This month we have seen that the best way to experience Christmas, and really the best way to experience the life God wants for us, is to travel light. In letting go all the stuff we accumulate in life, and maybe even downsize our gift giving, we begin to find room in our hearts and lives to experience what is ultimately important and valuable. Letting go of distractions helps us focus on how to be faithful to God and how to be truly present with family and friends. Letting go of bitterness and the pain we often feel in difficult relationships allows for forgiveness and healing to restore us both to God and one another. And letting go of control, surrendering to God not just at Christmas time but at all times, can lead us to what God says is best for us. While we often work hard to hold on to all of this, and then try to carry more and more baggage in life, God says that it is in letting it go and travelling light that we get the most out of life.
Too often we really do think that the best way to celebrate Christmas is to try and do it all and have it all, but the best way to celebrate Christmas and to get the most out of this season is to empty ourselves, and this lesson was taught to us by none other than those whos down in whoville.
The whos didn’t need all the trappings of the holiday to celebrate Christmas, they didn’t need ribbons or tags. They didn’t need packages, boxes or bags. In fact, it was when their homes and tables and hands were empty that they were able to come together and allow the light of Jesus to enter their lives. Did you notice that? It was when they were empty that they left their homes and came together to take the hands of their family, friends, and neighbors to welcome and celebrate the light of God’s love and grace. The love of God, and the love God has for us to share with one another, is often only experienced when we empty ourselves and travel light.
The Christmas story is the story of travelling light, in fact, it is the story of God being willing to empty himself completely to travel into this world to love us and forgive us. We would not be here tonight celebrating the gift of Jesus, God’s son, our Savior, if Jesus had not been willing to empty himself and be the first to travel light.
When God came into the world he could have come any way he wanted to – he was God. He could have come as a powerful king who simply appears and commands all power and authority. He could have come as a spectacular religious leader whose every word and action would have been filled with the glory of God’s splendor for all the world to see. He could have come as a spiritual force that would have compelled all hearts and minds to God by force. God could have come full of authority, glory, and power, but he didn’t. Instead God emptied himself of everything and came as an infant, born in a manger in Bethlehem.
Jesus traveled light and came as a vulnerable infant. He was empty of all power and strength. He was 100% dependent upon his parents and others for survival. Jesus arrived empty of position and honor. No one was even willing to make any room for him so his parents had to clean out a manger – a feeding trough – to use as a crib. And let’s be clear – Joseph probably did have to empty out a manger to use as a crib because Bethlehem was a city full of travelers who came with animals and all those animals had to eat. The manger would have been full so Joseph had to empty it in order for it to hold Jesus.
Jesus was God in the flesh, but to come to us in the flesh God had to empty himself of glory, and power, and strength, and then God emptied himself again and entered the life of an ordinary couple. What we celebrate tonight is the choice God made to travel light – to empty himself. We hear this from Philippians 2:6-11
Jesus, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
I love that God didn’t choose to just send us his word. God wasn’t content with a book or a set of commandments for us to read and follow, God wanted more than that, he wanted to come in flesh and blood so that we could see him, and hear him, and feel his touch, and experience a relationship with him. God also came in the flesh and blood of a human being to show us how to live and how to love one another. God emptied himself of everything so that we could have all things and God did that for a reason - LOVE.
John 3:16 it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, so that whoever believes in him might not perish but have everlasting life. God loved us so much that he knew the only way for us to fully experience his love and grace was if he emptied himself and came here to live among us. God so loved the world that he emptied himself and instead of filling himself with wealth, possessions, honor, or glory in this world, he filled his life with our sin so that he could pay the price for that sin and forgive us.
Jesus emptied himself so that in love he could fill up his life with our pain, brokenness, and rebellion, and take all of that to the cross. And then when Jesus overcame death and rose from the grave, we see God’s gift of love and forgiveness at work. Our sin is forgiven. God’s love has restored us into a relationship with God, and the way of life eternal is now available to us all.
It’s ironic that we celebrate Christmas - God emptying himself and coming as a child in Bethlehem - by filling up our homes with decorations and our lives with more distractions. We celebrate Jesus coming here empty by filling our hands with more stuff and our lives with more stress. What began as the gift of God travelling light has turned into a season of us trying to carry more.
Now please understand, I am not here to be the Grinch and say we should get rid of it all. I love it all just as much as you do. The answer isn’t to take down the trees, turn off the lights, and throw out the cookies and the gifts – the answer is to create some moments in our celebration where we can come to Jesus empty in order to receive all he has to give.
No gift can be received if our hands are holding on to other things, and we cannot receive the gift of Jesus as our savior and we cannot receive the gift of life Jesus has to offer if our hands are holding on to the stuff of this world, the distractions of our lives, the bitterness of our past, or the ongoing battle to try and control our future. We can’t receive a gift until we empty our hands, and we can’t fully receive God’s love and grace, and the gift of a savior, until we are willing to empty ourselves.
The shepherds came empty and were able to see the newborn king, maybe even hold him in their arms. Magi brought gifts but then laid them down, emptied themselves, to take up the truth that this was the new king who had come to reign. Mary and Joseph had to empty themselves of pride and control in order to bring this child into their lives, and we can only receive the real gift of this day, the gift of Jesus and his forgiveness, the gift of Jesus and the life he has for us, if we will come to him empty.
So tonight I invite you to empty yourself.
Make this the moment in your Christmas celebration to empty yourself so that you can experience what this night is really all about - receiving the love of God. Empty yourself and come to receive Jesus as your savior, the one who emptied himself and traveled light in order to forgive us, to free us for the fullness of life, and the one who says he will be with us forever. Unto you is given this night the gift of a savior, empty yourself and receive him.
