It's not easy to get ready for Christmas. For one thing there is so much to do. For many of us this is the busiest time of the year. It is also the most nerve-wracking, particularly if you are a person who does not enjoy shopping.
I read a statistic with which many men in our congregation will relate.
The Mall of America published a poll recently that states that 31 percent of men believe they have a better chance of winning the Heisman trophy than finding the right holiday gifts for their wives. Only 18 percent of women feel the same sense of doom about shopping for their spouses. (1)
That means that a third of the men here this morning are under real pressure.
It isn't easy getting ready for Christmas. That is why each year about this time we hear the voice of John the Baptist calling to us from the wilderness: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." John was the one who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, ˜Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'"
John's emphasis is important as we prepare ourselves for Christmas. In the first century the Jews took a bath called a mikvah in order to be ritually pure for worship. John also called people to cleanse themselves but not simply to prepare themselves for worship. John called for an inner change of heart and mind (repentance), which is to produce a pure and holy life." (2)
LET'S BEGIN WITH THIS QUESTION: ARE THERE SOME CHANGES YOU NEED TO MAKE IN YOUR LIFE?
Be honest with yourself. Is there some resentment you need to let go of? A relationship you need to examine? John calls for us to look within, to search ourselves and to deal with problem areas in our lives before they get out of hand.
There is a silly story about a fellow who had spent his whole life in the desert. One day he came to visit a friend in town. The man who had lived in his desert had never seen a train or the tracks they run on. While standing in the middle of the railroad tracks one day, he hears this whistle "Whooee da Whoee!" but doesn't know what it is. Predictably, he's hit but, only a glancing blow and is thrown, head-over-heels, to the side of the tracks, with some minor internal injuries, a few broken bones, and some bruises.
After weeks in the hospital recovering, he was at his friend's house attending a party one evening. While in the kitchen, he suddenly heard the tea kettle whistling. He grabbed a baseball bat from the nearby closet and proceeded to batter and bash the tea kettle into an unrecognizable lump of metal. His friend, hearing the ruckus, rushed into the kitchen to see what had happened. He asked the desert man: "Why'd you ruin my good tea kettle?"
The desert man replied: "Man, you gotta kill these things when they're small." (3)
That is the way sin is in our lives. Anger, resentment, self-destructive habits, we must deal with them while they are small before we become captive to them. So, John the Baptist comes to us saying, "Repent." Look within. Examine your life. See if there are changes you need to make.
The great old evangelist, Dwight L. Moody, used to tell a legend about a beautiful swan that alighted one day by the banks of the water in which a crane was wading about seeking snails. For a few moments the crane viewed the swan in stupid wonder and then inquired:
"Where do you come from?"
"I come from heaven!" replied the swan.
"And where is heaven?" asked the crane.
"Heaven!" said the swan, "Heaven! have you never heard of heaven?" And the beautiful bird went on to describe the grandeur of the Eternal City. She told of streets of gold, and the gates and walls made of precious stones; of the river of life, pure as crystal, upon whose banks is the tree whose leaves shall be for the healing of the nations. In eloquent terms the swan sought to describe the hosts who live in the other world, but without arousing the slightest interest on the part of the crane.
Finally the crane asked: "Are there any snails there?"
"Snails!" repeated the swan, "No! Of course there are not."
"Then," said the crane, as it continued its search along the slimy banks of the pool, "you can have your heaven. I want snails!"
"This fable," said Moody, "has a deep truth underlying it. How many a young person to whom God has granted the advantages of a Christian home, has turned his back upon it and searched for snails! How many a man will sacrifice his wife, his family, his all, for the snails of sin! How many a girl has deliberately turned from the love of parents and home to learn too late that heaven has been forfeited for snails!" (4)
Moody spoke those words a century ago, but people are still swapping heaven for snails. How about you? John the Baptist's words are for each of us: Are there some changes that need to be made in your life?
ARE THERE SOME PEOPLE YOU NEED TO REACH OUT TO?
Repentance for the follower of Christ is more then turning away from immoral acts. For followers of Jesus, repentance is always a turning to: to God and to one's family and friends and neighbors.
Are there some people you need to reach out to? That is the wonderful thing about this time of the year: we are motivated to reach out and demonstrate our love to others.
There is an old Christmas story by Pearl S. Buck about a young man's first experience of giving a gift from the heart:
Rob was fifteen years old that Christmas, a strapping young man who was a great help on his family's farm. Farm work started early in the morning, with Rob and his father out in the barn milking the cows every morning at 5 a.m. Rob liked working alongside his father, although he wasn't too fond of getting up so early. One morning, he overheard his parents talking outside his bedroom. His father was hesitant to wake Rob for the morning's chores. He wanted his son to get some sleep. He wished aloud that he could do all the milking himself, so as not to work Rob so much.
As Rob lay there listening to his parent's conversation, he was struck with the realization that his father loved him. His parents had always expressed their love in simple, everyday ways, but they weren't prone to verbalize their feelings. But this conversation was confirmation enough for Rob. His father loved him. Suddenly, Rob wanted more than anything to show his father that he loved him, too.
Christmas was only a few days away, so Rob had a little time to think. He couldn't afford to buy his parents a fancy present. But he did have an idea of something that would make his father happy: Rob would go out early and milk the cows all by himself, before his father even woke up. So that Christmas morning, Rob woke before 4 a.m. He slipped out to the barn and milked all the cows, then made it back to bed before his father could suspect anything. Rob's heart had been so full of love and joy that it hadn't even felt like work to him.
Soon, his father came into his room and woke him for the morning milking. Then he went on ahead while Rob got ready. In a few minutes, Rob's father returned. He was alternately laughing and crying, so touched by his son's gift that he didn't know what to say. And as he wrapped his arms around his son, Rob's father promised that he would remember this gift every Christmas for as long as he lived.
And now, fifty years after that day, Rob still awoke on Christmas morning and remembered the gift that had made his father so happy, a gift that had come straight from his heart. (5) This was a gift of thoughtfulness that had not cost Rob a penny, but it was priceless to his father. Is there someone this Christmas you need to reach out to? It may be someone in your own family, someone at school or at work, someone here at church. This is a wonderful time to make a new beginning. Are there some changes you need to make? Is there someone you need to reach out to?
HAS CHRIST BEEN BORN IN YOUR HEART?
Advent is not simply a time of preparing for Christmas. At its best it is a time of preparing for Christ. It is not Christ's birthday that matters most, really, but our birthday the day we are born into the kingdom of God as we open ourselves to the coming of the indwelling Christ. Has that happened in your life? Have you consciously prayed, "Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, be born in me today?"
Jeannie Williams clung fiercely to her last shreds of sanity and dignity amidst the chaotic mass of holiday shoppers milling about. Christmas was fast approaching, but the joys of the season were alien to her that year. Her parents' impending divorce, after 36 years of marriage, mocked all her childhood memories of holiday celebrations made rich with family togetherness and traditions. She was in no mood to confront the greedy grasping and empty materialism of the department stores, but her children needed gifts, too.
As Jeannie wandered the aisles of one store, she came upon a nativity set, its little characters strewn across the floor. As she stooped to pick it up, she heard a mother in the next aisle scolding her daughter. Evidently, the child had picked something up off the floor and popped it in her mouth. The little girl protested that she hadn't put the object in her mouth; instead, she was kissing it. "It" turned out to be a little figurine of the baby Jesus, probably the same figurine that went with the scattered nativity set Jeannie held in her hands.
Jeannie crept around the aisle to take a look. The little girl and her mother were obviously poor, but the little girl's face shone as she held the Christ child figurine up to her mother. She implored her mother to buy it, but this only made the woman angrier. She yelled at the girl to put the figurine down. Jeannie turned away, not wanting to see the child get publicly scolded. But all was silent. When she turned back, she saw the mother on her knees, enfolding her child in her arms and fighting back tears.
The little girl tried to comfort her crying mother, assuring her that she didn't really want the little figurine. The mother tried to explain that she wanted very much to buy it for her daughter, but they just couldn't afford it this year. Suddenly, the child's eyes lit up as she said, "Mommy, I don't need the baby Jesus doll, really. My teacher from Sunday School says that I've got Jesus living in my heart!" As the mother and daughter left, Jeannie sprinted to the front of the store to pay for the nativity scene. She asked the clerk to catch the mother and child on the way out and give them the little Jesus doll.
If you were ever to visit the Williams' household at Christmastime, you would see on their mantel a lovely little nativity scene that is missing its star attraction (pun intended), the figurine of the baby Jesus. You might think it's incomplete in some way. But if you ask Jeannie Williams where Jesus is, she will be quick to tell you that He is in her heart. (6)
A simple truth, but it is the central message of this season of the year. John's purpose was to prepare people's hearts for the coming of the Messiah. He did it in the only way he knew how. "Repent," he cried, "for the kingdom of heaven is near." It is nearfor those who are willing to look within and examine their lives, for those willing to reach out with Christ's love to others, and to those who will open their hearts to the indwelling Christ. We can be truly prepared for Christmas.
1. "Mars & Venus Go Shopping," by Melissa Dribben, Good Housekeeping, December 1997, p.108.
2. Richards, Lawrence O., The 365Day Devotional Commentary (Colorado Springs, Colo.: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1990), 637.
3. Shared by Harsh Javeri via Oracle Service Humor Mailing List.
4. Moody's Anecdotes, Page 125-126.
5. Pearl S. Buck, "Christmas Day in the Morning," Stories for the Heart compiled by Alice Gray (Sisters, Oregon: Multnomah Books, 1996), 175-178.
6. Jeannie S. Williams, Chicken Soup for the Christian Soul by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, Patty Aubrey, Nancy Mitchell (Deerfield Beach, Fla.: Health Communications, Inc., 1997), 1114.