The real meaning of Christmas

I remember when I was a teenager I used to like to sing along to songs on the radio.  We did have cassette tape players.  The original Walkman was a cassette player!  But we didn’t have iPods and personal playlists.

Now I know that the songs I suggest will show my age and might not be particularly known to those of you who are younger, but let me try a couple.

Come on baby! Light my fire! 
Come on baby! Light my fire!  

Jim Morrison and the Doors

Well I won’t go into it all, but you understand what the song implies.

A more recent example is a remake done by Christina Aguilera and Lil’ Kim (which was popular when I was a teen in a version done by Patty Label)  

Lady Marmelade

He met Marmalade down IN old Moulin Rouge (New Orleans) Struttin’ her stuff on the street She said, “Hello, hey Jo, you wanna give it a go?” Oh! uh huh

Voulez vous coucher avec moi ce soir

There was another song which was popular a bit later with interesting lyrics and it had a catchy tune.

Please allow me to introduce myself.
I'm a man of wealth and taste I've been around for a long, long year
stolen many man's soul and faith I was around when Jesus Christ had His moment of doubt and pain Made damn sure that Pilate washed his hands and sealed His fate Pleased to meet you! Hope you guess my name! But what's puzzling you is the nature of my game

Now you can imagine my mother’s reaction to these lyrics.

The fact is that as a teenager listening to these songs on the radio and being from that generation usually caused me to defend the songs.  “But they’re cool, Mom!”

It should have been a clue to me that Jim Morrison was known for his free lifestyle and occult involvement.  But, I didn’t have Wikipedia to find out about his personal life! ;-) I don’t know how I missed the title of the Rolling Stones’ song, “Sympathy for the devil”.  It should have been a clue.

Well, why have I brought up these two songs and what do they have to do with Christmas?  Actually they have nothing specifically to do with Christmas, but the way we sing along to pop songs without really listening to their lyrics is the way most people sing Christmas carols.

If you are from a western European or North American background you grew up singing Christmas carols.  You probably don’t think about the lyrics, but you do get a warm fuzzy feeling inside when you sing them or hear them.  Candlelight carol services, etc.

Christmas carols present us with some rather shocking facts.  Perhaps they aren’t as shocking as “Sympathy for the devil”, but if we listen closely they challenge our assumptions.

Take the carol we sang earlier “God rest ye merry gentlemen!”  We’ve all heard it many, many times.  But have we listened to the words

God rest ye merry, gentlemen Let nothing you dismay! Remember, Christ, our Saviour Was born on Christmas day, To save us all from Satan's power, When we were gone astray. O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy!

Now if we listen carefully there are several things which after reflection we might not really agree with.

First of all the merry gentlemen are dismayed.  They are upset.  Well, what is bothering them?

They are bothered by being under Satan’s power.  They need to be saved from him.  God has sent his son, Jesus, to save them from Satan’s power.

Now if you’re a person in the 21st century you might have some problems with Satan.  I don’t mean that you feel under his power, though you may be, but that you frankly don’t believe in the devil as a metaphysical being, any sort of person, if you believe in him at all.  I once mentioned the devil in a sermon in our church and the minister told me that he had read an article which said that 2/3rds of British people did NOT believe in Satan.

Now the questions we must ask ourselves are:  “Does Satan exist?” and “Are we under his power?”

We might quickly reply, “No!” to both questions until we stop and think about our world a bit.  Wars continue to rage.  Marriages dissolve more often than they succeed.  Our economies are failing due to the greed of those who lent at exorbitant rates.  Then there are those habits which we’d like to stop and can’t seem to find victory over.

If we skip down a couple verses the Angel who announces the birth of Jesus to the shepherds says:

"Fear not then," said the Angel, "Let nothing you affright, This day is born a Saviour Of a pure Virgin bright, To free all those who trust in Him From Satan's power and might." O tidings of comfort and joy, Comfort and joy O tidings of comfort and joy

The Angel announces the birth of a Savior who will “free all those who trust in Him from Satan’s power and might”.

This is the essence of the Christian Gospel, the Good News about Jesus:  Jesus will free all those who trust in Him, as the Catechism says, from sin, death and the devil.

We don’t tend to like the word “sin”.  If we think Satan is irrelevant we are more likely angered when someone tells us we are sinful.  OK, maybe we aren’t perfect but we aren’t ax murderers!

What we fail to understand, which the carols so clearly explain, is that we ARE sinful and we ARE under Satan’s power.  Think again about that habit that you just can’t break even though you know it’s wrong and you should.

In the well known Christmas carol “O, Little Town of Bethlehem!” again a couple verses in we hear

How silently, how silently The wondrous gift is given! So God imparts to human hearts The blessings of His heaven. No ear may his His coming, But in this world of sin, Where meek souls will receive him still, The dear Christ enters in.

After talking about Jesus’ birth the carol writer explains that there is a Christmas gift which trumps all other Christmas gifts.  That gift is Jesus!

It’s not a flashy gift and most of the world at that time didn’t know it was given.  The Angel didn’t tell the royal court.  He announced Jesus’ birth to simple shepherds.  Shepherds were ceremonially unclean.  They couldn’t enter the Temple to worship.  They were despised.  Yet God sends his messenger to these the lowest of the common folk to tell them of this great gift.  The gift is freedom from sin, death and the devil.

How does one receive this gift?  Again the carol writer tells us quite plainly “No ear may hear his coming.  But in this world of sin, where meek souls (simple, humble souls) will receive him still the dear Christ enters in.”

How does one get free from bondage, slavery to sin, our misdeeds, the wrongs we’ve done?  How does one find forgiveness for those things for which we yearn to be forgiven?  By receiving Christ; by silently asking him in.

Now again perhaps this all seems too negative and old-fashioned:  sin, slavery, needing forgiveness?  Our vocabulary has lost these words largely at least in the context of our relationship to God, if we believe in God himself as a personal being at all.

Yet think about it.  If you’re over 30 years old you can look back and see things you regret.  The older you are the more things you can recall that you’ve done that you wish you hadn’t and you can think of more than one individual with whom you are estranged.

I don’t mean to say that younger people can’t remember things they have done wrong or people with whom they are estranged.  I just mean to say that those of us who are older can immediately see these effects of sin in our own lives.  That’s why when Jesus turned to the men who wanted to stone the woman caught in adultery and said, “He who is without sin let him cast the first stone.” the men began to leave starting with the older ones first!

We don’t like to be told we are at odds with God or that we are sinners.  We find it an affront.  But affront or not if it is true we need to know and we need to know how to get right with God.

When Chris asked me to speak tonight he gave me a good illustration of how we feel when we hear that we are sinners.  The illustration is how we feel when we are diagnosed with cancer.

Almost everyone who hears such a diagnosis denies it.  They can’t believe it’s true.  How did I deserve this diagnosis?  It can’t be true!

However, eventually one must accept that the doctor is not lying.  One’s body begins to show evidence of the disease or the diagnosis makes sense of other complaints and pains.

Even if the cancer is curable there remains treatment.  Treatment can’t start until one admits that one has the disease and consents to the treatment.

The Gospel, the Good News, about Jesus has two sides, much like a two sided coin.  One side of the Good News is exactly that Good News:  God loves the world so much that he sent his Son, Jesus, into the world to rescue us from sin and give us eternal life.

However, there is a bad side, a dark side, the bad news that accompanies the Good News.  The bad news is that we are sinners.  We have deliberately rebelled against God and disobeyed him.  We have done wrong.

Some may say that they had no idea what God required and therefore they don’t see how they can be sinful.  However, the Bible tells us that each of us is endowed with a conscience which tells us what is right and what is wrong.  It also says that no one has ever lived up to their own conscience.

If you can honestly say that you never did anything which was opposed to the voice of your conscience within you I have to say that either: your conscience has been silenced by long abuse or that you are simply not being honest.

Yes, being sinful is bad news.  Sin leads to bondage, slavery to the devil, being unable to direct your own life, being controlled by your desires.

But the Good News is there is a way to freedom from sin, death and the devil and to forgiveness and reconciliation with God and it is receiving Jesus.  Where meek souls will receive him still the dear Christ enters in.

Consider finally the last verse of “O, Little Town of Bethlehem”

O holy Child of Bethlehem Descend to us, we pray! Cast out our sin and enter in! Be born in us today! We hear the Christmas angels The great glad tidings tell! O come to us, abide with us, Our Lord Emmanuel!
 
Here is a very simple prayer that expresses repentance, a desire to change (“Cast out our sin”), and a turning to and receiving of Christ (“and enter in, Be born in us today”).  Also this verse tells us of the wonderful results of accepting that we are sinners, at odds with God and under Satan’s power and receiving the great Christmas gift, Jesus, - he comes to us and abides, lives, dwells with us (and the Apostle Paul tells us IN us), our Lord, our God, Emmanuel (God with us).

I hope that as you consider these words and sing these carols that the real meaning of Christmas will come through to you.  Christmas is not about Santa Claus, gifts, Christmas trees, candy, and special meals.  It is about God sending his only Son into the world to save us from our sins and our bondage to sin, death and the devil.

When you sing these carols sing them thinking of the Good News they share:  Jesus is born to save us and to come and live in and with us.

Given at the Evangelische Kerk Vriendscap Alkmaar Christmas service 2010