(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Talking About Jesus at Noel, 1”, originally shared on December 13, 2021. It was the 172nd video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
Christmas is coming. The first Noel. What
does “noel” mean, and what does it have to do with talking about Jesus?
Anything? Today, we’re going to find out.
Christmas is coming. We will be talking about it with our family, our
friends, our coworkers, and strangers out shopping in the holiday rush.
We are comfortable talking about what we’re
going be doing for Christmas: “Are you going to be with family?” “Are you
having anyone over?” “Are you cooking” “Is your shopping done?” “Are you
sending cards?” “Are you stressed?”
But, for many of us, it’s as much as we can
do to tell people who we don’t know really, really well, and with whom we have
our faith in common, that we’re going to church. And sometimes not even that.
Christmas, though, is one of the two times
of the year, along with Easter, when it’s the easiest to invite people to come
to your church.
The church will be decorated, and the
decorations will be familiar. The choirs will be singing, there may be a band,
and there might even be special music. The pews or chairs will be as full as
they get throughout the year. The songs will be ones that many people already
know, and the service will be user-friendly. There is much to enjoy for
everyone, and little that is expected. And, well, it’s a tradition
Most people are comfortable inviting other
people to “come to my church”, or “come listen to our music”, or “come hear our
pastor” at Christmas.
But it’s hard to talk about Jesus, the
reason for the whole production. It’s hard to talk about our faith and what it
means to us in our daily lives, especially outside of the church.
People
will hear the story of Jesus, of the little baby, the young parents, the long
journey, the poverty and rejection from the very beginning, the star, the
wisemen, the angels, and the shepherds.
Oh, Jesus will be the subject of the worship
service. But will Jesus be the object of it?
There will be empathy, but will there be
worship?
Will there be any discussion of Jesus, other
than as the subject of the night’s spiritual entertainment?
“Noel” is a word that means “Christmas”. It
came into the English language from the French and into the French language
from the Latin word, “natalis”.
“Natalis” is where our word “natal” comes
from. Your “natal day” is your birthday. “Pre-natal vitamins are the
ones you take before you give birth.
“Natalis” according to mirriam-webster.com can mean "birthday" as a noun or
"of or relating to birth" as an adjective.
Christmas is a day in which we talk about
the birth of Jesus. An historical event. But it becomes a contemporary event
when someone receives the gift that is Jesus and becomes a new Creation.
That is, when they are born again.
The first noel wasn’t the last noel. People
become Christians today through the work of God in an unbroken string of
witnesses for the past 2,000 years.
There was no room for Jesus at the Inn. Will
there be room in people’s hearts this Christmas? In whom will Jesus be born
through the work of God at Christmas this year? Who will be God’s witnesses of
what God has done for them through the living relationship with the one true
living God that is faith? Who will invite people to know Jesus?
Will we talk about Jesus in a way that leads
a visitor at Christmas worship to repentance, to a living relationship with the
one true living God, and to a transformed life?
Visitors may catch the message, but will
they hold on to it? Will they be encouraged to take it into their hearts?
Will there be a message that goes beyond the
spectacle, the religious language, and the traditions that will present an
invitation for changed lives?
Someone will need to tell the story, name
the name of Jesus, and raise the possibility of new life for all who believe
and live in response to God’s gift of faith.
It’s not easy.
Our culture resists such talk. Our
post-Enlightenment world wants reason. Our Modern world rejects absolute truth
but wants social organizations. Our post-Modern world wants social services and
tolerance for all beliefs. Our post-post-Modern world values feelings above all
else and rejects any hurt feelings.
Our social contract, the one that tolerates
actual Christianity under certain terms, rejects divisiveness. Like the early
Christians in the Roman empire, we can believe anything we want, as long as we
believe that everybody else’s beliefs are just as valid as our own. As a
result, no one can have valid beliefs.
Try bringing up the name “Jesus” in a
positive way in relation to Christmas this week with anyone you know outside of
the Christian community. Sometimes even within the Christian community! People
don’t know how to respond, except in the context of the negative associations
with the Christian church that they hear and see in popular media and in the
news. And most of that is based on an incredible ignorance of what the actual
Christian church is about.
For a culture that is increasingly
“spiritual, but not religious”, our spiritual IQ is plummeting into mere
self-glorification. Christianity sounds increasingly bizarre to a culture that
is ignorant of its values. That makes it difficult to talk about Jesus, who
says things like, in
Matthew 16:24-26,
24 Then Jesus told
his disciples, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves
and take up their cross and follow me. 25 For those
who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my
sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit them
if they gain the whole world but forfeit their life? Or what will they give in
return for their life?
Or, in Matthew 7:13-14,
13 “Enter through
the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to
destruction, and there are many who take it. 14 For
the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few
who find it.
For Christians, those kinds of things are
not restrictive, but point us to our need for a Savior in Jesus Christ.
G.K. Chesterton the English writer,
philosopher, art critic, and lay theologian once said, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and
found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
The Good News of Jesus Christ also says, in John 10:10-11,
10 The thief comes
only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it
abundantly. 11 “I am the good
shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
And, in Matthew 11:28-30,
28 “Come to me, all
you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you
rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me;
for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your
souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light.”
Will people hear the whole story of Jesus at
Christmas and be invited to receive the transformed life he calls us to live?
Part of the challenge in talking about Jesus
at Christmas is that people with a passing interest in the Christmas story stop
with empathy for the holy family. They only hear the “What?” part of the story,
and they stop without being challenged by the meaning of it. They miss the
“Why” of the story.
One of my favorite Christmas stories
happened when I was serving a church in San Dimas. We had an excellent
pre-school and one day one of the pre-school moms stopped by my office to ask
if I had a minute to hear a story.
She said that a friend of hers had invited
her family to attend the Christmas-eve midnight mass at a Roman Catholic church
and school in a nearby town. The church was full and there were a lot of
children.
Just before the sermon the affable local
priest invited the children to come forward for the children’s sermon and her
son, a student in our pre-school, went forward.
The priest gathered the 20 or so small
children around him and asked if they knew what they were celebrating.
“Christmas!” they all said,
“And who can tell me what happened at
Christmas?” About half of the children volunteered, “Jesus was born!”
“That’s right”, the priest said. “And who
can tell me where Jesus was before he was born?” Some fewer children said, “In
heaven.”
“That’s right,” said the priest. “Heaven
must be a terrible place for Jesus to want to come here.” “No,” even fewer
children said. “Heaven is a wonderful place.”
“Well, why would Jesus leave a wonderful
place like heaven to be born here on earth?”, the priest asked. No hand went up
except for that one visiting child’s. The child said, “So he could die for us.”
The priest was very pleased, and he asked,
proudly, “And where did you learn that?”
The little boy leaned into the priest’s
microphone and said loudly, “Faith Lutheran Church.”
The mother said that the priest laughed. A
lot.
Christmas is a time to talk about Jesus so
that people might be invited to receive the New Noel that is also the gift of
their own new birth, being born again in Jesus Christ.
Today we talked about the importance of
telling the whole Christmas story of Jesus’ love and sacrifice, the “Why?” as
well as the “What?”, so that people might come to believe and be baptized and
receive the gift of faith and salvation at Christmas.
Next time, we’re going to talk about how.
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