Sermon: Spiritually preparing for Christmas - the motion of incarnation

Sermon 2 Words

Christmas is less than a week away. If you were here last week, you might remember that I referred to a 10 week Christmas planning schedule created by the Planning Queen. For this last week before Christmas, because her planning regime makes everything so organised, the Planning Queen can spend this week “enjoying the spirit of Christmas”. So just take a few moments. Sit back, close your eyes, and relax. Forget about the last-minute presents you have to buy, and how the shops will be packed full of last-minute shoppers. Forget how you won't be able to get a car park anywhere. Forget all the work you will have to do wrapping presents, cooking meals, preparing the house for visitors or packing the car for the trip away. Forget the potential headaches of dealing with family members you don't often see, or driving in the car for hours with kids who are easily bored. Forget all the work that is piling up for you to do when you get back from your holidays. Forget the Christmas party you are obliged to attend at a non-Christian family or friend's house, or the obligatory work Christmas party, that you know will be marinated in free alcohol. Forget the pressure the cost of all these things puts on your budget this Christmas season. Now, do you feel calm, ready to enjoy the spirit of Christmas? No, you're probably as stressed as ever, since all I did was make you focus on all those negative possibilities. Maybe what would really relax you is dreaming of December 27^th, and knowing Christmas was over.

It's so easy to get caught up in all the busyness of the Christmas season that we too readily forget about the spirit of Christmas, or the real meaning of Christmas. Then, to add to the confusion, we have different people left and right telling us what they think the true meaning or spirit of Christmas is: According to Westfield shopping centres, Christmas is about planning, gifts, partying, gifts, food, gifts, and of course the festive spirits. Which make great gifts. Ross Cameron, former federal member for Parramatta, wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald about Christmas being a time when we can remember that all men are created equal, and that everyone matters. Hundreds of respondents wrote in to assure Ross Cameron that he was wrong with comments like, “Christmas is a sad day for humanity – it made hatred justifiable”, “What a load of codswallop,” “All this Jesus talk is just not right,” “Best thing to do at Christmas is buy your friends Christopher Hitchen's book 'God is not Great',” “Christmas is propaganda of the highest order,” “This article is positive proof that religion of any kind is essentially a form of total lobotomy.” These were responses to an article that didn't even acknowledge the resurrection as historical fact! President Barack Obama spoke to a group of young school children about Christmas, and he told them that the birth of baby Jesus “symbolises the possibility of peace and people treating each other with respect”. A vox pop on an Aussie street turned up all sorts of answers – to the person on the street, Christmas is about: holidays, joy, spirit of giving, fun with family, end of the year and start of a new one, great food, Christmas trees, lights, decorations, music, being happy, celebrating togetherness, brings everyone together, birth of Jesus, love, a lot of work, snow, presents, Santa, and toys. Snow? Where does it snow in Australia at Christmas?

That's a lot of things swirling around in our heads when we think of Christmas! What we need is a way to clear our heads, so that we can remember what the true meaning of Christmas is, to help us spiritually prepare ourselves and our families for Christmas. Last week I said that at its core, Christmas is about Jesus being born, about the son of God being born as a human, God becoming a human, God with us. I used the word 'incarnation' to talk about Jesus – the idea of something which does not have physical form taking physical form. Jesus is God incarnate – God takes physical form as a human being, and lives among us. That is what we are celebrating at Christmas. How can we shape our spiritual life – that is, how can we pray, how can we talk, how can we act, what can we do – to ensure that we are reflecting on these spiritual truths of Christmas, and that those spiritual truths are reflected in our lives?

Last week we looked at preparing ourselves spiritually for this remembrance by focusing on the graciousness of Jesus' incarnation – about how it was all about God giving something to us that we did not deserve. The obvious link is made to the giving of gifts at Christmas time, but we looked at three things we could do at Christmas to prepare ourselves spiritually for remembering this act of grace. You can remember that God came to communicate with humanity face to face as Jesus by reading one of the gospels with your family; remember that God came as a man to share in humanity's sufferings, temptations and death, by praying for those who suffer, who are tempted, and who are dying; and remember that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life by giving someone you know a gift they do not deserve, and making it clear that it is in memory of God's gift that we do not deserve.

This week, we are going to look at another side of the incarnation of Jesus, which is so important to us spiritually preparing for Christmas. We are going to look at the motion of the incarnation. What do I mean by that? Well, we often describe the birth of Jesus as the “coming” of Jesus, or perhaps the “sending” of Jesus. Jesus came from elsewhere. He wasn't created here on earth like a normal baby, like you or I. For him, being born was like coming through a door from one place to another. Jesus came from heaven. His motion was towards earth. Motion towards us. God, as Jesus, came to us.

Jesus' life, like all of our lives, is a journey. The birth of Jesus, that is, God's coming to earth as a human, is part of a bigger journey that God takes throughout history. God sets out on a journey that takes him through history in order to close the distance between himself and humanity. And no doubt you can imagine that the part of the journey where he comes to earth as a human is a colossal event in that journey – a big part of closing the distance. God had been setting up this visit to earth for millennia, and Jesus talks about that in one of his parables. It goes like this, “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place. 2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard. 3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed. 4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully. 5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed. 6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’”

God and people are separated. Over his journey towards us, God has many times sent messengers to bring his message to humanity. Those messages were things like, “Give me the respect and honour in your life I deserve,” “Live lives that are right and good, because I am right and good,” and “I am coming. Be ready.” It is a sad testament to humanity that, like in the parable, people have ignored and disregarded God's messages, and shunned and mistreated the messengers who brought them. But God is relentless. At Christmas, we celebrate the birth of Jesus, the Son of God. Surely humanity will respect God when his son comes. Because a son is not like a postman. You hire a courier to do a job – he does it, and delivers your message. But a son doesn't just deliver a message – sending a son is like going and visiting yourself. It's the equivalent of bringing the message in person. You are, in a way, sending your future self – you're sending the one who will inherit the family business, who will take your place when you're gone. It's his vineyard as much as it is your vineyard. So when you send your son, he should be respected.

The direction of God is towards us. That is something we should remember at Christmas. God came to earth, came to us. He wants to close the gap between us and him. He does the work. He made the journey from heaven to earth. We don't have to ascend into heaven to find God. He came to earth to be with us. That's what we are celebrating. This Christmas, make that thought the founding thought for you. To spiritually prepare for Christmas, now in this last week, take some time out to evaluate your life with God. Think about your life this year. Have you been taking time to listen to God's messengers? Their messages to mankind are recorded in the Bible, and they are expounded by preachers in church week after week. Or have you treated them shamefully, sent them away empty-handed? How can you expect to live the life God wants you to live if you don't even listen to him when he tells you how to live it? As you pray this Christmas (will you pray this Christmas?), praise God that he is the one that closes the distance between us and him. He travelled from heaven to earth to be with us. Pray that as you read his messages, you will respond to them by doing what he says. If you have not been honouring God's messengers this year, or maybe your whole life, then there is no time like Christmas to make a change. As you celebrate the coming of God, as Jesus, ask him to change your life. Jesus himself said, “I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Respect the coming of God's son, and pay God his due. Give him the respect and honour he deserves, by living your life for him.

So far we've mainly looked at the motion towards – that God came to us. But now I'd like to look at the flip side of that idea – that Jesus was sent to us by God. The motion of Jesus is to us, from God. When you buy presents at Christmas, both of these motions are important, aren't they? You have to consider who the gift is to, so that you get them something relevant, but you also have to consider who the gift is from, or else it can be a little awkward. In the Sydney magazine last week, there was an article about presents that had not been considered in these two motions. On the one hand, a farmer gave his friends in the city a crate of fantail doves. A lovely present perhaps, but not really considering who the present was to. Awkward. But not nearly as awkward as making sure you measure the appropriateness of who a gift is from. There was another story of a woman receiving rather suggestive lingerie for Christmas. Which would be fine, if she received it from her husband. But it's a little creepy when you receive it from your husband's mother. Jesus, the ultimate gift of the Christmas season, upon which all other gifts have their genesis, comes to us, from God.

Why does God send us Jesus? It's not because he's expected to by tradition, or because he picked us in a Chris Kringle. He sent Jesus because he loves us, because we need Jesus, and because we were never going to earn Jesus' coming. 1 John 4:9-10 says, “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” God loves us. We need Jesus to atone for our sin, that is, to heal the rift between us and God. And we were never going to earn it, because we don't love God with every fibre of our being. That's how God loves us, though.

When you look at a nativity scene, it's hard to think that this same baby Jesus was sent by God on a mission, like a one man A-Team. But think back to the parable – the landowner sends a representative – his son – to bring his message. Sends him on a mission, a mission he knows could be dangerous. In fact, do you know how that parable ends? When they saw the son, “The tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.” This has been the human response to God for every messenger – berate them, beat them, treat them shamefully, even kill them. That's how we treat God's messengers, and that is how we treated God's son – the baby Jesus in the manger is the same Jesus God sent who we nailed up on a cross at Easter. At Christmas, what we celebrate is Jesus coming to us, and God sending Jesus to us. The presented is labelled “To us, from God.” But what should this mean to us at Christmas? How can we prepare ourselves spiritually to remind ourselves of this fact, that God loved us so much he sent his Son on a mission to save us, so that we could be with him?

Well, for starters, make sure you get people appropriate presents, not fantail doves or creepy lingerie. But no doubt you do that already. What can you do to remember the motion of Christmas – to remember that Jesus came to us, and that God was the one who sent him? I think one of the most powerful ways to remember this message is to remember that Jesus was sent on a mission. To help us remember that, I think we can do two things at Christmas time. First of all, we should remember those that we have sent out on a mission – our missionaries – each Christmas. Each year, AMT takes up a Christmas gift offering to give us the opportunity to give our missionaries around the world something extra at Christmas. Quite often, they don't use it for themselves, but pass it on to those around them who need it most, and it is a great blessing. While I was working in the AMT office, I heard of a great idea from a family who sought to remind themselves of God's mission each Christmas – they would go shopping for presents for each other, but instead of buying them, would work out how much the present was, and give that much to a missionary family. Would you consider making a pact with your family to turn your gifts to each other into a reminder of Jesus being sent on a mission at Christmas, by using that money to support those we have sent on a mission?

Second of all, we should remember that not only was Jesus sent on a mission, and not only are our missionaries sent out on a mission, but we, too, are sent on a mission by Jesus! Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We have been sent out by Jesus too! Christmas is a great time to remember those people to whom we have been sent, because it is a wonderful time to offer hospitality to people. There are many people out there who don't have a family to spend Christmas with, either because of distance, estrangement, or bereavement. What are they doing this Christmas? If you are hosting your family's Christmas this year, would you have a spare chair for them around your table? Some of my best Christmases have been spent around the Marlin family table, when I had no-one to celebrate with. You can remember the motion of Jesus to us, by remembering those you are sent to.

So, three things you can do this year to remember the motion of the incarnation of Jesus, three things to spiritually prepare yourself for Christmas: remember Jesus was sent to us by God by remembering those you have sent into the world – missionaries – and give them a Christmas gift; remember that you too have been sent into the world just as Jesus was sent, by reaching out in hospitality to those around you; and perhaps most fundamentally of all, this Christmas, remember that God came to earth, came to you. He wants to close the gap between you and him. He did the work, he made the trip, he covered the distance. Think about your life in the past year, and how you can change it in the year to come so that you are looking out for God's messages, that you are respecting God's messengers, that the life you live, you live for God.

With those things in mind, let's pray: