It’s pretty gloomy out there.

Usually there seems to be a general optimism toward the New Year.  But, frankly, I don’t sense that this year.  Most prognostications do not indicate that the coming days will be merry and bright.  With so many families fractured, jobs lost, and hopes destroyed, some pensive Christians wonder if it’s appropriate in our tortured world to be celebrating – even at Christmas.  

But we have every reason to rejoice.  Jesus invaded a world much like ours.  The world was blanketed in repression, despair, and darkness.  But then – “the people who sat in darkness [saw] a great light” (Isa. 9:1).

Everything surrounding the Incarnation bubbles over with joy.  When the angel Gabriel brought his annunciation to Mary, he said, “Rejoice, highly favored one” (Lu. 1:28).  When Mary extolled the Lord in her Magnificat she said, “My spirit has rejoiced in God, my Savior” (Lu. 1:47).  When the pre-natal John the Baptist encountered the pre-natal Christ, his mother said, “The babe leaped in my womb for joy” (Lu. 1:44).  When the wise men saw Jesus, “they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy” (Matt. 2:10).  The angels said to the shepherds, “I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people” (Lu. 2:10).  

Why all this joy?  “For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Lu. 2:11).  We were doomed – but God has come to save us!

No religion in the world comes even close to the Christian faith when it comes to music.  No religion has reason to rejoice as we do.  We know God is with us.  We know our sins are paid for.  We know our Redeemer lives.  The only rational response to this Good News is to rejoice, praise God, and worship.

Do you know what a “carol” is?  It is a song or dance of joy and praise.  Listen to those old Christmas carol lyrics again (all the verses).  You have something to sing about!

Isaac Watts was the Matt Redman of his time.  He called on all creation to rejoice – because God has come to us in Jesus Christ.  God is with us!  God is for us!
Let all humanity rejoice in the Incarnation!  
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heaven and nature sing.

Let the creation rejoice in Jesus, our Savior and Lord!  
Joy to the world, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy.

Rejoice that sin’s curse is broken by our almighty Christ!
No more let sin and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessing known
Far as the curse is found.

Rejoice that Jesus reigns supreme!
He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love.

It’s time to sing!  It’s time to dance!  Rejoice – the Lord has come!

They bowed down and worshiped Him.  And opening their treasures, they presented gifts to Him. (Matt. 2:11).

When wise scholars from the east perceived that the King of the Jews had been born, their first instinct was to worship Him with their best.  Ever since that glorious first Advent, wise men and women have found their way to Jesus and they continue to worship Him with all their hearts, laying their best before Him.  

The Apostle Paul said the offering he wanted to bring Jesus was to lay redeemed nations at His feet.  He wrote, “I am a special messenger to you Gentiles.  I bring you the Good News so that I might present you as an acceptable offering to God, made holy by the Holy Spirit” (Ro. 15:16, NLT).  Paul wanted to bring the highest tribute possible to Christ – entire nations made righteous by His sacrifice.

As I think of the lavish gifts of the wise men, and Paul’s missionary gift of entire nations to Christ, I also remember the prophetic words of hymn-writer, Isaac Watts.  Foreseeing  the coming global reign of Jesus Christ, he wrote:

Behold the islands with their kings,
And Europe her best tribute brings;
From north to south the princes meet,
To pay their homage at His feet.

There Persia, glorious to behold,
There India shines in eastern gold;
And barb’rous nations at His word
Submit and bow and own their Lord.

’Twas the night of the big Christmas play at the church.

All the boys and girls had rehearsed their lines over and over.  Now each child knew his part by heart.  The dress rehearsal had gone without a hitch.  Each memorized line was recited flawlessly.

  The actual performance, however, did not go quite as planned. 

For Joey, who played Joseph in the church Christmas play, the night of his big debut had finally arrived.  Realizing his parents and grandparents were in the audience, eight-year-old “Joseph” was in rare form on stage.  He pounded frantically on the innkeeper’s door.  When the boy-innkeeper peered from behind the cracked door, Joseph kept laying it on thick.  “Please, sir,” he pleaded, “my wife is about to have a baby!  Don’t you have any room for us in the inn?”

Jimmy, the second-grade innkeeper, knew his lines perfectly.  Countless times he had practiced his stern speech of refusal:  “I’m sorry.  There is no room in the inn.”  But the night of the play Jimmy himself was overcome by the desperate tone in “Joseph’s” cry for help.  He just had to do the right thing.  So, Jimmy the Innkeeper blurted out, “I know what they want me to say but – come on in anyway!”

There’s no room in today’s secular “inn” for Jesus either.  Our culture has schooled us repeatedly to bar Him from any entrance into our lives.  It’s society’s autocratic way of ordering us to fall into line:  “Learn your lines: ‘There is no room for Him.’”  Just note the frantic, bizarre attempts to morph “Merry Christmas” into “Happy Holidays.”  Today, as then, there’s no place for Him.  They’re scared spitless of His name, much less His presence.

We’ve been well coached in our day to deny Him any access.  Secularists have pronounced the verdict:  “No room for Jesus.”  But still He stands at the door and knocks.  But be forewarned: When Jesus comes in He will turn the status quo upside down.  So this Christmas defy the culture umpires who try to define for you what’s “in” and what (or who) is “out.”  Just let Him in . . .

      into your home . . .
            into your activities . . .
                  into your conversations . . .
                         into your family gatherings . . .
                                and most of all . . . into your heart.

No matter how much it might mess up everyone’s little play, along with Jimmy let’s do the right thing.  Jesus, I know what they want me to say — but come on in anyway! 

“God gave Christ the highest place and honored His name above all others. So at the name of Jesus everyone will bow down, those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth. And to the glory of God the Father everyone will openly agree, ‘Jesus Christ is Lord!’” (Philippians 2:9-11, CEV).