Christmas 2001 – The Christmas Touch
Luke 2:18-20
I would be hard pressed to think of a place I would love to spend a week, or for that matter a year, than Washington, DC. If you’ve ever been there, you know what I’m talking about – the Capitol, the White House, Smithsonian Institutions, the monuments, the history surrounding that area – it is just an amazing place. It is a city that was designed to impress visitors, intimidate skeptics, and stir patriotism in citizens. And it does all three.
I have been there just a few times, and I have always loved it. But I also know that there is another side to DC. It is something that was so very disturbing the first time I went, and with each visit I am more and more stuck by the irony. In the shadows of our governments greatest structures and monuments, lining the streets of our capitol’s grand boulevards, are the impoverished, the homeless, the overlooked.
Much of the city is heated by underground steam pipes that send warmth from great boilers to buildings all through the mall. Grated vents billow great clouds of steam into the chilly air, and on the top of those grates lie men and women, huddled against the cold, covered with cardboard, or a ragged coat, or many layers of worn clothes.
It is nothing new. Since early in our Nation’s history, the poor, the unemployed, the broken have traveled to our Capitol seeking shelter, assistance and compassion. Many who live and work in the grand office buildings no longer notice them; most have learned or been warned to not engage them or give them the handout they seek. Though I have been there numerous times, I have not gotten used to the sight. When Carol and I were there over Valentines a couple of years ago, we were especially struck by the sight of some of DC’s finest getting out of limousines, dressed in gowns and tuxedos, walking into a great hall – right past the homeless who slept on the grates along the sidewalk. There was just something wrong with the picture.
When Nicole was there a year and a half ago, she and her friends were approached by a man who showed them his Viet Nam war wounds, told them how he was injured, and asked them to help him. Not the sort of thing you see every day in Mayberry, but just as real here as in any city.
Last week we talked about the call of God this season to be His touch to our neighbors. To provide for them a place to get shelter from the storms of life during this volatile season. For many of us, that is a monumental task. We draw back in defense when urged to reach out to our neighbors and share a Christmas memory with them. If that is true of you, then it’s not going to be any easier today. For while last week I urged each of us to reach out beyond the uncomfortable, today I ask you to reach out and touch the untouchable.
Our Scripture reading today comes from a very familiar passage, and a familiar source. Those who have been with us for more than one Christmas season might remember that each year we invite a special guest to read this passage. Today we will listen as Linus Van Pelt comes and shares an amazing passage with us.
[Video Clip – Linus reading Luke 2:1-14 from A Charlie Brown Christmas]
An amazing story.
Sleepy sheep, even sleepier shepherds.
Dark sky, bright light.
Terrified hearts, glad tidings.
Son of God, feeding trough.
We read at the very end of the shepherd’s story that “Now when they had seen Him [Jesus], they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child. And all those who heard it marveled at those things that were told them by the shepherds.” [vs. 17&18]
You’d better believe they marveled. And it wasn’t necessarily the message that the shepherds shared that amazed the people, it was the fact that the shepherds were the ones who were breaking the news to the world. For something this big, you would expect to have Tom Brokejaw, “reporting live from Bethlehem, the scene of an event that will certainly change the world.” You certainly would not expect to hear the greatest bit of news ever broadcast from some poor, smelly, homeless street person in rags.
But that is just what happened. You see, shepherds, in the time of Jesus’ birth were considered “untouchable.” They were the forgotten people, the ones that most people walked by without noticing. They smelled of sheep, they stayed awake at night to protect their flocks from predators, and slept when they could during the day. They were constantly around the sheep they tended, so lice and other parasites were as much a part of their wardrobe as the coarse wool clothes they wore. Because they were always around these dirty animals, they were considered “unclean,” and couldn’t participate in the regular ceremonies at the Temple – and in Jesus day, that was an absolute must. They were considered so untrustworthy that they couldn’t testify in a Jewish court, and whenever a shepherd showed up, people began to instinctively check their wallets, and lock their possessions in the safe. Imagine what it must have been like.
One source I checked this week said that all sheep had to be kept in the wilderness except those that were being raised specifically for Temple sacrifice. The rules was so specific that it stated that any sheep found between Jerusalem and a spot near Bethlehem was to be assumed to be a sacrificial animal, and was not to be taken. Isn’t it kind of ironic? Here’s a group of men that are not permitted into the temple for raising the very animals that would one day be used in that temple as a sin offering? There’s just something wrong with the picture.
And yet it was to these “untouchable,” these “unclean” that God chose to come. To these who were raising sheep to be used as a sin offering, God brought news of the perfect sacrifice for sin. To those who were thought by the religious establishment to be unable even to worship, God brought a choir of angels, singing a song of praise that the world had never heard before and has not heard since.
By sending the angels to these overlooked, unclean untouchables, God established and confirmed their value in his eyes. This was not accident. It was not a random decision that caused God to send Gabriel and the choir – no more than it was a roll of the dice that Mary was chose to bear His Son.
We are called to do the same thing. When we share the good news of Jesus’ birth and when we reach out to touch the “untouchable” around us, we are behaving as God behaves, and isn’t that what we are called to do – didn’t God say, “Be holy, for I am holy”?
So how do we touch the untouchable? There are some ideas in the advent calendar, but I want to share a couple of examples from my own life.
The Christmas of 1968 is one I will never forget. We lived in a neighborhood where we were the racial minority. If you lived during that time, you know that 1968 was the year of Martin Luther King’s death, and racial strife and riots were raging across our land. In the midst of it all, my dad made a friend of an 18 year old black man. He was a new believer, and dad came along side and helped learn the basics of the Christian faith. John was the oldest of 9 children, and his dad was sometimes in the home, sometimes absent.
As the holidays approached, my dad suspected that there wasn’t going to be much of a holiday at John’s home. He called us together, I was 10, my brothers 9 and 5. He told us that John’s family was not going to have a tree, or any gifts because they had no money. Would we be willing to give up our gifts, or part of our gifts, to allow us to buy gifts for the 11 of them? We said we would. I will never forget that Christmas eve, when we loaded the car full of gifts, and drove down to the place where John lived. It was dark outside, and when we entered the home, the family was sitting in the living room. Light streamed into the room from a doorway that led to the kitchen. The room was dark, crowded, and pretty rough. There was no tree like at our house, no pretty lights, no Nat King Cole on the stereo.
But John’s mom was just so happy to see us. We distributed gifts to every child – nothing great, but something for everyone. Then we sang a song or two, and left. I will never forget it. I don’t know how it affected that family, but I can tell you it changed a 10 year old boy.
The next summer, one of our neighbors lost his right leg in a construction accident. Out of work, and depressed, the family faced a bleak holiday. Once again dad called a family meeting, and we delivered gifts to our friends down the street.
Chuck Swindoll made a great point when he said, “I’ve never seen a person who gave a gift, roll their eyes when the gift was opened, you know like a child who got socks or pajamas – no the giver is always excited to give the gift – ever notice that? ‘Open mine first!’ they cry. ‘I can’t wait to see your face when you open this!’” There is a blessing in giving from ourselves that NEVER disappoints.
My point is this – there are people all around us who are “untouchable,” overlooked, or unloved.
They are in this community, they are on this block, they are in this church.
Like the thousands who walk past the homeless in our Nation’s capitol each day and don’t see them, we need to have the blinders removed from our eyes so we can see the needs of those around us – to see with His eyes, to feel with His heart, to act as His hands, feet and voice, bringing “great tidings of good news” to all people.
Give gifts to a poor family, bring a coat to a poor man who needs one, share a meal with a lonely woman, come alongside a single mom. Hug a child as he shows off the new shoes you just gave him, embrace a hurting, lonely person as you bring them a new coat.
And before you scrunch up your nose at the thought of loving an unlovely person or touching the untouchable, let me remind you of the love of God that came to you. None of us are worthy of the love He showed us. The Bible says that “God demonstrates His love for us in this…while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!” No act of human kindness, no touch of human love can even come close to the magnitude of love that it took for the God of the Universe to love you, or to love me. He loved us while we were His enemies – while we were rebellious, and resisting, and evil, and filled with sin, He sent His own Son to the cross.
If you are still in that rebellious place, if you are still resisting His touch, allow Him to bring Christmas to your heart today. Jesus was born all those years ago, we celebrate it at this season, but it means nothing – nothing, if you have not asked Him to come into your life, forgive your sins, and touch you with His divine hand.
God touched the untouchable the day He touched me, the day He touched you – How can we do any less?
Father, as you reached out to us while we were still your enemies, dirty with sin and rebellion, and made us your children, help us to reach out with that same love, and touch the hurting and the lonely and the untouchable around us. Place Your eyes within us, help us to feel with Your heart, and to reach out with Your hands to touch those around us that no one else will. And may we know Your love in our own hearts and lives as a result. Amen.