Religion | Christian » A Very Messy Christmas, Matthew 1.18

“A Very Messy Christmas” Matthew 1:18-25 While I was home for Thanksgiving last month, my mom asked me a question. She wanted to know if I had watched any of the Christmas movies on the Hallmark Channel. And despite the fact that they have become as much a part of Christmas as Santa Claus, the Grinch, and Jingle Bells, I had to be honest. I have never watched any of those movies My mother is not alone, though, because lots of people are watching them. Almost 100 million viewers tune in each season. And no other cable channel draws more female viewers during the holidays.1 This year alone, the network made 40 brand new Christmas movies. What is the appeal? As I said, I’m the wrong person to ask since I haven’t seen one of these movies. But one writer decided to watch the ten most popular of these movies and find out.2 As it turns out, the plot usually centers around a good-looking young woman who finds love with an equally good-looking young man just in time for the holidays. In

these films, all ends up being cheery and bright. Everyone ends up happy ever after surrounded by smiling friends and family. And every problem can be solved by a big Christmas dinner I suspect that most viewers tune into these movies as a brief escape from real life that is not always so merry or jolly. And there is really nothing wrong with that But I hope that no one comes away with the idea that these films show us how Christmas is supposed to be or needs to be. I hope that no one ever feels ashamed or sad because their life does not resemble the happy perfection portrayed in these movies. The truth is that this time of the year can be more messy than merry. We want it to be the most wonderful time of the year. But then, we are diagnosed with a serious illness Or there is an automobile accident. Or we lose our job Or one of the family shows up drunk and a big fight ensues. Or the kids phone to tell you that they won’t be able to make it home again this year. It was two years ago

on Christmas Eve in the middle of three worship services that I got a phone call telling me that my father had to be taken from the nursing home to the hospital and wasn’t expected to make it. He died a month later And for many of us, this 1 https://www.marketplaceorg/2017/12/27/christmas-movies-netflix-hallmark-channel-prince-numbers/ https://www.thelilycom/i-watched-the-top-10-hallmark-christmas-movies-so-you-dont-have-to-hereswhat-i-learned/ 2 will be the first or the second or the third or the tenth or the twelfth Christmas without someone we loved very much and grief continues to cast a shadow over our holidays. It’s not always “comfy and cozy” like the song says. Life at this time of the year just never seems to turn out like a “picture print by Currier and Ives”. Families are broken People are hurting. People are struggling The perfect holiday image gets cracked. Things can get pretty messy at Christmas Then again, things were pretty messy on that first

Christmas so long ago in Bethlehem, weren’t they? Luke is my favorite out of the four gospels. But I appreciate Matthew’s telling of the story of Jesus’ birth. Where Luke focuses our attention on Mary, Matthew puts Joseph in the spotlight. And it is very unusual for us to spend much time thinking about Joseph during Christmas. I did a quick check of several of the most famous Christmas carols. And I could only find one of them that even mentions Joseph. Plenty of them mention Mary There are lots of angels and shepherds. There are whole songs devoted to the three magi But Joseph is absent from the picture. It’s almost as if he has been erased from the story. And maybe, that is because Joseph reminds us about how messy that first Christmas truly was. This is no sanitized scene from a Christmas card. This sounds more like the real world in which we live. Joseph was engaged to be married. But this wedding wasn’t going to go as planned Lo and behold, Joseph discovers that Mary,

his bride-to-be, is pregnant. He is not the father And, of course, he assumes that she has been unfaithful. Joseph had three options. And none of them was really a good option The law in Deuteronomy was very clear. Joseph was entitled to have Mary taken to the gate of the town and stoned to death. But Joseph still cared enough for her that he couldn’t imagine doing that. The second option was to go ahead with the marriage as planned. This would be humiliating for Joseph since it would mean that he would have to raise another man’s child as his own. And the idea of that was so painful and embarrassing that he just couldn’t go through with it. So Joseph decided on a third option. He would divorce her privately He would just walk away from this relationship as quietly as he could. She would go her way and he would go his. It was over If Joseph was like every other human being, he most likely felt betrayed. Surely, he was hurt. He was probably deeply disappointed that his dreams

of a future with Mary had been shattered. It was supposed to be a time of joy and celebration But now, it was just a big old mess. The whole family tree of Jesus is messy. We didn’t read the beginning of Matthew’s gospel this morning. It’s one of those long genealogies, a bunch of begats And there are plenty of cracks and brokenness throughout this whole line of David. It begins with Abraham who abandoned one son and threatened to sacrifice another. Then, there is Jacob who fooled his brother and lied to his father in order to get his birthright. Then, there is David himself who had another man killed so that he could marry the man’s wife. And there is Rahab, the Canaanite prostitute. And there is Tamar, who disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked her father-in-law into committing incest so that she could give birth to his heir. Jesus is born into a flawed mess of a family far removed from any Hallmark Christmas movie. There are cracks running all through this picture of

the first Christmas Matthew doesn’t even begin to try to hide them. But I love the lyrics of a song by the late Leonard Cohen that say: Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.3 There is no need to chase perfection at Christmas. The cracks in life are how the light gets in. Matthew would say that the cracks in life are where God enters in 3 From the song Anthem. According to Matthew, Christmas is not a story about picture-perfect people celebrating in a picture-perfect world. Christmas is a story about how God enters into our mess The mess is the very place where Jesus Christ is born. Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us. The messsage of Christmas is simply that God is with us. God enters into the pain and brokenness of our world. When Christ appears, he is born into a picture that is cracked. He is born into a family that has deep problems Maybe, we could even say that he is born into a

family that is a little dysfunctional. I would even suggest that the whole human family is a little dysfunctional Yet still, God comes to be with us. God cannot, will not, and does not stay away Despite what the popular song from a few years ago may say, God is not just watching us from a distance. At Christmas, in the birth of Jesus Christ, we see how God comes to be with us in all of our disappointment and despair and dysfunction. At this time of the year, I often think of a story4 that I heard a dozen years ago about an Arkansas man named David Turnbow. His father, Chris Turnbow, was something of a rambler. He would take off for weeks or even months at a time and then show up again almost as suddenly as he had disappeared. And then, in 2002, he was gone and never returned. David Turnbow didn’t see his father for the next five years A family friend told David and his family that he had bumped into Chris in New Orleans at Mardi Gras. But before they could follow up on that lead,

Hurricane Katrina hit the city. After that, David and his grandmother Jean were worried They were afraid that Chris might have been killed in the storm. But then, a radio program aired a story about homeless people living in New Orleans. And one of the people that they interviewed happened to be Chris Turnbow. He had been working as a carpenter and had his own home in the city before Katrina came along. His truck and his tools had been stolen during the hurricane and his home had been washed away. He tried to keep working, but he got sick and had to get a colostomy pouch. Ever since, he had been living on the streets trying to keep his pouch clean and needing another operation to reverse the colostomy. 4 https://www.nprorg/templates/story/storyphp?storyId=17518270 News of this story got back to Chris’ family in Arkansas. And it might have been more reasonable for them to phone first to see how he was. But David and Jean, his son and his mother, could not wait. All they wanted

was to be with him and hug him at Christmas They jumped in their car and immediately began the almost 400 mile drive to New Orleans. When they reached the city, they searched several of the places where the homeless population liked to congregate. They visited the places where church groups and volunteers handed out free meals. Several people knew “Old Man Chris” as they called him. But there was no sign of him anywhere. They went to Duncan Plaza where homeless people were sleeping in tents and on the sidewalk under piles of blankets and scraps of carpet. It was late and growing dark Men stood in the shadows and eyed them with suspicion. A strong stench of urine and garbage hung in the air. There was danger all around them David Turnbow had never seen so much poverty and desperation. But still, they kept searching. The next day at noon, one of the volunteer groups showed up at the plaza to pass out lunch. And David saw his father sitting on a wall They ran across the street to him

and Chris limped over and met them halfway. They hugged each other tightly and stood there with each other. Chris was amazed to see his son and his mom. They were there to be with him And they were there to embrace him and carry him home. David Turnbow called it their own Christmas miracle And it was a Christmas miracle because it is a reflection of the Christmas miracle. Christmas is not just a time to have a party and give presents. Christmas is not just a time for everyone to eat, drink, and be merry. Christmas is not just a holiday for the jolly and the joyful. Christmas is the good news that God is with us. God is with us at the hospital and in the nursing home. God is with us when the house seems empty and lonely God is with us when the diagnosis comes and the doctors say that there is nothing they can do. God is with us when we hit rock bottom. God is with us when we haven’t spoken to a sister or a brother or a son or a daughter for years because of some old grudge we can

barely remember. God is with us when your father or mother, your husband or your wife, looks at you and cannot even call your name. God is with us when we get laid off from work just in time for the holidays. God is with us whenever Christmas dinner becomes a big fight about politics or something else. God is with us whenever there are tears in our eyes or an ache in our heart. God is even with us when we are so mad that we stop talking to him because we have nothing left to say. The story of Christmas says that Jesus himself came to be God with us. He came into this world as a part of our family with all its pains and problems. He was born into a difficult and desperate situation. He was born in a place of brokenness He was born to parents who were struggling to understand what was going on. If your holiday resembles a Hallmark Christmas movie, I envy you a little and pray that you simply enjoy it while it lasts. Be thankful and cherish it because it doesn’t happen often. But if

your life does not seem picture-perfect this Christmas, if you are struggling, if you are in a place of brokenness, if you are sad or lonely or disappointed, there is good news. Christ can be born in you. The light of God can shine through the cracks in your life and in my life. That is how the birth of Jesus comes about So if you are not feeling very merry during this season, remember that Christ makes his home in messy, broken places. Keep watch for he is coming to be with you In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit