The Real Meaning of Christmas

About this sermon

If you were an Alien intelligence trying to understand the natural world that we occupy, it would be pretty easy to conclude that power and strength prevail. Our best attempt to interpret and explain the apparent progression of species on our planet is predicated on the survival of the fittest or strongest. It’s the success of traits that contribute to strength over those that contribute to weakness. The animal kingdom and the natural world reinforce this appreciation by revealing it for us with persistent reliability. The strong prey upon the weak. Their leadership is granted through victory and domination until they are no longer the strongest. And yet, we who are the most triumphant of all species, have this unshakable appreciation for the underdog. We are infatuated with the small and the seemingly weak or helpless. We romanticize the poor and are quick to take the side of the victim and the oppressed. Our consciousness is haunted by a persuasive suspicion, that meekness and smallness are good and even attractive. It inspires a desire to care and arouses empathy. And this suspicion is not something that we observe in the world around us, so we have to insert it through our stories. We love the unexpected hero. The unassuming one that everyone else had written off, but we knew, they’d turn out to be great in the end. We tell ourselves these stories to try to rationalize this unshakeable suspicion that is written deep within our souls. This thing that we cannot explain because it doesn’t correlate to anything that is observed in nature, but we feel it pressing in on us when we are called to love those who have less. We’ve heard the Christmas story so many times that it feels like a cliché, a platitude, something that can’t possibly provide any new insight. But how many of us have truly contemplated the significance of it, the paradox of it, the astonishing possibility of it. What if behind everything that exists, everything that we know of, is one who chooses to identify with the small and the weak? What if the fulfillment of our suspicions about the reality we find ourselves in is found in one who is revealed in a way that defies our expectations? The story of the human creature begins in a cave. And as that story evolves and progresses and that creature grows in prosperity and insight, we can trace the attempts that were made to make sense of its surroundings. Instead of listening to that quiet suggestion about paradox of the small and the humble, we assumed that whatever lies behind the world that exists must be like the world we observed. That it valued strength over weakness, wealth over poverty, pride over humility. And so, we began to tell stories of the gods who were, above all else, powerful. And in that context and in that ancient and civilized world, from among a conquered people, the story of Christmas tells us that this same one who has been whispering to us in every place throughout the ages appears as a helpless baby, born into an inconsequential family, displaced in the wilderness. God did not invade our world with a show of strength. He chooses to identify himself as someone small, someone helpless, someone humble. The story of God on earth, begins in a cave. The story of humanity’s recreation, begins in a cave, and ever since, the stories we tell are no longer about the triumph of strength over weakness… but of the underdog who defies the odds, and overcomes evil. This is what we are invited to celebrate on Christmas. That in the end, the last will be first. Please comment with your ideas about the video and if you find it interesting, please share it and subscribe. Twitter: https://twitter.com/briankeepsworth Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brianholdsworthmedia Business: https://www.holdsworthdesign.com

Topics

• Christmas