“Room for Christ”
A Christmas Eve Sermon by Rev. Randal Lubbers
First Presbyterian Church ▪ Lake Crystal, Minnesota
December 24, 2009OLD TESTAMENT LESSON: Rejoice! Your God Reigns: Isaiah 52:7-10
GOSPEL LESSON: The Word Became Flesh: John 1:1-14
Oh come to my heart, Lord Jesus, there is room in my heart for you.
There’s a quiet, peaceful Christmas Eve I remember. I remember sitting in the quiet and in solitude for nearly 30 minutes—maybe longer—just looking at the lights of the tree. It wasn’t the “perfect Christmas.” It wasn’t “the hap-happiest Christmas ever.” And yet I remember thinking of how peaceful and quiet it was, I remember sensing God’s presence, and I remember thinking, “Ah, yes, this is what Christmas is all about.”
Of course the truth is you really don’t need
me to preach to you about making room in your hearts for the Christ child at Christmas. You may not hear the message in the midst of the commercials for diamonds or in the conversation at a company Christmas party, but you’ll hear about “Keeping Christ in Christmas” often enough. Thanks to the internet and emails, many of you have heard plenty about the True Meaning of Christmas. Over the years I’ve received dozens—maybe hundreds of sweetly worded stories reminding me to keep Christ in Christmas; and, interestingly, maybe just as many tirades about the evils of saying “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas.”
So you really don’t need
me to preach about keeping Christ in Christmas. You don’t need a preacher to tell you about the importance of family and friends, of making sure you’re not overwhelmed by a multitude of parties and cookie-making duties and trying to make things perfect. There are plenty of movies and articles in popular magazines making that very point. There is joy and true satisfaction in living simply, in sharing, in giving money to the Food Shelf and the Salvation Army, in doing things for others without asking for recognition.
But you don’t need to come to church to find out about that. In fact, may I share a secret? All this talk about “Keeping Christ in Christmas” makes me a bit uncomfortable. I believe it betrays a lack of theological understanding about the Incarnation. What do we mean, after all, when we say "Immanuel, God with us"? More about that in a moment...
Keeping Christ in Christmas? Really now, let’s think about that for a bit. There is really no serious risk, even in our contemporary post-Christian world, of someone taking the Christ out of Christmas. The baby in the manger, the angels, the shepherds are all ingrained in our cultural vision of Christmas. Good deeds, good tidings, good wishes, and everything else: All these things are as much a part of the contemporary idea of Christmas as Santa, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph; as much a part of Christmas as Charlie Brown, the Griswolds, and the phrase “You’ll shoot your eye out.”
Christ... along with Christmas trees and gifts and all the rest... CHRIST IS and ALWAYS WILL be a PART of Christmas. The church is NOT necessary to keep it that way. Many others with vested interests in Christmas will make sure of it…
But my concern is not “Keeping Christ in Christmas.”
I’m not even sure that “Keeping Christ in Christmas” is a truly Christian concept.
I think we ought to be more concerned about keeping Christ
out of Christmas.
Yes, OUT of Christmas…
"out of Christmas" and
IN OUR EVERYDAY, ORDINARY DAILY LIVES.
CHRIST IN OUR LIVES—24/7. That’s the meaning of the Incarnation.
Immanuel. God is WITH US.
The question is
not whether we make room for Christ in our
celebration of Christmas,
but do we make room for Christ—
period.
Is there room for Christ at your table—every day?
Is Christ welcome at your celebrations of birthdays and weddings and job promotions?
Is there room for Christ in your marriage and your friendships?
One of my favorite Christmas songs is from the musical “Mame”—it goes something like this—
Haul out the holly;
Put up the tree before my spirit falls again.
Fill up the stocking,
I may be rushing things, but deck the halls again now.
For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute,
Candles in the window,
Carols at the spinet.
Yes, we need a little Christmas….
Much of our contemporary, popular culture does TOO GOOD a job at keeping Christ in Christmas—
but it’s just a
little Christmas—
with just a little-bitty baby Jesus—
and the Lord Jesus Christ is kept in Christmas—
kept
safely in Christmas—
But yet there is no room in the inn of political dialogue for Christ’s message of peacemaking, forgiveness, or loving enemies, or of patience and kindness and respect even among those with whom we disagree. Christ is kept safely in Christmas but is unwelcome when we talk about issues concerning feeding the hungry and providing health care for all persons; unwelcome when we consider the way we deal with differences of values or opinions; unwelcome from Monday through Friday dealings because… well… you know, “This is business.”
Too often in our lives there is no room for the Christ who is kept safely in Christmas.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for you….
Dorothy Day wrote…
It is no use saying that we are born two thousand years too late to give room to Christ…. Christ is ALWAYS with us, always asking for room in our hearts. But now it is with the voice of our contemporaries that he speaks, with the eyes of store clerks, factory workers, and children that he gazes; with the hands of office workers, slum dwellers, and suburban housewives that he gives. It is with the feet of soldiers and tramps that he walks; and with the heart of ANYONE in need that he longs for shelter. And giving shelter or food to ANYONE who asks for it or needs it, is giving it to Christ.
It would be foolish to pretend that it is always easy to remember this. If everyone were holy and handsome… it would be easy to see Christ in everyone. If Mary had appeared in Bethlehem clothed… with the sun, a crown of twelve stars on her head, and the moon under her feet, then people would have FOUGHT to make room for her. But that was not God’s way for her, nor is it Christ’s way for himself, now when he is disguised under every type of humanity that treads the earth.
What do I do, or what have I done, when a beggar stops at my home asking for food? Do I serve leftovers on a paper plate? Or do I throw a feast? A glass of water given to the one who is thirsty is a cup of water given to Jesus himself. Jesus’ teachings made heaven itself hinge on the way we act toward him in his disguise of the commonplace. And, lest you think I’m prescribing a new LAW or RULE that we are duty-bound to keep or risk falling out of favor with God… No, No, Not at all… Indeed, just the opposite. For a follower of Christ, the prodding of “duty” is not needed. It is not a duty to serve, but rather, it is a privilege and honor. Do you think Mary and Martha sat back and congratulated themselves on doing “all that was expected” of them? Dorothy Day, talking about Peter’s mother who fixed a meal for Jesus and the disciples, says, “Is it likely she GRUDGINGLY served the chicken she had been saving til Sunday because she thought it was her DUTY? She did it GLADLY—she would have served 10 Chickens if she had had them.” And that is the way we are called to show compassion and hospitality to Christ. That is how we are called to give room to Christ.
Not for humanity’s sake.
And not because… well, you know,
“maybe” it might be Christ who stays with us,
comes to see us, takes up our time.
And not because these people REMIND us of Jesus Christ…
But because they ARE Christ…
THEY
ARE CHRIST…
asking us to find room…
exactly as he did at the first Christmas…
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
HYMN OF RESPONSE: “Thou Didst Leave Thy Throne” (with text adapted for worship by Randy Lubbers, 2009) Christ did leave his throne and his kingly crown
when he came to this earth for me;
but in Bethlehem’s home there was found no room for his holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for you.
Heaven’s arches rang when the angels sang,
proclaiming Christ’s royal degree;
but of lowly birth did he come to earth, and in great humility.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus; there is room in my heart for you.
Prayers of the PeopleEternal God, we bow before the mystery of your incarnation.
You have chosen weakness to confound the strong
and poverty to send the rich empty away.
We remember the millions in our world today
who are hungry, who receive no hospitality—
all with whom your Son has become one by being born in a manger.
[Silence]
Merciful God, we call upon you
for all who have fled their homes in the darkness of night.
We remember the millions in our world who have been made refugees,
who have sought asylum in lands not their own,
who are displaced, homeless, landless, or lost—
all whose experience you have made your own in the life of your Son.
[Silence]
Loving God, our hearts are heavy
with the sufferings of this world.
We remember the many victims of political power and greed:
the innocent killed in war and violence,
all those who are tortured or put to death,
those who languish in prison and camps,
those missing or taken hostage—
all whose lot your Son shared by being born when Herod was king.
[Silence]
Gracious God, you placed yourself in the care of Mary
to show to the world your will to save.
Give us grace to follow her example:
to become instruments of your grace,
servants of your will, and channels of your love.
May it happen to us as you have willed.
O God of peace, you fill our hearts with hope at every Christmastide,
for we remember again that this is the world you have loved.
May hope, peace, and joy fill our hearts this night.
Amen.
Dorothy Day's essay, "Room for Christ," was the inspiration for this sermon.
