Giving Up on Perfect - Luke 1:30-34

Many of us probably have an idilic Christmas picture in our heads. Children unwrapping brightly colored wrappings around carefully selected boxes. Or the perfect dinner laid out on a beautiful table. Has anyone actually had such a perfect Christmas? I know for me, the baggage of the Christmas celebration is immense and is so far from reality. Its more like children tearing into paper and throwing it everywhere. Smaller children and toddlers forgoing those carefully selected gifts just to play with the box. And does anyone smell something burning where there are too many cooks in the kitchen? And yet we keep playing this idea of the perfect Christmas through our mind.

I was recently reading a book about a single mother discussing all of the mess that Christmas caused in her home. She and her daughter would go out to pick out the “perfect tree”, but usually they spent too much money, couldn’t get the tree through the door, and then the daughter would leave with friends instead of helping to decorate the tree. It caused bitterness to sink into the mother’s heart. She wept because Christmas wasn’t as she thought it should be. In fact, it wasn’t until she stepped away from this unrealistic picture of Christmas in her head that she started to get a clearer sense of the joy the season could bring.

Christians tend to convey this unrealistic picture of Christmas in our nativity scenes. Everything looks so angelic and serene. But in reality Mary just gave birth. Mothers, how many of you looked that good after giving birth? Fathers, how many of you looked that calm? Further, Jesus was born in a barn. A messy barn with flies swarming around. Farmers, how often do all of your animals just sit down together and not make a sound? We of course portray Christmas this way because we know the ending, but its not realistic. 

One of my all time favorite Christmas stories is entitled The Best Worst Christmas Pageant Ever. The story is about a church Christmas pageant that gets a twist one year, as a family of six children who had never been to church became the main characters in the narrative. But as much as the church folk worried that the children would ruin their production, they came and gave everyone a new perspective. Frazzled. Untidy. Bewildered. With the angel of the Lord shouting at the top of her lungs so that everyone knew that what was being announced was the best news ever told. With the Mother Mary weeping at the beauty of her child. Those who were worried that the children would botch the production learned to see through new eyes that day. To relive the mystery and wonder and awe of the Christmas story.

Brothers and sisters, we need to set aside our unrealistic expectations. We need to remember that the Christmas narrative starts with the angel telling Mary not to be afraid and her asking “How can this be?” In some of the better Christmas movies Mary at least looks startled by the angels news, but we need to remember that the Angel had to tell her not to be afraid because she was probably afraid. Afraid of the angel. Afraid of the news. Afraid of the consequences. When we forget or downplay how the Christmas story begins we side step what a miracle and a mess it was. For in the words of Pastor Mike Slaughter, “miracles always happen in the context of mystery and mess.”

When we forget how messy the Christmas story was, we can’t see our part in it. We can’t fathom how God would ever use us as an agent for a miracle. And we set up unrealistic expectations of our faith. For life is messy. And unpredictable, but it is the midst of all of that God shows up in a powerful way. We aren’t promised that life will be smooth, or that our celebrations will be perfect, but we are promised that God will show up and that we don’t need to go through life alone.

Think back to Mary. She was given the gift of going through this messy miracle with her cousin Elizabeth, who was going through her own season of unpredictability. We too are given people to walk with us through life. To speak words of truth over us and hold our hand when we get confused by all the twists and turns our faith journey takes. When we find ourselves asking like Mary, “how can this be?” Because at the end of the day, the Christmas miracle wasn’t that clean - it was fraught with misunderstandings, almost abandoned engagements, long journeys while pregnant, and finally birth in one of the most unexpected, unclean, and unpleasant places. Brothers and sisters, our lives aren’t as clean as we make them either. They are filled with crying kids, doctors visits, mounting bills, days when the car won’t start, and unexpected surprises. Life is messy. But it is in the messiest of circumstances, be it a barn in Bethlehem or our daily lives that God can work a miracle. Because in the mess we know that we are not in control, and relinquish ourselves back to God.

God is in the messiness. God is in the midst of our daily lives. But in order to see that we need to let go of our own version of perfection and pray for God’s vision. Think back to that scene of the perfect Christmas - does it make the day any less Christmas if your vision isn’t met? Does the day not come, if there there are imperfect circumstances leading up to the holiday? No! We are still called to fully celebrate Christmas - whether its the way we envisioned it or not. We are still called to celebrate what God is doing in our world and in our lives because of the birth of the Christ Child. Even if that means that we need to give up on our own version of perfect.

Similarly, each day is God’s day - each breath we take is God’s breath within us. Even when we have a terrible day, we need to know that God is by our side. Even when we are in the midst of struggles, we need to know that God is for us, not against us. And we need to trust God to redeem the messiness for the glory of God’s kingdom!

Lastly friends, our world is a messy place. Families are hurting. Communities are in need. Our world seems so broken. What would it look like  if we took the money we set aside to have the perfect Christmas celebration and gave it as a Christmas offering to those in need? How could God redeem the messiness with a message of hope in these hurting places?

Because at the end of the day, Christmas is about Christ, not about how fancy our celebration is. Christmas is about the Lord our God who entered into the chaos and messiness of our world and our lives to transform them. But according to Pastor Mike Slaughter, all too often “We miss life when we use God to get what we desires instead of allowing ourselves to be used by God for God’s desires.” 

Brothers and sisters, don’t miss out on life this Christmas season. Set aside your desires, your vision of perfection and instead look for God. Look for God to show up and use you in a mighty way, even in the midst of the unexpected messiness. Because that is what Christmas is truly about. Amen.