Adoring the Christ Child-in July Too! (July 27, 2014)

Adoring the Christ Child—In July Too!

Luke 2:1-20

July 27, 2014[1]

I can’t claim that celebrating Christmas in July is an original idea.  I first heard of the idea at Lakeside, Ohio, where Carol and I have our summer cottage.  On a designated week, the cottages are decorated with Christmas décor.  And it culminates in a live nativity.  One year, Liz was Mary. 

It seemed like a great way to re-live the Christmas Story without the interference of commercialism.  But that balloon was burst when Carol forwarded to me an email dated July 22, 2014 from Whitehorse Gear, advertising its Christmas in July sale with a 10% discount for orders placed by July  27^th.  The ad showed a picture of Santa Clause wearing sunglasses and standing on a beach someplace, sipping what I am sure was iced tea.

Stanley Steamer ran an ad announcing its Christmas in July Contest from July 21-31.  The price was a $250 gift certificate and the ad showed a Stanley Steamer truck with the Christmas wrapping partially opened, and ornamented with a border of colored Christmas lights.

Kings Dominion ran a Christmas in July promotion, offering 50% off the price of a regular pass, redeemable between July 28 and August 17^th.  The idea of riding the tidal wave for Christmas was a bit mind-bending for me.

Not to be outdone, Colorful Images ran a Christmas in July special on creating a stylized canvas print of designer word images. 

And Best Buy announced a Black Friday in July sale.

We can’t even have a non-commercialized celebration of Christmas in July!

But I still think it is important to try.  Even if the stores are trying to make inroads in our July celebration!

I can’t help but note something else.  I had hoped that by celebrating Christmas in July, we would be able to get people’s attention.  You know the drill of celebrating Christmas on Christmas—from Christmas pageants to Christmas parties, from making a list and checking it twice, to finding out who’se naughty and nice, from Christmas cookies to Christmas cards, we hardly have time for a “Silent Night” when all the faithful can come and “adore Him, Christ the Lord.”  I thought that July would be different.  I can’t count how many people told me that they would be gone this week.  It seems as though the last gasp of family vacations for the summer rivals the last gasp of family trips in December.

Yet, the invitation still remains this morning:  O Come, all ye Faithful.  O Come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!

That word “adore” intrigues me.  How do you adore a baby?

I remember when each of our three kids were born.  For each of them, the circumstances were very different.

David, was our first-born.  Like many first-time parents, we had rehearsed and rehearsed the breathing for natural child-birth.  We had the nursery all assembled.  We had read the books on how to raise a child.  We were ready, but David wasn’t.  It was at least ten days after his “due date” that he began knocking, seeking admission to the world.  We were so caught up with getting ready for church that Sunday morning that we almost didn’t recognize the signals.  But all was going well—for awhile—and then an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck signaled that all was not well.  An emergency C-section changed all our plans for the perfect childbirth.  I was glad that they acted quickly.  I don’t know if the doctors still announce an “APGAR” score for newborns.  It struck me as a bit of Olympic fever gone wild—they would rate the child’s Appearance, Pulse, Grimace, Activity, and Respiration[2] on a scale from 1 to 10 one minute following birth and then at five minutes following birth.  David scored a 3 the first time around.  After a few more anxious moments, we were quite relieved to see him bounce back to a ten.  It didn’t take long for us to conclude that he was “practically perfect in every way.[3]”

When we were preparing for Liz to arrive, things were different.  Because David had been born by C-section, the doctors wanted Liz to be delivered by C-section, as well.  We were able to schedule a delivery date that would be close enough to due date to permit Liz’s tiny lungs to be ready to breathe, and yet early enough to avoid the potential risk to Carol of entering into labor.  We had a date and time for delivery.  So we dropped Carol off at the hospital the day before (insurance companies let you do that in those days), and I made my plans to be at the hospital by 11:00 am.  We didn’t count on a change in the doctor’s schedule that led to him being available at 10:00.  I walked leisurely into the hospital to find that they were wheeling Carol down the hallway.  Liz made her initial appearance early, and I almost missed it!

Margaret’s birth was different, as well.  She also was to be born by C section; but she surprised us by signaling her appearance ten days early!  In the middle of the night (after a relaxing Memorial Day dinner with our neighbors), she told us we were coming and we had to get those same neighbors to come stay with David and Liz so we could greet our newest arrival.  We were certainly joyful at her arrival.  But it was apparent almost immediately that something was different—that Margaret was born with a skin disorder that the doctors didn’t understand, at first—a disorder that would lead to untold visits to doctors and hospitals and learning through trial and error how to care for her.

Three different babies.  Three different birth stories.  None of them were quite what we expected.  But I adored each one, and I still do.

When we say that we “adore” a baby, what do we mean?  We find that the birth of a baby can take the most sophisticated, articulate adult and transform them into someone who communicates with “oohs” and “ahs” and funny gurgling noises, trying to communicate with a young life whose mind has not yet been programmed to understand human language.  We watch for signs of their bodies needs, and learn to interpret whether a cry signals hunger, sleepiness or a messy diaper.  We receive visits from family members and friends, who stop by to greet this new life.

I suspect that Mary and Joseph and their friends did all of these things.  Like all first time parents, I am sure that they thought their new baby was different, was perfect.  Did they have any clue just how different their child was?

We read in the accounts from Matthew and Luke that both Mary and Joseph had received announcements from unfamiliar guests, announcing that the child would “save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21) and would be called the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32).  It is one thing to hear those words; it is another thing to really understand them.  It wasn’t until years later that an evangelist would write those immortal words that “the Word was made flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). 

How do you adore the Christ Child?  How do you adore the “incarnate one,” the God-man in infant form?

First, you go see Him.  The shepherds said “let us go now to Bethlehem and see thins thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us” (Luke 2:15).  So they traveled that night to Bethlehem.  They didn’t saunter along.  They didn’t say that they would check things out in the morning.  “They went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16).  They didn’t say that they would wait until they were ready.  We don’t adore the Christ on our schedule; we adore Him when He is near.  The prophet Isaiah said, “seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near; let the wicked forsake their way and the unrighteous their thoughts and let them pray to the Lord..., for He will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:6-7).  How do you adore the Christ child?  You seek, you change your ways, you pray to the Lord.  And you do it now, not later.

The shepherds weren’t done yet.  Their adoration didn’t stop there.  They returned to their daily lives glorifying and praising God for what they had heard and seen (Luke 2:17, 20).  They didn’t keep the Good News of the Gospel to themselves.  When you have seen, when you have experienced the Christ, you share the Good News.  When God has touched your life, you spread the Word, letting people know that you encountered the Holy One, that you have been changed.  As the adult Jesus later said, you don’t hide your light under a bushel, but you ‘let your let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven’ (Matthew 5:16).

Mary had another way of adoring.  She “pondered.”  Mary “treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” (Luke 2:19).  When you encounter the Holy One, you can’t take it all in at once.  It takes time to understand the change that takes place in your life. It can take a lifetime to be able to see in the rear-view mirror of your life the way that God, through His grace, has led you, guided you, beckoned you, saved you and transformed you.  But we get caught up in our busyness.  Have you taken the time to ponder what the almighty has done in your heart and life?

How do you adore the Christ child?  You seek Him, call upon Him and let Him change your life.  You glorify Him, and you spread the word about what the Christ has done in your life.  You ponder Him, marveling at the mystery of His love.

But the Christ child we adore has one more suggestion for us this day.  This Christ tells us not to simply tell the Good News.  He tells us to put our words into action.  He didn’t say that we would be His friends if we simply told people about Him.  He told His disciples “You are my friends if you do what I command you” (John 15:14).  And what does He command us to do?  He tells us “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12).  Not just a casual love, but a love that runs deep, a love that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).  Love that endures all things even to the point of giving up everything for the beloved.  Jesus said “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).  If we want to follow this Jesus, if we want to adore Him, we need to be prepared, because He, the One who is the “way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) calls us to get in line, a line that leads to a hillside and a cross; but it doesn’t end there.  His way leads to triumph over death.  His way leads to glory.

Years later, the Apostle Paul would explain what it means to adore Christ in this way.  Paul wrote, “Let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who … emptied himself, … and he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.”  (Philippians 2:6-8).

How do you adore the Christ?  You take up your own cross and follow Him.  What will it mean in your individual life?  I can’t answer that.  God’s call to each of us is unique, calling us to different journeys.  The specific journey will be different.  But the gift of God that we receive is nothing less than the gift of eternal life!

So “come, let us adore Him.  O come let us adore Him.  O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord!”

Copyright (c) 2014 by Thomas E. Frost.  All rights reserved.

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[1] Preached at Cunningham United Methodist Church and Hayden Chapel United Methodist Church in Palmyra, Virginia.

[2]  “About the Apgar Score” on the website Kids’ Health from Nemours, viewed on the internet on July 27, 2014 at http://kidshealth.org/parent/pregnancy_center/q_a/apgar.html.

[3] From Walt Disney’s Mary Poppins.