About this time of year many of us start getting a little frantic, don’t we? Christmas is so near. There is still so much to do.
This is a frantic time for many of us. The season of Advent was supposed to be our chance to get ready, but in another week it will be over and the big day will be here. All the decorations will be in place, the packages will all be wrapped, the last card will have been sent--then, ready or not, Christmas Day will arrive.
Are you prepared for Christmas? I mean the real Christmas. Not the Christmas of Santa Claus and reindeer and tinsel and expensive gifts--as wonderful as these things are. Are you prepared for the birth of the Christ child?
St. Paul, in Philippians 4, gives us a formula for getting our hearts ready for Christmas. Listen closely to his words: “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
In these words, Paul gives us a comprehensive formula for finding peace this Christmas--a peace which, as he says, transcends all understanding. Let’s consider for a few moments this formula Paul gives us and see if it brings us peace during this Advent season.
Let’s begin with “Rejoice in the Lord always.” Christmas is a time for joy. But St. Paul’s admonition about “rejoicing in the Lord always” was no Pollyanna denial about the presence of suffering in the world. Paul wrote this letter from prison--essentially on death row. He was in chains, waiting to find out if he would be sentenced to death or if he would be let go.
Paul had an amazing spirit. Three times he was shipwrecked; at least once he was stoned--and I don’t mean stoned as in being stoned in Colorado; I mean stoned with real rocks. Five times he was scourged, and he was beaten many times as well. He’d been the focus of riots and death threats, and after one harrowing, near-death experience, he was snake bitten! Yet these experiences could not take away his joy.
It is obvious from Paul’s example that joy does not mean everything is going your way. Joy does not mean receiving everything you desire in life. Joy doesn’t mean having an enormous haul of goodies under your Christmas tree. Joy doesn’t come from fame and prosperity--as we have surely seen in the lives of some of our biggest celebrities. Joy comes from an inner assurance that whatever you are going through, whether good times or bad, that God is with you.
I know that joy is a difficult concept for some people, especially at Christmas. One of the most depressing facts about Christmas for these people is the fact that everybody else is so jolly. There are persons who have lost the ability to laugh, to play, even to rejoice in the Lord. They may not be misers, but they have a great deal of the spirit of Scrooge in them, very much of the Grinch that stole Christmas. Something in life has made them afraid--afraid to trust life, to trust other people, to trust God.
Dr. Raymond Moody put it this way in his book, Laugh after Laugh:
“It is well to recognize that some persons are actually fearful of joy, elation, pleasure or other usually positive emotional states. In many of these people being joyful causes them to have feelings of guilt, shame or unworthiness.” (1)
That’s sad, isn’t it--to be fearful of joy? To feel unworthy of experiencing happiness? Unfortunately, such feelings have crept into the attitudes of some followers of Christ.
The story is told of a group of missionaries who were sent to a tribal group in Africa. These missionaries told the people in the tribe that once they were baptized they could no longer dance. So those Africans who converted to Christianity became known as “the people who have given up dancing.” How sad.
We need to be reminded that our Puritan fore-bearers banned the celebration of Christmas as both frivolous and pagan. There are some people who are afraid to be happy. They nurture their fears, resentments, and hurts. They shut themselves off from others and live as little islands unto themselves. They cannot experience the joy of Christmas because they will not let Christ set them free.
They need to be like the quiet young writer who came to the wildly uninhibited Zorba the Greek and said to him, “Teach me to dance.”
If there was ever a time for dancing, it is at Christmas. The Lord of all the heavens and earth has come into our world as a tiny babe. What a supreme cause for celebration.
“Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” writes St. Paul. Some of us are afraid of giving in to that kind of unadulterated joy.
Next Paul says, “Let your gentleness be evident to all.” That is an interesting thought. Advent and Christmas are a time for gentleness--unless, of course, you’re headed for the mall. I’m kidding, of course--at least I think I am. Some people have actually broken into fights over Christmas bargains. Others have been trampled by an avalanche of eager shoppers. It’s hard to be gentle at Christmas.
I read about two nicely dressed women who were standing outside a department store a few days ago waiting for it to open. They started up a conversation. The first lady was a somewhat smug woman from New York City. She was married to a very wealthy man. The second was a rather gentle, soft-spoken woman from the South.
When the conversation centered on what they expected for Christmas, the wealthy woman started by saying, “Our first Christmas, my husband built a magnificent mansion for me.”
The lady from the South commented, “Well, bless your heart.” The first woman continued, “Our second Christmas, my husband bought me a beautiful Mercedes-Benz.”
Again, the lady from the South commented, “Well, bless your heart.” The first woman continued, “Then, our third Christmas, my husband bought me this exquisite diamond bracelet.”
Yet again, the Southern lady commented, “Well, bless your heart.” The first woman then asked her companion, “What did your husband buy for your first Christmas?”
The Southern lady replied, “My husband sent me to Charm School.” “Charm School?” the first woman said, amazed, “What on earth for?” The Southern lady responded, “Well for example, instead of saying, ‘Who gives a darn?’ I learned to say, ‘Well, bless your heart!’” (2)
Gentleness may be a little difficult in the mad rush of this season of the year no matter where you’re from. We need to step back and reflect on the thought of the babe in a manger.
We don’t often think of the gentleness of God. But how else can we think of God at Christmastime? We know of God’s power. We know of His holiness. But how often do we think of His gentleness? Yet this same God who created the heavens and the earth became one of us. He emptied Himself and took on human form, even the form of a tiny babe. It’s a thought too amazing for us to comprehend. I love the way Mark Lowry put it in his beautiful Christmas song:
“Mary did you know . . . that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you’ve delivered, will soon deliver you . . .”
I particularly love the final two lines of this wondrous song:
“Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God.”
How can we possibly get our minds around something like that? And yet it is part of the magic of Christmas. “Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near,” writes St. Paul.
Let me give you an example of gentleness. Once there was a soldier in the Israeli army. He was on patrol in an area of occupied Palestine when he felt a rock strike him in the back, then another and another. He whirled around, his rifle ready to fire. There in front of him were several Palestinian children. They were picking up more stones to throw at him.
What was he to do? He wasn’t going to fire live ammunition at mere children, but he could not allow them to continue throwing those rocks either. Suddenly, he had an idea. He bent down and picked up three of the rocks . . . and then he began to juggle them . . . yes, juggle the rocks. The children were mesmerized and forgot about their rocks. The soldier did a few tricks, and the children laughed. Then he did a grand finale, and they applauded. He took a bow and walked away. (3)
The story could have had a different ending, couldn’t it? We’ve seen confrontations in our own land the past few years that have had far different endings. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We could have the gentleness of Christ, a gentleness that transforms anger to laughter, hatred to love. That’s the kind of gentleness Paul is urging us to adopt in our own lives.
Then he writes, “Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
No wonder Paul could rejoice--even while waiting in prison to learn his fate. No wonder when people oppressed him and abused him, when they beat him and said all manner of vile things about him, he could respond with a magnificent gentleness. He had learned life’s greatest secret: “Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Henry Frost, a missionary to China, was going through a difficult time in his life. Later he wrote these words in his journal: “I had received sad news from home, and deep shadows had covered my soul. I prayed but the darkness did not vanish. I summoned myself to endure, but the darkness only deepened. Then I went to an inland station and saw on the wall of the mission home these words: ‘Try thanksgiving.’ I did,” he says, “and in a moment every shadow was gone, not to return.”
Have you ever gone through a difficult time when your spirits were flagging and you were about to give up? Did you try giving thanks, even in the midst of your difficult times?
It is so easy to be thankful at Christmas, isn’t it? We have so much. Santa Claus will reward us with so many nice things. The stores are filled this year with symbols of our material affluence. But for some people material affluence only masks spiritual poverty. They grasp at things external because internally they are paupers.
“Do not be anxious about anything but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Could you give thanks this Christmas if some of the things you cherish most were stripped from you? How about your sight and your hearing and even your speech?
There was a little girl who was born in 1880 in Tuscumbia, Alabama, named Helen Keller. She came into a dark world . . . without sight, without hearing and without the ability to speak. Unable to see, unable to hear, unable to speak . . . what a dark world it was for this little child. But one of the success stories of the ages is how Helen Keller came out of that inner darkness into a light which you and I can only view with astonishment. Never seeing with physical eyes the light of the sun that we see--never hearing the sounds that we can hear--but she lived a full, rich radiant life.
For example, did you know that Helen Keller graduated from Radcliffe College, cum laude? Even more amazing, through the course of her life, she became close friends with kings and presidents and some of the most powerful and well-known people on earth.
When her teacher, Anne Sullivan, finally brought her to where she could understand and receive ideas and concepts, she also came to know about God and about Jesus. Helen Keller said, “I always knew there was a God, but I never knew what to call him.”
Helen Keller had few of the blessings you and I enjoy. But listen as she describes the meaning of Christmas for her in an essay titled a Christmas Legend:
“A legend tells that when Jesus was born the sun danced in the sky, the aged trees straightened themselves and put on leaves and sent forth the fragrance of blossoms once more. These are symbols of what takes place in our hearts when the Christ Child is born anew each year.
“Blessed by the Christmas sunshine, our natures, perhaps long leafless, bring forth new love, kindness, new mercy and compassion . . .”
Could you find joy and give thanks this Christmas if you were deaf, blind and unable to speak? Helen Keller knew a joy that few people ever attain. She learned how to lay aside every anxiety and in “every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present [her] requests to God.”
“Rejoice in the Lord always,” writes St. Paul, “I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Then St. Paul, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, makes us a promise, “And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” May it be so this Christmas for you and yours. Amen.
1. (Boiling Springs, PA: Headwaters Press, 1978).
2. Adapted from MONDAY FODDER, http://family-safe-mail.com/.
3. From a sermon by Rev. Heike Werder, http://needhamucc.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/20121028-RevHeike-4Jesus-BorntoSave.pdf.