"Christmas Is Not Your Birthday"

Christmas Is Not Your Birthday

Luke 4:16-20 (NASB)

The holiday season is here. Christmas is that wonderful time of the year. But I must confess, I get a bit cynical because of the consumerism that accompanies this season.

After we gorge ourselves on an extensive Thanksgiving meal, we sit and go through the ads that pop-up on our phones and scroll through our favorite stores, dreaming big dreams about the stuff we’ll surely get from Santa Claus as long as we behave.
Last year Americans set a spending record of $886.7 billion on Christmas gifts, a 14% increase over 2023. It’s predicted that Christmas spending will see less of a boost this year. You would think that spending would go down this year due to inflation. Yet, the forecast is that Christmas shopping will increase by 6-8% over last year.

Retailers make a good portion of their yearly profits this season, so I can’t blame them for doing what they can to get our attention. Advertising works, and when you’re exposed to thousands of ads and commercials enticing you to spend for weeks, it tends to wear you down.

Then there are the expectations of our friends and family to partake in these gift exchanges. It’s no wonder most of us spend more than we initially planned for Christmas.

In one sense, our topic today is a no-brainer because many of us will be spending less anyway because of the economy at large and the economy in our lives. According to an AP Poll that appeared in the Pantagraph in late November, 93% say they will spend less or about the same as last year and about 20% say they are suffering from debt-related stress.

In order to get us thinking outside of the box, let’s pause and ponder one pastor’s short version of the history of Christianity: “Christianity started in Palestine as a fellowship; it moved to Greece and became a philosophy; it moved to Italy and became an institution; it moved to Europe and became a culture; it came to America and became an enterprise.”

Do you know what the fastest growing religion is in the world? It’s not Islam or Christianity. The symbol of this rising faith is not the crescent or the cross, but a dollar sign. This expanding belief system is radical consumerism, and it promises transcendence, power, pleasure, fulfillment and complete devotion.

I’m afraid that many American Christians have incorporated this devotion to consumerism with their Christian faith. The consumer culture we live in claims that the material things we want will elevate us above our current circumstances.
The headlines that scream at us are crazy. Here’s one that I saw a couple weeks ago: “Savers Slowing Economy.” While I wasn’t an econ major, I do know money. I do know that consumer spending accounts for 70% of our economy. It’s almost as if we’re being urged to shop our way out of the recession, even though many of us are struggling financially ourselves. One pastor write: “How strange and sad it is that debt and consumerism reach their pinnacle on the morning we celebrate the birth of Jesus – the Savior who came to liberate us from these things.”

Here’s the deal. At the very heart of consumerism is dissatisfaction and discontentment. Check out this quote from Charles Stanley: “We are constantly searching for the one thing that will satisfy us. Yet each time we trust the promises of our possessions; more barriers are raised between our true selves and God’s plain command to love [Him] above all things. It’s not that we necessarily want more – it’s that what we want is something we can’t buy.”

Here’s the sermon in a nutshell: If we want this Christmas season to be different, we must learn the secret of being content. In the midst of our consumer culture, the words of Christ from Luke 12:15 should cause us to pause: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” (NIV)

If you’re not happy without something; you won’t be happy with it either. Or, as someone has said, “If you can’t be happy with what you already have, why should God trust you with anything else?” Despite this caution, many of us still think that if we just had more money, then we’d be happy.

While I love receiving gifts, I can’t help but think that something has gone wrong in our celebration of Christmas. After all, Christmas is not my birthday and it’s not your birthday: it’s Jesus’ birthday!

We’re so consumed with getting that we fail to acknowledge the true reason for the season. We have professed allegiance to Jesus but celebrate his birth with an abundance of materialism that drives us deeper and deeper in debt.

I find it hard to believe that God would want us to celebrate his birth with more “stuff” we don’t need when there is so much poverty, starvation and malnutrition in the world.

I wonder what it would be like if we, the followers of Christ, did Christmas differently? What would it be like if, in celebration of Christ’s birth, we stopped fulfilling each other’s wants and started living out the Gospel of Jesus Christ by proclaiming good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind in order to set the oppressed free and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor?

What would it be like if we stopped giving self-less presents? Self-less presents are gifts that require little to no emotional or physical sacrifice. How about we stop giving self-less presents and start giving self-full presence. Self-full presence is an emotional and physical state of being fully, sacrificially present for others.

The birth of Christ is packed with self-full presence. Mary gave herself wholly to God when she agreed to carry the Christ-child. Joseph sacrifices his reputation by agreeing to wed Mary, now pregnant, even though custom would have allowed him to walk away.

And most importantly, God gave Godself in the Christmas story—abandoning all the privileges of the Godhead in order to be in relationship and save the world he so loved. The Christmas story is a story of people—and God—giving themselves fully for the sake of others: self-full presence.

What if we—like Mary, Joseph and God—gave ourselves fully in love to others? There are an estimated 2.1 billion Christians in the world. What would it be like if we, as Christians, each did something, sacrificed something, for the sake of another person outside our individual families.

If we truly embraced the idea of self-full giving, we might just find that Jesus’ mission, proclaimed in our Scripture lesson today, might be accomplished. The poor would hear the good news that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. The imprisoned would know God’s presence and be set free like Paul and Silas imprisoned in Philippi. The blind would see like the blind man Jesus healed in Bethsaida with a little spit and a gentle touch. The oppressed would be liberated like the Israelites, who after years of bondage in Egypt were led out slavery by a column of cloud by day and a column of lightning by night.
In short, what we’d find if we truly celebrated Christmas in the self-full spirit of the story is that miracles can and do still happen when we set aside ourselves and reach out with God’s grace and love.

REMEMBER WHAT THIS SEASON IS REALLY ABOUT

Christmas is not primarily about buying stuff. I like the expression of generosity that’s synonymous with celebrating Christmas, and it’s an important part of the season. I love seeing my family express joy and gratitude as they receive something they want or long for. But that’s not the FOCUS of Christmas.

Christmas is about a baby that was born more than 2000 years ago. Jesus came as a gift from God to all humanity. He was God in human form who came to live and die so that we may have life and be reunited with Him for eternity. It’s a gift that’s still offered to every person. You can’t earn this gift, and you can’t buy it; you just receive it.

For me, giving and receiving remind me of this ultimate gift. And it just wouldn’t be Christmas without giving! But there are ways to enjoy this season without overspending and experiencing future financial misery.

3 ways to keep your joy this holiday season without going broke:

1. Spend Less.

What was the one gift you remember getting for Christmas last year? Next question: What about the fourth gift? Do you remember that one? Truth is many of us don’t because it wasn’t something we necessarily wanted or needed. Spending less isn’t a call to stop giving gifts; it’s a call to stop spending money on gifts we won’t remember in less than a year. America spends around $800 billion dollars during the Christmas season, and much of that it joyless and goes right onto a credit card. By spending wisely on gifts, we free ourselves from the anxiety associated with going into debt so we can take in the season with a full heart. (paying bills with tax money)

2. Don’t go into long-term debt to make someone temporarily happy.

I don’t know anyone who would want a family member or friend to go into debt to receive a gift. If you don’t have the cash to buy gifts this year, don’t. I know how scary that sounds, but I assure you the more dangerous part is you using your credit cards to finance Christmas gifts for months or years to come.

Speak to your loved ones and let them know your situation. Then find a creative and free way to let them know how much you care about them.

You may be surprised to find out that your friends and family will probably be just as relieved as you are to forgo financing Christmas gifts. (you buy me something because I buy you something; save your money)

3. Do the one thing that matters the most.

Give of yourself. In keeping with the true message of Christmas, look for an opportunity to do something for someone who cannot do it for themselves. Giving really is better than receiving, making for a holiday season you will not soon forget.

Closing Illustration

Father Spends a Week on the Streets with Homeless Son

A San Diego father (who wants to be known as “Frank”) believed his son, a homeless, heroin addict living on the streets in Denver, was on the verge of dying. Frank contacted Chris Conner, one of Denver’s leading homeless advocates. Conner has helped parents find their lost children, but this was different.

Conner said, “I’ve never had a parent who necessarily went this far to descend into homelessness themselves.” Conner connected Frank with Pastor Jerry Herships, whose church serves lunch to homeless people in a Denver park across from the state capitol.

Frank described the moment he met his son on the street in Denver:

He has no idea that I’m walking towards him. I can see that he can’t stand up without the support of a building. He would appear drunk to most people. To his dad, though, I know from past experience, sadly he’s on heroin—heavy. I go up to him, and he starts to turn his back on me. I don’t even care. I just grab him and squeeze him as hard as I can.

For a week, Frank became his son’s shadow, wandering the streets during the day and sleeping on the banks of a river at night. He grew a beard, ate hand-out sandwiches during the day, and swatted away the rats at night. Meanwhile, his son got sick, in and out of the hospital, stealing to buy more drugs. At one point, Frank told his son, “If you die, your mom and dad die with you. We might still be here breathing. But make no mistake, we’ll be dead inside.”

When asked why he did it, Frank said, “The only thing I could think of was just go there, be with him and love him. Show him how much his family loves him.”