IV–A PREPARATION FOR CHRISTMAS

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT.

Rejoice in the Lord always.–PHILIPPIANS iv. 4.

This is the beginning of the Epistle for to-day, the Sunday before
Christmas. We will try to find out why it was chosen for to-day, and
what lesson we may learn from it.

Now Christmas-time was always a time of rejoicing among many heathen
nations, and long before the Lord Jesus Christ came. That was
natural and reasonable enough, if you will consider it. For now the
shortest day is past. The sun is just beginning to climb higher and
higher in the sky each day, and bring back with him longer sunshine,
and shorter darkness, and spring flowers, and summer crops, and a
whole new year, with new hopes, new work, new lessons, new blessings.
The old year, with all its labours and all its pleasures, and all its
sorrows and all its sins, is dying, all but gone. It lies behind us,
never to return. The tears which we shed, we never can shed again.
The mistakes we made, we have a chance of mending in the year to
come. And so the heathens felt, and rejoiced that another year was
dying, another year going to be born.

And Christmas was a time of rejoicing too, because the farming work
was done. The last year’s crop was housed; the next year’s wheat was
sown; the cattle were safe in yard and stall; and men had time to
rest, and draw round the fire in the long winter nights, and make
merry over the earnings of the past year, and the hopes and plans of
the year to come. And so over all this northern half of the world
Christmas was a merry time.

But the poor heathens did not know the Lord. They did not know who
to thank for all their Christmas blessings. And so some used to
thank the earth for the crops, and the sun for coming back again to
lengthen the days, as if the earth and sun moved of themselves. And
some used to thank false gods and ancient heroes, who, perhaps, never
really lived at all. And some, perhaps the greater number, thanked
nothing and no one, but just enjoyed themselves, and took no thought,
as too many do now at Christmas-time. So the world went on,
Christmas after Christmas; and the times of that ignorance, as St.
Paul says, God winked at. But when the fulness of time was come, He
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, to be the judge and ruler of the
world; and commanded all men everywhere to repent, and turn from all
their vanities to serve the living God, who had made heaven and
earth, and all things in them.

He did not wish them to give up their Christmas mirth. No: all
along He had been trying to teach them by it about His love to them.
As St. Paul told them once, God had not left Himself without witness,
in that He gave them rain and fruitful seasons, filling their hearts
with joy and gladness.

God did not wish them, or us, to give up Christmas mirth. The
apostles did not wish it. The great men, true followers of the
apostles, who shaped our Prayer-book for us, and sealed it with their
life-blood, did not wish it. They did not wish farmers, labourers,
servants, masters, to give up one of the old Christmas customs; but
to remember who made Christmas, and its blessings; in short, to
rejoice in The Lord. Our forefathers had been thanking the wrong
persons for Christmas. Henceforward we were to thank the right
person, The Lord, and rejoice in Him. Our forefathers had been
rejoicing in the sun, and moon, and earth; in wise and valiant kings
who had lived ages before; in their own strength, and industry, and
cunning. Now they were to rejoice in Him who made sun, and moon, and
earth; in Him who sent wise and valiant kings and leaders; in Him who
gives all strength, and industry, and cunning; by whose inspiration
comes all knowledge of agriculture, and manufacture, and all the arts
which raise men above the beasts that perish. So their Christmas
joys were to go on, year by year while the world lasted: but they
were to go on rightly, and not wrongly. Men were to rejoice in The
Lord, and then His blessing would be on them, and the thanks and
praise which they offered Him, He would return with interest, in
fresh blessings for the coming year.

Therefore, I think, this Epistle was chosen for to-day, the Sunday
before Christmas, to show us in whom we are to rejoice; and,
therefore, to show us how we are to rejoice. For we must not take
the first verse of the Epistle and forget the rest. That would
neither be wise nor reverent toward St. Paul, who wrote the whole,
and meant the whole to stand together as one discourse; or to the
blessed and holy men who chose it for our lesson on this day. Let us
go on, then, with the Epistle, line by line, throughout.

“Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice.” As much as
to say, you cannot rejoice too much, you cannot overdo your
happiness, thankfulness, merriment. You do not know half–no, not
the thousandth part of God’s love and mercy to you, and you never
will know. So do not be afraid of being too happy, or think that you
honour God by wearing a sour face, when He is heaping blessings on
you, and calling on you to smile and sing. But “let your moderation
be known unto all men.” There is a right and a wrong way of being
merry. There is a mirth, which is no mirth; whereof it is written,
in the midst of that laughter there is a heaviness, and the end
thereof is death. Drunkenness, gluttony, indecent words and jests
and actions, these are out of place on Christmas-day, and in the
merriment to which the pure and holy Lord Jesus calls you all. They
are rejoicing in the flesh and the devil, and not in the Lord at all;
and whosoever indulges in them, and fancies them merriment, is
keeping the devil’s Christmas, and not Jesus Christ’s. So let your
moderation be known to all men. Be MERRY AND WISE. The fool lets
his mirth master him, and carry him away, till he forgets himself,
and says and does things of which he is ashamed when he gets up next
morning, sick and sad at heart. The wise man remembers that, let the
occasion be as joyful a one as it may, “the Lord is at hand.”
Christ’s eye is on him, while he is eating, and drinking, and
laughing. He is not afraid of Christ’s eye, because, though it is
Divine it is a human, loving, smiling eye; rejoicing in the happiness
of His poor, hard-worked brothers here below. But he remembers that
it is a holy eye, too; an eye which looks with sadness and horror on
anything which is wrong; on all drunkenness, quarrelling, indecency;
and so on in all his merriment, he is still master of himself. He
remembers that his soul is nobler than his body; that his will must
be stronger than his appetite; and so he keeps himself in check; he
keeps his tongue from evil, and his stomach from sottishness, and
though he may be, and ought to be, the merriest of the whole party,
yet he takes care to let his moderation, his sobriety, be known and
plain to everyone, remembering that the Lord is at hand.

And that man–I will stand surety for him–will be the one who will
rise from his bed next morning, best able to carry out the next verse
of the Epistle, and “be careful for nothing.”

Now that is no easy matter here in England; to rich and poor,
Christmas is the time for settling accounts and paying debts. And
therefore in England, where living is dear, and everyone, more or
less, struggling to pay his way, Christmas is often a very anxious,
disturbing time of year. Many a family, for all their economy,
cannot clear themselves at the year’s end; and though they are able
to forget that now and then, thank God, through great part of the
year, yet they cannot forget it at Christmas. But, as I said, the
man who at Christmas-time will be most able to be careful for
nothing, will be the man whose moderation has been known to everyone;
for he will, if he has lived the year through in the same temper in
which he has spent Christmas, have been moderate in his expenses; he
will have kept himself from empty show, and pretending to be richer
than he is. He will have kept himself from throwing away his money
in drink, and kept his daughters from throwing away money in dress,
which is just what too many, in their foolish, godless, indecent
hurry to get rid of their own children off their hands do not do.

And he will be the man who will be in the best humour, and have the
clearest brain, to kneel down when he gets up to his daily work, and
“in everything, by prayer and supplication, make his requests known
to God.” And then, whether he can make both ends meet or not,
whether he can begin next year free from debt or not, still “the
peace of God will keep his heart.” He may be unable to clear
himself, but still he will know that he has a loving and merciful
Father in heaven, who has allowed distress and difficulty to come on
him only as a lesson and an education. That this distress came
because God chose, and that when God chooses it will go away–and
that till then–considering that the Lord God sent it–it had better
NOT go away. He will believe that God’s gracious promises stand
true–that the Lord will never let those who trust in Him be
confounded and brought to shame–that He will let none of us be
tempted beyond what we are able, but will always with the temptation
make a way for us to escape, that we may be able to bear it. And so
the peace of God which passes understanding, will keep that man’s
mind. And in whom? “In Jesus Christ.” Now what did St. Paul mean
by putting in the Lord Jesus Christ’s name there? what is the meaning
of “in Jesus Christ- This is what it means; it means what
Christmas-day means. A man may say, “Your sermon promises fine
things, but I am miserable and poor; it promises a holy and noble
rejoicing to everyone, but I am unholy and mean. It promises peace
from God, and I am sure I am not at peace: I am always fretting and
quarrelling; I quarrel with my wife, my children, and my neighbours,
and they quarrel with me; and worst of all,” says the poor man, “I
quarrel with myself. I am full of discontented, angry, sulky,
anxious, unhappy thoughts; my heart is dark and sad and restless
within me–would God I were peaceful, but I am not: look in my face
and see!”

True, my friend, but on Christmas-day the Son of God was born into
the world, a man like you.

“Well,” says the poor man, “but what has that to do with my anxiety
and my ill-temper?”

It would take the whole year through, my friend, to show you all that
it has to do with you and your unhappiness. All the Lessons,
Epistles, and Gospels of the year are set out to show you what it has
to do with you. But in the meanwhile, before Christmas-day comes,
consider this one thing: Why are you anxious? Because you do not
know what is to happen to you? Then Christmas-day is a witness to
you, that whatsoever happens to you, happens to you by the will and
rule of Jesus Christ, The perfect man; think of that. THE PERFECT
MAN–who understands men’s hearts and wants, and all that is good for
them, and has all the wisdom and power to give us what is good, which
we want ourselves. And what makes you unhappy, my friends? Is it
not at heart just this one thing–you are unhappy because you are not
pleased with yourselves? And you are not pleased with yourselves
because you know you ought not to be pleased with yourselves; and you
know you ought not to be pleased with yourselves, because you know,
in the bottom of your hearts, that God is not pleased with you? What
cure, what comfort for such thoughts can we find?–This.

The child who was born in a manger on Christmas-day, and grew up in
poverty, and had not where to lay his head, went through all shame
and sorrow to which man is heir. He, Jesus, the poor child of
Bethlehem, is Lord and King of heaven and earth. He will feel for
us; He will understand our temptations; He has been poor himself,
that He might feel for the poor; He has been evil spoken of, that He
might feel for those whose tempers are sorely tried. He bore the
sins and felt the miseries of the whole world, that He might feel for
us when we are wearied with the burden of life, and confounded by the
remembrance of our own sins.

Oh, my friends, consider only Who was born into the world on
Christmas-day; and that thought alone will be enough to fill you with
rejoicing and hope for yourselves and all the world, and with the
peace of God which passes understanding, the peace which the angels
proclaimed to the shepherds on the first Christmas night–“On earth
peace, and good will toward men”–and if God wills us good, my
friend; what matter who wishes us evil?

On this day...

• He Knew What Was in Man - 2011
• If My Words Abide in You - 2011
• Felix Culpa - 2011
• Jesus Christ, the Only Foundation - 2011
• Life's Shortness and Vanity - 2011
• Can I Be a Christian and Live with My Boyfriend? - 2011
• Mark 7:34 - Ephphatha - 2011
• The Life of Jesus in Chronological Order - 2011
• Ephrathah - 2011
• Micah 7:18-20 - 2011