When my alarm went off today a 0-dark:30, I hopped out of bed with an unusual spunk in my get-along! I still had the concert music ringing in my head from the Saint Louis Wind Symphony’s performance yesterday at the Foundry Art Center in St. Charles, MO. We played a wonderful Christmas concert to a very enthusiastic audience. Nothing puts me in the Christmas mood more than Christmas concerts.
And next week many of those same musicians, plus friends from three other community bands in the area, are joining me and Pam in Ferguson, MO to bring “A Christmas Present to Ferguson”. Forty-plus (and growing) musicians have volunteered, under the collective banner of “concerned musicians for the restoration of Ferguson”, to come together to share the joy of this season with a community that has been besieged by the face of Evil. Our agenda is to celebrate the birth of Jesus and the re-birth of Ferguson. 1John 3:18 tells us, “we are to do more than profess our love for our fellow man; we are to show it by our actions.” This extraordinary group of musicians have stepped up to answer that charge!
The Christmas season is, as the song says…“the most wonderful time of the year”. And how could it not be? It’s all about loving and giving, which only reflects the nature of our awesome God! We are told in in 1John 4:19, “we love because he first loved us.”
I have written many times that I believe the two fundamental principles from which everything else in the Bible germinates is: God is love; and God wants a relationship with us. We are told in the first chapter of Ephesians that “even before the world was created, God had a plan”.(Vs. 4) And that plan was to send a Savior to do for man what man would prove without a shadow of a doubt he was incapable of doing for himself. Romans 5:6,9 reinforces that last statement: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Jesus, he will certainly save us from God’s judgment.” That’s what this season is all about. It’s about God’s Gift of Grace and the restoration of a fallen mankind to God! What could possibly be a greater gift than that?
But the arrogance of man is still alive and well. The thought of a sovereign God; an omnipotent, omniscient God; God the creator…those attributes are so far outside man’s paradigm of thinking that rational thought will never grasp the reality of who He is. His Word tells us that truth is only revealed through seeking and revelation. But because God IS all of those “qualities” (and so much more), He knew man would struggle with those issues. That’s why he spoke through the Prophet Isaiah and stated; “My thoughts are not your thoughts; my ways are not your ways. As high as the heavens are above the earth, my ways are not your ways, and my thoughts are not your thoughts.” And Psalm 46:10 tells us,“just be still and know that I am God.” I believe these two scriptures are God’s way of saying, “don’t try to figure me out. You’ll never be able to do it through your limited capability!”
The same lie Satan used in the Garden to seduce Eve is the same lie he still uses today to separate man from God. “…your eyes will be opened…you will become just like God.” (Genesis 3:5) In other words, you won’t need God. You’ll be totally sufficient. And the more he can convince us we are “all we need”, satan has us right where he wants us; WORKING HARD TO BE ALL THAT WE CAN BE.
Apostle Paul addresses this beautifully in 1Corinthians, 1:18 when he states: “I know very well how foolish the message of the cross (salvation) sounds to those who are on the road to destruction. But we who are being saved recognize this message as the very power of God. As the Scriptures say ‘I will destroy human wisdom and discard their most brilliant ideas.” I can personally relate to that statement.
Before I became a follower of Jesus Christ I considered myself a pretty smart guy. I was, after all, a college professor. I must be a smart guy! But I gotta tell ya, the story of Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Grace sounded like a fairy tale to me. I enthusiastically proclaimed on many occasions, “How can any rational, logical, intelligent person (like myself) be expected to believe such nonsense?” Well, today I realize my shortcoming was simply this…I had not been exposed to the truth. I had not connected the dots to realize who God IS and who Jesus Christ IS. In other words, I was full of myself, but ignorant of the truth.
Man has always taken the truth of God’s Word and tried to create a grey area around it so there is some wiggle-room to pursue his own agenda with impunity. In this fallen world, where secular pursuits are popular and political correctness is rampant, the less restraint we have from those old musty, out of date rules called the Ten Commandments, the easier it is to rewrite morality according to the worlds standard. Simply put…the truth of God’s Word is inconvenient to the way our culture has chosen to live.
Therefore, when it comes to the Christmas season and the celebration of the birth of the Messiah; a King; a Savior; the Son of God…it distracts from the material values of the world. Our culture can relate much more to shopping and amassing material possessions than it can to a virgin birth in a stable two thousand years ago. Sad as that is…it’s unfortunately true.
So when we take the love of God through Jesus Christ out of Christmas, it’s a dangerous step toward eradicating the concept of love for our fellow man, compassion, mercy, grace and forgiveness. Why? Because all of those qualities are the very essence of Jesus Christ. And what standard will we be left with? Galatians 5 sums it up very clearly: “When you follow the desires of your sinful nature (our culture calls this your “human nature”), your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, envy, drunkenness and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life WILL NOT inherit the Kingdom of God.” (CAPS are my emphasis)
That is why Christmas celebrations like the one at the Foundry yesterday and the up-coming one in Ferguson next Sunday are so important. When we keep the true “reason for the season” in our hearts, we exude the values of love for our fellow man, compassion, mercy, goodness, grace and peace. I firmly believe that if the pilots flying the planes on 9/11 would have had the teachings of Jesus in their hearts, 9/11 would never have happened. The same can be said for the ugliness that erupted in Ferguson.
Jesus IS the only reason for the season. Come out and help us celebrate that truth next Sunday in Ferguson.
Merry Christmas to Y’all…
Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)
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