Embracing the Uncomfortable: The True Christmas Message

We celebrate an event that if we take it seriously, and that's what these next few minutes are about. At Christmas, we celebrate a single event that if we were to take it seriously, and when I say seriously, our problem is this. We all know the Christmas story, the birth narratives of Jesus, and we so romanticize them and we shave off the rough edges, and we don't spend enough time sitting in the middle of the significance of what happened. [00:05:42]

The sentiment being Jesus is the reason we celebrate Christmas. But if you follow Jesus through the gospels, one thing becomes very, very clear. And that's this, that Jesus isn't the reason for the season. We are the reason for the season. Because if we weren't such a mess, there would be no Christmas. If you weren't such a mess, there would be no Christmas. [00:06:53]

At Christmas, we celebrate God coming or drawing near. In fact, in Matthew, when Matthew recounts the angel's message to Mary that she's gonna have a child, he quotes from the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, and you're familiar with some of this, these words. And here's what the prophet Isaiah said, and again, Matthew capitalizes on this, the angel, you know, contextualizes this for Mary, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means anyone? [00:08:28]

If in fact, God came to be with us in spite of us, we lose our excuse to remain distant from people simply because it's complicated, because it's awkward, because it's uncomfortable to state it personally. What excuse do I have? What excuse do I have to just dismiss and to judge and to distance myself from people whose dysfunction, whose insecurity, and to use a Bible term whose sin differs from mine? [00:10:06]

The birth of Jesus, the fact that God came to dwell with us should make all of us painfully, and I know we don't like this word, but I'll use it anyway, painfully, shamefully, humbly self-aware. We should all wake up every single day and be amazingly self-aware of the fact that we have so much in common, even with the people we dislike and we don't think are anything like us, that we should be overwhelmingly self-aware of the fact that we all need the same things. [00:14:15]

The more aware I am of God's grace and mercy toward me. And isn't that what Christmas is about? That God, as we talked about last time, that God wanted to be known, that God did not wanna remain a mystery. So he took on personhood, he took on personality. That God, through Jesus has invited me to recall God, my heavenly Father, that God, the more aware I am of God's grace and mercy towards me, I should be more inclined to extend grace and mercy to you. [00:15:40]

The word became flesh. Wait, you mean like God, the logos, the information, the invisible, the uncreated creator, he said, it's the only way I know how to describe it. God became one of us. Although he had nothing in common with any of us, he was superior to all of us. He continues, the Word became flesh and stuck around just long enough to say hello to everybody. [00:21:12]

He was full on grace and full on truth. He never dumbed down the truth. He never dialed back the grace. It was amazing. And John would tell us, not only was it amazing, it took all of our excuses away. And the next thing I know after the resurrection, I find myself in circles with men I would never even speak to before this. Gentiles, women, rich, poor, slaves, people who used to be slaves, people who bought their way out of slavery. [00:29:47]

Because Emmanuel, God with us and all my excuses vanished. So for Christmas, for some of us, it's a reminder that there are people we can't, problems we can't solve and people we can't control and expectations we can't meet. But Christmas, if we take it seriously, is also a reminder that problems and the people and the expectations are not excuses to withdraw even when it's complicated and even when it's uncomfortable. [00:30:44]

This is the perfect time. This is the perfect season to do for someone in spite of that someone, to do for someone. This is the, this is Jesus. This is the law of Christ. We talk about it all the time to do for someone what God through Christ has done for you. And the more uncomfortable, the better. And the more awkward, the better. The more uncomfortable, the more Christ like, the more awkward, the more noticeable. [00:31:31]

We love because he first loved us. John would say it was amazing. He took away all of our excuses. This is how God showed. He goes on, this is how God showed his love among us Christmas. This is how God showed his love among us, Christmas, not simply the cross. This is how God show and telled his love for us. He sent his one and only son into the world that we might live through him. [00:32:58]

Both of you are the reason for the season. Both of you are the reason for Emmanuel God with us. God came near. You're the reason God came here through Christ and you're the reason He stuck around. And if you're a Jesus follower, you're so glad He did, for God so loved the messy messed up world. Daddy showed up as one of us and lived among us and took away all of our excuses to do anything less for the people around us. [00:35:31]