Pastor Dan Mangler's Sunday Sermon

Overcoming Christmas Obstacles

Matthew 2: 13-23

December 30, 2007

Overcoming Christmas Obstacles

Christmas Eve’s sermon question "What do you want for Christmas?" has been replaced by "Well, how was your Christmas?" Okay, how was it? Was this Christmas everything you hoped it would be? For many of you I would guess it was not. And it is more than just not getting the gift you wanted. Maybe it was that the reaction to a gift you gave did not measure up to your expectations. Maybe the love and harmony of family togetherness was broken by a disagreement or fight. Maybe you were so busy entertaining that you missed experiencing the emotional peace that the nativity scene, bathed in soft, warm candlelight, is supposed to bring. Maybe Christmas wasn't everything you hoped for this year.

And for you for whom this Christmas did live up to expectations, you now face the task of putting away Christmas. Mistletoe, holly, and the Christmas wreath need to be thrown away. Table decorations, Christmas tree ornaments, and holiday candles must be carefully packed away for next year. The Christmas tree has to be dismantled, boxed, and stored away in the attic (if it is artificial), or it is dragged to the curb for the city to pick up (if it is real). The house takes on the look of normalcy and the annual outburst of goodwill and cheer makes way for life in the real world.

For those of a sentimental nature there is a longing felt, and sometimes voiced, that if we could only somehow capture the spirit of that first Christmas in Bethlehem, we could continue that love and warmth and peace and goodwill all year long. The fact is that if we could recapture the spirit of that first Christmas it would be anything but a spirit of love and warmth and peace and goodwill. Almost at the same time that the angels were singing to the shepherds "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men", events were unfolding that would make their song a cruel hoax.

We look for love in the days after Christmas, and find instead King Herod's anger at being tricked by the Magi who sneak out of Bethlehem without telling him the birthplace of Jesus, and hate as he orders the killing of all male babies under the age of two in Bethlehem. Love is hard to find in those days after Christmas. We look to recapture the warmth of family togetherness after Christmas, and instead encounter the wailing and loud weeping of mothers whose children have been ripped from their arms and slain by swords. Little sentimental family warmth there. We look for peace and tranquility after Christmas but instead find Joseph warned in a dream of Herod's plan and the family's hurried departure to become refugees in a land not their own. Life after Christmas was not all that sweet. There was anger and murder, weeping and wailing, moving and resettling. The "peace on earth" sung by the angels to the shepherds was followed by death and destruction, suffering and evil.

It would seem that the days after the first Christmas aren't that much different than today. The cruelties of the real world, then and now, are quick again to take center stage. A popular political figure in India is assassinated, and scores more killed or injured in the attack. Soldiers and civilians continue to die in Iraq and Afghanistan. Greater losses are experienced elsewhere virtually unnoticed by us because they don’t effect us. Winter storms in the Midwest kill family members preparing to celebrate the holidays. The political climate in the presidential primary contests becomes increasingly mean. ‘Peace on earth; good will to men” Indeed.

But that is not to say that Christmas is a failure. It does mean, however, that if we are to see the power of Christmas we must look beyond the stable. The message that weaves itself through the entire Christmas story, the months that led up to it and the months that followed, is this: God's plans cannot be thwarted by human obstacles. God, in the end, will have his way. Christmas is God's relentless intention to be Immanuel, God with us.

Against all human biology God is born of a virgin. Joseph, at great risk of loosing his honor and righteousness in the community, is convinced by an angel to marry his pregnant betrothed Mary. Just at the time the baby is to be born a decree by Caesar Augustus forces Mary and Joseph to leave the security of hearth and home to journey to Bethlehem where Mary must give birth to Jesus in a stable because there was no place for them in the inn. Herod seeks to discover the birthplace of the child to kill it, but God steps in to warn the Magi against returning to Herod with this information. Herod tries to kill Jesus by killing all the male babies in Bethlehem, but God warns Joseph in a dream to flea to Egypt, and when Herod is dead God leads Joseph and the family back to Nazareth, to fulfill the O.T. prophecy "He will be called a Nazarene". At every step of the plan for God to be born as Jesus Immanuel, God with us, there is an obstacle that God must, and does, overcome. Christmas bears witness to God, the great Overcomer.

Here, I think, is a promise of God at Christmas that we don't often see. Peace and goodwill to all men may be the goal of Christmas, but Immanuel (God with us) is the promise. Here is the promise that says that there is no power on earth or in heaven that can stand in the way of His godly presence among us. If we come to Christmas every year and expect its gifts to be love, peace, and goodwill, it is inevitable that we will come away from Christmas disappointed. The power and promise of Christmas is that even in the face of the hate and discord and ill-will that is more often the rule than the exception in our lives and in our world God still comes. There is no obstacle the world can erect that God cannot or will not overcome and be Immanuel, God with us.

So, let there be no more talk of good Christmases and bad Christmases, as if the value of Christmas can be measured either by the number, cost, and quality of the gifts we receive, or by the glad or sad circumstances of our personal lives on any given December 25^th. Nor let there be no more talk of good Christmases and bad Christmases based on the state of world affairs on December 26^th. Christmas worth is based on a single measure, the promise and fulfillment of Jesus, Immanuel, which means God with us.

And for those who long to have the Christmas spirit year 'round, you can have it, because Immanuel, God with us, came not to visit like relatives come and then go this time of year. Immanuel God with us, comes to stay. He means to take up residence in our lives.

So, go ahead, store or trash the tree, pack away the decorations and the ornaments, and throw away the mistletoe, holly, and evergreen wreath. But take with you all this next year God's greatest gift. Himself, Immanuel, God with you. Amen.

May the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Amen.

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