When All You Possess is a Humbug Heart. confide in me. We re telling the truth today. Maybe it was the blinking Rudolph on the

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Calvin Hudson
5 years ago
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1 December 9, 2018 John 1: 9-14 When All You Possess is a Humbug Heart Are you far enough along toward Christmas that you have brushed up against the place within you that secretly cries "humbug!" over what you see around you? It's ok. You can confide in me. We re telling the truth today. Maybe it was the blinking Rudolph on the lapel of the lady who had too much to drink at the office party. Maybe it was the driver who avoided eye contact with you and pulled into your parking space after you had waited for the departing car to move out of the way. Maybe it is wondering what good comes out of all the mistletoe, wassail, wrapping paper and pine trees. Get a load of this, Americans use about twenty-nine million rolls of wrapping paper every year, seventeen million packages of tags and bows, over twenty-five million pine trees and send over four hundred million cards. Humbug! Wow, we wonder, where did that come from? It trips off our tongue when we least expect it. Truth be told, it is fun to say. We all know that there is part within us that is Tiny Tim with presents in hand, cheering the world every direction, "God bless us everyone!" That is our socially acceptable face of Christmas. But what about that part of us that would like nothing so much as to indwell Ebenezer Scrooge for a moment, and stare down every Abbelt holiday offer, sneer at every Alvin and the Chipmunks seasonal CD, spray roundup on every chia-pet and drop every shopper driving a hard box in a plastic bag into our leg with a right upper cut? Forget Tiny Tim, give me ten minutes as a curmudgeon and I'll be happy. Hum-bug! Even if we can't define it, we all know what it means when it gets said. 1

2 What happens when All You Possess is a Humbug Heart? When did all the humbug get started? Lights twinkle above. Shops teem with the apparatus of commercial happiness. Every night the media tells us how much the consumer activity of Christmas shopping might or might not bail out our economy. Signs of good cheer become obligatory. All this stuff begins to accumulate, and we begin to feel more than a little trapped. In these weeks we face more efforts to extend ourselves, we expend more energy and motion, than at any other time in the whole year. And then we feel the twinge of guilt because we don't so much experience comfort and joy as the grinding obligation to get it all done. Perhaps most oppressive is feeling that we ought to be happy. Have you ever experienced real gladness out of knowing that you were supposed to be happy? I haven't. Or, has the pressure to pretend with others that things are better than they are ever lifted your spirits? Not for me. We are not put together that way. And to only possess a humbug heart at this time of year-no matter how legitimate our reasons-is what truly miserable is. Mix in some nostalgia, cynicism, and alcohol, and we have the situation that introduced humbug into Western civilization from the start. When Pope Julius I authorized December 25 to be celebrated as the birthday of Jesus in A.D. 353, who would have ever thought that it would become what it is today. When Professor Charles Follen lit candles on the first Christmas tree in America in 1832, who would have ever thought that the decorations would become as elaborate as they are today. It is a long time since 1832, longer still from 353, longer still from that dark night brightened by a special star in which Jesus the king was born. Man has always possessed a 2

3 humbug heart of sorts and into that heart breaks forth the story of Jesus. John says it like this: John 1 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God-- 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. One of the most beloved stories of Christmas is Charles Dickens 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol. I'm sure most of you are familiar with this tale of Ebenezer Scrooge, Jacob Marley, Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim and ghosts from the past, present and future. Scrooge is a scoundrel who has no room in his heart for the things Christmas stands for. Scrooge is also, you will recall, the character who first uttered the notorious line "Bah humbug." He's also the greedy, selfish person who says "... every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart." As the story unfolds, Scrooge s meanness becomes more and more unbelievable. We also begin to understand a bit of his suffering as well.an unpleasant childhood, his fall 3

4 from grace with his father, and the loss of a fiancé; And as we do understand his suffering, we start to recognize a bit of old Scrooge in ourselves. Scrooge is visited by a series of ominous night callers. First the spirit of his dead business partner, Jacob Marley, with a warning for Scrooge to change. (1 st Clip- The visit of Jacob Marley) Three other spirits visit Scrooge that night, each offering him glimpses of the effects he has had on others lives past, present and future. Scrooge witnesses a number of moving events during his evening travels, but the one that affects him most profoundly comes from a child (interesting theological meaning huh?). Eventually, Scrooge, standing before his own gravesite, finally makes sense of the spirits prodding s. He not only understands his miserable destiny unless he changes death and eternal torment but he also realizes his own choices are leading him there. When Ebenezer Scrooge awoke from his fitful dreams on Christmas morning, he was a different man. He sees life a different way, he was reborn. Dickens writes, "He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town or borough in the good old world." This morning I want us to journey together, much like the spirits of Christmas past, present and future did with Ebenezer Scrooge. I want us to do so using the past, present and future tense of a word that appears twice in our text for the day - the word become. Let's look at the tenses of become, starting with the past tense, became. John writes, "The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us." What does that mean? According to Webster's collegiate dictionary the word became means: has come into 4

5 existence. What then, does it mean to say God became flesh and lived among us? That God "became?" Because Jesus has come, God s POSSIBILITIES are revealed. John's statement means that in the coming of Christ, God's mind, God's purpose and God's love became human. That opened up all sort of possibilities for each of us. A fitting symbol of what happened would be a door. A door was provided that didn't exist before. The Bible records how ever since our separation from God because of sin, God has sought to reconnect with humanity by sending prophets and by revealing himself through all sorts of symbols and signs. But we just couldn't seem to "get it." Ultimately, God decided he must come in human form to reveal the great possibilities that he has in store for us - to show us the way. I love the story that illustrates this about the man and the barn and the little birds - perhaps you've read it, or heard it on the radio because it's out now out as a song, I heard it again the other day. There's a man who just can't bring himself to believe in what he considers the naïve superstitious stories about Jesus and his birth. On Christmas Eve he tells his wife and children he won't go to the Christmas Eve service at the church because he would feel hypocritical, so he sends them off to church together on a blustery, snowy night. As he sits in front of the fireplace he hears something bumping into the oversized window in the great room. He looks out and sees that it's little birds trying to get inside to get warm. He decides to go out and open the door to his barn, which is warm, hoping the birds will fly inside. But the birds ignore the barn and continue flying into the window. He rushes inside 5

6 and gets breadcrumbs to try and attract the birds to the barn - still it doesn't work - the birds are afraid of the man. Finally, at wits end the man thinks to himself - "If only I could become a bird for a moment then they wouldn't be scared and they would follow me into the safety and warmth of the barn." At that very moment the bells from the Christmas eve service ring out over the snowy countryside and the man understands that's exactly what Jesus did - he revealed God's possibilities - he showed us a door that we didn't know existed. Because of what happened on that first Christmas Day, we can become something totally different. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we have seen his glory. There's also a second tense of become - the present tense, which is defined as "To undergo change. To become something is to undergo a transformation, or to change. The question the present tense asks is, "What is happening? The answer is that with Christ's coming (past) not only does a possibility exist that did not before, but more importantly, we have the POTENTIAL to become something brand new by walking through this door. God's possibility creates potential in us that did not exist before. How does John put it? "But to all who received him (Christ), who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God" (1:12). I'm not splitting hairs here - note that God's possibility - the door - did not automatically make us children of God - God gave us the power, or some translations read the right to become children of God, but we have to act to receive this gift. What happens here is not merely some mild transformation of personality either - we're talking about an essential change in nature. 6

7 Jesus often talked about this potential in terms of seeds. He spoke of how the mustard seed was the tiniest seed of all and yet when planted it would grow into a large bush. A more familiar seed to you and me would be an acorn. How in the world does it have the potential inside it to become a towering oak? We have several oak trees in our church yard that drop acorns by the bucket load. Many roll around the parking lot. Squirrels eat a few, and some get stepped on. But of the thousands - and I do mean thousands - only a few will become oaks and fewer still will grow to any size - and yet all of them have the potential to do this. Did you know there's a certain species of bamboo in the Far East that when it is planted apparently does nothing for five years? It simply lies dormant in the ground. But during that fifth year, when the rainy season hits, there is a five-week span of time when the bamboo will grow to a height of ninety feet. The potential for that growth was there all along, locked up inside the seed. Something, or in our case, someone needs to unlock that potential for it to grow. The potential is enormous. We must become, and help others become what God created us to be in Christ. There's also the third tense of become - the future tense, the word for this is becoming and it could be defined as, "turning into. The question posed here is, "What will happen? What shall we become?" The answer, at least according to Scripture is that life in Christ has a goal, we are to PERSONIFY God s purposes for the world. In other words, God has created the door. We have seen it and gone through it. But now, once through the door, we must keep on moving! 7

8 Several years ago Bob Hope was on one of his USO trips overseas to entertain our military troops. As the plane carrying Hope and several other Americans was flying over the Swiss Alps it developed engine trouble. The pilot announced this to the passengers and then began looking for a place to make a landing. As would be expected in such an emergency, the passengers became quiet and began to pray. After a short while, the pilot located a runway, and the plane came in for a safe landing. When the plane had rolled to a stop Bob Hope stood up and said, "Now, folks, you can go back to the same old life you gave up twenty minutes ago." Unfortunately, that's what many people do - the passing of Christmas serves as a stark reminder of this doesn't it? To me, nothing is sadder than taking down the Christmas decorations, and throwing out all that crumpled up, used wrapping paper, or seeing discarded Christmas trees stacked at some recycling center ready to be ground up into mulch. I remember reading a story about a little boy who was helping his parents take down all their decorations after Christmas. Wanting to keep him busy and out of the way the mom and dad asked the little boy to individually wrap each of the figures in their nativity set. Later, once everything was put away the mother found the tiny figurine of the Christ child sitting on the little boy's dresser, so she asked him why he didn't put it away with the rest of the set. The little boy replied, "I just couldn't put Jesus back in that dark old box for another year!" The passing of Christmas Day will not mean it is time to "put Jesus away" for another year. Remember, we're talking about his birth! He's just getting started in you and me. 8

9 We must let him grow in our hearts and come to rule them - we must personify Christ with our living in the days to come. So Christmas you see, is not only about the promise of God's presence, Christmas, instead is about Christ, and about what he became and perhaps more importantly, for us anyway, its about what we can become because he became. The question for you this morning is, "What have we become in the light of what Christ became?" "What shall we become?" That question stopped Ebenezer Scrooge in his tracks and made him seek transformation. Look once again how Scrooge became something when he realized what life was really all about. (Play second clip: In December 1903, after many attempts, the Wright brothers were successful in getting their "flying machine" off the ground. Thrilled, they telegraphed this message to their sister Katherine: "We have actually flown 120 feet. Will be home for Christmas." Katherine hurried to the editor of the local newspaper and showed him the message. He glanced at it and said, "How nice. The boys will be home for Christmas." He totally missed the big news--man had flown! The big news for us is not that Jesus came. His coming means nothing unless we are being transformed as well. 9

CHAPTER ONE - Scrooge

CHAPTER ONE - Scrooge Marley was dead. That was certain because there were people at his funeral. Scrooge was there too. He and Marley were business partners, and he was Marley's only friend. But Scrooge