Christ at Christmas
Romans 1:2-4
David Starling
The Christmas dilemma
Well, it’s December once again - just 21 days to go till Christmas - and once again it’s time to grapple with that annual dilemma that Christmas brings: what sort of present do you get for the person who already has everything they could possibly need?
At one level, Christmas is a reminder that comes around once a year to tell us how much we have, how rich we are. The advertisers do their very best to convince us that we desperately need an iPod or a blackberry or an X-box for the kids, and we partly believe them, but deep down most of the time we know that our lives are actually awash with possessions already. At one level, Christmas serves to remind us of how much we have and how little we really need.
But at another level, in the midst of all the food and drink and music and presents, there are those aspects of Christmas that peep through to the surface and remind us that we are not without needs. So there is the grief that surfaces as we think about the people that we have lost through death and the changes of life and the breakdown of relationships. There is the vague feeling of dread as we think about the prospect of spending four or five hours with the difficult members of the family - the people that we only see once a year when it’s Christmas time and we have to see them. There’s the guilt about the relationships that are not the way that they should be, and the worry underneath that about our relationship with God, whether we really are right with him, whether he really does accept us and welcome us and love us.
And the temptation when those feelings come is simply to smother them over with more food and more drinks and more presents and hope that they’ll go away - as if an iPod or a turkey could give us a happy heart or a clear conscience or a hope beyond death or a relationship with God.
Christmas is a strange, double reminder, isn’t it - of how wealthy we are and yet how needy we are. It’s a little bit like the letter to the Laodiceans in the book of Revelation. Revelation chapter 3 - in John’s vision Jesus gives him a letter to send to the Laodicean church, the lukewarm church, and he says them: “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
In that context, Paul’s letter to the Romans is a really helpful part of the Bible to have echoing in our memory as we head toward Christmas. Over these next three weeks, we’re going to be looking at four little verses or paragraphs from Romans, one each week, each of them as a reminder of what the message of Romans has to say to us at Christmas time.
Christ and Romans
The church that already has everything?
In some ways, Paul’s letter to the Romans is written in a context a little bit like the context of the Christmas dilemma that we spoke about a few minutes ago. Paul is very conscious as he writes this letter and as he thinks about visiting the church in Rome - he’s very conscious of the fact that this is not really a needy church or a church in crisis. If you like, this is the letter that you write to the church that already has everything. So Paul says in chapter 15 verse 14, in that verse that Tim quoted from last week - Romans 15 verse 14: “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.” This is not a letter that arises out of a situation of desperation or crisis or some particular urgent need.
Giving the Gospel (again!)
And yet Paul still writes, and he still plans to visit, and he still has something that he wants to give them. So after telling them how complete he thinks they are as a church, he goes on to say, chapter 15 verse 15: “I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
Paul still has something that he wants to give them, and he tells us that right at the start of the letter. Chapter 1 verse 11, Paul writes: “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong.”
What will make them strong? We heard it from Tim last week - chapter 16 verse 25: “Now to him who is able to establish you [to make you strong] by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ.”. And so back in chapter 1, Paul writes in verse 15: “That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome.”
What does Paul want to give these Christians in Rome, these Christians who already have everything? He wants to give them the gospel. Again. Not because they don’t already have the gospel, but because they need to keep hearing it over and over and over again, as the most precious thing that they could be given. So he writes to them boldly, and he writes to remind them, and he writes to them about the gospel.
The heart of the gospel
So it’s no accident that Paul talks about the gospel in the very first verses and the very last verses of the letter, and in both cases he reminds us about what the heart of the gospel is. So in chapter 16 verse 25 Paul writes about the gospel as “the proclamation of Jesus Christ”. And in chapter 1 verse 2 he reminds us that the content of the gospel, at its heart, is Jesus. Listen again to what he writes, picking up at verse 1. Romans 1 verse 1: “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God — 2 the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures 3 regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, 4 and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord.” Do you see it right there in the centre of the paragraph? Verse 3, right there in the middle, “regarding his Son”; and there at the end of the paragraph, verse 4: “Jesus Christ our Lord”.
The gospel is the message about Jesus - Jesus the Christ, the deliverer, the Saviour, the Lord. At its heart, the message of the gospel is not a message about us, and about our needs, and about the way that God goes about meeting our needs, and about the way that happens to involve Jesus. At its heart, the gospel is a message about Jesus, and about the way that God brings about his glory and his righteousness in him, and as it happens, that ends up being the thing that meets our very deepest needs. Do you see the difference? It’s about him before its about us; but when the gospel doesa come to talk about us, it tells us that all the things we really need are to be found in him.
Christ and the blessings of the gospel
So you’ll see on the outline a list that I’ve put together from Romans of a whole string of blessings that come to us through the gospel, and if you take them home and look them up and read them, you’ll see how the blessings of the gospel right through Romans are blessings that come to us wrapped up in Jesus. He is the one in whom we have redemption, rescue, salvation. He is the one through whom we have peace with God. He is the one who is at the centre of all our joy, even in the midst of sorrow. And so on, and so on. At every point, Paul wants to tell us that it’s in Christ that all these blessings come. If we have him we have everything, and if we don’t have him then in the end we have nothing.
Treasuring Christ at Christmas
What does all this have to say to us at Christmas time? It says to us at Christmas time, whatever else we celebrate, let’s make sure that we celebrate Jesus. Whatever else we give each other this Christmas, let’s figure out how we can find ways to give each other the gospel, and give each other Jesus.
If you’ve got kids, that’ll mean giving some really careful thought to the kind of Christmas you want your kids growing up with. The best solution probably won’t be the Jane Eyre solution, where you ask your kids if they want a psalm or a ginger-nut, and if they say “a psalm” you give them two ginger-nuts for their piety. And it probably won’t be the Ebenezer Scrooge solution, where you just dispense with the whole celebration and say “Bah, Humbug” to it all - if anyone should be celebrating at Christmas time, surely it ought to be us.
But I think it will mean figuring out how to get Santa out of the picture and put Jesus right into the centre of the way you celebrate Christmas in your family. It’ll mean finding fun and special and celebratory ways to tell and retell and celebrate the story of Jesus. It’ll mean talking with the kids about why Jesus came and why the story is such good news for people like us. It’ll mean teaching your kids the Christmas songs - the good ones about Jesus - and explaining what they mean and singing them together.
And if you live one your own or in a house of grown-ups, then it’ll mean working out grown-up kinds of ways to keep Jesus in the centre of your thinking this December. So it might mean getting hold of the new John Dickson book about Jesus and taking a few hours to remind yourself of all the reasons why you love him. If you’re a classical music lover, it might mean getting out the old Messiah CD and giving yourself an evening to sit down and listen to it through in one sitting and be reminded of the gospel. If you’re a Christmas card sender, it might mean digging around in the Bible and finding one really good, punchy, simple Bible verse to put at the bottom of your Christmas cards. If you’re around on the twenty-fifth, it might mean figuring out a way to be here with us on Christmas morning, to start the day with songs and Scripture and prayer and reminders of the gospel. Whatever else we give each other this Christmas, let’s give each other Jesus and the gospel.
You may remember how I quoted back at the start from the letter of Christ to the Laodiceans - the ones who thought they had everything and needed nothing. This is how the letter finishes, not with a rebuke but with an invitation - Revelation 3 verse 19: “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Let’s pray right now that we have the sort of Christmas this year where we hear Jesus’ voice, and where we welcome him in, and where we get to sit at the table with him.