12-21-08 Holy Chaos

The BIG IDEA:  God wants us to see our chaos as an opportunity to trust in Him.

 Omar Rodriguez was the master chef aboard a U.S. Aircraft Carrier in charge of the menu for 400 sailors, 3 meals a day.  (And you’re wondering where everybody is going to sit at your house!)  On one particular trip bound for Australian waters, the ship was going to be at sea on Christmas day, but Rodriguez was ready.  He ordered special provisions for a traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.  Rodriguez and his staff worked extra hard to make sure the evening holiday meal was just right.  At 4:45 the turkey was done, the dinner rolls were cooked to perfection, the apple pie fresh out of the oven, and all the places were set. At 4:50 the crew sat down for the big Christmas dinner. — But there was a problem: someone pointed out that at exactly 4:48, the ship had crossed the International Date Line.  So it turned out not to be Christmas dinner.  After all that work, it turned out to be the day- after Christmas dinner, because now it was December 26th.  All that work and Omar had missed Christmas.  Funny story, but do you ever work and work to make Christmas special, and some how you end up feeling like you missed it?

 

It’s easy to miss Christmas in the midst of all the chaos.  And “chaos” is no exaggeration.  Think about all the stuff we do every year. 

In one month of the year we say, “Hey, let’s send a letter or a card to everybody we’ve ever known.

During this one month, let’s make a million cookies and hand deliver them to our friends and co-workers; that’ be a fun thing to do. 

In this one month, let’s go to more parties than we go to in all the other 11 months of the year combined. 

During this one month, let’s make more trips to the mall than anyone’s sanity can bear and buy presents for everybody we love and for a lot of people we don’t even like.” 

 

No wonder it’s chaotic!  And it’s not over yet, is it?  Let me get a little show of hands here. 

How may people still have a present to buy?  

A gift to wrap? 

A big meal to cook?   A big meal to somehow digest?  (Ok, Some parts of the chaos are better than others!)

 

I don’t know about you, but I always imagined the first Christmas being super-peaceful.  Did you?  That’s how it looked on all the Christmas cards.  And you know how the song goes: “Silent night, holy night, all is __________, all is bright.”  But if you really read the Christmas story, all was not calm. 

 

“In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.  And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem.”  (Luke 2:1-4)

 

Everybody’s got to return to their hometown?  Think about that.  Quick little experiment: on three, I want everybody to say out loud the name of the place where they were born.  Hear we go, on three:  1-2-3 ________.   Now imagine everybody having to go there all at once?  That was crazy.  And Joseph’s home town, a.k.a. “oh little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.”  It was far from still.  Bethlehem was not a big town, it was just a bit bigger than Lawton, but that first Christmas, even Bethlehem was hopping. 

 

We’ve all heard about the no room in the inn stuff, but think about it:  you can pretty much bet that this was the first and only time there was a “no vacancy” sign at Bethlehem Motel 6.  Can you imagine if everyone who ever grew up here, in Lawton, and everyone who ever went to school here, had to return here to be counted. It would be a zoo.

 

Bethlehem was jammed with people, and remember why everyone from there had to go there?  For a census.  And the purpose of the census was to figure out who all to tax, it was tax time.  Bethlehem was pretty chaotic.

 

And it was chaos for Mary and Joseph, too.  They’re always pictured all peaceful and serene, heads bowed, robes neatly pressed and perfectly draped. But the reality was that Mary was 9 months pregnant, and on a 70 mile road trip to Bethlehem riding a donkey. — Ladies, how serene and peaceful do you think that was?  She was sleeping on the ground several nights. Has anybody here ever been tent camping and had to sleep on the ground a couple of nights in a row?

 

Think of how that would feel if you were nine months pregnant. My wife couldn’t get comfortable in a Lazyboy recliner. And you know how it all works? If Mary wasn’t sleeping well, Joseph wasn’t sleeping well. How peaceful do you really think that trip to Bethlehem was – riding on a donkey – nine months pregnant, sleeping on the ground? I’m betting that all was not calm?

 

And then when Mary goes into labor, she doesn’t even have a place to give birth. I remember when Shannon was pregnant with our second. She had all her friends praying that this second child would come quicker than our first. She was in labor for 31 hours with our first one. She was definitely a bundle from heaven when she came, but we had to walk through hell to get her.

 

So, everyone’s praying that this child will come quicker, right? She started labor pains in the middle of the night and so we had to wait 45 minutes for her mom to get to our house to stay with Faith before we could leave for the hospital. And oh my gosh, I thought my wife was going to have that child in the passenger seat of our car. When I slowed down for a stop light, she looked at me in that eyes bulging, disgusted, glaring sort of way and said, “Don’t You Stop! Go”. I didn’t stop for a single light.

 

Mary is having labor pains and they have no place to have this child. I imagine it must have been much like our trip to the hospital with our second. No place to have the baby, but the baby’s coming – ready or not! All is calm, all is bright? I’m thinking they were franticly looking for a place to have this baby.

 

I’ve got 2 kids, and I was in the room when both were born.  I remember what it was like.  All the screaming and crying and yelling…and Shannon was a whole lot less calm than either of the kids (bada – boom!)  And to think, Shannon had a doctor and a couple of nurses attending to her delivery, but Mary had no one, but Joseph. And remember when a girl got her period, she was then considered a woman and she was an eligible maiden ready for marriage. Mary and Joseph are probably not more than 15 and could be as young as 12. They are in a foreign town after a long, miserable journey, can’t find a room to deliver their baby, end up in a barn with no doctor or no nurse or no mid-wife – not even another woman and they are probably less than 15 years old.

 

All is calm, all is bright?  I don’t think so, this had to be total chaos for Joseph and Mary.

 

Same thing for the shepherds, too.  “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them…the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.” (Luke 2:8-10; 15)

 

Sure, it had to be awesome to have a great number of angels appear to you and tell you to go to Bethlehem to see the baby.  That had to be very cool, but there was another side of it, too. Who was going to watch their sheep?  You think it’s tough to find somebody to take care of your dog while you’re away, where do you find a sheep-sitter in the middle of the night, spur of the moment!!! 

 

And the Wise Men . . . they were following the star, but that was no walk in the park. They traveled hundreds of miles through deserts, sandstorms and mountains. It was a long hard journey that included a visit with a hostile King Herod who threatens to have them killed as he is thrown into a paranoid tailspin by the news of Jesus’ birth. 

 

Are you getting the picture here, a picture of what the first Christmas was like in “O Little Town of Bethlehem”?  It had to have been just a total zoo. 

 

There was political chaos.    Bethlehem and all the surrounding areas were conquered by the Romans.  They were occupied by a foreign Roman army. The Roman Empire did some great things like building roads and aqueducts, but they accomplished it mainly through slave labor.  And this King Herod that we read about that was the King of Jesus’ land . . . He wasn’t a true Jewish King.  He was a corrupt, paranoid aristocrat who had members of his own family executed to solidify his power.

 

There was financial chaos, too.  Remember the census?  Why was the census taken? For the purpose of taxation?  Some scholars say that Jesus’ people were taxed at a rate of up to 90%.  Roman taxes made an IRS audit seem like a visit to Mr. Rogers neighborhood.

 

And there was relational chaos.  In the Roman Empire, the head of the household held the power of life and death over his wife, his children, and servants.  A father could have anyone in his household killed or sold into slavery for any reason without facing any legal repercussions.

 

And there was spiritual chaos.  The Roman Emperor was not just the political and military head of state, the government proclaimed Caesar to be divine.  People were encouraged to put faith in Caesar as Lord.  So to be in the Roman Empire was to daily deal with the claim that the emperor Himself was God. This is like our government holding an a television news conference and telling us that they had voted that George W. Bush or Obama was God. It was absolutely a spiritual mess.

 

So God see the chaos and darkness the world is languishing in, and something has to be done.  Someone has to right the wrongs; bring hope into the hopeless-ness; redeem this chaotic mess that we’ve made of our creation, and help people become who they were created to be; they couldn’t do that on their own. Human beings had proved that again and again and again.  So God, in the person of Jesus agrees to give up his divine privileges to save this world from the chaos that was killing it.  So in the middle of this chaos, God comes to the earth in the person of Jesus. Jesus is born. 

 

Luke 2 is the part of the Bible that most people talk about at Christmas, but there is another 2, Philippians 2 that tells the story.  And it’s not just words, it’s actually an ancient song; perhaps the very first Christmas carol:

  Jesus, though he was God,
      did not think of equality with God
      as something to cling to.
  Instead, he gave up his divine privileges;
      he took the humble position of a slave
      and was born as a human being.
   When he appeared in human form,
      he humbled himself in obedience to God
      and died a criminal’s death on a cross. 

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place (Philippians 2)

 

Think about what it had to be like, to go from being all-powerful God to a baby who can’t even feed Himself or keep from drooling all over himself.   One moment you are all-powerful and the next you’re totally dependent – no power.  One second you’re all-powerful and the next you can’t even talk.  That was what Jesus did. 

 

On minute God is in heaven. He is in the most perfect place there is. Everything is as it was created – Good. There are no tears, no shame, no hurt, no sin – everything is as it was created to be – Good, but then the next minute he is on earth, a place where hell has invaded; a place where relationships are broken, hearts are broken, parent children relationships are broken. This place that Jesus came into must have seemed like a sewer compared to where he came from. Being born in a barn with all the smells and mess seems kind of poetic don’t you think.

 

And it says that Jesus willingly became a slave, a person who existed totally for the service of another.  And serve this chaotic old world He did:   from the manger to how he taught us how to love and live; to the cross where he taught us about the greatest kind of love – the love of a parent, who loves their children so much that if a choice had to be made, you and I would willingly die in their place. I would die for my children, because I love them so deeply. Jesus, God, the one who created you, the one who thought you and I up; the one who is your Father, wa willing to die for you on the cross, because he loves you so much.

 

God is love! Jesus came into this world and lived the way he lived and died the way he died, because of his GREAT LOVE for you and for me, and for all people.

 

See, God didn’t deal with the chaos by deleting it, like he did with Noah and the flood – he said at the time of Noah that he would never do that again. He didn’t deal with the chaos by deleting it, but by entering into it.  He didn’t obliterate it, nullify it, or cancel it out. He didn’t call down fire and destroy it. Instead, He entered into it, and showed us what it was like to love in the midst of it. 

 

Jesus was called by those early Christians, “Emmanuel,” which means, “God With Us”. Not God over us, but God with us.

 

Do you have any chaos in your life? God doesn’t want you to deal with that chaos yourself. God wants to enter into it with you. God is the master creater.

 

Genesis 1:1?

 

And the result?  The one who was humbled has now been exalted as the one who conquered the chaos of this world, not by sword and spear and military might, but by humility, obedience, and love.

 

So what’s this got to do with us and our lives this Christmas?  I’m glad you asked me that.  Like people during that first Christmas . . . many of us . . . I’d say most of us face some kind of chaos. 

Maybe its financial chaos; and I don’t just mean figuring out how to pay for all the presents.  I mean maybe you’re wondering how you’ll ever be able to dig yourself out of the hole you’re in financially, or whether you have enough money to make it at all.

 

For others its relational chaos.  Some of you are thinking, “That’s it.  Really over.  Once the holidays are past, it’s time to tell everybody this marriage is done.” 

 

Or for others maybe the relational chaos is some grudge that has roots dug deep in the ground, or its some tension between you and somebody else that just won’t go away. 

 

Or maybe it’s just missing someone you loved dearly who’s passed away, and it hurts so much this time of year, and you don’t know what to do. 

 

For others of us our chaos is physical, medical, and the doctors don’t know what to do.

 

And still for others, it’s just directional: there’s a restlessness that just won’t quit, and we don’t know which way to go with our lives?

 

And understandably, we just wish that God would make it go away, fix it, make it all ok right away . . . right? 

 

See, what God did that first Christmas and will do this Christmas is come to us IN our chaos, and meet us IN our chaos, and say to us:  “I’ll be with you in it.  I’ll see you through it.  Yes, maybe in some cases I will miraculously get you out of it, but most of the time I’m gonna show you how to overcome it.  Through humility.  Through obedience.  Through love. 

 

Let this Christmas remind you that as sure as God was in that manger, so it is that he is here with you now. This chaos can hurt you, but it cannot defeat you if you stick with God.  And you don’t have to worry about God sticking with you, because he’s here to stay.” “Why?” you say, because he loves you so much that he would willingly die in order for you to experience his goodness and his grace, in order that he could be with you.

 

One of my favorite Christmas stories is of a man who didn’t go to Christmas Eve services with his wife and kids. Years ago, he had decided that he just couldn’t believe that with life as hard as it was, there could really be a God.  He and his wife didn’t fight about their spiritual differences, but there was just this distance there between them because of it.  The kids always asked their mom why Dad never went to church with them, and they especially wanted him to go on Christmas Eve.  She simply told them to never mind and get their coats on. 

 

Well, this one Christmas Eve, after his wife and children left for church, he settled into his comfortable chair, and picked up a book.  As he did it began to snow. It started snowing harder and harder and the wind started to howl, but he tried to concentrate on his reading.  His concentration was interrupted by a “thud” against the living room window.  Then there was another thud, and another, and another. He decided he better check it out. When he got to the window, he noticed a group of small sparrows that had flown into the glass pane and were fluttering in the snow drift below.

 

Without really thinking about it, he put on his coat and boots and went outside to help the birds.  He thought he’d scoop up the exhausted little birds and take them into the barn where they’d be safe and have shelter for the night.  But he couldn’t get near them because they flapped and fluttered away when he came near.  So he tried the Hansel and Gretel trick, placing a trail of bread crumbs leading toward the barn.  They didn’t go for that either.  He didn’t know what to do, so he got a broom and decided to try and chase them into the barn. But a grown man waving a broom only scared the birds even more.

 

Finally, exhausted, he sat down in the barn and thought to himself, “If only I could talk to them.  Let them know that I want to help them and save them from the storm.  But I can’t unless I could become one of them.”  And as he sat there thinking, the church bells began to ring.   And it hit him that Christmas really was true, and he prayed his first prayer in a long time:  “God, thank you for becoming one of us.”   And when his wife and kids returned home that night from church, they came home to a different house, a different man.