C081 12/23/56
© Project Winsome International, 1999
Download this Teaching
KEEPING CHRISTMAS
Dr. John Allan Lavender
Luke 2:8-14
I'm glad Christmas comes in December.
When the gaunt and naked trees look like spider webs against the dull, gray
sky.
When the wind is cold and the nights are chilled.
When the ground is either stone hard from a heavy freeze or mud soft from a
sudden thaw.
I'm glad Christmas comes in December.
When the streets are apt to be banana-peel slick from a thin film of ice.
When the hedges which hem that little plot of land we call our own stand skinny
and forlorn, huddled together like a bunch of frightened storks who have suddenly
lost their feathers and are trying to keep warm.
I'm glad Christmas comes in December.
When the wet of winter puts its telltale mark on the bottom of your trousers
and leaves a ragged, white ring on your shoes where once there was a semblance
of a shine.
When the restless wind sets up its lonely howl and even the sound of banging
shutters and moaning trees sends a shiver up your spine.
I'm glad Christmas comes in December.
When the lupin and the daffodils, the gladioli and the calla lilies lay limp
and cold, devoid of all their color and the world about seems dead or dying.
I'm glad it's then that Christmas comes.
When the atmosphere is grim and gray.
How wonderful, then, to hear the happy strains of a Christmas carol as
the frosty December stars seem to join in singing
"Joy to the world, the Lord is come."
I think God planned it this way. I think God gave us Christmas in December so
we would know Christmas is not a season, but a spirit. A season which does not
depend upon --
The rise and fall of the barometer.
The direction of the winds.
The set of the thermometer.
The degree of humidity in the air.
For the fact of the matter is that when the elements have done their worst and
shown the ugly side of their nature, it is then that Christmas
descends upon us.
Christmas puts a new cast on winter.
Sometimes it makes it seem less wicked. There is a fresh, new fragrance in the
air. The very same snow which we had cursed a week ago because it clogged the
streets and disrupted traffic, now seems to crown the earth with a halo of white
and we bless God for it.
Even the wind seems to act like a school boy, kicking up flurries of snow in
its path, with a wave of its magical wand Christmas gives a mystical touch to
winter and makes it beautiful.
Yes, I'm glad Christmas comes in December. When life is hard.
If it had come in May when the flowers are blooming and the grass is green and
the trees are bursting with new leaves,
or in October when the woods are a fairy land of reds, yellows and browns and
Indian Summer brings its fresh supply of exuberance,
if Christmas had come at any other time of the year, how easy it would be to
say,
"This just won't last. This wonderful feeling. This wonderful spirit of good
will toward men. It's all a product of the season. The sky is blue. The sun
is warm. The trees are green. The flowers are fragrant. That's why we feel this
way. That's why it's Christmas."
But you see, Christmas doesn't come in spring or fall.
It comes in winter, the hardest period, the hardest time of the year.
It takes the bitter and makes it sweet.
It takes the hard and makes it easy.
It takes the cold and, in a way we can't explain, makes it warm and wonderful.
Because it can do that to December, we know it can also to something good in
March, July and September.
Because it is a spirit, and not a season, we seem to know that if we try, if
we really try, we can go on Keeping Christmas the whole year through.
The other day, Susie Thayer dropped by the office with a wonderful quotation
from Henry Van Dyke who once said:
"It's a good thing to observe Christmas day, but there is a better thing than
the observance of Christmas day, and that is keeping Christmas."
In the little paragraph which Mrs. Thayer so thoughtfully brought by, Van Dyke
goes on to say:
"Are you willing to stoop down and consider the needs and
desires of little children?
To remember the weakness, the loneliness of people who
are growing old:
To stop asking how much your friends love you and ask
yourself whether you love them enough;
To bear in mind the things that other people have to bear
in their hearts;
To try to understand what those who live in the same house with you
really want, without waiting for them to tell you,
To trim your lamp so it will give more light and less smoke,
And to carry it in front so that your shadow will fall behind you;
To make a grave for your ugly thoughts and a garden
for your kindly feelings.
With the gate open. Are you willing to do these things,
even for a day?
Then you can keep Christmas.
"Are you willing to believe that love is the strongest
thing in the world?
Stronger than hate, stronger than evil, stronger than
death?
And that the blessed life which began in Bethlehem 1900
years ago is the image and brightness of eternal love?
Then you can keep Christmas.
And, if you keep it for a day, why not always?
But you can never keep it alone."
Mr. Van Dyke says some powerful things in that brief paragraph, but none so
poignant as that last line, "You can
never keep it alone."
The first Christmas was a sharing experience in which God gave His son.
Ever since, the only thing people have kept, is what they give away.
If we want to keep Christmas, we, too, must be willing to give ourselves away.
"Giving is living," the angel said,
"Go feed to the poor sweet charity's bread."
"And must I keep giving and giving again?"
My selfish and questioning answer ran.
"Oh no," said the angel, his eyes pierced me through.
"Just give 'till the Master stops giving to you."
This week I heard, quite by accident, how a fine friend of our church caught
the spirit of giving which makes "Keeping Christmas" possible. His employees
had collected a sum of money to purchase him a Christmas present. When he heard
of it, he called them together and said,
"I don't really need anything. I tell you what we'll do. You go ahead with your
collection. I'll match what you give. We'll put it together and buy some toys
for little tots who otherwise won't have a Christmas."
The result of that conversation was over $200 worth of wonderful, shiny, brand
new toys. Great big panda bears, dozens of beautiful baby dolls for little girls
and stacks of airplanes and car kits for little boys. Half of those toys went
to an orphanage up on the north side. The other half came to our church, and
through our church, to needy families at our American Baptist South Chicago
Neighborhood House. This Christmas morning, there will be scores of happy children
who, with radiant faces and joy-filled voices, will be able to laugh and sing,
because one man caught the real spirit of Christmas.
But the real miracle is this. By a peculiar twist of divine economics, the man
who gave his Christmas present to others is the most richly blessed of all.
He has discovered that "Giving is living." So he will go on "Keeping Christmas"
n his heart long after December 25th is past and gone.
That same spirit of giving is what makes our Outdoor Christmas Pageant something
to remember. All week long the telephone has been ringing. People have stopped
by the office. One lady even wrote a note. All of them thanking us for the Christmas
present.
No one really knows how many people gave how much of their time and energy to
make this Christmas gift to our community possible. Hours and hours were spent
in
building sets,
making costumes,
arranging electrical fixtures,
cutting tapes,
rehearsing parts,
and this past week folks gave two, three, four, some even six nights so Morgan
Park and the surrounding communities could know that Jesus
is the reason for the season! That the coming of Christ
is the true core of Christmas.
They were just as busy as everybody else at this time of the year. But somehow
or other, they managed to fit it in. As a result, throughout the days and months
of 1957, those people are going to go on "Keeping Christmas."
Because they sacrificed once, it will be easier to sacrifice again.
Because they tasted the sweet nectar of giving, they will not be content until
they drink deeply of that cup again.
Because they have given self, out of love for Christ and others, they will have
learned to pray with Grace Bush,
"Lord, let me keep a Christmas heart,
That hears and sees another's need,
And strives each day to follow Thee,
In word and deed!
"Lord, let me keep a Christmas heart,
To light with joy the children's eyes,
And know the Christ child. Though He come
in humble guise.
"So may I keep Thy birthday, Lord!
In all I say, in all I do!
A Christmas heart of faith and love
The whole year through!"
If I could have one wish for our church I could not wish for more than we learn
the secret of "Keeping Christmas" the whole year through.
It was not a preacher, but a plumber, who once made this significant remark:
"What is blocking God's plan for a better world is not the gross sin of what
we call the underworld, with its bootleggers and narcotic rings, but rather
something wrong in the spirit of religious people. The gravest menace to society
is not a gunman, not the gangsters in the movies, but the unspiritual church."
To that criticism, we should couple a statement made by Reinhold Niebuhr when
he said
"all too often the church is an institution designed to make selfish people
think they are unselfish."
Does that sound too harsh? Too hard? Well, the sad fact of the matter is we
do not really keep the spirit of Christmas alive the other 364 days of the year.
Our Christmas cards are a good illustration of that. We are very careful to
make sure we send a card to everyone who sends one to us, but how often during
the months of January to November do we take the time to send a little word
of cheer or warmth or encouragement or comfort to someone in need?
How often do we pay the slightest attention to an announcement printed in the
Advance, or made from the pulpit, suggesting we send a get well card to someone
in the hospital? Or a note of Christian condolence to someone who has lost a
loved one?
We send gifts and greetings at Christmas time because a little bit of the meaning
of Christ's birth rubs off on us. I wonder what would happen if the spirit of
Christmas really invaded us this year. Why, it would mean a revolution. A permanent
change. The spirit of giving would go on day by day, and not just at this special
season. Throughout the entire year
--
We would find hurt feelings could be healed through the forgiveness of Christian
love. The kind of love we show at Christmas time.
We would find strained relationships could be improved through the touch of
kindly words. The kind of words we speak at Christmas time.
We would find whole areas of our personal, community, national and international
life could be changed for the better through the exercise of a Christian conscience
and the use of Christian deeds. The kind of conscience and deeds we show at
Christmas time.
In this nuclear age in which we live, I don't think our world can long survive
if we continue to be content to keep Christmas in December only. The good of
Christmas must be kept all year. The same humility, kindness, meekness and love
which surrounds this season must become evident in our hearts and lives from
January to November, too. As Peter Marshall puts it,
"In a world that is not only changing, but even seems to be dissolving, there
remains one way to peace. It is the only way. Untried, untested and largely
unexplored. It is the way of Him who was born a babe in Bethlehem."
That's my Christmas wish for you. That you will give yourself a gift which no
amount of money can buy.
A gift so powerful nothing in all this world can keep you from possessing it,
except your own unwillingness.
A gift which will fill your days with the glory and brightness which lights
this holy season.
A gift of faith and hope and selflessness which will enable you to keep on "Keeping
Christmas" the whole year through.
When Marjorie Davis Rowel was in our church a few Sunday evenings ago, she read
a beautiful poem entitled The Christmas
Spirit. It meant so much to me I asked her for a copy and she graciously
sent me one. I'd like to conclude my Christmas message by passing it on to you.
Wouldn't life be worth the living and this old world seem like new,
If we'd keep the spirit of Christmas every day the whole year through?
There's be fewer then of heartaches, fewer still of blinding tears,
There'd be less of misunderstanding, down the road to after-years.
Why should Christmas smiles be brighter than they are at other times?
Why should we be more forgiving to the tune of Christmas chimes?
Why put all our deeds of kindness on a tinseled Christmas tree?
Do we give for love of giving, or just for the world to see?
You have smiles that cost you nothing, pass them out along the street.
You have words to praise, encourage, have they all grown obsolete?
Life is brighter, work is lighter, friends seem at our beck and call,
When we make believe it's Christmas, all the summer, spring and fall:
So remember, while December brings the only Christmas day,
Every day let there be Christmas in the things we do and say.
Wouldn't life be worth the living, wouldn't dreams be coming true,
If we'd keep the Christmas spirit all the year through?
Download this
Teaching