December 24, 2004

 

Christmas is an exciting time and Sammy was excited. He was a 15-year-old and a happy child despite his handicap. You see, Sammy was slightly retarded. He still went to school, but was 2 years behind. He did the things most boys do, and usually kids were not too mean. Sometimes they called him "stupid Sammy." But Sammy didn’t seem to hear them. He just enjoyed life; to him life was full of wonder. And Christmas was the most wonderful time of all.It was time to go to church for the annual Christmas Celebration. Sammy was so excited wondering what present would be under the tree for him this year. Every year on Christmas Eve, after the service, the children would gather around the Christmas tree and each one was given a present. And even though Sammy was a little old for this, they still let him take part.

Sammy and his parents arrived at church early. Sammy dashed to the Christmas tree to look for his present. He couldn’t find it at first. Then his eyes caught hold of a big box, the biggest present that was there. He slowly went over to it, lifted the card and there in great big letters was his name, "Sammy." He couldn’t believe it, the biggest present was his! His mind raced with the possibilities of what was inside. A bike, a TV, a horse, a tent? What was in it? Sammy could barely stand it!But he knew he had to wait.

After the service, all the children rushed to the huge tree. Preacher Joe started picking up presents and calling out names.Sammy was on the edge of his seat, bursting with anticipation. Preacher Joe walked over to the big box and said, "Well, let’s see whose name is on this one." Sammy knew. He bolted over as his name was read. Sammy took the box and gently removed the bow. His heart was racing like a jack hammer. He tore off the wrapping paper and began to remove the lid. All the things he hoped to see flashed before his mind’s eye. Finally, Sammy got the box open, looked inside, and saw…NOTHING. He saw nothing. Someone had played a trick on Sammy. When he lifted his head, huge tears were streaming down his face. Who would do something so cruel?Who would play such a mean trick on Sammy? The box was empty!

Everyday, all around the world, this same trick is being played. Though the names and exact situation are a little different, the results are the same. Our world promises great things; happiness, wealth, pleasure, relationships, fame, success, power. And it wraps them up in a great big box, with pretty paper and a beautiful bow. And it hands us this box as a gift. We get excited; and we take off the bow. We unwrap the box and open it with great expectations.... And when we look inside, just like Sammy, all we find is an empty box. No hope, no life, no joy, no happiness!Just huge tears of heartbreak streaming down our face. That’s the kind of gifts this world gives!Have you ever opened one of her boxes? I’m sure you have, and it’s not fun, is it?

The last thing you want to do is open another one of those. But now, you’re being invited to hear about this Christmas gift that’s supposed to be the greatest one – Jesus.So why would you want to?Why would you wanna unwrap this gift?Isn’t life going good enough?So good you don’t want to mess it up?OR – is it going so rotten that the last thing you need right now is one more disappointment?I can understand those sentiments with the way the world is.But I also know a lot about the hurt that is out there right now.And I also know there is help to be had for us all.So that’s why I’m telling you tonight that this is a gift you’ll wanna unwrap!

In the museum at the Dachau concentration camp is a large photograph of a mother and her little girl standing in line for a gas chamber. The child, walking in front of her mother, doesn’t know where she is going. The mother, walking behind, knows, but is helpless to stop the tragedy. She performs the only act of love left to her. She places her hands over the child's eyes so she will at least not see the horror to come. People do not whisk by this photo quickly. They pause. They feel the pain. And deep inside, they think: "O God, don't let that be all that there is."

If this life is all there is, how could we feel any different?If this life, from birth to death, which could come suddenly, long before we fulfill all our dreams, is all there is, then how could we even carry on with life?This life is filled with pain.Sadness.Disappointment.Horror.And if that’s all that there was, the hopelessness we would feel would be more than we could bear.We call out, “O God, don’t let that be all there is.”

God has heard and answered our prayer with the message of Christmas! In answer to this prayer, God gives us his greatest treasure – his Son.In Mary, and in each one of us, Christ is born anew!Born to bring us life!A life that offers us far more than we could ever be given here!Verse 9 of our text says: “This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.”God sent his Son into the world that we might LIVE!We have life to look forward to that goes beyond the painful version of it that we see in this world.There’s the first reason we want to unwrap this gift – it brings us life – real life!A reason to live.You won’t ever be disappointed by this gift.Not for all eternity!

One day, very close to Christmas, a young boy was coming down the hallway at church. He was carrying a little ceramic tray he had made in Sunday School. It was to be his Christmas gift to his mother. He had been working on it for several weeks and he was so proud of it. As he ran down the hall, he tripped and fell. The tray crashed to the floor and broke into several pieces. The little boy was devastated. He began to cry loudly and uncontrollably. He was absolutely heartbroken. People tried to comfort him with all kinds of counsel: “It was just a tray. Not worth much. No big loss. Besides, you can make another one. It’s nothing, forget it. You can give your mother something else. Don’t worry about it.” But nothing helped. The child was inconsolable.

Finally his mother arrived on the scene. Quickly she realized what had happened. Kneeling down beside her distraught son with his broken gift, she hugged him tightly and said, “Well, now, I think this is fixable. Let’s pick up the pieces and take them home. We’ll put it back together and see what we can make of it.” The little boy hugged his mom back and smiled. Isn’t that what the Christmas message is about? Our lives are broken into many fragments. And God stoops down beside us. He hugs us and says, “Well, now, this is fixable. Let me help you pick up the pieces. We’ll put it back together and see what we can make of it.”

You see, each one of us has tripped and fallen.We’ve broken our relationship with God.We have failed Him.Our lives are broken because of sin.The world offers all sorts of solutions, none of which are helpful.“Don’t worry, enjoy life anyway!Fill up that brokenness with self-absorption. You can find happiness elsewhere.”Those are big boxes, wrapped fancily, with nothing in them.But God, who really loves us, stoops down beside us, and says, “I can fix this.I have fixed this.”God fixed our broken lives, our relationship with Him, by sending Jesus into the world!Jesus fixed our brokenness by being broken Himself.And by doing that, He put us back into one piece with God again!We’re at one with Him!Verse 10 says: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.”God has given us a big hug!Let’s hug Him back and open that gift!

During World War II, a gloom swept over England as Hitler's Luftwaffe dropped tons of death and destruction upon London. There was a legitimate fear for the safety of King George VI, and his family. His staff, therefore, made secret arrangements to transport the king and his family to safety in Canada, for the duration of the war. Despite the urgings of his advisors, George refused to leave his countrymen in their dark hour. In fact, the king inspected a bombed out section of London after an air raid. While walking through the rubble, an elderly man walked up to King George and said: “You, here, in the midst of this? You are indeed a good King.”

That is what the manger says to us. That God is with us in the ugly part of our lives as well as the good! He does not desert us in the darkest hour of our despair. He is there in the midst of the rubble of our broken dreams and the ruin of our tangled lives.That’s what the gift of Christmas is!GOD IS WITH US.He is with us here.No matter what is going on around us.No matter how awful we have been.God is with us.That’s a gift we’re gonna wanna unwrap!

Once this gift is unwrapped, it changes your life in a way you could never have imagined. Have you ever heard the story entitled “The Luck of Roaring Camp”? Roaring Camp was the meanest, toughest mining town in the West. There were more murders and thefts than any other place around. It was a terrible place, inhabited entirely by men, except for one woman, named Cherokee Sal. She became pregnant by who knows whom and died while giving birth to a baby.

The men took the baby and put her in a box with some old rags under her. Somehow that just didn’t seem right, so one of the men rode eighty miles to buy a rosewood cradle. Then they put the rags and the baby in the beautiful new rosewood cradle. But the rags didn’t look very nice in the beautiful new cradle, so they had another man ride to Sacramento where he bought some beautiful silk blankets. Now they put the baby in the cradle lined with silk and put the new blanket over her. It looked fine until someone noticed the floor was filthy. So these tough, hardened men got down on their hands and knees, and scrubbed the floor until it was spotless. Of course, now the walls, ceiling, and dirty windows without curtains looked absolutely terrible. So they washed the walls and the ceiling, and put curtains at the windows.

Things were beginning to look a lot better. But of course, they had to give up a lot of their fighting, because the baby slept a lot, and babies can’t sleep during a brawl. Things at Roaring Camp really calmed down. They would set the baby out by the entrance to the mine in her cradle, with one of the men staying next to her, so the others could see her when they came out of the mine. Then somebody noticed what a dirty place the mine entrance was, so they planted flowers, and made it look quite beautiful. The men would bring her shiny little stones that they would find in the mine. But when they would put their hands next to hers, their hands looked so dirty! Pretty soon the general store was all sold out of soap and shaving gear! The baby was changing everything!

That’s also the way it is for those who have placed their faith in the Babe of Bethlehem. This baby enters into our lives, and He slips into every crevice of our experience. This Baby changes our lives!He makes us want to be better people!When we see his beauty, his perfection, his love and forgiveness for us, then after a while, we can no longer stand our “dirty hands, hearts, lives, and homes”! We want to clean them up, one step at a time.It might begin with a few bad habits, then move into our relationships, the way we do family, and then the way we help others. Eventually Jesus makes us want to love others, and love God by doing that.Our text concludes: “Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

Unwrapping the gift of the Baby Jesus changes our lives!This baby changes everything!He gives us life and forgiveness, fixes what is broken, promises to always be with us, and then begins to change everything for us!And all this is a gift, beautifully wrapped, and offered to us out of love.“Unwrapping it” means believing in his love for you.Join me in unwrapping this gift tonight by saying:Amen!

 

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