12/24/09 - Christmas Eve - Luke 1:35

THE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT IS ALL ABOUT GIVING

I was watching a cartoon with my kids the other day and one of the characters who is usually a little mean and inconsiderate to others decided to give something back instead of take something away. And when he showed that kind of generous attitude another character standing next to him said, “That’s the Christmas spirit!” “The Christmas spirit” - we’re all familiar with that phrase because it’s used so often during this time of the year. And as far as our culture is concerned, “the Christmas spirit” is all about giving, isn’t it? It is almost an unspoken rule that this is the season in which people are supposed to be more helpful and more patient and more forgiving and more generous than they usually are. Even those who wouldn’t necessarily call themselves Christians are swept up by this cultural mindset. Charities understand this concept very well. Most charitable organizations in this country, religious or secular, bank on the fact that they will take in more than half of their annual donations during the last three months of the year - because this is the time when people feel like giving the most. That’s why the Salvation Army places their bell ringers in front of every store during the Christmas season. That’s why you get letters from all those organizations asking for your contributions during the month of December. They are all hoping that you are affected with “the Christmas spirit” - they are hoping that you have been moved to give.
The Christmas Spirit is all about giving. But as we have already seen in our worship service tonight, we aren’t talking about a loving attitude or a generous mindset or a warm and fuzzy mood that this special time of year puts you in; when we refer to the “Christmas Spirit” we’re talking about the Spirit with a capital “S” - the Holy Spirit. This “Christmas Spirit” is all about giving because two thousands years ago in a non-descript barn on the edge of a little Judean town called Bethlehem the Holy Spirit gave us the gift of Christ. Now we normally don’t think of the Holy Spirit giving us anything at Christmas, but remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” The Holy Spirit was all about giving on that very first Christmas. He didn’t ask Mary to do anything; he simply gave her a son. And he doesn’t ask us to do anything either. He gives us the same gift he gave to Mary: he gives us our Savior. And it’s the best Christmas present we have ever received.
Of course, we never get anything different from the Holy Spirit each year. The gift doesn’t change. We know that the Holy Spirit will offer us the same thing as he did last year and he’s going to wrap up the same gift for years to come! And because the gift of Christ never changes, Jesus’ birth has the tendency to lose a little bit of its sparkle over time. It’s not quite as exciting after a while when you know it’s coming. It’s not quite as breath-taking as it once was. It’s… it’s just the same. It’s just another year. It’s just another Scripture lesson from the book of Luke about Caesar Augustus and the census and Mary & Joseph and the trip to Bethlehem and the angels and the shepherds... It’s what we’ve known our entire lives. It’s not all that special anymore.
“Oh, but I love Christmas!” you might be saying to yourself. “I would never treat it as something normal or boring! I always look forward to this time of year! Christmas is very special to me!” But what is it exactly that you look forward to during Christmas? I would imagine you enjoy this time of year because of the great music you are able to listen to or the chance to spend time with some family members or the special food that is prepared or the decorations or the shopping sales or the gift giving… And those things are certainly nice blessings that the Lord has supplied for us during this festive season. But if all of those things were taken away, if you happened to be in a place without the music and without the family and without the decorations and without the food, would a Christmas like that still be as special to you as it is now? You would still have the gift, of course, the greatest gift the Holy Spirit has ever given to this world, and you would still have the opportunity to thank and praise him for that gift, but you wouldn’t have any of the “extras”. And I would guess that a Christmas without the extras wouldn’t be as enjoyable to you. I know that it wouldn’t be as enjoyable for me. Because I like those extra things. Those things are what make Christmas “Christmas”! And that is what’s so unfortunate: we are so used to enjoying the other blessings of the Christmas season that Christ’s birth isn’t really enough anymore. Christ’s birth is still the reason for the holiday, of course - none of us would dispute that - but Christ’s birth isn’t always the reason why we like Christmas so much.
My grandmother on my mom’s side always sends us really nice Christmas cards each year. They are multi-page greeting cards that always contain ornate pictures or beautiful paintings of Christ’s birth. This year, like every year, one of the pages had a large section of the Christmas story from Luke chapter two on it. But I didn’t read it. I didn’t bother reading the story about the shepherds and the angels and the baby Jesus in the manger. Why should I? I know the story! I know what happens! I could probably recite it from memory! And so why should I spend time reading it again when I’ve got other mail to sort through and other business to take care of? Why should I read it again? And why should you? Because there is nothing better than this gift. There is nothing more important than this baby. There is nothing else that really matters - at Christmas time or at any other time of the year.
I just have to be reminded about that sometimes. I’m sure we all do. And the best way to be reminded about the importance of the gift of Christ is to be reminded by the Holy Spirit himself through the Word of God. Listen again to the angel Gabriel speaking some very important words to Mary many years ago, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” What an incredible miracle that was! A young woman who had yet to sleep with any man was impregnated by the Holy Spirit himself! The Holy Spirit somehow came upon her, the angel Gabriel explained. The Almighty Lord miraculously overshadowed her with his power like a cloud coming down over a mountain so that her baby would actually be the holy Son of God the Father! What an astounding, incomprehensible gift that is! And yes, you know it all about it, you’ve heard it before, and you’ll hear it again. But it’s still amazing, isn’t it? It’s still mind-blowing that the same God who formed you in the womb of your mother would himself be formed in the womb of a woman. That a God whom this vast universe cannot contain was contained in certain respects in the flesh and bones of a human baby. Don’t let the impressiveness of this event wear off just because you’ve heard it before! And don’t underestimate how important this gift from the Holy Spirit really is! Because the gift of Christ that the Holy Spirit gave us on that Christmas day in Bethlehem was a gift that we could never afford on our own.
You will probably receive any number of different Christmas presents this year. Some of them will be small gifts and some of them will be a little bigger. But no matter how expensive a present is, you would probably be able to afford it yourself if you really wanted to. Rarely, after you get beyond your childhood years, do you ever receive a gift that you could not afford on your own - a gift so valuable that it is well beyond your means of income, a gift you would not be able to obtain if you had not received it as a present. Those kinds of gifts come around once-in-a-lifetime, if ever.
But this is exactly the kind of gift the Holy Spirit has given you in the birth of Christ. It is a once-in-a-lifetime kind of gift because you wouldn’t be able to afford it on your own. You wouldn’t have the ability to buy it with your own money. You wouldn’t be able to work it off, save up for it, or acquire it in any other way. This gift is well beyond your means of income and it is certainly well beyond mine because the gift of Christ’s birth is our salvation. And you well know that our salvation is something that we cannot contribute to in any way.
Now, we weren’t technically saved from our sins by Christ’s birth, of course, but our salvation was as good as done on that very first Christmas. Because the only reason Christ was born into this world was so that he could one day die for this world. And once he was born there was nothing that was going to stop him from carrying out his Father’s will. No enemy, no king, no devil, no temptation, not even death itself was going to keep Jesus from what he set out to do. He was going to die and his death was going to win forgiveness for every human being who would ever live on this earth. That was the plan. That had always been the plan before God created this world and so that was what was going to happen. There was no doubt about it. And so when the Holy Spirit graciously gave us the gift of Christ on that night in Judea, our salvation was secure.
It’s a good thing that the Christmas Spirit was all about giving. He loves to give. And it wasn’t just a one time deal, he keeps on giving. Even if no one cares about his gifts. Even if we don’t appreciate his gifts as much as we should. He just keeps on giving. He gave us the gift of Christ generations ago and worlds away. He gave us the gift of faith to believe in that Savior. And he keeps giving us opportunities now to see this Christ and to hear this Christ and to rely on this Christ every day. The Christmas Spirit is all about giving. And he will never stop. Make sure to thank him tonight for deciding to give these gifts to you. And this year, open up that present with a little excitement and enthusiasm. Because although you know what the gift is going to be, you’ll never receive anything better.
Amen.