Christmas Jazz

       Christmas jazz!  It sounds great.  There is something about hearing the music of Christmas done that way that simply works. A big thank you to the band.   Thank you for coming to share with us tonight. 

      Jazz is free-flowing, improvisational, happening-right-now and expressive.  In other words, it’s kind of like Christmas.  To me Christmas feels like jazz.  It feels improvisational.  It even feels a bit MacGyverish.

      Do you remember the T.V. series MacGyver?  MacGyver is a secret agent who employs his resourcefulness and his knowledge of chemistry, physics, technology, and outdoorsman ship to resolve life-or-death crises.

       In one episode MacGyver plugs a sulfuric acid leak with chocolate.  He knows that chocolate contains lactose and sucrose.  The sulfuric acid reacts with the sugars in the chocolate to form elemental carbon and a thick gummy residue. (This has actually been tested and confirmed by Mythbusters.)

       In another episode called Thief of Budapest, MacGyver uses salt combined with sugar and a small amount of chemical enhanced weed killer to create dynamite with a battery acid trigger.

       Now MacGyver isn’t a show off.  If he has the key to unlock a jail door, he doesn’t insist on using an overripe banana, toothpaste and dental floss – just because he can. 

       God, on the other hand, seems to improvise for the sake of improvising.  He had all eternity to plan Christmas but doesn’t seem to have planned a thing.  He improvises. When God enters the world He chooses a young girl, a small town and a feeding trough for animals.

       We’d have done it better.  At least we would have booked a room.  Joseph just walks in. We’d have taken out trip insurance with a donkey rider – a donkey rider besides Mary, I mean.   What if the animal had broken down on the way?  If it had to be Bethlehem, we’d have arranged the census in plenty of time for Joseph and Mary to get there well before the birth. We’d have made sure the Wise Men got the memo not to go through Jerusalem or mention anything to Herod.  We’d have  our advance team in place to insure a better welcoming committee than some shepherds.  But for some reason, God doesn’t do it that way. 

       Creation certainly shows that God plans real well when He wants to.  And we know from Paul’s words in Galatians 4:4-5 about God sending His Son in “the fullness of time” that God did a lot of careful preparation in world history to prepare the setting for His advent.  But the events of the birth themselves look kind of last minute – like God just grabbed the tools at hand to do His work.          

       And, of course, it worked. If you are real smart like God or MacGyver it will always work.  But it more casual than it ought to be – certainly more casual than we would allow it to be. 

       But I think we have to conclude that this is how God wanted it.  For some reason Christmas was planned from the beginning to look like improv and to feel like jazz -- free-flowing, improvisational, happening-right-now and expressive.  God doesn’t so much orchestrate Christmas as he plays it. 

       I believe that this is because Christmas isn’t just about saving the world.   It’s about revealing God’s character and nature. This is what jazz is about.  It isn’t just people playing notes on instruments.  It’s about revealing the soul of the artist. 

       And Scripture tells us that God the artist consistently chooses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.  Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:25 that “God’s nonsense is wiser that human wisdom and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength.”  The crucifixion of Jesus is even more shocking to human wisdom than Christmas.  But Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:18 says that God uses the foolishness of the cross and the foolishness of the preaching about the cross to save people in a way human wisdom never can.   

       Let’s face it.  The Gospel itself doesn’t sound like much. When you proclaim "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved," it doesn’t sound very impressive to some people. It’s so simple you can teach it to a child. The world does not regard this as tremendous, world shaking philosophy.

      But let someone actually believe, and see what happens.  Let her really trust Christ and invite Him into her life, and it is the most revolutionary thing that can happen. It is the beginning of a radical change in her whole life. I’ve seen this in other people and I’ve seen it in myself. It’s a simple step after which a person is never the same again. 

        God works below the radar of human wisdom and completely transcends it.   That’s the way God wants it. Christmas isn’t just about saving the world.   It’s about revealing God’s character and nature. 

       So when God was here on earth, He told us a story about the way He works in the world. 

       In Matthew 13:31 and 32, Jesus says that "the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, and this is smaller than all the other seeds; but when it is full grown it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest it its branches."

       Now that doesn’t sound like a Christmas Eve passage. Christmas should feature a Noble Fir, a poinsettia or mistletoe — but not mustard — unless, of course, you like mustard on your Honey Baked Ham.   But Jesus says that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sows a mustard seed. 

       Mustard isn’t botanically the smallest seed but it was proverbial in Palestine for its smallness. For example, the Jews talked of a drop of blood as small as a mustard seed; or if they were speaking of a tiny breach of the ceremonial law, they would speak of a defilement as small as a mustard seed. Jesus Himself spoke of faith as a grain of mustard seed. 

       And now Jesus says that His kingdom is like this tiny seed -- and also like the great plant which comes from it.

       No pious Jew doubted that the kingdom of God would come and that it would be vast and glorious.   That fits with human wisdom.  But Jesus teaches that there is a basic connection between His own humble ministry and that future glory. The initial appearing of the seed may go almost without notice in the mass media of the time, but the result is nevertheless a mighty plant.

       In the Old Testament book of Kings, the Prophet Elijah flees south to Mt. Horeb, rather than face the vicious and vindictive Queen Jezebel. God then decides that Elijah needs a refresher course on "Who God Is and How God Works." So God tells Elijah to "go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by."  Elijah does as he is told and is treated to a remarkable spectacle. First a great and powerful wind tears the mountain apart and shatters the rocks before the Lord. Shortly afterwards comes an earthquake which is followed by a fire.

       Now none of this surprises Elijah, because He knows that God is big. The surprise is that the Lord is not in the earthquake, the wind or the fire, but in the gentle whisper of a breeze. This is the way God likes to work so often – in quiet and silence – in shepherds, stables, and young women full of faith.

       We look at Jesus as He teaches – surrounded by a small group of disciples. These are the men who will turn the world upside down. The seed is growing into the tree. When they were with Him the disciples spent a good deal of their time misunderstanding Jesus and irritating each other. But they were, nevertheless, the growth of the seed and we are part of the great plant it has become.

      When God decided to invade planet earth with Himself and give fallen humanity a vision of His being and an experience of His person, He did not choose to come in His unveiled, unmistakable divine majesty and blow everyone right out of their unbelief.  That’s how we would do it.  But God chooses instead a baby, a poor nation, a humble stable and a servant role. This is the mustard seed method of God.

       That may feel like jazz.  But somehow it’s brought us here tonight. 

       Dr. David Hubbard, the late President of Fuller Seminary writes: "Most of what went with royalty was absent from Jesus’ ministry. And the situation is no different with us. Our churches are small and struggling; our enterprises lack prestige and influence. In wealth, in numbers, in reputation we live in the shadow of great universities, giant laboratories, massive industries and mammoth governments.

       But is we – not they – who live in anticipation of victory.  Christ’s kingdom will come in power.  We can depend on that.  And we do and will have a share in it. Our God is the God of the tiny mustard seed and the great tree it becomes. His are the kingdom, the power and the glory and we belong to Him.

       So our celebration of Christmas jazz reaches its climax. 

            Mary and Joseph have made it to Bethlehem.

            The child has been born.

            The unlikely shepherds have encountered the angels.

            The wisemen have followed the star and found their way and now head home.

       And, if that is all there is to the story -- all there is to Christmas --then we can head home too.  But the Bible is as much about now as it is about then. We need to read and understand the story in the present tense and not the past tense. The story is as much about you and me as it is about shepherds and angels. We need to somewhere, somehow find ourselves in the story.

       Then that is the moment when all of it…all of it…parents, child, angels, shepherds, Herod, Magi – invades the reality of our lives.

            Challenging us again with their invitation to follow;

            Reminding us again of God’s haunting promise;

            Inviting us now to add our yes to theirs.

So, where do you find yourself in the story?

            Waiting?

            Watching?

            Fearful?

            Pondering?

            Searching?

            Rejoicing?

Where?