Birthday of a King                                            [12/26/48]

 

[Scripture: Read Isaiah 9: 2-7; Matthew 2: 1-11

 

We moderns of the western world have become exacting as to the registration of births.  Most people possess certificates of birth to prove that they were born on a certain day at a certain place, of such and such parentage.

 

Birth anniversaries are generally observed all over the earth; but not necessarily on the exact anniversary of one’s birth day.  Among some oriental peoples, everyone has his or her birthday with the coming of the new year, or at least counts himself or herself one year older with the beginning of the calendar year.  Today, December 25th, is observed throughout Christendom as the birthday of our Lord, Jesus, whom we call Christ.  And we try to keep ourselves reminded, in the midst of all the planning, the gaiety, holiday atmosphere, and hurry, that it is Christ’s birthday.  And that is well.

 

Actually, scholars are not in unanimous agreement that December 25th is the exact anniversary day of Jesus’ birth.  The Bible does not give the calendar day.  Roman records do give the time of the registration for taxes required in Palestine.  But that is only one evidence in the case.

 

In 360 AD the Roman bishop Liberius referred to December 25th as the birthday of Christ, implying that the festival was already well known by then.  But earlier references are lacking.  Much earlier than the Christmas observances are the Christian celebrations of the resurrection, or Easter season.

 

Some scholars say that the birth of Jesus must have occurred further along in the calendar year.  For no shepherds of that area kept their sheep out on the hills during December.  From November to February or March the sheep were kept in the fold while the winter was severe.

 

But, while all of this may be debatable, and while it may be true that in history the feast of Christmas often appeared in countries where it was needed to offset the heathen orgies of folk who celebrated the turning of the days from shortening to lengthening again, it is still significant that Christian folk do observe a birthday of their Lord.  And, whether it is a date of historical fact or a day of popular choice is of little moment.  The poetic truth and spiritual significance of the day is more important.

 

So we have come again to the “Birthday of a King.”  And we meditate a bit upon its meaning for us.]

 

[It appears that the above was added the second time the sermon was used, on 12/25/55, and that the original sermon as preached on 12/26/48 is as follows]

 

Christ the Everlasting Lord

 

Scripture:  Philippians 2: 2-11

 

Text:  Philippians 2: 9; “Wherefore God has also highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.”

 

In the first of the Christmas carols which we sang this morning, the second stanza opens with the words: “Christ by highest heaven adored; Christ the everlasting Lord.”  Let those words be the theme of our meditation for a while this Christmas Sunday morning.

 

Of course 19 and one-half centuries is not forever.  In fact it may be as nothing in the time of God’s eternity.  In terms of geological development, and even in the span of man’s development, the words “Late in time, behold him come,” express part of the truth.  But these 19 1/2 centuries of Christian tradition -- of the presence of Christ among men -- have been enough to persuade untold thousands that the revelation of Christ is eternal.  There is good and tested ground for the repeated rejoicing of people at the birth of Jesus!

 

Amid the awful destruction of the city of Warsaw, Poland, during World War II, a symbol of Christ’s continuing significance could be seen.  If we can imagine the systematic destruction of nine out of every ten buildings in the city of Detroit, or of Cleveland, or of Los Angeles, we may have some notion of the complete ruin of Warsaw.  A lot of the people who still survive there have to pick their precarious living - shelter and a little heat - out of the rubble that was once the city’s buildings.  Endless heaps of tumbled brick and crumbled mortar, and jagged fragments of walls extended as far as the eye can see.  Here and there a few sticks of what used to be woodwork in window frames and such, might be picked up for a little fuel by the homeless waifs living like cave dwellers in the holes.

 

Near the center of this, one of the most completely destroyed cities of all time, a visitor saw there a dark marble statue of the Christ which had stood in one of the Polish churches.  Looking at its silent surviving beauty, the visitor says that he thought: “Here is a symbol which says that, even in the midst of the disaster wrought by man’s inhumanity to man, Christ is above all.”

 

This is a fact in history even as it is a fact in faith.  Jesus Christ is above all.  He stands above the wreckage and debris of ages as the one constructive fact in a destroyed world.  The one force that has withstood the onslaught of time and evil is this Christ of whom Paul wrote to the church at Philippi:  “Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name.”

 

At Christmas time, we look to see the Babe of Bethlehem, and tune our ears to the celestial music of his birth.  It were well to look upon him the whole year through with as much joy and confidence as at Christmastide.

 

The story is told of a little fellow five or six years of age who had been allowed to stay up late on Christmas night.  As he sat on his father’s lap looking at the lighted candles on the Christmas tree, he fell asleep and dreamed.  He dreamed that an angel came down and put out all the lights on the Christmas tree except the light highest up which illumined the star.  That light, the angel handed to the little boy and said, “Here is the candle of Christmas light and love.  Never let it go out!”

 

As he stirred in his sleep, muttering something about a tree, an angel, a candle, his father arose and carried the sleepy child to bed and tucked him in.  He stooped to kiss the boy, and as he lifted his head again to leave the room, the little fellow stirred enough to pull him down again, hug him close, and say, “Don’t let the angel go away, Daddy.  And don’t let the candle go out!”  In that childish dream lies so much of the hope of the world and of us who are in it.  “Don’t let the angel go away.  And don’t let the candle go out.”

 

“God hath ..... highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name.”  If we do not always realize this, then that explains the lack of spiritual success we frequently feel, and which sometimes brings appalling tragedy to the earth.

 

Before the second world war, a young German lad who had been trained by Nazi party methods was being counseled, at some risk, by his father.  The father urged the son not to give up his Christian faith and principles.  The boy answered, “But Adolph Hitler has become so big and Jesus Christ has become so small!”  Recent history underlines again the tragic mistake in making Adolph Hitler, or any other individual or party, or any thing, so big as to make Jesus Christ seem small.  His name is still to be exalted above every name.  He remains the Christ above all, even when we forget our Christmases and neglect his presence.

 

There are those who say now that Jesus is out of date; or who, by their indifference, make him seem so.  Attracted briefly by his spirit, they give it only fleeting attention.  “A good idea,” they seem to say, “but not realistic enough.”  “You cannot make real the spirit and attitude of the carpenter of Nazareth in this work-a-day world where you must look out for yourself, or you lose out.”

 

Well of course one must recognize that Jesus lived in a day that to us seems simplicity itself beside the complexities of life in our time.  And it is difficult to get too specific about applying the standard:  “What would Jesus do?”  However, Jesus did far more than set up a discipline of spiritual exercises or give us mechanical answers in any given situation.  He set the Christian standards through his attitudes and his spirit.  Through our efforts to learn the mind of Christ, we seek to follow the way he lived, not in detailed physical imitation, but in imitation of his spirit.  And that spirit is as up-to-date as the headlines on this morning’s paper, whatever they are!  It is more realistic than any philosophy of life to which one may give adherence.

 

The Christlike spirit is one of adherence to right and truth.  Once truth became clear to Jesus, there could be no deviation in his life from it -- even if it drove him to a cross.  Such a spirit is scientifically acceptable, intellect-  ually respectable, and eternally essential.  Upon it all the lines of ignorance, and of willfully distorted propaganda will eventually break themselves.

 

Moreover, the Christlike spirit is one of unselfish love in action.  For Jesus, love was not only a brief greeting from angelic messengers at his birth but the normal relationship of constructive good will for all men.

 

The immense popularity of Will Rogers in the past generation is not alone accounted for in the fact that he was a home-spun humorist with an inexhaustible flow of spontaneous wit.  There was an astonishing lot of fun in Rogers; but, more than that, he liked people.  I believe he once remarked that the man does not exist whom he did not like.  That love of humanity in each individual made Will Rogers, in turn, a far more widely beloved man than the conventional “wise-cracker.”

 

When we put Christ above all, we accept the Christlike spirit of love; and through its transforming power, we discover what is effective in Christian living.

 

A good many of us are guilty of the sin of nominal Christian living.  We are satisfied to be approximately all right, comparatively pure, relatively honest, intermittently unselfish.  To this kind of “approximate” Christianity comes the insistent challenge of Christ’s goodness and moral purity, urging us to let his life of goodness become contagious in us and through us.

 

The moral chaos of our time can be overcome only by the contagion of Christian influence.  Our situation is ripe for response on the part of those who are willing to take Jesus seriously.

 

A little devotional booklet of the second century called “The Epistle of Diognetus” has in it this line:  “It is the Christians that hold the world together.”  If we Christians are that, in truth, as well as in name, it is quite true, especially in the realm of moral living, that Christians are the ones to hold the world together.

 

The whole story of the gospel, from the joyous news of Jesus’ birth to the solemn news of his crucifixion, from the homely reality of his teaching to the majesty of his eternal life, is the one thing that can save us from moral bankruptcy.  Let Christmas and Christ be contagious in our lives!

 

Every one of us has some governing purpose, some dominant loyalty.  Look at your life a moment.  What is the most important thing in your life?  If we are to accept the words of Paul, we will name the name of Christ above every other name.  This is to say that his purpose will become the ruling passion of our lives.  For Christ is above all only when his purpose becomes our purpose.

 

This means that we allow our faith to motivate us into action.  Christianity for us becomes real only when it ceases to be form and becomes the moving force of our lives.

 

Such a purpose calls for the disciplines of discipleship, not only for an hour of church on Sunday, but for each hour of every day.  The commands of Jesus are for everybody, every day.  No one is excused from those demands.

 

This does not of course mean that we are all to give away everything that we hold.  Christ’s point is that whatever we have is to be used as a trust for ourselves and others according to need.  His command that we turn the other cheek when struck does not mean that there is no restraint to be put on one who runs amok.  But it does mean that a Christian prefers to suffer injury rather than to inflict it.

 

The real point in Christ’s teaching is that God is best served by unqualified loyalty to him wherever we may be.  It may seem easier to practice the Christian virtues if relieved of some of the responsibilities.  But Christianity has real pertinence only if it can be applied to our responsibilities, among which is that of leading others into this transforming fellowship.

 

Let the babe of Christmastide, cradled in our hearts’ joy, become the man Jesus, speaking to our needs and duties.

Let the man Jesus become the Christ of our salvation, lifting us above the fleeting transience of this moment.  Let it be our continuing habit to bow or kneel, looking up at his face, waiting his word, knowing his guidance.  Let the song of Christmas be sung all the year:

            Come, desire of nations, come;

            Fix in us thy humble home.

 

------------------

 

Dates and places delivered:

 

            Wisconsin Rapids, December 26, 1948

            Wisconsin Rapids, December 25, 1955