Sermon preached at Faith Presbyterian Church, Springfield, Virginia, on Sunday, December 20, 1987, by the Rev. W. Graham Smith, D.D. MATTHEW 25:37-40 Then the righteous will answer him, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The king will reply, I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESUS! In my estimation the finest black clergyman in this country today is the Reverend Dr. E.V. Hill, who for the past 26 years has been the beloved pastor of the Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in south central Los Angeles, California. He is a saintly man, a dynamic preacher who always captures the attention of the crowds who come to hear his forceful proclamation of the Word of God. Over the years he has led thousands of people to Christ through his evangelistic ministry in his own church, across this land, and around the world. Some months ago I heard him late one night as he talked to Paul Crouch on the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and the story he told made a deep impression on me; and when he finished, I made a few notes and vowed that I would share what I had heard with my people during the Advent Season. Dr. Hill told how 12 years ago he came home late on Christmas Eve after what he called a very dead service at his church. People had complained, he said, that it lasted for a whole hour! As he entered his living room, feeling very depressed because the service had not gone well, he looked at the beautiful Christmas tree which Mrs. Hill had decorated with all sorts of ornaments and twinkling colored lights. Under that tree were more than 200 presents! He said, We have 40 auxiliaries in our church, and every one of them had sent me a present! They had done the same for my wife, my daughter and my son. And, he said, my dear old mother was still alive and living with us, and they had done the same for her! Two hundred presents under that tree! And besides these presents there were 648 Christmas cards, in almost every one of which was a gift of money. And then, he said, I went down to the kitchen, and there were more presents a huge turkey, a mammoth ham, and other assorted foodstuffs which would ensure us the best Christmas dinner in Los Angeles! But, he said, I left the kitchen and went down to my study with tears in my eyes, saying, Lord, what is wrong with Christmas now? I should be on Cloud Nine tonight, and here I am feeling utterly miserable. And the Lord said, E.V., I m not happy with the way you celebrate Christmas.
All right, Lord, said the famous preacher, please tell me how to celebrate it. And for the next hour Dr. Hill sat at his desk and made notes of what the Lord said to him about a better way to celebrate Christmas. The first thing Jesus said to him was this: I want My birthday for Me! Do you realize that there is not one present, not one Christmas card there under that tree with My Name on it? It s supposed to be My birthday, and everybody here in this house is getting something except Me! So Jesus said, I want the presents! And then the thought came to Dr. Hill, Everybody gets presents on their birthday, but nobody comes over to your house and takes your presents home with them on your birthday. If they would attempt such a thing you would either suggest that the person needs psychiatric counseling, or else you would call the police! So Jesus explained to Dr. Hill, through the Holy Spirit, that He did not like the way in which His birthday had been so abominably commercialized. He didn t like all the carousing and the ribald revelry that characterizes so much of the season. He wanted His presents on His birthday! And that made sense to Dr. Hill as he sat at his desk late that night. And it makes sense to us, too, doesn t it? Isn t it only right that Jesus should get the presents on His birthday? By far the best Christmas present my wife and I ever received was when our elder son, Alan, arrived at 2:00 a.m. one Christmas morning long ago! And we have always been very careful to see that Alan does not get short-changed, but receives his presents on his birthday, even though it is Christmas Day! Sure, we don t know whether December 25 was the actual day on which Jesus was born, but no matter, it is the day we celebrate His birthday, and He should get the presents! But then the question arose in Dr. Hill s mind, How, Jesus, do I get the presents to You? How do I get the money in those 648 envelopes to you? And the Lord said, E.V., have you ever read what I told Isaiah to proclaim to the people in the 58th chapter of his prophecy? Here s what I want you to do: to share your food with the hungry; and bring right into your own home those who are helpless, poor, and destitute; to clothe those who are naked; and don t hide from relatives who need your help. If you do these things God will shed His own glorious light upon you (and you will be truly happy!). He will heal you; your godliness will lead you forward, and goodness will be a shield in front of you, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then you will call and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say, Here am I! (Isaiah 58:7-9).
These are the four things I want, Jesus says: 1. to share your food with the hungry; 2. to bring into your home the poor, the lonely, and the destitute; 3. to clothe the naked; and 4. to take care of your kin folk. That s the present Jesus wants for Christmas! And then God reminded Dr. Hill of those soul-searching words of our Lord in Matthew chapter 25; Jesus said very plainly and very categorically, If you find anybody naked, and give him clothing; if you feed some poor person; if you visit someone who is sick, or in prison; that which you do unto the least of these My brothers, you have done it unto Me! And, says Dr. Hill, the light broke upon my soul! This illustration came to his mind. Here is a rich man who has everything! And you want to get something for him on his birthday. But you can t imagine what you could get for him that he doesn t already have! So you go to him and tell him your plight. And do you know what he says? With a grateful smile on his face he says, You re right. I can t think of a thing in this world that I really need that I don t already have; but I ll tell you I happen to have a friend who lives down there near you, and he s in real bad shape. He s poor and lonely and in poor health. Now, if you really want to do something for me on my birthday, do it unto him! You get the point, don t you? That is the way Jesus wants us to celebrate His birthday. He s so incredibly rich! He created the stars and the planets and flung them into space! He has enjoyed from all eternity the homage and the adoration of the heavenly hosts. There s really not a thing we could give Him that He doesn t already have. So He says to us this Christmas-tide, If you want to do something for Me for My birthday, please help those poor human brothers and sisters of yours in your global village down there on planet Earth. Forget about the toy and the tinsel, the revelry, and the giving of big expensive presents to each other, and for My sake, help those who have nothing! Think of it He s really saying, If you have a big meal and don t invite some poor or lonely person to share it with you, it s out of order! And that really hits home, doesn t it? I know it does to me. The Word of God tells us that we are to be moderate in all things; and yet the Christmas Season is the time when Americans demonstrate more crude, vulgar materialism than at any other time of the year and they have the hypocrisy to do it in the Name of the Blessed One Who was born in a smelly stable, and Who said when He grew up and became an itinerant Preacher, Foxes have dens, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head (Matthew 8:20).
You see, all this materialistic commercialization of Christmas is utterly inconsistent with the world situation. When it comes to Christmas, even we Christians have really messed up, haven t we? Can you imagine how unspeakably greedy we American Christians must look in the eyes of Third World people the way we spend money on ourselves at this time of the year as if it were going out of style? A two-hour flight to Haiti will introduce you to a land of hopeless, poverty stricken people; and when they see on television our self-indulgent, extravagant life style, they must find it difficult to understand that they should have so little, and we so much. Of course, this affluence we enjoy is unique to America and Europe and Australasia. So, we need to reassess our life style for that reason, if for no other. But there is another and even more important reason, and it is this: it just doesn t make any sense to celebrate a Man s birthday, and not give Him any presents! We should give them all to Jesus! The first thing Dr. Hill did after that memorable Christmas Eve encounter with the Lord was to establish in his own church what he calls The Lord s Kitchen, where they now feed more than 1,700 people each week. As well as this, they collected and gave away last year almost 60,000 pieces of clothing. In the ghettoes of Los Angeles they will tell you, If you go to Mount Zion Baptist, two things will happen to you you ll get saved, and you ll get fed and clothed! They also have an extensive jail ministry, a Skid Row ministry, and a drug and alcohol abuse center. Dr. Hill makes this challenging statement: he says, If in every city in the U.S.A. only ten of the largest churches would set up a Lord s Kitchen we could take hunger off the streets of America. Now how does all this impact us here at Faith Church? Let me mention two things that the Lord has laid upon my heart: 1. We want to make as careful an estimate as we can of what we, as a household, have spent on Christmas 1987 the food, the presents, the cards everything; and then covenant with the Lord to spend an equivalent amount, over and above the tithe, in helping the needy around the world. Isn t that one way of giving Jesus His presents on His birthday?! Let me commend to you one organization among many through which you may do this, and that is World Vision International. Do you know that for $18.00 a month you can support an orphan child in India or Korea or Kenya, for example? We are on our third child now, and what a joy it is to receive their pictures and information about how they are progressing in school! You feel that your money is going where you can never go, and that your arms are reaching out to embrace a hurting child whom you will never meet until we all get to heaven! You remember what the Master said, If, as My representatives, you give even a cup of cold water to a little child, you will surely be rewarded (Matthew l0:42). Not that we give in order to be rewarded we give because we, who have so much, want to help hurting people who have so little, 2. Not only may we give our money to Jesus as His birthday gift; we may also give Him our service; not only our treasure, but also our time and talents. Would you covenant with the Lord to get involved in some specific ministry of mercy during 1988?
Let me mention three such ministries: a. Lorton Reformatory. It is most commendable to provide these gifts of toilet materials; and I hope you will continue to do this. But what about visiting Lorton once in a while, to meet the inmates, and encourage the many new Christians among them, and perhaps helping out with excellent programs such as remedial reading, or assisting the chaplains in numerous ways? I was in prison, and you visited Me! (Matthew 25:36). b. Meals on Wheels. You realize, don t you, that more than eighty old people in Alexandria receive two meals each day through this ministry. Many of them are too infirm to purchase and prepare their own food. Can you imagine the plight of those old folk if people from our churches didn t prepare and deliver those nourishing meals to them? One person drives his or her car, and another acts as runner going from the car to deliver the food and to offer a cheery word to the recipient. It doesn t take any training, just a lot of love and dedication. Would you sign up for even one day a month? c. Woodbine Nursing Home, where we conduct a short worship service each Wednesday evening at 7:00 p.m. Perhaps you could come once in a while to take part by leading the singing, or reading Scripture, or giving a short message; or just being there to speak to those old folk, who have so little company, and who so much appreciate seeing people like you who care about them in their sunset years. Martin of Tours, who lived in the fourth century A.D., was one of the most revered saints of western Europe. As a young man he was conscripted to serve in the Roman army, and as a Christian, that was not an easy assignment. One cold winter day, as he was entering the city of Amiens, a beggar stopped him and asked him for a little money with which to buy some bread. Martin had no money, but the poor beggar was blue and shivering with cold, and Martin gave him what he had. He took off his soldier s cloak, worn and frayed as it was; and cutting it in two, he gave half of it to the beggar man. That night he had a dream. In it he saw a door opened into heaven, and the angels were surrounding the throne of God where Jesus sat in His resurrection glory; and Jesus was wearing half of a Roman soldier s cloak! One of the angels said to Him, Master, why are You wearing that tattered old cloak? Who gave it to You? And Jesus answered softly, My servant Martin gave it to Me! Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you were doing it for Me. Give Jesus the presents this Christmas! AMEN.