Pastor Dan Eddy
Matthew 2:13-23
Christmas
Hangover
12-26-10
Christmas Grace,
yuletide Mercy, and holiday Peace be yours from God our Father and from our
Lord and Savior, the Christ Child, Jesus Christ. Amen,
The text for our
sermon meditation comes from our Gospel reading from Matthew 2:13-23.
In Christ’s name
dear friends.
I.
Introduction….Christmas doesn’t always
turn out as expected
In the movie, The
Christmas Story nine-year-old Ralphie Parker wants only one thing for
Christmas: "an official Red Ryder
carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle with a compass in the
stock."
Ralphie had been
asking, scheming, doing whatever he could to get it. He asked his parents; he
wrote an essay for school explaining why we needed one; he asked Santa Clause…all
responded in the same way: he can’t have one because he’ll shoot his eye out.
Now it’s Christmas
morning and the family is opening up their myriad of presents. It appeared, at
first, that Ralphie wasn’t getting his Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range
model air rifle…but then behind the tree was the very thing he asked for…we
pick it up from there:
(Play clip from 1:22:00 to 1:26:40)
Synopsis from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085334/synopsis
Ralphie finally gets the BB gun from his dad and
accidently fires a "bullet" at himself, thus injuring his cheek. He
tells his mother it was an icicle. Believing him, she helps him keep the injury
from getting infected. Meanwhile, their neighbors' dogs get into the kitchen,
ruining their dinner.
Was this what
your Christmas was like? Incidentally, the family went out for duck at a Chinese
restaurant. This clip shows that despite our best efforts…Christmas does not
turn out the way we always want it to. Oh, it starts off good with high
expectations, anticipating the joy of the day whether you’re a turkey junkie or
BB gun shooter. But somewhere along the line our expectations get dashed and we
end up getting overdosed or hungover on the “joy” of the holiday. It ends up
being like a sugar high. It feels really good at the time but the headache is
terrible when it’s all done.
II.
Christmas joy prepares us for the great
challenges the day after
And then…how did
Jean Shepherd, the narrator say it? “Sometimes
at the height of our revelries…when our joy is at its zenith…when all is most
right with the world…the most unthinkable disasters descend upon us.”
To a certain
degree Joseph and Mary faced this sometime after this glorious birth of the
Christ child with all the angels singing and shepherds watching, and the Magi
visiting…they had to face the reality that there were enemies of God and those
enemies were after them. Now we don’t know when the Magi showed up. I hate to
disappoint you but it wasn’t at the manger. Matthew said the Mary, Joseph, and
Jesus were living in a house. So the Magi may have arrived a few days, a few
months. or maybe even a year or so later.
King Herod was
jealous of the biblically predicted Messiah, and in his being duped by Magi
because of God. He thought he’d do something about it…no Son of God was going
to out-shine him for power.
So from Mary and
Joseph’s perspective, perhaps the gift of Christmas didn’t live up to their
expectations. Maybe they thought “Hey,
He’s the Son of God…nobody should be able to come after Him and take His life.
Why would we face danger?”
Satan tries to
ruin our Christmas celebration.
While we may not
face something as awful as threats to our own children’s lives…the reality of
life still sets in…the day after Christmas: Credit card bills, on-going health
problems, adding weight, underlying family problems, unresolved issues at work,
economic uncertainties, an unsure futures…all the joy we had yesterday quickly
evaporates today…the day after Christmas. All we are left is with a hangover…and
we think we don’t have a lot to hold onto of lasting value.
When it comes to
remember Christmas, we can get focused on the wrong things.
Yet it is facing
the after-Christmas challenge that helps us to appreciate what we get at
Christmas a lot more than all the trappings and trimmings of the season. And I think that was true for Mary and
Joseph. Because of after-Christmas experience…they appreciated more in their
lives and the life of the Messiah…as they were escaping for their lives.
That’s when our
greatest triumph comes when we’re able to handle adversity whether it’s small
or large, because we have embraced by faith in Christ the true meaning of
Christmas. And the true meaning of Christmas is God taking the evil in the
world and using it to our best advantage. Yes you heard me right…taking the
evil of the world and using it to your best advantage.
Take Mary and
Joseph…the inconvenience and danger of moving to Egypt served the purpose of
fulfilling prophecy…so today we have yet more proof that Jesus was more than a
human, we was God incarnate. That helped to solidify for Mary and Joseph that
was this was more than a child miraculously conceived…that child as Simeon, the
temple priest, said in Luke 2 was destined to do more…causing the proud to fall
and the humble to rise….to bring down sin….and lift up sinners. To break
Satan’s deadly hold on God’s Creation and restore it for you by Jesus’
suffering, death, and resurrection. To bring down worldly empires and lift up
the nation of Church for you. That’s something no other
Christmas gift, including a Red Ryder BB Gun can offer.
And the gift of
salvation is not something that is given to us in the future…it’s a gift that
helps us through “The day after
Christmas challenges” of today.
That’s how we stay
focused on Christmas, because we stay focused on Jesus. And let me share how
that’s played out in someone else’s life in order to help you with your own.
How many of you
remember Josh and Juliet Palmer when they attended Christ Lutheran in the fall
of 2008? They moved here from
They moved back to
be closer to their families. The twins were born healthy. They have since had
another child…and Josh, with his wife and six children, are now at Concordia
Seminary at
III.
Conclusion…we spread the Christmas message
to other all year long
We have a message
to share…that God’s power through the Christ Child is real…more real and more
powerful than the START Treaty, ratified by the U.S. Senate this past week.
More power than any military force, including our own. More powerful than any
atomic weapon. Christ’s power can stand up to the worst diseases and greatest
disasters. It’s more powerful than anything in this world…because it’s not of this world, but is given to this world…through a little baby boy
who would grow up to be the most powerful human ever.
How does Paul
describe this in Romans 8:38-39 NIV?
“For I am
convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither
the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor
anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God
that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Because God is with us in Christ Jesus.
God’s blessings
as we can live Christmas message everyday, spreading its true and power value to
others all year long. Amen.