Christmas Crackers

Australia TodayIt seems like Christmas, and to some extent Easter, are still popular relics of Australia's 'cultural Christianity.' In my experience, Christmas Day services are generally full to capacity, and we don't even advertise. It's the one day of the year when regular attenders willingly invite family members along, and the family members willingly come. There are visiting relatives, there are friends, there are people from around the corner… it's a happy and festive occasion. Let's not spoil it with the way we do church! The question is, though, how do we make the most of it.
Redefining the Win
As on any other occasion when you'll be called to speak on 'civic occasions', it's worth thinking carefully about what a 'win' will look like. Again, I'd caution against the view that says you should take advantage of a captive audience, berate them for the fact that they only ever come to church at Christmas, and proceed to whack them with a year's worth of content to make up for it. Or even against trying to pack in a full 'two ways to live' presentation. My definition of a Christmas "win" (including the whole service, not just the talk) would look something like this…

1. Short enough duration for even hostile visitors (dragged along by their family) to find it painless.
2. Appropriate resonance with the familiar 'Christmas narrative'
3. Evidence of involvement of the church community
4. Brisk, joyful, familiar carols – but not too many
5. A simple, listenable "one point" bible talk with a surprising twist, and some degree of challenge. It needs to be 'kid friendly' as well!
6. If items a) to e) are in place, push a little further for some 'squirm factor' – but in a cheeky way, not stridently.

In short, I think it's a win if the non-Christian visitor walks out smiling, having enjoyed the experience of church, having been reminded of the Lord Jesus in the familiar Christmas narrative … and having been provoked to think about at least one aspect of the gospel through the bible talk.
Making it Zing
If there's ever a time I want to make my talk "zing", it's Christmas Day. I'll pour hours into a two minute video to introduce the talk, and hours into an engaging powerpoint, and even more hours into the talk itself, to make sure it is short enough, tight enough, current enough and pointed enough to take people by surprise. Because in my mind, the best thing to do with a 'one shot audience' is not to drill them full of everything you ever wanted to say … but to tantalise them so they'll want to hear more.
The Challenge
The challenge is to find new and interesting ways to tell the same old story. I am always looking for new angles on the birth narratives, or even better, other passages that have a good hook to Christmas. After 20 years or so of preaching at Christmas, it can get hard to come up with new material!


Some Examples – Click on links for full text of talks
1. Matthew 2:1-16 - "It's Not Just the Grinch Who Stole Christmas"
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22nd December 2002. Carols in the Carpark. http://mpc.org.au/resources/resources/20021222pm.html
2. Luke 2 - "The First Christmas Carol"
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25th December 2003. http://mpc.org.au/resources/resources/20031225.html
3. December 25 - Matthew 1:18-25 - "A Very MA Christmas"
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Garnet Swan MPC 25th December 2006. http://mpc.org.au/resources/2006/20061225.html
4. December 18 - Matt 1:18-25; Matt 2 - "King... for a Day?"
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http://mpc.org.au/resources/2005/20051225.html
5. Carols in the Carpark - Matt 1:21
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http://mpc.org.au/resources/resources/20001217n.html
6. December 25 - Philippians 2:1-11 - "What do You Give the Man Who Has Everything?"
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Phil Campbell MPC 25th December 2004.".It's the age old problem at Christmas, isn't it? At least at my place. What do you give... the man who has everything. My wife Louise says it's a...
  ...She says to me, what do you need for Christmas? And I say, well, I... well, um, I guess I don't need anything. I go through the Kmart catalogue. And..." http://mpc.org.au/resources/2004/20041225.html
7. December 25 - Philippians 2 - "Worst Christmas Jobs"
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Christmas 2007. As you'll notice, Philippians 2 is quite a favourite! I used it in 2007 in a talk titled "Worst Christmas Jobs." The hook came from a TV show a couple of weeks before Christmas. I caught it on video, and edited it down to around a minute, as well as taking still shots for the Powerpoint. And I used the passage again in 2009, which you can see in some detail in the case study below.


A Detailed Case Study
Christmas 2009 – Philippians 2:1-11 – "Going Down"
Big Idea – Most people seem to want to 'get ahead' and "do what's best for me." (Video of Jonathan Thurston and Libby Trickett saying these words.) But Jesus did exactly the opposite when he became man, and even moreso when he went to the cross. http://media.mpc.org.au/resources/2009/20091225.html
Talk Text – 1930 words, 15 minutes
Some of you might know that we're just back from a couple of week's holiday at the beach, and I wanted to share with you this morning some of my holiday reading.
It's not a deep book by any means.
And I'm not particularly recommending it. Although as holiday reading it wasn't too bad.
It's a book I picked up second hand from Vinnies. It's by David Baldacci, and it's all about what happens when a President of the United States goes bad.
A world leader. Who rapes and kills and does exactly whatever takes his fancy. The book is called Absolute
Power. Because, according to the old saying, power corrupts. And absolute power corrupts absolutely.
So let me read you a couple of lines from a scene where he spells out the president's personal philopsophy. It goes like this.
He says, "I have attained my position in life by never losing sight of the fact that the most important person in the world is myself. Whatever the situation, whatever the obstacle, I have never, never, lost sight of that one simple truism. The most important person in the world is... me".
And it's not just fictional Presidents of the United States who think that way.
Take a look at these two video clips. Two Aussie athletes, both on the Today show last week. And listen carefully to their words.

Now did you catch it? I'm not having a go at Jonathan Thurston. I'm not having a go at Libby Trickett. I don't want to be critical. I don't want to be unfair. Because they're just saying what everybody says. They're just doing what everybody does.
I'll do what's best for me. I'll just focus on myself. I'll just concentrate on my career. I'll just look after number 1. Because I'm worth it. And the bottom line is, you've gotta do what's best for you. Don't you?
Compare the Pair
Which is what brings us to the miracle of Christmas, as it's described in our reading from Philippians chapter 2. The miracle of Christmas that if only we'll listen threatens to turn our thinking and our living upside down. Because the one who had every right to think like that, the one who was in very nature God... actually does the very opposite. And instead of saying I'll do what's best for me because I'm entitled to, and instead of focusing on himself, and instead of choosing the hold on to his eternal equality with God... he puts it aside.
Remember those compare the pair ads on TV? The ads for industry super funds. Two people standing on the stairs. Compare the pair. One paying commissions to their financial advisers, the other with an industry super fund? Compare the pair. And one guy starts walking up the stairs, and the other guy starts walking down the stairs. Very graphic. Going lower and lower and lower. I mean, who'd want that? Who'd choose that?
Well, listen again as you follow The Lord Jesus Christ down the stairs. And ask yourself the question, how low will he go?
Starting with the words you can see in verse 6. Jesus Christ...
Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
The one who in his very essence, in his nature God... gives it up. And becomes man. That's Christmas. That's what we're celebrating this morning.
That's quite a step. But it's only the first step.
Now if I was God, and was planning to intervene in the world I'd made, I'd be thinking very carefully about the time and the place. I'd be looking to be born into somewhere upper class and comfortable. With hot and cold running water, and wide screen plasma TV and Xbox. I'd be looking to be born to a family with fast cars and cable Internet and the best food money can buy. I'd be looking to be born to a family that could provide the best in private school education, the latest fashion brands and a holiday house by the sea.
And look, even in Roman times, you might not know this, but the upper classes were extremely comfortable. No widescreen plasma TV, live theatre.
And Roman Plumbing systems were fantastic. Articulated water supplies, flushing toilets.
And best of all, slaves. Servants to do everything. So you didn't have to lift a finger.
The Lord Jesus Christ as we read from Luke's gospel, was born in a cowshed lying in a feed trough. Crying and cold.
Did you notice those words in verse 7?
But made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant.
It's very clear, He's not going to be the one lying back in luxury. When the one in very nature God becomes man, he's going to become a servant man. Take a step down.
And it goes further. How low can you go? The next verse. Verse 8. Not just a servant man. Here's where it's heading.
Read what it says:
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death.
Take a step down.
Can you go lower than that? Yes you can... even death on a cross!
If you're going to rank the ways to die on a scale of one to ten, the lowest form, the most dishonourable form, the way to die in the maximum degree of humiliation and scorn... the way to die in disgrace is to be nailed up on a Roman cross. take one more big step down.
Christmas Day was just the first step. The start of mission. To put his glory aside and step into our world and step down and step down and step down. To become a servant, to face death, to face death on A cross. And it's no secret that we Christians are persuaded by the scriptures that he does that to take the our sin on himself. And to take it away. To take our punishment on himself. And to be done with it.
And it's because of that... that having lowered himself, God raises him again. It's because of that willing humble service, it's because the man of glory puts his glory aside and doesn't say it's all about me, it's because he so willingly makes himself a servant... that God raises him up and says sit with me where you belong. Your name is the name above every name. It's the word therefore at the start of verse 9... it's because Jesus made himself nothing and gave his life on the cross, God exalts him in heaven.
Which is why we bow the knee to him now. Or if we don't, we ultimately will.
We honour Jesus because God has honoured Jesus. We honour Jesus because God raised him up from the dead, as has seated him in the highest place and made his name above every name. That at the name of Jesus, verse 10, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father.
Can you see there the inversion of our whole value system in that? That the one God values most is the one who most humbled himself. That the attitude closest to God's heart is the attitude that says it's not about me. I'm going to make myself a servant. That the heart that's dearest to God is the heart that says I'm not going to focus on me. I'm going to give up my whole life... in the service of others.
That's Jesus. And the crunch is, that's meant to be his followers as well. Which in fact is exactly where our passage started.
The first great missionary Paul, as he writes this letter back to his fledgling church in Philippi, he says to them if you've got any encouragement from Jesus, is you've got any comfort from his love, if you've got any fellowship with the spirt, if you've got even the slightest bit of tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by following the example of Jesus. Take a look at his words in verse 3.
See, here's what it's going to mean to bow your knee to Jesus. It's not just about paying lip service on Christmas Morning. It's not just about singing a few carols.
He says, "Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit but in humility consider others better than yourselves."
Forget about doing what's best for you for a while. Forget about focusing on yourself. Verse 4 says, "Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others." Because, in verse 5, "your attitude... should be the same as that of Christ Jesus. Who made himself nothing." Who stepped down. And stepped down. And stepped down.
Friends, can I put that to you as a Christmas challenge? This isn't even advanced Christianity in action. This is the very basic stuff. Paul's not writing these words to Christian experts or old hands. He's writing it to beginners. If you've got even the slightest shred of encouragement from Christ, the slightest tingling of tenderness and compassion, here's how to respond. If you want to honour Jesus as having the highest place, which you should, if you want to align your perspective on what's important with God's perspective, then start looking not only to your own interests. But to the interests of others.
You know I've been thinking about that during the last few days of Christmas shopping. Absolutely appalling at Chermside in the crush of voracious buyers. And you can kind of get impatient when you're queuing for half an hour just to buy something and the cash register's not working. And when it's finally your turn and the shop assistant says how are you, I find it's so easy to be impatient and frustrated. When if you're learning from Jesus, if you could even imagine him Christmas shopping, but if you're learning to be like Jesus your first response would be, I'm doing fine, but how are you. It must be terrible to be working a sixteen hour shift on Christmas Eve. When are you going to even get to see your family?
See, I am convicted by a passage like this. Because I can see very clearly that in the light of what Jesus gave up for me, that God stepped down and made himself man, that he made himself a servant. In such humble circumstances. That he even went through death. And disgrace on the cross so that I could be reconciled to God. That he stepped down so far for me, and yet I still want to step myself up. Compare the pair. We keep wanting to step up and step up and step up. When if we're following Jesus we'll need to keep stepping down and down and down.
Putting Jesus first is going to mean making yourself a servant.
In your office. Putting others first.
In the checkout queue. Putting others first.
In the carpark at the Boxing Day sales. Putting others first.
In your family. Putting others first. in your marriage. Did you hear that old joke, the woman says my husband and I divorced for religious reasons? He thought he was God. And I didn't!
Your Christmas Day challenge is this. If you really want to honour the Lord Jesus at Christmas, then each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing...