Waching daily Dec 30 2017

I'm not sure if you're aware of it.

Today is Christmas day.

And we as a western culture

have not celebrated Christmas

until about 400 years

after Jesus' birth.

Up until that time,

Easter was the main holiday.

But even from the beginning,

Christmas is kind of about opposites.

We have the darkness outside

and then the light of the fire

and the light of the Christmas lights.

That's kind of how John talks about it.

He doesn't have

a manger in the whole scene.

In John, chapter 1,

he says this:

For the first time ever,

God, who is eternal

and a spirit,

becomes

a mortal human being.

And I think that's kind of

the beauty of Christmas.

This complexity of it.

The opposites of it.

That for the first time ever,

we have a God

who is lasting forever

now becomes mortal.

That God who is all-powerful

finds weakness.

That there's grandeur

in a stable.

But I don't know if that's the

greatest beauty

of Christmas. I think

the greatest beauty

is that even a child

understands the complexity

of Christmas.

Not just the darkness outside

but the darkness of their own heart.

Not just the light of the tree

but the light of that savior.

Not just the mystery of the presents

but the mystery

that a perfect God

could love someone like me,

someone who obsesses

about Christmas stuff,

who pushes God to the backburner,

someone who does not deserve

any of his love.

That God could become a baby

that one day dies

so that I could become the opposite

from someone who is shunned

to someone

who is forgiven.

Now that's what makes

Christmas merry.

Let's pray.

Dear Lord,

on this day of days,

help us always remember the

miracle and the complexity of

true God becoming human being.

That recognize that was for us

so that we could become the opposite

from one who is shunned

from you

to your own child.

We ask this in your name.

Amen.

Are you kidding me?

I cannot believe

that I'm already let down

with Christmas.

And I'm going to let you in on a secret.

I was already

let down yesterday.

And I don't know what it is.

Here we sit

and

the presents are tossed

to the side.

The music is starting to fade.

As someone described it,

it's like watching

the taillights fade

in the distance.

There's just a disappointment

that comes with it.

And I think it's true

for just about everyone.

Little kids

are disappointed because

the next Christmas

is like a decade away.

And teens can't believe

that the magic of Christmas

has disappeared. And,

even adults.

It's a little macabre

but we start to say to ourselves,

"How many more Christmases do

I actually get to experience?"

Or we think,

"Is this

the last Christmas I'm going to have with

grandma or grandpa?"

Or maybe there's' already

an empty chair at the table.

All this letdown and disappointment.

I wonder how the shepherds felt.

There they are,

the very first Christmas

of all time

and the angel appears to them -

angels,

real angels.

And then the next

highlight of their life

is that little kids play them

in Christmas pageants

2,000 years later.

It's,

they go to work.

Not the next day

but on Christmas night,

they have to go to work

and you think, "Ugh.

The pure drudgery of it."

But this is what the bible says,

Why do we celebrate Christmas

even though we know there's a letdown?

Why there's a disappointment?

The same reason

the shepherds smiled.

The same reason the shepherds found joy. The same reason the shepherds found joy.

Because they see

Jesus.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

help us

no matter what is going on,

no matter what feelings

we're wrestling with

to continue to see Jesus,

the author and perfecter

of life and our savior

and help that be

the joy that we find

in our heart this day.

Amen.

In the most famous of all

In the most famous of all the sections in God's word the sections in God's word

that talk about the birth of Jesus,

it says this,

Luke, chapter 2,

Now the history

and the celebration of Christmas

is fascinating.

I wish I had 20 minutes

to explain it all

but here are the highlights:

About 1,600 years ago,

400 years after

the birth of Christ,

they decided

that on December 25th,

we will celebrate Christmas.

Now this is something

that had been going on,

holidays had been going on

all around western Europe.

So the Norse would drag

giant yule logs.

And they would light it on fire.

And they would party -

I should say, "celebrate" -

for twelve days

until the log burned out.

The Germans gave sacrifices to Odin.

And then down in Italy -

where there was a root of Christianity -

down in Italy,

they had saturnalia.

They would sacrifice

to the god, Saturn,

and they would give out small gifts.

So the Christian church,

right around 400,

said,

"Enough of these pagan holidays.

We need to focus on Jesus."

So they determined

that Jesus

was going to be celebrated.

His birth on December 25th.

Now, was Jesus born

on December 25th?

That would be a "no."

Most scholars think

that he was born in the spring

because there were shepherds

watching their flocks

in the fields.

Does it bother me

that we celebrate Christmas

connected to some pagan holidays?

No, it does not.

And here's why.

Because they celebrated

the fact that the darkest days

were behind them.

And I think that's a beautiful picture

for Christians.

We celebrate Christmas because

the darkest of our days

and also the darkness of our heart

is behind us.

And through God's son,

not just the days getting brighter,

but through God's son

living in us through the Holy Spirit,

through faith in him,

we can celebrate that our brightest

days are yet to come.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

we know

that we get to celebrate because

today in the town of David,

a savior has been born to us.

We don't know when Jesus was born.

Maybe it was the 25th

or 26th or 27th,

but we do know when he was,

he was born for me.

Amen.

Recently, someone told me

the hardest

painting to do

is of a sunset.

And the reason is,

you can't quite tell the difference in

lighting between a sunrise

and a sunset.

There's only the most skilled of

artisans have taken this on.

And they are

the guys in Florida

who airbrush your t-shirt.

They're the only ones

who can pull this off.

But for most of us

mortals, we cannot do this.

And I think this is probably

the worst time

of Christmas, is this

time of transition.

You don't know

from the outside observing,

are we getting ready for Christmas

or are we taking down?

We've got the boxes out

and we're just thinking about

countless trips to the basement.

We're thinking about

taking the lights down,

kicking another tree

that sacrificed its life

for our celebration

to put it by the curb.

There's kind of this

awkward transition.

And I think the most

awkward times are

times of transition.

For the disciples,

Jesus is with them for three years.

You can imagine how glorious that is.

He dies,

he rises

and then he's with them for 40 days.

And they're so excited

and he says, "Hold on.

I'm leaving.

Stick around here

until I send the holy spirit."

A time of transition.

Now,

in these days,

as we get ready,

kind of dreading

moving on to the next thing,

it's a time of transition.

But the question is this:

Is this

a sunset

on the best things the earth has to offer?

Or is this really a sunrise?

Because it's a picture of

the greatest things that we have

in Christ.

You tell me.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Christmas is

an amazing time

but this time of transition

is a hard time.

Help us to put back

these old things

because this ultimately cannot satisfy.

The only thing that can satisfy

is our life

with you, knowing that we stand with you,

forgiven as your dear children.

Amen.

I honestly hate

that I'm so sad after Christmas.

And I don't even know what word

to use but I think the best one

to use is "melancholy."

There's this sense of

melancholy

after the season is gone.

And I

think you might be experiencing

that same thing, too.

Someone once told me the

very best thing that Christmas

can bring is

pointing.

And so just as Christmas

points to Jesus'

life in the manger,

Jesus' birth in the manger,

it should point us to something deeper,

something that can

fulfill us.

Isaiah 35 calls it an everlasting joy.

I think it's about time

we look at Christmas

for what it is:

it is a foreshadowing

of the everlasting joy

in Christ.

And if we can do that,

we've got a whole different view.

Because no longer is

this going to have

unrealistic expectations

to fulfill our dreams

and bring us joy.

Instead Christmas is what it is:

it's a pointer.

It points to a deeper meaning.

And at that point,

we can teach our kids,

we can teach our grandkids,

we can teach everyone

we know

that this just points to

the greatest fulfillment,

the deeper meaning of Christmas,

which is the joy that can

only be found

in Christ and his forgiveness.

Let's pray.

Dear Jesus,

we so yearn for fulfillment

on this earth.

But the real joy of Christmas

is that it points to a savior

from sin,

who prepared a way through

his death, through everlasting joys.

Amen.