Whatever the case maybe, as Paul said,

“It is indeed, holy and right that we are here.”

Whether you have been lured by tradition or by hopes and dreams, we are here to celebrate God’s greatest gift, Jesus.

Without a doubt, your journey tonight is just one of many this Christmas season. There have trips to the malls, the grocery stores, office parties, neighbor gathering and lets not forget the post office. I recently was told about a woman who went to the post office to buy stamps. She said to the clerk, “May I have 50 Christmas stamps?” The clerks asked, “What denomination?” Then she blurted out, “O my God, has it come to this?”…Give me 6 Catholic, 12 Protestant, and 32 Baptist.

“Let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

Chances are when we weren’t making trips we were busy keeping track. Keeping track of how many more dollars you will have to spend to get the free turkey or ham from the grocery store. Keeping track of which store is having the best sale on the item you want. Keeping track of who has sent you a Christmas card, so you can make sure that you have sent them one.

If you are going to be traveling tomorrow you are probably keeping track of the winter snow as diligently as the wisemen were following the star. If you have young children chances are you are tracking Santa’s flight, either by clicking on to a number of Santa’s websites, are calling the North Pole direct for the latest update as to where Santa is. By the number of inquires that Diane and I have received these past few weeks we know that many of you, with and Diane and myself are tracking the birth of our first grandchild. Unlike the angels who proclaimed,

“For unto a child is born”,

I must be silent.

I suppose all of our Christmas trips and journeys reflect our desire to find or experience the peace and the joy that the angles sang about, that the shepherds experienced, that the birth of Jesus was meant to bring.

In light of the unrest and the uncertainty of our times it seems we are in need of comfort and joy, peace and goodwill. And even though store merchants are indicating that sales this Christmas are off, we have spent an endless number of hours and a ridiculous amount of money in hopes that it will bring us Christmas joy. In hopes that it will take us

to Bethlehem, to see this thing that has happened,
which the Lord has told us about.”

Our quest reminds me of a middle-eastern story told by evangelist Ravi Zacharias. It is a story about 2 men, a rich man and poor man who encounter one another on a journey to certain city. As the walked together the poor man made plans in his mind as to how he could steal the jewels that the rich man was carrying. The rich man felt an uneasiness about the poor man and made plans in his mind as to how he could hide his jewels so that the poor man could not steal them.

Each night when they arrived at an inn they were given a washcloth and basin to freshen up. Each night the rich man would insist that poor man wash up first. The rich man did this so that while the poor man was washing up, he could hide his jewels. When it was the rich man’s turn to wash, he could do so with an assurance that his jewels would not be stolen. Each night when the rich man was bathing, as suspected the poor man would search the rich man’s possession and bed looking for the jewels, but he never found them.

When they reached their destination and were about to part, the rich man said to the poor man, “You searched diligently each night looking for my jewels so that you could steal them. You did not find them because you looked everywhere except under your own pillow. It is there that I hid my jewels”

As I heard that story I thought of how much humanity is like the poor man. We have created a culture that proclaims a false comfort, a false joy, and a false peace. We have created a culture that advocates the accumulation of possessions, the stock piling of weapons, and the amassing of wealth. Like the poor man we expend enormous amounts of time, energy, and life seeking out these things in hopes that they will bring us comfort and joy. Like the poor man we are searching in all the wrong places.

The comfort and joy, the peace and goodwill of Christmas will not be found in gifts under the tree, or cards in your mailbox, or decorated homes, or family gathering. These things are signs of Christmas. They are not Christmas.

As The Peanuts character Linus quoted from Luke,

With that he picked up his blanket, exited stage left and approached Charlie Brown and said,

If you want the comfort and joy, the peace and goodwill of Christmas to last long after the gifts are old, the tree is boxed up or taken to the curb, the cards are thrown out, and the decorations taken down, then you must allow the birth of Jesus to occur in your heart, in your mind, in your calendar, in your activities, in your priorities. Not to would be like settling for the Christmas wrappings instead of the Christmas gift, Jesus.