting into the spirit of it all… when suddenly I realized that I was singing along with Natalie Cole. Natalie and I were singing her new Christmas song. It’s a big hit. It’s called “My Grown-up Christmas List.” Have you heard this? In the song, Natalie Cole reminisces about how when she was young, she sat on Santa’s knee and told him about her childhood fantasies. And then she sings about how she’s all grown up now, but she still has dreams… things she would like for Christmas, not just for herself but for our needy world. Then she sings her “Grown-up Christmas List.” Here are the things she wants for Christmas now:
“Lives that won’t be torn apart
And wars will never start,
And time will heal the heart.
Everyone will have a friend
And right will always win,
And love will never end.
This (she sings) is my lifelong dream,
My Grown-up Christmas List.”
Do you know what Natalie Cole is longing for in that song? She is longing for the peace of Christmas… and the place to find that is in the miracle of Bethlehem. When we go back to Bethlehem, we discover that real peace means being set right in all our relationships. It means being… right with God, right with ourselves, and right with other people. Let me show you what I mean.
I. FIRST OF ALL, WE NEED TO BE RIGHT WITH GOD… (If we want to find the peace of Christmas.)
That’s the starting place because that is indeed what Christmas is all about. Jesus Christ came into this world to set us right with God. Jesus Christ came into the world to save us and to bring us back to God.
Remember the old story about the elderly couple driving down the street one day. They were listening to the radio as the man drove the car through the busy Christmas streets. As they listened to the beautiful music of Christmas, the wife became nostalgic and she said, “Herbert, do you remember how when we were younger we used to sit so close together as we drove along? It was so wonderful back then. What happened?” “I don’t know about that,” said Herbert, “All I know is that I haven’t moved.”
Well, Christmas comes each year to remind us that God is not the one who has moved away from us. No! We are the ones who move. We are the ones who drift away from Him.
Dr. Hugh Litchfield some years ago told about taking his 5-year-old son Christmas shopping one Saturday morning. It was just a day or so before Christmas… and the store was packed with shoppers. Hugh Litchfield told his son to stay near him, to not wander off because he might so easily get lost in the crowd. After they had shopped together for a while, Hugh was buying something for his wife at one of the department store counters. When he completed the purchase he looked back… and his little 5-year-old son was not there. He had drifted off! Hugh Litchfield began to frantically search for his son. He called out to him; he rushed through the crowd looking for him everywhere, but no luck. He could not find him. He moved quickly to the candy counter and then to the toy department. Surely, he would be there… but no, he wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Just as Hugh Litchfield was about to go into a panic, suddenly he heard this announcement over the department store loudspeaker: “We have a lost boy here! If you have lost your little boy, please come to the service desk.” Hugh Litchfield anxiously and hurriedly made his way there… and sure enough, there was his lost child. The reunion was a celebrative one with lots of hugs and words of love and visits to the candy counter and the toy department. They had been apart, but they had found each other again! They had been brought back together.
Now, think about this. The one who spoke over that loudspeaker, in a sense, served as a reconciler between the boy and his dad. They had gotten lost from each other because the little boy had wandered off, drifted away… but the one at the service desk got them back together again.
In the same sense, Christ has come down to this earth to help us get back together with God who made us… and who loves us. That’s what that word Emmanuel means in our text. God with us! God comes in the Christ Child to seek and save the lost. That’s what Christmas is all about. This is the only way we can have the peace of Christmas. The only way is to let the Christ of Christmas bring us back to the Father who loves us and set us right with the One who made us.
The first step toward the peace of Christmas is to be set right with God.
II. SECOND, WE NEED TO BE RIGHT WITH OURSELVES…if we want to find the peace of Christmas.
More and more psychologists are telling us that we can’t feel good about life and other people until we feel good about ourselves. They call it a healthy self-esteem… which is simply another way of saying that we need to be right with our “selves.”
Have you heard about the man who wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service? It read: “Dear Sirs: I underpaid my tax bill for last year. I can’t sleep at night and my conscience is bothering me. Enclosed please find $600.” He then added the P.S.: “If I still can’t sleep, I’ll send the rest.”
Some years ago when Rick Pitino was the head basketball coach at the University of Kentucky, he did a noteworthy thing (at least noteworthy in this day and age.) He suspended three of his star players and would not let them play in one of the most crucial games of the season. The reason: he had noticed them laughing and snickering as they watched the film of the previous Saturday’s game. What was so funny? Silently he studied them… and he noticed that they were always laughing when one of the Kentucky players was shooting a free throw, a foul shot. Suddenly, he realized what was so funny to them.
They had tricked the referees and the other team by slipping someone to the foul line who had not been fouled. In other words, one player had been fouled, but another player (who was a better foul shooter) had slipped to the line to take the shots – a clear violation of the rules of basketball.
Coach Pitino said that the players thought it was all a big joke, that they had put something over on the officials and their opponents, but Rick Pitino didn’t think it was a laughing matter… so to make his point, he suspended three of his best players and made them sit out of a very important conference game. “They’ll never do that again,” said Coach Pitino… “And they’ll never joke about that again. I want to win games for sure, but I also want my players to know the meaning of integrity.”
Let me ask you something. Do you know the meaning of integrity and honesty and ethics and virtue and morality? Do you feel good about your life right now? About who you are? Let me underscore a point right now that is so full of Christmas… The only way we can be at peace with ourselves is to welcome the Prince of Peace into our hearts and lives. The only way we can be right with ourselves is to be made right by Him.
One of the best gifts we can give our loved ones at Christmas this year is to be at peace within. If we want to find the peace of Christmas… then first we need to be right with God, and second, we need to be right with ourselves.
III. THIRD AND FINALLY, IF WE ARE GOING TO FIND THE PEACE OF CHRISTMAS WE NEED TO BE RIGHT WITH OTHER PEOPLE.
I have at home a very special Christmas headband. It has mistletoe above it on a spring. When you wear it… everywhere you go… you’re under the mistletoe. Do you know where the custom of kissing under the mistletoe came from? Actually, it came from the Druids in Northern Europe. They believed mistletoe had curative power and could cure lots of things including separation between people. So when two enemies happened to meet under an oak tree with mistletoe hanging above them, they took it as a sign from God that they should drop their weapons and be reconciled. They would drop their animosities and embrace one another under the mistletoe.
When the missionaries moved into northern Europe they saw this mistletoe custom as a perfect symbol for what happened to the world at Christmas. At Christmas a new age dawned, it was a time of peace, a time of healing, a time of reconciliation, a time for embracing one another.
If you want to have a “peace-full” Christmas, go in the spirit of love and fix those broken relationships in your life. If you are alienated or estranged or cut off or at odds with any other person, go in the spirit of Christmas and make peace. Don’t put it off any longer… drop your pride, drop your resentment, drop your grudges, and go set it right. Go… and God will go with you. That’s what mistletoe is really about… and that’s what Christmas is about.
God comes to us in the Christ Child so that we might be… set right with God, set right with ourselves, and set right with other people.
NOTE: This sermon series on Advent is currently a publication of Abingdon for Bibe Study during Advent. Jim Moore has granted this series to eSermons users to use in preparation of their Advent sermons. The material may be used in oral presentation in services of worship. It has been adapted here for the use.