When No Presents Are Under the Tree
December 24, 2020
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Scripture Reading
Habakkuk 3:17-19
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer's;
he makes me tread on my high places.
I’m the lead pastor of our church, but believe it or not, there are a number of things they don’t let me do here at church. One of those is sing on the worship team. It’s been a joke for some time that if we were desperate, if some Sunday there were no singers on the team, if there were no musicians on the band, if there were no people to run the sound board, yet I still wouldn’t be allowed to sing on the worship team. I’ve come to terms with how God made me, and I’m okay with that.
I do have a favorite Christmas song that I’d like to sing you a line from since I do have the microphone. Really, it’s not so much a favorite song as it is a song from a favorite movie. I’ll be curious if you know the movie and can finish the next line: “Fahoo fores dahoo dores . . .” Anyone know the movie?
Yes, it’s from The Grinch. I love the old cartoon version best. That scene where the little dog Max comes down the mountain on the sled is my favorite. But that song is sung in the movie during a different sled scene. All the Whos down in Whoville wake up without presents under the tree, but they sing anyway. Fahoo fores dahoo dores. The next lines are, “Welcome Christmas come this way . . . / Welcome Christmas, Christmas day . . . / Christmas day is in our grasp . . . / So long as we have hands to clasp . . . / Welcome Christmas bring your cheer . . .”
And the song continues while the narrator tells us about the Grinch: “And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow, stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so? It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags. And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore. Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before. What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store. What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.” In other words, he wondered if all the ordinary joys of Christmas were stripped away, how could there still be joy at Christmas? Maybe that’s the same question you’re asking.
On any given Sunday, churches throughout the world have Habakkuk 3 preached to them. The obscure Old Testament book of Habakkuk has popularity beyond its small size. This fall our adult Sunday School class studied the whole book. I would suspect, however, that on most Christmas Eves few churches hear Habakkuk 3 preached. In typical years and typical Christmases, you won’t do a Google search for “best passages to preach on Christmas Eve” and find Habakkuk on any list. But this was not a normal year, nor a normal Christmas Eve. And so I suspect we are not the only church in the world looking at these words tonight. Let me read them to you.
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
19 God, the Lord, is my strength;
he makes my feet like the deer’s;
he makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. (Habakkuk 3:17–19)
In concrete imagery the prophet describes total economic and social destruction of their agricultural society. The central event in the book, which we don’t have time to talk about, is the promised invasion of a foreign nation that will leave God’s people with no figs, no fruit, no olives, no wheat or other crops in the fields, and no livestock to pull farming machinery and provide food and milk and clothing.
It would have been strange to stand on an Israelite’s farm and stand in his barn and hear no sound of cattle. Imagine going to a Farm Show that has no vendors, no animals, no rodeo. Imagine standing on a school playground during recess and hearing no children laughing. Imagine standing in the crowd at a Penn State football game and hearing no roar of fans. Maybe you don’t have to imagine. The loss of crops and livestock would have been problems immediately, but they would have been greater problems in the coming year as famine began to ravish the land.
Yet what does Habakkuk say in vv. 18–19? When everything else is stripped away, he has a joy that cannot be stripped away. Habakkuk’s joy can’t be stripped away because his joy is in God. God, he says, enables him to walk on his high places. The high places were dangerous places, places of physical and spiritual danger. There was a documentary last year called Free Solo about a climber who climbed El Capitan, a 3,000 ft. wall of granite in Yosemite National Park—and the climber did it without ropes, a free solo climb. Habakkuk is saying that with God he walks as nimble as a deer through danger and as gracefully as Alex Honnold climbed El Capitan. God, Habakkuk says, makes all the difference.
When my wife and I were engaged, we registered for wedding presents. It’s an interesting experience. You walk through Target with a scanner gun, and any present you want, you just shoot. And you get it—eventually… sort of. What would you register for? I walked through the candy aisle and registered for Snickers candy bars, and of course a few practical items, like pots and pans.
After our wedding ceremony, my family drove three cars of presents to our house in St. Louis. But if I had gotten all those presents, if there was a car full of Snickers bars, indeed if there were hundred cars full of presents, but if I didn’t get my wife and my wife didn’t get me, there would be no joy. And if at our wedding we had no presents, no guests except the pastor who officiated the ceremony, and there was no honeymoon and no pictures and videographer, and no reception and flowers and so on, but my wife had a husband and I had a wife, then we were good.
Yes, the Christmas story is about the birth of Jesus, a story about how Christians get hope and joy and forgiveness and a future in a recreated paradise. The birth of Jesus is about all those things. But the birth of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the death of Jesus, the resurrection of Jesus, and the second coming of Jesus are about hope and joy and forgiveness only because Jesus brings us to God. The Christmas story is the story of how a groom gets his bride, of how Jesus gets his church, and we get God—forever.
In Matthew’s gospel account we read these words in the Christmas story,
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means, God with us). (Matthew 1:22–23)
You may have lots of presents under your tree. You may have less presents than normal. You may have no presents under your tree. Your family may visit this year, or they may not. You may be watching this Christmas Eve service online because you are quarantined. But in whatever situation you find yourself, God wants to be with you if you want to be with him. This Christmas,
17 Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
18 [may you] rejoice in the Lord;
[may you] take joy in the God of [your] salvation.
Habakkuk ends with the note from the author that his prayer is for singing. “To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments,” he writes. Fahoo fores dahoo dores, he sings, because when Habakkuk encountered God, his heart grew three sizes, as he learned Christmas joy doesn’t come from a store.
I’ll invite the music team to lead us in a few songs. Let’s pray. . .
