12-6-09 Series: Fundamentals Message: Christmas Love

When I was growing up in my family, it seems like we always had a goal that we were shooting for at the end of Christmas, and the goal was to be able to say, “This was the best Christmas we’ve ever had.” Did any of you grow up in a family where you kind of felt pressured to have the best Christmas ever? We didn’t have real clear criteria for what would make a Christmas the best Christmas ever, but the goal was there nonetheless.

 

I suppose when I was young, it was mostly about presents…did I get what I wanted to get. Then, when I was a little older, it was about certain traditions or celebrations or rituals…things that would happen every year that would make it feel like Christmas.

 

When I was young, my entire extended family, about a 100 people, would gather together and have dinner together, and all the kids would tear around the place playing and having the best time. Those were some of the best Christmas’ ever.

 

Then there were the Christmas where my relatives got in a fight at my Grandma’s house on Christmas day, and that ended up being the worst Christmas ever.

 

So what makes Christmas special? I was thinking about that question. I was thinking about us. I was thinking about this year…this Christmas, in this season in particular…all the people who would be here. Because it can be kind of a complex season to navigate. There is shopping to get done. All the busy-ness, running around… Are you all done with your shopping?

 

After shopping, you know, there are office parties, and after office parties, there are family gatherings, and after family gatherings, then you add all of that economic uncertainty, and it just made me think about this year. What would it take for this year to be the best Christmas ever? Then I thought…how would we know? What is the standard?

 

So I want to start with Scripture. I want to take us back to Scripture and the story of Christmas and quote from the beginning, what was behind Christmas in the Bible, because there is a word here that I believe is the secret to what made the first Christmas great and what can make it great again. No matter what happens, circumstantially or financially, what could make it the best Christmas ever? One word.

 

So let’s just start with the Bible. If you don’t mind, turn to the person next to you and see if you have a guess at what that very special Christmas words might be. I will give you cash money if you get this right. Turn to the person next to you and see if you can guess what the first words are going to be, okay?

Alright…from the Bible….here we go…the first words that tell of the love that would launch

Christmas…”For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life

 

Here’s the deal, and here is why that verse is so central: What made that first Christmas great to God is what God was able to do. The most famous verse in the Bible…”God so loved the world that He gave…,” because see, giving is what love does, and love is at the heart of Christmas. Giving is how love expresses itself. Giving is the heart of love. Giving is the heart of God. Giving is what God is into.

 

One of the biggest things that people don’t understand about God is that he is a giver not a taker. If you do a survey and ask people to tell you the first word that comes into their mind when you say the word “God” it will almost never be “Giver”. God is not a taker; God is a giver. This is the good news from the Bible.

 

In the ancient world, in ancient Mesopotamian cultures, there used to be myths, stories about the gods – small “g”. These stories tell about gods who created human beings to be their slaves, to give them food, to burn good smelling incense that they could breath in. These gods were truly takers, then there is this story of a God who is so creative and so generous that He just creates with beauty and generosity and creativity and says, “Now take it. Now enjoy it.” “God so loved the world…”

 

God has been giving from the very beginning. This is from the book of James, “Do not be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters…,” because people are deceived about the nature of God; He is not a taker. Don’t be deceived. “…every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows.” The key word in this little passage is the word ‘every.’

 

Don’t be deceived. Not just good and perfect gifts…every gift. When you start to think about this, when you just live with this, it will change the way you think about and feel towards our God. All the time, whatever the gift is, not just in church.

 

Who owns the waves? God owns the waves. Owns the sun. Owns the sky. Owns the flowers, owns the trees, but he gives them to us to enjoy. That is our God. Don’t be deceived; God is a giver, not a taker.

 

God’s generosity isn’t just lavish, not just creative, it is continual. It is ceaseless. It is unstoppable. This is from the book of Lamentations, “Your mercies are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness.” Every morning, God is saying, Did you like that sunrise yesterday? Here’s another one. Here is food for your body. Here is air for your lungs. Here is beauty for your eyes. Here is music for your ears. Here is strength for needs. Here are friends for your heart. Here is a purpose for your day. Here are thoughts for your mind…

 

God is always giving, giving, giving. That is what He does all day long. And what made the first

Christmas the best is that God finally got to give his best gift of all. It is like He had been giving and giving and giving from the beginning of creation, but He had this one gift He had been saving up all. It is like when He gave Jesus, God out gave Himself. It is like He set a new record for compassion and generosity. It is like He was so excited about this gift, He couldn’t keep quiet about it.

 

A lot of you know when Jesus began His ministry because so many people had the wrong idea about the Messiah. They thought the Messiah was going to be a taker…take power, take control, take vengeance on His enemies…so Jesus could not let them know He was the Messiah too soon, until He could re-educate them about who the Messiah was. So that is why sometimes in the gospels, you’ll see Jesus heal somebody and then say to them, “Now don’t go tell anybody what I did.” Because He wants to do a little education first.

 

When I was in middle school, I began to give my parents gifts that I had bought with my own money. They weren’t much, but I picked them out special, and I was always so excited to give them my gifts that I couldn’t wait until Christmas morning to have them unwrap them. At some point, I would just be bursting inside with the excitement of giving those gifts and so I’d tell my mom and dad to open those gifts and they would want to wait until Christmas morning, but I couldn’t wait. Early on, they hadn’t learned yet, they wouldn’t open their gifts, and I couldn’t hold the secret in any longer, and I would excitedly shout out what their gift was.

 

But when Jesus was born, it was like the Father was so excited, like He had been anticipating this moment year after year, century after century, and millennium after millennium. It was like He couldn’t contain Himself. And He sends a whole sky full of angels who excitedly shouted out the secret that had been kept quiet for so long. God is a giver, not a taker.

 

What made the first Christmas so great was that God got to give his best gift of all, and He got to give the gift of a Savior to people who needed it the most…sinners. Do you know who those people are? Any guesses? That is the person sitting next to you right now…and the person sitting next to that person. It’s every one of us in this room, in this town, in this country, in this world. It’s the best gift the world has ever received.

 

So here is what I was thinking will make this the best Christmas ever…not how great this place is decorated, not how great the music is, not the stuff we get, not the food we eat, not the moments we create, not the feelings we experience. It is this…what if we were to get so filled up with the love of God that we were to become conduits of God’s blessing to other people around us, people who are under-resourced, people who are hurting, people who don’t have much hope, people who are lonely.

 

What if we were to notice, what if we were to get so filled up with the love of God that we were to actually see and pray for, and then help, and listen to, and then stop and be with, and give to people who have a need? What if we were to express record levels of compassion in actual, concrete, tangible, personal, and sometimes costly ways? What if we were to so love the world around us that we were to give to it the best that we have ever given to the people who need it the most? Well then, it would be the best Christmas ever. Then it would be the best Christmas and we can do that.

 

Here is the main point that I want to make in this talk this weekend. If you do this…if we do this…make this a Christmas of compassion, it will not just be good for people on the receiving end of compassion, it will also be good for you and for me. This is one of the most profound teachings of Jesus. Let’s read this together out loud. “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”

 

The key word here is the word ‘blessed.’ Jesus doesn’t just say it is better to give. He doesn’t just say you’re supposed to give. He doesn’t just say God wants you to give. He doesn’t just say it is morally superior to give. He says, “It is more blessed…” To be blessed means to be enriched, to be enhanced, to be given more life, more goodness, more joy. Jesus is saying it is a better way to live…to be a giver than to be a taker.

 

Two ways of going through life that Jesus is laying out, and I want us all to keep this very much in mind this season…two ways to go through this season. So we’ll do this just physically for a moment.

 

Everybody on this side, if you don’t mind…take your hands like this and just hold them palms up like this (hands horizontal – palms up. Okay. This is the posture of letting go, not holding on, not clutching, not grasping, not clinging…this is the life of givers. Keep them open like this for a couple of minutes, if you don’t mind.

 

Okay, now while you keep doing that… Everybody on this side, this is the taker side, so you all do this with your hands. Make a little fist. Now you keep holding that for a minute. This is a picture of hoarding, hanging on, gotta have it…Mine, mine, mine, mine, mine. Now, if you will, keep doing that.

 

Notice how this positions you relationally. This side, your hands are ready to communicate caring, and maybe you are next to somebody you love, so you want to take one of those open hands and put it on their shoulder right now or just pat them on the back or wrap it around them or give them a little squeeze on the arm, around the knee or something. Maybe you’re next to a real attractive stranger, and you’d like to… Don’t do that! Don’t do that!

 

This side, how are you positioned relationally? You take that fist, and you just punch somebody right in the face… Okay, you can let your hands go back normal now. Here is what Jesus says…it is more blessed to do this (giving) than to do this (receiving). It is a better way. There will be more goodness in your life. You’ll be more enriched. It is simply true.

 

I was reading this week a study for young people. Students in a high school that had below grade level reading ability, got assigned randomly to one of two groups. One of the groups helped tutor younger children, and the other group didn’t do anything. The later group didn’t do any volunteering, no serving. The students who were volunteering, serving, and giving, ended up being twelve times more likely to graduate from high school than the students in the non-serving control group.

 

Again, these students weren’t being helped, they were helping. High school students involved in volunteering are less likely to

v     drop out,

v     less likely to be involved in substance abuse,

v     less likely candidates for teenage pregnancy, more likely to graduate,

v     more likely to vote,

v     more likely to have a higher level of esteem,

v     and more likely to go on to college.

 

By the way, parents, one of the best ways you can give to your children is by making sure they have opportunities to serve somebody else because we all need that.

 

It is better to give than to receive, and that is true for people at the other end of the age spectrum. A study of older folks who were volunteering with school children

v     had a higher level of life satisfaction,

v     a higher level of mental health,

v     less illness,

v     less loneliness,

v     less depression,

v     and a lower mortality rate than those who did not serve.

 

If you serve, if you give your time and your heart, you are less likely to die early because you have purpose and goodness in your heart because you are making a difference in the world by giving of your time and talent.

 

At Christmas time, God gave. At Christmas time, God gave his best. At Christmas time, God gave the most compassion and mercy and he served more people than at any other time. God gave of himself.

 

So every point in the age spectrum, what Jesus says is just true…it is more blessed, it is better, it is more life-giving to give than to receive. So this Christmas, what if we individually set a record for compassion in Jesus’ name? We have been working hard, and we’ll keep doing that…as a church…to think of some ways that we can do this together so folks in our community can say, “Thank God there is a group of people who call themselves New Community.”

 

I’ll give you a picture of where the taker road leads to. Do you know how to catch a monkey? You get a jar with kind of a narrow opening like this one -this is called a monkey jar – and you attach a rope to it and then put something inside that the monkey wants…like a banana or something shiny like an iPhone…something like that. Then the monkey will come along and grab what is inside, but because he makes a fist around the object, he can’t get his fist out of the jar. And the monkey will be trapped…just stuck there, standing there, hour after hour.

 

You would think someone would come along and say, “Monkey, that banana is doing you no good. It isn’t even making you happy. You can’t benefit from it at all. If you keep clutching it, it means nothing but slavery…capture, the cage, death. If you let it go, then…freedom, joy, life, community with other monkeys. But the monkey can’t let it go.

 

Now…that’s the story. Apparently in real life, no monkey has ever actually been caught this way…monkeys aren’t that stupid. Monkeys aren’t that greedy. But here is what’s interesting…do you know what species it does work with?

 

A guy comes up to Jesus one time, very able person, rich young ruler, he is called, and he says, “Good teacher, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life. How do I know the blessed life, the good life? Been following all the rules. Leading a good, respectable, religious life.” Jesus says, “You know, one more thing…take your hand out of the monkey jar. Take all that stuff that your heart is all wrapped around that you’re just clutching onto and go from here to here. Sell that stuff off. Give it to people who really need it. Then…come on…and follow Me.

 

That man walks away from Jesus very sad because he would not take his hand out of

the monkey jar. He would be okay following Jesus as long as he could bring the monkey jar with him.

 

Another guy comes to Jesus one time, and this guy is kind of desperate. This guy is not particularly respectable. He is a tax collector. But he has a lot of stuff. He has his hand in the monkey jar. Jesus gives him the same message. His name is Zacchaeus, and a miracle happens. Because when a hand comes out of the monkey jar, it is always a miracle.

 

And Zacchaeus’ mind gets changed, and he starts to think about where the monkey jar has been getting him. His heart gets changed, and he begins to have empathy for what can happen if people who don’t have means should be helped by him, and he says, “Alright Jesus, I’m taking my hand out. All the people I have been kind of exploiting and using, I’m going to give them four times what I’ve taken from them, and I’m going to give half of everything I own.”

 

There are a lot of monkey jars. Those two guys get to the end of their lives – to the end of their paths…one of them had gone through life like this (hands in fists), one of them has been going through life like this (hands open)…which one do you think had regrets?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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v     Invite people to pray for the mission and ministry of New Community by signing up for Monday Moments

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o        What would you do if you could take one extra day off of work this week?

o        What was the message about? Was there anything that struck you, confused you or that you completely disagreed with?

o        What do you like to hoard, control or cling to the most?

o        Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? Why do we tend to hoard, control and cling to our resources? (Fear? (of what?)) This could go in a whole other direction about trusting God – go with it if the group takes it there.

o        With so many parties, decorating, baking, purchasing and people during the holidays, is it easy for you to be a giver during this time? What about other times of the year?

o        The gift that God gave at Christmas was costly and not deserved by any who received it, but was given out of a deep compassion and love. Are there people in your life that need to receive your love in the form of a costly gift? (Remember that we spend time as well as money)

o        Is there anyone in your life/community that needs a gift of time or money, but you have neglected to give it because they haven’t given you good gifts (mother, father, siblings, etc.) or because you don’t know them yet? (Compassion child, Kid’s hope child, prison inmate, etc)

o        How generous are you with your time and energy around your home? Your community?

o        Are you spending significant amounts of quality time with your spouse, your children (even if they’re not at home), or by doing your share or more of the everyday tasks of keeping the house

o        Remind people that they don’t have to share if the question makes them feel uncomfortable. Question to ponder (take a few minutes and let people think about this question: What percentage of your time do you give away? What about money? Why? Is this where you feel God calling you to give? What keeps you from going where God is calling you?

o        What do you need to do in order for this Christmas to be the best Christmas ever?