Living Fearlessly in a Fear Filled World

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord."

Luke 2

It was a dark night.  Shepherds were out in the fields around Bethlehem.  They were, Luke tells us, “keeping watch over their flocks.”  The stillness was broken only by their conversations.  Who knows maybe one or two were watching the sheep while the others slept.  Suddenly the quiet was shattered.  “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. Now this word “fear” is no small thing.  This does not mean that they were simply startled by the angel.  This is the word for real deep-seated terror.  A literal translation of the text would read, “they feared a great fear.”

What does that mean?  All you need do is think back to what happened just south of here last May in Santa Fe, Texas.  Do you remember the school shooting?  I am sure that every parent with a son or daughter at Santa Fe High School that day “feared a great fear…” I remember a night when the police called us. Ben had been in an accident.  They were taking him to the hospital. But they couldn’t tell us his condition… couldn’t even tell us if he was alive.  As we raced the 18 miles to the hospital Linda and I feared a great fear.  There are many such moments of fear great and small – knowing they are laying off at work, then finding out that the boss wants to see you… Or having the doctor tell you they found stage 4 cancer… or getting the call you dreaded in the middle of the night… the call that one of your parents is gone… or knowing that you have to tell the truth to someone… confess a wrong you’ve done to someone you really care about… there are many moments when we fear a great fear!

This shouldn’t surprise us. Fear is the natural fruit of being sinners in a sinful world.  The very first mention of fear in the Bible comes immediately after the first sin.  Adam tells the Lord, “I heard the sound of you in the garden and I was afraid…”  Sin, you see, is having the audacity to say no to God… its believing you don’t need Him, that you can handle life on your own.  The trouble is you can’t say no to God and get away with it forever.  Sooner or later it will catch up with you.  That’s why Isaiah was so afraid when he had His vision of God in the temple.  Isaiah literally feared a great fear.  “Woe is me!” He cried out, “For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”     You may think you can handle life on your own, but sooner or later you come up against something that is too big for you, something you can’t handle.

This past week I have had conversations with 2 ladies who have come up against things in life that they can’t handle on their own – Cheryl Webb from Fishers and my sister Lois.  Cheryl’s husband is recovering from a heart transplant.  Instead of bringing Wes home, his health has gone from bad to worse.  My sister has spent the month caring for her husband. He has started chemo – not to save his life but to make it last a little longer.  This has been a very different Christmas for both ladies.    Instead of parties and Christmas cookies and decorations – there have been ups and downs, setbacks, worries and fears.  Yet as I visited with each of them, our conversations have made clear that when everything else got stripped away, the heart of Christmas has remained. The message of the angels has resonated in their hearts.  What they can’t handle… what we can’t handle on our own – God has handled for us.  He has given His own Son to be born of Mary in Bethlehem.  “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.  It is not by coincidence that when the angel offers the shepherds “great joy” it’s the same word used to describe the shepherds “great fear.”  Even as the shepherds feared a great fear God invites them to “joy a great joy.”  In that good news of the birth of Jesus He invited those shepherds… He invites Cheryl and Lois… He invites us to live fearlessly, even joyfully in a fear filled world.

One thing that makes this joy so great is that it’s a gift, not a command. Two Sundays ago, I told you about the mother who kept yelling at her little girls to smile for their Christmas photo. In the end all they could do was cry.   That mother discovered what God already knows. We can’t just rejoice on demand.  We can’t just summon joy on command.  So, He doesn’t demand joy! Fear Not, He gifts it to us.  He gives it to us “wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.”  The joy He gives is a person - His own son Jesus Christ our Lord! God Himself comes into the midst of our fears… into the midst of our worries and sorrows.  He becomes one of us to walk with us through it all.  A couple of weeks ago, before he got so very sick I sat and visited with Cheryl’s husband Wes.  He shared with me the most amazing testimony to faith – “No matter what happens,” he told me, “whether for life or death, I am not afraid.” “How?” I asked.  “Why?”  “Because,” He said, “I know that God is with me.  I know what my savior has done for me.”  That’s the heart of the Christmas message.  That’s what the angels are telling us.  In Jesus God has become our Immanuel… He has become God with us!  That’s the joy of Christmas that drives out fear.

That joy is no fleeting emotion.  It’s not at the mercy of life’s changing winds.  It’s much more than a wish on a Christmas card. The joy God gives is real and lasting.  It’s as real as the flesh and blood of that little baby in the manger.  This child is God Himself taking on our fears.  Taking our flesh and blood… living our lives... carrying our sorrows, our failures, our wounds, our deepest and greatest fears to the cross.  This gift is Jesus rising again triumphant over it all, triumphing over sin and death.   It’s not by chance that the first words of the angels on Easter morning are the same as those of Christmas – “Fear not! For I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen…  Jesus is the joy that has defeated all that we fear. 

After one of these many school shootings, one of my former students described the fear that she and her husband were feeling - the same fear many parents have felt.  They tried to shield their first grader from all the news.  But he went to school and heard all about it.  When the little boy came home he told his father, “Don’t worry daddy. I’ll be okay.”  Choking back tears the father asked him, “How do you know Gideon?”  “Because Daddy, Jesus loves me.”  That little boy at that moment was God’s Christmas angel sent to speak joy into his daddy’s fears. 

We live in world filled with fearful headlines – war in every corner… terrorism… shootings in schools and churches… the list is endless.  Even worse are the personal fears and worries that plague your heart and mine – about struggles at home, about friends who are hurting, about the future, about your job, your kids, your finances – you know what they are.  Well tonight we celebrate the new story that pushes that fear completely off the headlines and out of our lives.  It’s good news… an invitation to live fearlessly in this fear filled world… and invitation to joy a great joy… a joy that defies our fears… a joy that defeats every enemy.  Of all things it’s a birth announcement.  An angel came to certain fearful shepherds.  His wonderful words speak to all of us tonight. “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”  This is the news that defies every enemy and every worry.  This is the good news of great joy that casts out all fear forever.   Jesus the savior is born!  Merry Christmas!  Amen!

Dreaming of a Blue Christmas?

Hebrews 4:15–16 (ESV)

^“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

We have all heard of a “White Christmas,” made popular by the Irving Berlin musical.  But have you heard of a “blue Christmas?”  The phrase, I think, was made famous by the Elvis Presley song about a love he will dearly miss at Christmas time.  A blue Christmas is a Christmas that falls short of what people hope or expect Christmas to be.  Instead of joy it is marked by sadness or loneliness or depression.  There can be all sorts of reasons for this – a death, a divorce, loss of a job, being far from family, an illness, financial troubles, conflict and so forth.  Some of us have such high expectations of this season, that it’s bound to disappoint.  Nostalgia so idealizes our childhood memories of Christmas that the reality can never live up to the ideal.  Many look for Christmas with all its parties and decorations and gifts to be an escape from life’s troubles.  Instead those troubles don’t go away.  In fact, they are amplified by the season.  If you are struggling with finances, how disappointing is it when you can’t afford to buy all the presents you are supposed to buy for your children?  I know people who lost a loved one at Christmas time, who simply couldn’t bring themselves to go to church at Christmas.   For many a “blue Christmas” is a disappointing Christmas, a failed Christmas.

I wonder, however, if there is a different way to approach a “blue Christmas.”  Could a “blue Christmas” in God’s hands be the best Christmas ever… a Christmas through which God brings healing and hope to whatever pain you are experiencing? 

That healing, I believe, begins with seeing Christmas for what it really is.  God didn’t send His Son so that once a year we could escape, and pretend life’s troubles aren’t really.  He sent His Son because those struggles and problems are real.  Jesus came to stand in our place, to face and conquer those problems for us.  “He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.” 

Our Lord understands what we are feeling and struggling with.  When you stop and think about it, there were many aspects of that first Christmas and of His life that were very “blue.”  I am sure no one believed Mary’s story that she was pregnant with God’s Son.  Joseph was ready to divorce her.  When they came to Bethlehem, ready to have the baby “there was no place for them in the Inn.”  Her first child’s first crib was a manger for feeding livestock.  The King tried to have her child killed and they had to flee to a foreign land.  In life, Jesus had no place to lay his head… no home of His own.  He was rejected by the religious leaders. He wept at a friend’s tomb. His own home town wanted nothing to do with Him.  One of His closest friends betrayed Him.  He was convicted on the basis of lies, whipped beaten, crowned with thorns and crucified.  Talk about a “blue Christmas!”  That’s good news for us in our blue Christmas.  He understands exactly what we are experiencing.  Jesus is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses for He was tempted in every way as we are…”

There is no need to deny the struggles we may have at this time of the year.  To paraphrase a passage of Scripture – “If we pretend we have no struggles, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us, but If we admit them to Him, He is faithful and just and will bring forgiveness or hope  or comfort or healing – whatever it is we need.”   Indeed, the Lord whose birth we celebrate came to conquer our struggles by His life, death and resurrection.  He invites us to bring our “blue Christmas” to Him.  “Come unto me,” Jesus says, “all who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.” 

Don’t run from your blue Christmas.  It’s real… no use in denying it. But also, don’t live that Christmas alone.  All of us experience it.  Let’s walk it together, holding each other up, as we approach God’s throne of grace “that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” That’s what Christmas is really about – not running from life but facing it with God who loved you so much that He took on flesh and blood, and became a part of this life, that you might have life.  That’s the true joy of Christmas – blue or white.

On Saying "Merry Christmas"

“And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation…”

2 Corinthians 5:19b

Over the last several years, at this time of year, you hear a lot of conversation about the “war on Christmas.”  Most of this centers around what is perceived as an effort to take Christ out of Christmas.  People get concerned because some public schools now have to call it “Winter break” rather than “Christmas break.”  In some schools the children are not allowed to sing Christmas songs that make reference to Jesus and His birth.  They can only sing secular songs like Jingle Bells and so forth. In some stores clerks have been instructed to wish people a “happy holidays” not “Merry Christmas.”  The stores, I guess are worried about offending customers who aren’t Christian.  All of this has many Christians offended.  “What right does the world have to take “Christ” out of Christmas.  This is our Christian holiday, the celebration of our savior’s birth.”

I, however, want to share with you a different perspective on all of this, one that is growing in my heart over the years.   In my humble opinion, we believers in Jesus should be neither surprised or offended that the unbelieving world sees no need to wish us a Merry Christmas.  When someone wishes me a “happy holiday season” I am grateful for their kindness and wishes for my happiness. 

What?  How can you not be offended that they are taking “Christ” out of Christmas?  The reason is simple.  It’s not the job of the unbelieving world to keep Christ in Christmas.  It’s my job and your job as believers in Jesus.  Read the text for this blog today – God “has committed to us the message of reconciliation…”  He has made known to us the great good news that “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting men’s sins against them.”  He has brought us to faith in the good news that “savior has been born who is Christ the Lord.”   His calling in our life is to share that wonderful message of Christmas with a world that doesn’t know about Jesus.

In other words, if Christ is being left out of Christmas, than we who believe in Jesus should look at ourselves… then that means we are failing to share the good news of great joy with a world that doesn’t know Jesus.  The Lord has convicted me that it’s not the world’s job to wish me a Merry Christmas.  He has called me (and you) to speak that wonderful greeting to the world. For me to be offended when the people don’t wish me a Merry Christmas, does not reflect very well on that wonderful message.

So, this is my thought today.  If you and I want Christ to be in Christmas, then He needs to be at the center of our hearts, of our words and our witness.  His love for us should be reflected in our response to and our love for the people in our schools, in our workplaces, in our neighborhoods and communities.  Let me suggest a better response when someone wishes you a happy holiday.  First, say thank you.  After all, isn’t it nice that someone would wish you happiness?  Then, wish them a Merry Christmas.  Maybe you can be even more bold and tell them “I pray that God would bless you this Christmas as we celebrate the birth of Jesus our savior.”  After all that’s the work and witness God has called us to give!