Preparing for Christmas

Have you put up your Christmas tree yet? Last night, a bunch of you guys gathered at my house after the college group’s ice-skating and I should have brought out the Christmas tree for you guys to decorate. To some people, Christmas season will not arrive until you have the Christmas trees up. According to that standard, the Christmas season officially started on the day after Thanksgiving, when all the shopping malls started displaying their Christmas decorations. To drive up sales, some stores even started Christmas decoration even earlier; when we came to Japan in early November, I was surprised to see Christmas displays in the mall, and then it dawned on me that they don’t have Thanksgivings, therefore merchants could start preparing for Christmas as early as they want to.

But businesses are not the only one preparing for Christmas, people do too. A good sign of preparedness is if you have your Christmas list ready by Thanksgiving. Then you could line up as early birds for after Thanksgiving sales and start buying presents for people on your list. You could line up as early as 3-4am, as soon as the doors open; you just zoom in for stuff on your list. Teamwork would help too: have one person line up for the cash register while everyone else get everything on their list and you can save tons of time waiting in line! And that just for the shopping for presents. The Christmas preparedness also including getting cards for everyone, making sure you have everyone addresses, making sure you send cards to people who sent you cards last year. Then arrangement for parties, avoiding all scheduling conflicts, coordinating all the food options, racking your brains and searching the net for the latest party games. And if you are on any kind of ministries, there are a bunch of other things you have to juggle between choir practices, outreach activities, and winter conferences. On top of that, let’s not forget that many of you are having finals a few days before Christmas too.

One of my friends captured the spirit of the season so well in this version of “Deck the Hall”:
Deck the Halls with silly nicnacs, fa la la la la la la la la!
Let us be commercial mimics, fa la la la la la la la la!
Join we now in shopping debit, fa la la la la la la la la!
Swipe the card and use our credit, fa la la la la la la la la la!
See the retail spending craze, fa la la la la la la la la!
Shop until you’re in a daze, fa la la la la la la la la!
Follow Santa and his deer, fa la la la la la la la la!
To get all your new gear, fa la la la la la la la la![i]

And so, this is why I don’t like Christmas too much. Last year, as I shared about my “problems” with Christmas, some of you were showing your “concern” for me. One person bought me this great book on “The Prayers of Christmas”, which is the bible study on every prayer in the Christmas stories. Another person was cheering me up to look beyond the consumerism as people prepare for the Christmas season. But the best thing so far for me to prepare for Christmas was to meditate on the Word following the lectionary calendar.

For those of you who are not familiar with the term, the lectionary calendar is a Bible reading schedule where you would cover 80% of the Bible over three years. The reading was arranged according to the Christian Holiday. The weeks leading up to Christmas are called the Advent season, where it helps us to focus on the coming of Christ. The weeks following Christmas are called the Epiphany season, where they help us to see the Light of God in the World. Similarly the weeks leading up to Easter are called the Lent season [… fill in later …]

So, as Christians prepared for Christmas, this is the recommended reading for this week, Matthew 3:1-12…
1In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the Desert of Judea 2and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." 3This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.' "4John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. 12His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

Let us pray, “…”

“1In those days John the Baptist came…” This looks like a strange text to be used for Christmas, especially when we know that “In those days” were not the days that lead to the birth of Jesus but the days which lead to the Baptism and ministry of Jesus. So why are people using this text in the Advent season? The answer is simple, so that we would remember that the Coming One during the next couple of weeks is Jesus the Christ and no one else.

Is it really necessary? After all, there was the word “Christ” right within the word “Christmas”; do we really need to be reminded? Yes we do. If you don’t believe me, just ask any kid this simple question, “Who is the Coming One during Christmas?” I bet the answer would be “Santa Claus”, just like the popular song they had memorized: “Santa Claus is coming to town!”[ii]

John the Baptist is a great reminder to prepare our hearts for Christmas. For he refuses to be diluted by the over commercialized Christmas season. Everything else has been diluted; but not John the Baptist. The world has turned angels into some sweet harmless creatures with wings; and the manger has been scrubbed and sterilized and pampered to the point that we all wish we were born in a manger, totally forgetting it is an animal's trough, stinky and cold and dirty.
The world has turned Saint Nicholas who ministered to poor kids into Santa Claus, a fluffy, cheerful jolly guy who give you everything your heart desired. But John the Baptist will not be tamed! You will never find him as an ornament on the Christmas tree. He’s a skinny guy, wearing hairy clothes with a leather belt. You will never see him at shopping mall with children sitting on his lap. Yet, his life was devoted to prepare people for the Coming One, and therefore we meditated about him during this Christmas season.[iii]

What can we learn from him about preparing for Christmas?

1. Don’t follow the crowd

As strange as the way he dress, John is also pretty strange in his approach to people. He has a message to proclaim, “"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near."” Yet he took the message and preached it “in the Desert of Judea”, where there’s not a lot of people. Apparently God was at work in his ministry, tons of people came to him: “5People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.” Then came the religious leaders, “many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing”. If I was John, I would be thrilled: “finally the revival is under way; the religious leaders are finally taking notices!” But John wasn’t thrilled, instead he slashed out against them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

Why was John slashing out against these people? The text gave us some hints here. John was preaching repentance; therefore when people came to him, they came to be “11baptized with water for repentance”, having “6Confessing their sins”. The religious leaders were coming there, but not to be baptized by John[iv]; they were just following the crowd to the right scene but not with the right reason!

There are tons of people who are just following the crowd and not having the right reason during the Christmas season. [Should I insert here the illustration about parents going crazy in getting what was trendy and hot toy like in the movie “Jingle All the Way”?] or [I have already talked about the madness of the consumerism of Christmas so I am not going to do that again, but] what about imitating the spirit of Christmas without having a right reason?

Do you notice that for a brief period of a few weeks, everyone was talking about peace on earth, about goodwill to all mankind? We reduced Christmas to a season for family and friends, a season of love, just like the popular children chorus, “Christmas is the time, Christmas is the time, Christmas is the time to love…” But is Christmas really about a time of charity, to love one another, to be generous to others?

With all the consumerism mentality out there during Christmas, where everyone screaming about “Me, Mine, and I”; reminding everyone that Christmas is a time of charity, to love one another, and to be generous to others seems to be an acceptable ideal and a noble alternative. But that would still be the wrong reason.

Christmas is not about us. It’s not even about other people. It’s all about Jesus![v]

I am not trying to be radical, or to rain on your parade here, I am just reminding all of us about Jesus being the main reason for the season here. Without realizing Jesus as God’s gift to humankind, we shouldn’t give gifts to one another. Without realizing that the original Christmas choirs were angels praising God on High for this Unprecedented Act, we shouldn’t even participate in the choir. And if there is no joy in the Lord, there’s no peace in His Spirit; then why should we bother decorate our lives with artificial happiness?

Doing all these things just because you were a church-goer wouldn’t be good enough. John the Baptist would slam all of our Christmas preparations without Christ in the same manner, “Produce fruit in keeping with your repentance. And don’t think that you can say to yourselves, ‘we have our church heritages and traditions; we have always celebrate Christmas this way.’ I tell you this, out of these pews God can raise up the people of His Church…”

So, the first thing we can learn from John the Baptist is we should not prepare for Christmas just because everybody else, even because the other Christians are doing it. But we should always keep in mind the right reason for the season. That Christmas is about Christ.

What else can we learn from John the Baptist about preparing for Christmas? Is the alternative of “don’t following the crowd” meant “be different from the crowd”? Will that be the right way?

Hey Christians, let us be counter-cultured! The world was so messed up so let us do everything opposite to them! Look at John the Baptist, he’s counter-cultured! He’s committed to environmental friendly products: eating insects and un-processed honey. He set his own fashion statement, making his own outfit out of camel hair and leather! He communed with nature and made his home in the dessert rather than the suburb! So, let us be counter-cultured and throw out the Christmas trees, get rid of the chestnuts over the open fire (get rid of family and friend gathering), let’s ban Santa and kill off Rudolph!

Nope! Being counter-cultured for counter-cultured sake is not the right response to Christmas either. Consider Tim Burton’s approach…
As a creative director, Tim Burton often works hard to make his movies different, counter-cultured, totally unlike anything people may be expected. One of his Christmas movies was “Edward Scissorhand”, a strange Christmas movie. Another one was “The Nightmare before Christmas”, where he attempted to fuse Halloween together with Christmas. Strange indeed, counter-cultured indeed, but nothing resemble the true spirit of Christmas.

The point is not following the crowd, but the point is not just being counter-cultured for counter-culture sake either. The point is:

2. Do follow the Word

John the Baptist wasn’t counter-cultured just to be cool and different. He was being different because he followed the Word of God. In last year Advent season, we studied about John the Baptist from Luke 3. From it, we learned that John was a man of the Word. Luke 3 verse 2 said that, “the word of God came to John.” Growing up as a Nazarite, a man with a mission from God, John immersed himself in the ancient and sacred Word of God. The Word of God penetrates all the areas of his life. That’s the cause of his distinctiveness, that’s the cause of his stance against the flow of culture.

[2a. In our different LIFE STYLE]

Let’s take his life style for example. Do you think John was just making a fashion statement with his strange clothing? Far from it. While John’s garment of camel’s hair and his leather belt were practical and durable, it’s certainly not for comfort or fashion. To his Jewish people who were familiar with the Old Testament, he wanted to symbolize the prophet Elijah, who was “a man with a garment of hair and with a leather belt around his waist.” [2 Kings 1:8]. His diet of locusts and wild honey was as symbolically as his clothing, nourishing perhaps, but little else, a dramatic reminder that worldly lusts and pleasures prevent people from following God’s will completely and humbly. John’s very dress, food, and lifestyle were a stern rebuke to the self-satisfied and self-indulgent religious leaders of Israel - the scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and priests. Both physically and symbolically he separated himself from the hypocritical and corrupt religious and political systems. He was so consumed by God’s calling that he was not attracted to the world’s enticements. His devotion to ministry completely superseded any personal interests and comforts.[vi]

As we look at John life style, let’s ask ourselves if we are different in our life style? Not different for the sake of just being different. But different because the Word had saturated so much in us that it started to saturated through us. People are drawn to John because that he was different than them. They spent their life style in sins, his life style displayed Godliness. Similarly, Jesus was total different that us in His Perfection and Purity, and He attracted sinners wherever He went.

Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones pointed out, “Our Lord attracted sinners because He was different. They drew near to Him because they felt that there was something different about Him.… And the world always expects us to be different. This idea that you are going to win people to the Christian faith by showing them that after all you are remarkably like them, is theologically and psychologically a profound blunder.”[vii]

Not only we need to follow the Word of God and be different in our life style, when we preparing our hearts for Christmas, we also need to follow the Word of God in our forward OUTLOOK as well.

[2b. In our forward OUTLOOK]

Grounded in the Word of God, John the Baptist was able to see Jesus through the lens of the revelation of God. John lived out the life of the forerunner of the Coming Messiah, whom God was describing through the writing of prophet Isaiah 700 years before Jesus time: “A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'” John the Baptist quoted Isaiah and lived Isaiah. Let us get familiar a bit with Isaiah the prophet. He was no doubt the biggest prophet in the Old Testament. His prophecy writing was very important in the Bible, it was quoted at least 400 times by the New Testament writers[viii], mainly about Jesus Christ. Around Christmas, you will hear a lot of quotes from Isaiah. Here are a few samples… Isa.40 “1Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. 2 Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned: for she hath received of the LORD’S hand double for all her sins”; Isa.9:2 “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined”; Isa.7:14 “Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel”; Isa.9“6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace”.[ix]

We need to prepare for Christmas in seeing Jesus the way Isaiah saw: Not just a baby Jesus, but as Jesus the Lord.

To some people, Jesus was just a cute baby born two thousand years ago, who was crucified horribly by people at the time. No more, no less.

But to some others, Jesus is the living Lord, who resurrected triumphant from death, and who forgave their sins and granted them eternal life. They call Him their personal Lord and Savior, and they devoted themselves to Him, yielding controls of every area of their lives to Him, and to live according to His will.

And to still many others, Jesus is not only the Lord of their personal world, but also the Lord of this universal Lord. And to that end, they labor tirelessly to bring the world back to its rightful owner. As they sing “this is my Father’s world”, they work to push back poverty and injustice; they heal the sick and evangelize the lost; they take care of the earth and God’s environment. They serve the Lord so that His Kingdom come, His Will be done on earth as well as in heaven.

Which one was your perspective of Jesus? As we prepare for Christmas, let’s have the outlook that Isaiah and John the Baptist had. As we look back to Jesus last coming, let’s also look forward to His next coming. As we look at Jesus who was in the manger, let us making sure that He was also in our heart!

Finally, as we prepare ourselves for Christmas, let us also follow the Word…

2c. In our constant REPENTANCE

John the Baptist’s main message was about repentance. Contrary to our misconception, the word “repentance” in the original language didn’t make any big deal about feeling sorry about our wrong doing. Instead it simply denotes the change of the mind and the action. It’s about a U-turn when you realize you were driving in a wrong direction.

People came to John, confessing their sins. They realized that they were wrong according to God’s Word. The changed their mind in regard to sin. John then also reminded them to bear fruit in accordance to that change of mind. Repentance need to be expressed not only in word, but in deed.

In preparing for the Coming One, we will also commit ourselves to constant repentance, constant renewal. We come into contact with the Word of God regularly; as His Word examined our lives and our conducts, God will point out to us areas where we need to repent: change our mind and start following what He taught us.

So in this Advent season, let us also prepare for His Coming by meditate on the Word, and change our mind to follow Him.

3. Conclusions

What is it today that God want you to change your mind about? Perhaps it was your celebration of the Holiday season without the Holy Day’s Reason? Perhaps it was your attitude of being radical different for any other reason rather than because you are being grounded in the Word of God? Perhaps it was your life style, which was identical to the world around you? Or was it your limited vision, seeing Jesus as just a baby, or a personal savior, but not as the Lord of your world? Today, the Word of God calling you to change your mind and change your act accordingly. John said that Jesus will “baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire”. Everyone will be baptized, some into the Grace of a life with His Presence of the Holy Spirit, some with the eternal fire of judgment[x]. The choice is yours to make. Let’s prepare for His Coming.