Flora First Christian Church - Flora, IN

December 2, 2007

Advent: “Through The Eyes of Christmas”

During the Advent and Christmas season, we will explore Christmas through the eyes of some of the personalities who witnessed Christ’s birth. Their emotions and responses are not unlike those which we experience today.

Luke 1:26-1:38 (The angel Gabriel appears to Mary with Good News)
Theme: The message of Christ’s birth can be a scary one, but one which ultimately leads to joy knowing that God is present!

Introduction: Mad Magazine

I thought I would be dating myself by telling you that I read MAD magazine as a kid. However, I discovered this past week that MAD is still on the market, and recently celebrated its 55th anniversary. It’s a great comic magazine of satire, humor, spoofs and contemporary pundits. It spoofs everything from politics, college life, living in the suburbs, books, movies, rock and roll, and television. MAD lets nothing off the hook including Christmas. I still remember the Christmas edition from the mid-1960’s. Things have not changed all that much in forty some years.

One cartoon portrayed a family living room on Christmas morning. The room was loaded with opened presents in front of a mountain of discarded wrapping paper. Off to the side, a child screamed at his parents: “Is that all! You don’t love me! You don’t want me to be happy!”
Another cartoon featured three houses on a snow-covered street. The house in the middle had a candle lit in each window, a manger scene displayed, and a simple wreath on the door. The family gathered around Mom at the piano, and the family sang “O Little Town of Bethlehem.” The two houses on both sides were decorated with more lights than a Las Vegas hotel. They had dancing Mickey Mouses, animated snowmen, ice skating reindeer, and wild parties. Two men looked toward the middle house saying: “I guess some people just don’t have the real Christmas joy.”

Real Division in Meaning of Christmas Joy

There’s no doubt there’s real division when it comes to the true meaning of Christmas and the joy it brings. There’s much that happens this time of year that doesn’t bring images of what I would consider joy: streets crowded with backed up traffic, parking lots more full than those at Disney World, parents screaming in public at their tired children, and the stack of bills that arrive the day after Christmas.

Faces of Christmas

Today we begin our Advent sermon series exploring Christmas through the eyes of some who experienced it first hand. This morning we’re looking at one who is a model of the true joy that can be found in Christmas.

Gabriel’s Visits

Immediately before our scripture reading in Luke’s gospel, a girl from a village in the middle of nowhere was visited by an angel, Gabriel. In earlier verses of this chapter, Gabriel announced to Zechariah that he and his wife, Elizabeth, would be blessed with a son. That son became known as John the Baptist.

Mary’s Responses

We don’t know where Mary was or what she was doing when Gabriel showed up in Nazareth. Mary was quite startled and was more than a tad afraid at the appearance of the heavenly messenger. After all, it’s not every day that we’re aware we’re having a conversation with an angel. Gabriel told Mary she had pleased God, and that God had a special job for her. “Hey Mary, guess what? You’re going to have a baby. As a matter of fact, your baby will be a boy, and the name is already picked out. . . . its Jesus! He will be great, the Son of the Most High. Yes, you heard me right. You baby boy will be the son of God, and will rule as a king, but his kingdom will never end, it will go on forever!”

Mary Was a Teenager

Can you imagine receiving that message? Remember, Mary wasn’t a grown woman of any social status. She was a teenager, most likely between 14 and 16 years old, the typical age that most women got married. (Yeah, dads that’s right, scary thought). Mary was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph who was probably a number of years older than she.
At this point, Mary interrupted Gabriel and said, “Excuse me Mr. Gabriel sir, there’s just one small problem. Isn’t it true that this great and wondrous act can’t be accomplished alone? It isn’t going to happen because I’m a virgin.”

Now, Gabriel’s response had to have absolutely floored Mary: “Oh, did I forget to mention that your child’s father will be God himself, not Joseph.”
I’m not sure if Mary was smiling or scared out of her wits. She might have thought she was on the ancient version of “Candid Camera.” Women, how would you have responded to that announcement? But Gabriel’s response is one of the great promises of the Bible. He says, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary Was the One of whom the Prophet was Speaking

So Mary was the one? Any devout Jewish family at sometime or another would have heard the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and he will be called Immanuel.” (Isaiah 7:14 NIV)

Mary: How Can This Be?

Mary wasn’t saying, “I refuse to believe this”… she was saying: “Wow, let me recover from the jolt of this amazing news.”
To further add credibility to his announcement, Gabriel mentions that her cousin Elizabeth was six months pregnant. But she was an older woman considered past the age women would have babies . . .ah . . . nothing is impossible with God.

Mary Responds With Obedience

When Mary understood what was going to happen she simply stated “I am the Lord’s servant may it happen just as you said it would.” Mary gave no arguments about timing or that it was inconvenient or that she had a life. She didn’t even fret about explaining all of this to her family, friends or to Joseph, her fiance. That would be awkward, wouldn’t it? She accepted God’s plan and joyfully carried it out.

Mary Makes Her Way to Elizabeth’s

Now shortly after Gabriel’s appearance Mary made her way to a foothill town south of Jerusalem, and about 80 miles from Nazareth, to spend some time with Elizabeth who Gabriel mentioned. Upon their meeting Elizabeth greeted her with words from the Holy Spirit: “God has blessed you more than any other woman! He has also blessed the child you will have” (Luke 1:42).

Mary Sings for Joy!

Not unlike a movie musical, Mary breaks out in song: “With all my heart I praise the Lord, and I am glad because of God my Savior. God cares for me, his humble servant. From now on, all people will say that God has blessed me … ” (Luke 1:46-55).

Mary Beamed with JOY

We would think that Mary would now beam with pride? Not the case. Mary beamed with . . . JOY. She doesn’t congratulate herself, but celebrates how God will use her, and how God is in her life, and cares for the events in our lives.

Trusting is the Key

No Scrooge or Grinch here. Mary had the first set of eyes to witness Christmas. Mary responded to the message that she would have a child with JOY.

Christmas Responses

There are a number of responses to Christmas that we will examine in the next four weeks: Loneliness, greed, peace and hope. All of these are real emotions that most of us experience weekly. Joy, however, is perhaps one of the most difficult responses at Christmas—due to other tasks which we often let overwhelm us.

Our Response to Christmas

When the purpose of Christmas . . . God coming into the world to give life to his people . . . becomes the ultimate reason we celebrate, JOY WILL BECOME OUR RESPONSE, as well.

Missionaries in Northern Alaska

When Christian missionaries first went to the northern part of Alaska, and began translating the Bible into the language of the Eskimos, they discovered that there was not a word for joy. So they began studying the culture to choose a word based on what they saw as the most joyful experience in an Eskimo’s daily life.
They learned this was in the evenings when they fed their dogs that pulled their sleds. When the dogs were fed they would bark and wag their tails, the children would come outside and there was neighborhood excitement. So the missionary translators used “wagging their tails” for the word “joy”. An Eskimo translation of the Bible literally transcribes the disciples seeing Jesus’ resurrection as: “The disciples saw Jesus, and they wagged their tails.”

The Baby’s Response

A tail wagging event is described by Elizabeth to Mary in Luke 1:44-45, “When you came in and greeted me, my baby jumped for joy the instant I heard your voice! You are blessed, because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” (New Living Translation)

Mary’s trust in the Lord to receive God’s gift of a Son, and to do His will leads to a leap for joy. As a result of Elizabeth’s joy, the baby within her gave a leap for joy.

Joy Response

The power of joy flows out of a relationship with God.

Joy of Jesus Ministry in Detroit

In a past cover article on “The Faith Factor,” for U. S. News & World Report, the magazine reported the sad case of Detroit’s Joy of Jesus ministry. Joy of Jesus was a social action program that offered job training along with Bible lessons, prayer and faith-centered discussions about the problems of life. Michigan officials, impressed with the ministry’s success ratio, offered state funding with one condition — give up the prayers and Bible study. The ministry reluctantly agreed.
The result: where once the program had successfully placed 60% of its students in jobs, the program’s success rate after state backing began to approach zero. Eventually the ministry returned the state money and got back to its original mission — the JOY of Jesus. It’s our original mission as well.
When praising God for the gift of Jesus Christ is taken out of Christmas –our JOY has no roots. It becomes a shallow reason to have another holiday, and an excuse to buy people you like a present.

The Power of Our Joy

The Apostle Peter reminds us of the power that becomes ours when Jesus Christ becomes our Lord and Savior. Peter puts it like this in his first letter: “ You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express, because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.” – (1 Peter 1: 8-9, Today’s English Version)

Our Joy Comes from the child who is the Savior

Our joy came not merely as a baby in a manger, but as a Savior who died on a cross for us, and rose from the dead. Joy comes from realizing no matter what life brings, God is our Savior.

The Missing Ingredient

In the early 1970’s, Look magazine sponsored a symposium that gathered a variety of thinkers to analyze the problems of our world. They came to the conclusion that “Joy is the missing ingredient in our culture.”
Not a really new discovery since Robert Louis Stevenson noted years ago, “To miss the joy is to miss everything.”

As Christians we are called to share the missing ingredient in our world. Most people would settle for a merry Christmas. We are offered a joyful eternity. There is a limit to merriment, but there is no end to joy. There is no upper limit. For joy can be found no matter the circumstance for we KNOW that God is always present!