Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. John 10:10

Evangelist John R. Rice used to tell the story of a business man who wanted to hire an office boy, and when several applied, he decided that he would try to find out who was the smartest lad and hire him. So he told each lad who applied for the job a story which goes like this. A chicken farmer began losing chickens to a sly fox who would sneak into the henhouse in the middle of the night, snatch a bird and run away with it. Finally the old farmer woke in the night to the sound of squawking chickens. He knew the sly old fox was back. He jumped out of bed, grabbed his shotgun and a lantern and headed for the henhouse. Just as he saw the fox and started to take aim, he stumbled on a root, dropped the lantern, and as he went down both barrels of the shotgun discharged. End of story.

Then he would give the boys a chance to ask questions. Some asked about the gun—what kind it was and what gauge. Another asked about the kind of chickens he had, and then one boy asked the question he was looking for: “Mister, when the gun went off did it hit the fox?”

He was the only lad who got the point! And what’s the point of a story such as this, two days before Christmas? Bottom line: What’s the point of Christmas anyway?

If you were homeless, sleeping in a cardboard box, stuffing rags into your worn-out tennis shoes, would you hope the point of Christmas was a hot meal at the rescue mission? If you were a student in China, having grown up in an atheistic home, would you know what the point of Christmas is? If you have grown weary of hearing Bing Crosby croon, “I’m dreaming of a White Christmas” in Manila, where Christmas songs are played non-stop in stores from October 1 until December 25, would you gather that the point of Christmas is keeping the cash register jingling?

Yes, for the homeless man, receiving a hot meal on Christmas can be a tiny part of what Christmas is, and gifts given in the right spirit, acknowledging the gift of God’s son, can also be part of what Christmas is. But the true point of Christmas has been so obscured by commercialism and layers of culturally imposing Santa and Rudolph, etc. etc. that most people today have completely lost sight of what Christmas is about.

May God deliver us from the phony Christmas, the one that reaches out to me with tentacles of materialism, that saps my energy and drains my bank account, that leaves the homeless destitute and the hungry disappointed, that ignores the Buddhist who lives down the street and the pagan who disbelieves the story of redemption.

O God, deliver us from the clanging cash register, the inane and empty songs that ignore Jesus’ birth and superimpose an untrue fantasy, making it difficult for a child to know what is real and what is make-believe, the temptation to buy what I cannot afford and give gifts nobody really wants.

Father, help us to reduce Christmas to the simplicity of that first Christmas, when wise men bowed in worship and the music of angels filled the dark night, and hope was born in the souls of those who walked in darkness, and forgiveness came to those who were penitent. And one last request, Lord. May I be reminded that millions still do not know why You came and that You have entrusted me with the task of going to tell the story on the mountain, in the valley, and everywhere. Tell them that Jesus Christ is born!

Yes, God, help me to get the point of Christmas and get it today.

Resource reading: John 1:1-14.