December 24, 2006
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Christmas and Culture
Luke 2:25-32
Christmas is about God breaking through at surprising times, and
showing up in unusual places in the world. You never know when, where, or how
God is going to show up. The Bible is full of stories of how God broke into the
world at the very time that people thought he was nowhere to be found. We think
of God’s meeting with Abraham, promising to make him the father of many
nations. We think of the Red Sea and God’s deliverance of Israel from slavery.
God shows up on Mount Carmel as Elijah offers his sacrifice. He appears with
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. He shows up with Daniel in
the Lion’s den. And, foremost, he shows up in Bethlehem as the angels announce
the arrival of God on earth: Emmanuel.
God continues to show up in our day, though largely unnoticed by
an unbelieving world. When he comes again it will be impossible to ignore him,
for “every eye will see him” (Revelation 1:7). But until then, we need to have
eyes that see and ears that hear. There are many examples that I could use, but
take this one for a start. Akiane Kramarik is only 12-years-old, but she has
abilities far beyond her years. Her mother chose to give birth to her
underwater at the family home on July 9, 1994 in Mount Morris, Illinois. The
family now lives in Idaho. Akiane speaks four languages, writes poetry, plays
piano and composes her own music, and most of all she paints. Her paintings
have deep expression and magnificent, living colors. She explains that she had
a spiritual encounter with God at the ripe old age of four, and that now her
paintings are attempts to help people experience God through her eyes. She
claims to have actually visited heaven and gives vivid expression to what she
saw there. She wants to put on canvas what she has seen in her visions and
dreams. She says, “I want my art to draw people’s attention to God. I want my
poetry to keep people’s attention to God.” Her desire is that people find hope
in her paintings. The picture of Jesus here is entitled, “Father forgiven
them,” and was painted when she was 9. The next one is called “The Journey” —
also painted when she was 9. This painting is called “Planted Eyes,” and the
one next to it is called “Prince of Peace.” Both were painted when she was only
8. Her web site defines her goal as: “To be an inspiration for others and to be
the gift to God.” That’s very profound for a 12-year-old — “to be the gift of
God.”
But the interesting part of the story is that Akiane did not come
from a Christian home. Her American father is a culinary art instructor and
chef, and her stay-at-home, Lithuanian mother was an atheist. There was no
teaching in the home about the Christian faith, they never went to church and
there was no talk of God. The entire family has now converted to Christianity,
but home was not the place where she received any spiritual training. She has
appeared on many TV shows, and been featured in several magazines. How did God
break through to a 4-year-old girl in an atheistic home? I have absolutely no
idea. Why did he do it? Well, he gave this girl a vision and a mission. But
beyond that, this is just what God does. He chooses unusual people in
unexpected places. Jesus was not born in the Temple, he was born in a stable.
His father was not a priest, he was a peasant. His mother was not wealthy, they
lived in poverty. They did not live in Jerusalem, they lived in Nazareth. No
one really knew about Jesus’ birth and very few cared anything about it. But
God was changing the world, and only a handful of people were in on the secret,
and even they did not understand the full impact of what was happening.
There are just three brief things I would like to say this
morning. The first is this: Christmas informs the culture. Whatever the
culture in which we find ourselves, the message of Christmas informs us. The
message is that God loves the world and he cares about us. Now we are looking
into God’s face. The angels said to the shepherds: “Do not be afraid. I bring
you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.” And then the
angels exploded with praise as they said, “Glory to God in the highest, and on
earth peace to men on whom his favor rests” (Luke 2:10 & 14).
Whether the world wants to hear it or not, the message of
Christmas is one of good news of great joy. Christmas announces that there is
reason to hope. The number of people whose lives have been changed since the
birth of Christ is incalculable. But not only have individuals been changed,
whole cultures and entire nations have been changed.
Christmas informs the culture that there is meaning and purpose
in the world, for the God who created the world has come to redeem the world.
Christmas informs the world that the true King of the world has been born, and
he will set up his everlasting kingdom. Isaiah prophesied about this when he
wrote: “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will
be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and
peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his
kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that
time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this”
(Isaiah 9:6-7). This is the message with which Christmas informs the world.
The second thing I would remind you of is: Christmas
transforms the culture. We not only have good news of great joy; our
message is not mere words about hope and peace, the Christmas message is
changing the world. The Bible talks of the transformation of individuals and
also the transformation of the world. The Scriptures first call us to personal
transformation: “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be
transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and
approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans
12:2). But we are transformed in order to transform the culture around us.
The story is told of a man who was reading the paper while his
children were in bed. Much to his chagrin, a young daughter appeared who said
she couldn’t sleep. He told her to go back to bed, but she began to cry. So he
conceived a plan. In the paper was a picture of the world, and he cut the
picture into several pieces. He handed his young daughter the pieces and some
tape. “Go sit in the dining room, and see if you can put the world back
together,” he said. He sat back to relax, but after only a few sips of his
coffee, his daughter came bounding back with the world put back together. He
was amazed and said, “Sweetie, how did you do that so fast?” She said, “It was
easy, Daddy. On the back side of the page was a picture of a man. When you
make the man right, you make the world right.” Transformed people transform the
world.
The problem is that Christians have typically seen Christianity
as being only about them. Their goal is to “get saved.” They want to have
their sins forgiven. They want to go to heaven. Many American style Christians
don’t see much beyond that. But Christmas is not just about having your sins
forgiven, it is about being transformed. You become a new person and are truly
changed. In turn, you begin to change the world. The culture is not just
influenced, but begins to be changed as changed individuals live in it,
participate in it, rub shoulders with others in the culture.
Unfortunately, many Christians have retreated from the “world,”
and are afraid of it. We withdraw from the world. We don’t want to be
influenced by the world or contaminated by it, and in protecting ourselves from
the world, we have failed to be an influence in the world. As Jesus said, we
are to be salt and light to the world, but the salt has lost its flavor and the
light has been hidden under a bushel. You can’t do what salt is supposed to do
if you stay in the shaker, and you can’t do what light is supposed to do if you
never go into the darkness. There is nothing to fear for Emmanuel is here — God
is with us.
Here is how Paul saw it: “From one man he made every nation of
men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set
for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men
would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far
from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts
17:26-28). We have seen the world as our enemy, rather than our mission field.
But Jesus’ message is subversive. It seeks to undermine the present world order
and replace it with his kingdom. Christians are to be a kind of fifth column in
the culture. We live in the culture, but our true loyalty is not to the
culture, our nation or to the world, it is to Christ and his kingdom. The Bible
says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from
there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20).
Unfortunately, this is not how many Christians see their lives.
In spite of the fact that nine out of ten Americans affiliate themselves with a
religious group, and less than 5 percent of Americans claim a faith outside of
the Judeo-Christian faith, nearly a quarter of those surveyed would describe God
as distant and not active in the world. Most see God as a cosmic force which
set the laws of nature in motion, not as the engaging Father who came in person
to seek and save the world.
It is like the parable I read recently by Paul Kooistra, where he
said, “I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what
was coming. ‘You don’t have to tell me,’ I said. ‘I’m off the team, aren’t
I?’ ‘Well,’ said Coach, ‘you never were really ON the team. You made that
uniform you’re wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space
helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us
chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times.’”
Then he writes, “It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought
something is brewing inside the head of this Coach. He sees something in me,
some kind of raw talent that he can mold.” The potential is there, the question
is whether we will get in the game. Will we be the transformed who transform
our culture, or will we be transformed by the culture? Stanley Hauerwas,
professor at Duke, says, “It’s hard to remember that Jesus did not come to make
us safe, but rather to make us disciples, citizens of God’s new age, a kingdom
of surprise.”
The third thing I would like to point out is: Christmas forms
a new culture. Christ’s birth was the signal of something new. His kingdom
would replace the kingdom of the world. Christmas is the announcement of
the kingdom of God breaking through — a new world order. Let the world never
forget who its Creator is, for he is coming to claim his creation. Furthermore,
let the world never forget that Jesus is King, for he is returning to reign. We
confidently say with the writer of Revelation: “The kingdom of the world has
become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and
ever” (Revelation 11:15). This is something the world has been looking forward
to since the Fall. Paul explains it this way: “The creation waits in eager
expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected
to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected
it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay
and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the
whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the
present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the
Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved” (Romans 8:19-24).
Many Christians operate as though we live in two realms: one foot
is in the spiritual world, and the other is in the material world. In their
thinking, one is eternal and the other is temporary, one is good and the other
evil, but we are citizens of both and have a sort of dual allegiance. We live
as though there are certain things we have to do in order to get along in the
“real” world, but in our spiritual side we can pretend the world does not
exist. The message of Christmas is that the kingdom of the world is becoming
the kingdom of God. What is mortal is about to be swallowed up by life (2
Corinthians 5:4). The message of Christmas is that, as the hymn says, “Jesus
Who died shall be satisfied, And earth and Heaven be one.” Jesus has laid claim
to earth. It cannot just do as it pleases. The King is coming. In fact, he is
already here.
God is always operating with a bigger agenda than we are. The
story is told that golfing great, Arnold Palmer, once played a series of
exhibition matches in Saudi Arabia. The king was so impressed that he told
Palmer that he wanted to give him a gift. But Palmer said, “It really isn’t
necessary, Your Highness. I’m honored just to have been invited.” But the king
insisted, “I would be deeply upset if you would not allow me to give you a
gift.” Palmer thought for a moment and finally said, “All right. How about a
golf club? That would be a beautiful memento of my visit to your country.” The
next day, delivered to Arnold Palmer’s hotel, was the title to a golf club —
thousands of acres, trees, lakes, and a clubhouse.
We have such a small idea of what God wants to do with us and our
world. We have lost sight of the larger gift that God wants to give us. We
just want him to forgive our sins or solve our problems, but Christmas is about
a whole new world that is on its way.
Rodney J. Buchanan
December 24, 2006
Mulberry St. UMC
Mount Vernon, OH
www.MulberryUMC.org
Rod.Buchanan@MulberryUMC.org
Mulberry
Street United Methodist Church