Some unknown wit has published an essay on the Internet on the joys of being a male of the species. He says, “Men are just happier people.” Then he explains why. Here are some of the advantages he lists with regard to being male: “Your last name stays put. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can never be pregnant. Same work, more pay. (Uh, oh . . . I’m going to start a brawl with that one.) Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress $5000. Tux rental-$100. New shoes don’t cut, blister, or mangle your feet.
“Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.
“Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original color. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck.
“You can play with toys all your life. One wallet and one color for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can “do” your nails with a pocket knife.”
And here’s the clincher, “You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes. No wonder,” he says, “men are happier.” (1)
Well, I hope you men will do a better job this year. You still have a few days left to get prepared.
Someone else published a list of “Things Wives Don’t Want To Hear Their Husbands Say On Christmas Day.” Here’s a few, just as fair warning:
“You like it, hon? Almost look like real diamonds, don’t they?”
“That’s right, hon. Your own subscription to ‘Guns & Ammo.’”
“It’s two sizes smaller, darling‑ ‑ you know, for motivation.”
And the final thing wives don’t want to hear: “Well, if it isn’t Roy and Angela and their seven kids ‑ ‑ with suitcases! What a pleasant surprise!” (2)
Isaiah the prophet is preparing us for the coming Messiah. Today we read these words: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”
In today’s lesson from the Gospel of Matthew we read how this prophecy is fulfilled. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream and says to him: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”
Here is why we celebrate Christmas God came to dwell with us. “They will call him Immanuel God with us.”
The magazine, The Week, earlier this year carried a story about Newark, New Jersey. I don’t know what you see when you try to visualize Newark, NJ. Many people see darkness and decay. In fact, Newark has been called America’s most troubled city.
Newark lost most of its employers decades ago, says this article in The Week. Today, more than a quarter of Newark’s population lives below the poverty line. Located just 10 miles from New York City, Newark used to be a thriving manufacturing center. At its peak, around World War II, the city had a population of 450,000.
However, in the 1960s, affluent citizens began to flee the city, and the federal government constructed giant housing projects there. In 1967 there were terrible riots, resulting in 26 deaths and hundreds of torched businesses. Eight years later, Harper’s magazine called Newark America’s “worst city.” By 2007, Newark had been reduced from 450,000 people to 280,000 people. It had one supermarket, and a single movie theater.
And yet, today something is happening in Newark thanks to a tireless mayor named Cory Booker. Nearly everything about Booker is unique. Unlike previous mayors, he is not only a product of the suburbs but of Stanford, Yale Law School, and Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. A 6-foot-3, 250-pound vegetarian, Booker could have lived a life of comfort and affluence. Instead he opted to live for eight years in one of Newark’s most crime-ridden public-housing projects, from which he won a seat on the city council. In 2007, he was elected mayor.
What has Booker achieved as mayor? Well, for one thing he’s attracted more than $100 million in private philanthropy, including city programs funded by the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Jon Bon Jovi, and Brad Pitt. Booker tapped the Gates Foundation and others to fund charter schools, and raised millions to renovate and expand 20 city parks. He’s struck deals with employers in the region, such as Continental Airlines, to hire more Newark residents. And he has begun to remove the stench of corruption that enveloped Newark for decades. And while achieving all this, he has maintained a relentless focus on his top priority: fighting crime.
Has crime been reduced? Dramatically. During Booker’s term, homicides have declined 28 percent, shootings are down 46 percent. March of this year was Newark’s first month without a murder since 1966. Booker has personalized the fight against crime by personally traveling the city late into the night, challenging drug dealers to get off the street and complacent cops to get out of their squad cars. “He is fearless,” said a member of Booker’s security detail. (3)
Now, it’s always risky to praise a politician or any celebrity in a sermon. Invariably, sooner or later, they will do something to embarrass themselves and you. I don’t know anything about Cory Booker’s personal life or values, but I do know this: When a graduate of Stanford, Yale and Oxford a Rhodes Scholar, nonetheless voluntarily moves into one of Newark’s most crime-ridden public-housing projects, somebody ought to pay attention.
Here’s the good news for the day: St. Paul said about Jesus, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (II Cor. 8:9)
Jesus didn’t leave Stanford, Yale and Oxford. He left the throne of glory to become the babe of Bethlehem, born in a stable because there was no room in the inn. Why did he do it? Because the world sat in darkness, to use Isaiah’s rich metaphor. Christmas is not simply the celebration of the birthday of a good man, but of light penetrating darkness, hope penetrating despair, life overcoming death, salvation delivering fallen humanity. “They will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.”
What does it mean to say that God is with us? It means, first of all, that God cares enough for us individually that he seeks to invade the chaos of our lives.
Author Max Lucado tells a remarkable story of the son of a rabbi who battled severe emotional problems. One day the boy went into his backyard, removed all his clothing, assumed a crouched position, and began to gobble like a turkey. He did this, not just for hours or days, but for weeks. No pleading would dissuade him. No psychotherapist could help him.
A friend of the rabbi, having watched the boy and shared the father’s grief, offered to help. He, too, went into the backyard and removed his clothes. He crouched beside the boy and began gobbling, turkey-like. For days, nothing changed. Finally the friend spoke to the son. “Do you think it would be all right for turkeys to wear shirts?” After some thought and many gobbles, the son agreed. So they put on their shirts.
Days later the friend asked the boy if it would be acceptable for turkeys to wear trousers. The boy nodded. In time, the friend redressed the boy. And, in time, the boy returned to normal. (4)
What an amazing story. What amazing love. Do you understand that this is what Christmas is all about? It’s more than the birth of a special baby, it is more than an angels’ song. It is God invading our world, stripping himself of all His power and dignity that he might die naked on a cross in our behalf.
A pastor tells about a big Christmas dinner at one of his denomination’s children’s homes. As preparations were being made for the dinner and the unwrapping of presents under the tree, one of the littlest boys hid under his bed and refused to come out.
Rev. Henry Carter went to Tommy hiding under the bed and told him about the lights on the Christmas tree and the gifts awaiting him. There was no answer. Rev. Carter kneeled beside the bed and pulled back the spread. There were two big wet crying eyes looking out at him. Tommy was eight but looked five because of early malnourishment. He could have easily been pulled out from under the bed, but it was not pulling that Tommy needed; it was trust and a sense of belonging. Because he could not think of anything else to do, Rev. Carter got down on his stomach and squeezed under the bed beside Tommy. He lay there with his cheek pressed against the floor talking about the big wreath above the roaring fireplace and the filled stocking that hung with Tommy’s name on it. He talked about the carols they would sing and the turkey almost ready to serve. And he talked about the baby Jesus who was born in a stable and laid in a manger because there was no room for him in the inn. Then running out of anything else to say he simply lay there beside Tommy. After a bit, a small child’s hand slipped into Rev. Carter’s hand. Rev. Carter said, “You know Tommy it’s kind of close quarters under here, let’s you and I crawl out where we can stand up.” As they slid out from under the bed he realized that he had been given a glimpse of the wonder of Christmas. Had not God come down to where we are to sidle up close to us? Was it not God’s Spirit that wooed us out of our lonely hiding place into a world of light and life and belonging? (5)
This is what Christmas is all about. God invades our world, crawls under the bed, as it were, comforts us and draws us out into the light.
And what is our response to God’s coming into our world? It is to take the love of Christ to everyone we meet. Our response is not to be a matter of simply passive receiving. We are to pass on to others what has been given us.
Tony Campolo tells about a friend who pretends to go shopping each Christmas season in the Nordstrom department store located in her wealthy Los Angeles suburb. Campolo says that she “pretends to go shopping” at Nordstrom because the store is so upscale that she rarely purchases anything there. But she goes there during the Christmas shopping days because the ambience is spectacular.
He says his friend gets herself a Nordstrom shopping bag, fills it with tissue paper, and meanders around the store, enjoying the decorations and listening to the live music playing in each department.
On one of these Christmas visits to Nordstrom, this friend was on the top floor, where the most expensive dresses were for sale, when the doors of the elevator opened and a bag lady from off the streets stepped out. When his friend saw this woman, she fully expected that a couple of security guards would show up momentarily to usher the woman out of the store. After all, this woman, whose raggedy clothes were covered with dirt from the streets, was not the kind of person who could afford to buy much of anything at Nordstrom, let alone one of the expensive dresses for sale on the top floor. But instead of security guards, a tall, stately saleswoman appeared and went up the homeless woman. She asked, “Can I help you, Madam?”
“Yeah!” said the homeless woman in a gruff voice. “I want a dress!”
“What kind of dress?” inquired the saleswoman. “A party dress,” was the answer.
“You’ve come to the right place,” the saleswoman replied. “We have the finest dresses in the world.”
Indeed they did! The least expensive dress on the rack of evening gowns cost just under a thousand dollars.
The two women looked over the dresses as they talked about which color would be best, given the homeless woman’s coloring. After a discussion that went on for more than ten minutes, they picked two dresses off the rack. Then the saleswoman said, “Follow me, Madam. I want you to try on these dresses to see how you look in each of them.”
Campolo’s friend was flabbergasted. She knew the saleswoman must have realized that this homeless woman didn’t have the means to buy any of the dresses for sale in the store.
When the two women went into the dressing room to try on the dresses, Campolo’s friend went into the dressing room next to theirs and put her ear against the wall so she could listen to what they said. After a while, she heard the homeless woman say, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m not going to buy a dress today.”
The saleswoman answered, “That’s quite all right, Madam, but I’d like you to take my card. Should you come back to Nordstrom, I would consider it both a privilege and a pleasure to wait on you again.”
Campolo’s friend was more than surprised by the kind and respectful way in which this saleswoman treated a woman who obviously had not the means to buy anything in that upscale store. “This saleswoman did what a Christian should do,” says Tony Campolo. In all probability, she treated everyone she met in her everyday encounters in the work place as Jesus would treat them.” (6)
Do I need to say anything more about the meaning of Christmas? Isaiah said it all nearly three thousand years ago: “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” which means, “God with us.” When God is with us, we are empowered to live in extraordinary ways.
1. MONDAY FODDER, To subscribe http://family-safe-mail.com/magiclist/.
2. The Timothy Report, http://www.timothyreport.com.
3. “Newark’s Big Dreams,” The Week, April 30, 2010.
4. Originally told by Joseph Shulam. Cited in Cure For The Common Life (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2005).
5. A sermon synopsis by C. Robert Allred, Th.D., http://www.bobssermons.com/sermons/archive/031221.htm.
6. letters to a young evangelical (New York, NY: Perseus Books Group, 2006), pp. 243-245.