Materialism and Christmas

Good morning and Merry Christmas!

While thinking about the meaning of Christmas, I’m reminded of one of the great lies of our modern age, which is materialism. Not the materialism that chases after clothes and cars and iPods, but the much more deadly belief called scientific and philosophical materialism. It’s a belief that says that matter is all that exists. Some of the brightest minds of our age believe we are only a collection of atoms working according to the laws of physics. Any feelings we have about morality, or personhood, or ultimate meaning and purpose are just a type of wishful thinking that is the useful result of Darwinian evolution. In the end, we come from nowhere and we are going nowhere. We are alone in an impersonal universe that just is. And, on top of that, in our pride we think we’re so smart to have figured all this out. This is the lost and hopeless view of the modern world we live in.

But the message of Christmas is that the God who made the universe, who authored the laws of physics, the God who designed a world bursting with life and beauty, who made clothes and cars and iPods even possible…this God has not left us alone in our ignorance and sin. God has come. He revealed himself in Bethlehem. Even though our pride deserves his wrath and rejection, God answers our pride by sending his own Son, humbly taking on a lowly human nature to be our Savior.

Read with me these passages from God’s Word:

"[Christ] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him." (Col 1:15-16)

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

           

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. " (John 3:16)

This Christmas morning let’s worship the God who is real, the God who has come, the God who loves us and has reconciled us to himself through his Son Jesus Christ, born on Christmas day. This is the meaning of the angels’ announcement:

Hark! the herald angels sing, “Glory to the newborn King; Peace on earth, and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled!”

Christmas Morning, 2011, Christ Community Church