Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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"Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place…," said the shepherds to one another, after the angels disappeared and the inky skies fell silent. All over the world, on this holy night, people go to Bethlehem. Some literally: they travel to war-torn Israel, kneel in the Church of the Nativity, believing (as I believe) that if ever there were a chance for peace among men, it would be found in Bethlehem. "The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee…."

Traveling to Bethlehem in Our Heart

Other worshippers, like us, must travel to Bethlehem in mind and heart. We, too, want to see "this thing that has taken place." We want it to be not just a story. We want to see it with our own eyes, and make the manger-child King of our lives. At least part of us wants that. The other part, the part that protects and defends our vested interests in life-as-it-is, I think, prefers Christmas to remain a fairy tale, something to amuse the children. The difference is not intellectual. (We don't really live intellectually -- never trusting anything important to our brains.) The difference is in the gut.

That protective, defensive part of us knows Bethlehem is dangerous, knows what Bethlehem will do to us, if we go there. It will crack the foundation stones, trouble the placid waters of our lives, make us question precious beliefs. Bethlehem might even cause us to leave our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, friends and neighbors. To march to the beat of a different drummer, and be thought odd. Bethlehem does that to people. So let Christmas remain a story. It's less troublesome that way.

Our Inner War Between Commercialism and Jesus

Think about it. We celebrate Christmas in a schizophrenic way, the two sides of our natures warring within us. One part of me emphasizes the real "reason for the season," the other part wants to bury itself in an avalanche of sentimentality and commercialism -- to distract my attention from the manger's arresting claim. I think, perhaps, I let in as much Jesus as I can take each year, and then occupy myself for the rest of the season with faldera.

Rev. Daniel Matthews is the rector of Wall Street's Trinity Church. He tells of a house in his six-year-old grandson's neighborhood where the occupants really "go all out for Christmas." Santa and his reindeer are on the front lawn, colored lights circle every window and are strung through the trees and up to the chimney top.

Putting Jesus in the Manger

There is a crèche, a manger scene, but the tradition in that home is not to put the figures, Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus, in the crèche until Christmas morning -- when, in fact, they would have been there. So, for most of the season, the crèche is an unlit shed in the midst of all those sparkling lights. Rev. Matthews tells of driving his grandson by the house one night to show him the decorations. The boy kept asking about the shed, and why it wasn't lit. Finally he seemed to satisfy himself with these words: "Maybe they couldn't afford a baby because they spent so much on the decorations."  Do we have anything left for Jesus? Or are we spent tonight -- when the time has finally arrived for us to put the figures in the crèche -- when we go to Bethlehem and "see this thing that has taken place?"

Hell is Without Wonder

One modern poet describes hell as a place "where no Wonder Child will be born to save us." That would be hell, wouldn't it? A place without hope, as Dante described it. Life can easily be like that. This life, by itself, is not ultimately satisfying, try as we might, with our secular religions (our idolatries), to make it so. Oh, there are many wonderful things here on earth, and a lot of joy and happiness is possible (especially if we live by God's law). But, in the long run, all our loves, all our enthusiasms, all our happiness here (and all our sadness, for that matter) go down to dusty death. Without hope, without God, life isn't worth living.

Without a Wonder Child to save us, without the faith that God holds our hearts in his hands, that he knows even when a sparrow falls, life is a dismal experience. What we learn in Jesus  -- whether we see him as a baby lying in a manger, or as a grown man hanging on a cross --  is that God cares, that he loves us, that he has not given up on us or on our salvation. That he will bring us to a new and glorious life which will have no end.

Christmas is a Time When God's Love Overflowed in Action

The love that comes down at Christmas is not a soupy, syrupy love -- not just a millage of good feelings. In fact, feelings are hardly even part of it. When the Bible speaks of love it speaks of action. "God so loved the world that he gave…." He did something! The shepherds "went in haste," didn't just lie there in the fields dreaming about the angels. They did something. The Wise Men saw the star and followed.

We are Called to Respond With Action

And we are to do something about this Christ Child. We are not to adore him with feelings only, but with deeds of love and mercy. Tonight, I'm sure, we have given it a good start. We have wrapped carefully-considered presents and put them under the tree for those we love. We have taken special care for the needs of the hungry, the lonely, the homeless at Christmas. Let us continue to be doers and not just feelers of love. Let us not be "do-gooders," but let us be good doers.

Let us not fear the different drummer, who makes us march out of step. After all, we have heard angels sing! Let us listen to that side of ourselves that would rise up, like the shepherds, and follow, and find Jesus. And live as he lived. Let us not spend so much on the decorations that we cannot afford the baby.

Personal Gratitude at Christmas

Dearly beloved, this is a wonderful Christmas for Mary and me. We look back upon so many blessings, of which you are by no means the least, and we look forward to an exciting new year. Next Christmas we should either be in our new building or there will be an almost-complete construction site out the back door. That is important for only one reason, lest we lose sight of our purpose: It is important because it will enable us more to be doers of God's love.

We Live in a Largely Unchurched Community

Our District Superintendent, Don Stewart, brought us a remarkable challenge at the Charge Conference with some eye-opening demographics. Twenty-seven thousand totally unchurched people within five miles of Oak Chapel, and (in that same area) another thirty-one thousand with only minimal connections to any church or religion. Many of these are children, who may never know Jesus unless we tell them. We have our work cut out for us.

Invitation to Bring Christ to Our Neighbors

Will you make a resolution next week with me? Resolved that we should be prepared to expand Oak Chapel's ministries in this neighborhood (and around the world), so that more might be fed and clothed and housed, and (better yet) so that more might be brought to Christ, fed with the bread of heaven, dressed in robes of pure white, and domiciled in God's house. That's what it means to rise up, to go, to see this thing that has taken place in Bethlehem.