The People Who Missed Christmas (Selected Scriptures)

• Let’s pray together as we begin our study  of God’s word. Father, as we hear the   rather plaintive echo of the song, No Room, we  certainly are reminded that in our world today,   it’s a little different than it was then. For  most people, there is still no room. And we pray   that you would take these moments before us,  these truths from your word and this servant,   and put it together in the lives of the people  gathered here that we may indeed have room for   Christ in all his fullness, in all his  glory. We pray in his blessed name. Amen.
• I want to share with you this morning some  thoughts on the theme, “The People Who Missed   Christmas.” What got me started about this was  I had been watching with anxiety and concern the   situation in Iran. As you know the people of Iran  have taken captive the Americans in our Embassy,   holding them in situations that we really can’t  understand at this point we don’t know all that is   going on.
• And in recent days because Christmas is  such a special part of American life culturally,   the news media has been focusing on the  fact that these people will miss Christmas. In fact, I heard one particular mayor of a town  say that he was so concerned that they would miss   Christmas that the town was going to put on a  very unique kind of protest and what he did was   he had all the signal lights in the city turn  to red and every car stopped for 5O seconds and   everyone got out and prayed a silent prayer  that these people might not miss Christmas.
• As I began to think about the fact that these  people would miss Christmas I began to think   about the fact that they’re not the only  people who will miss Christmas. In fact,   I’m quite afraid that almost everybody in the  world is going to miss Christmas. Most people no   matter where they are or what their circumstances  are miss Christmas.
• It sounds initially like   that would be a rather silly statement because  it’s pretty hard to miss since we,re all   drowning in a sea of advertising, publicity,  promotion, public relations about Christmas. I know about a month ago my children started  a little game. Everywhere we drive they began   to count the Christmas lights and every house  or every building that had Christmas lights we   began to count. And finally it got to the point  where nobody could count that high anymore.
• And   when Melinda stops counting, everybody has to  quit because the game is not fair any longer. So, no question about the fact that we  know there is a Christmas celebration.   I’m not just sure we know what it’s really  about. At least pragmatically it seems as   though we are blind, deaf and dumb to the  reality of Christmas.