It was 7:51 on a Friday morning, January 12, 2007. A young man wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a Washington Nationals baseball hat began playing his violin in a Washington DC subway station. He played for the next hour. During that time 1,097 people passed by. Some even tossed money into his violin case, to the tune of $32.17. Of those 1,097 people only seven paused longer than sixty seconds.
Who was playing the violin in such a strange place? It was Joshua Bell, a Grammy-award winning violinist whose talents typically command $1000 a minute, but that day in the subway he made $32.17 for an hour’s worth of work. Bell normally could fill any venue—in fact, just before this, he had filled Boston’s Symphony Hall—but now he could barely get seven people to listen. And you couldn’t fault his instrument. It was a Stradivarius violin worth $3.5 million. And you couldn’t fault the music. Bell was playing some of the most beautiful classical music ever written. On piece was from Johann Sebastian Bach that Bell, himself, called “one of the greatest achievements of any man in history.”
No. You really can’t blame anything other than the fact that it was just another seemingly ordinary day for everyone in that subway station. There was a shoe-shine stand and newspaper stand on either side of Joshua Bell. People were buying lattes and lotto tickets. Besides, who had time to stop? Who could afford to be late to work? And thus, not expecting majesty in the midst of the mundane—people missed it! They missed something extraordinary and glorious.
It’s Christmas Eve, and tonight and tomorrow and the days that follow will be filled with presents and parties and lots of pecan pie. We’ll hear the cacophony of choruses of, “Thank you so much,” “Oh, you shouldn’t have,” and “it fits just right.” We’ll delight in the lyrics of our favorite Christmas hymns and songs. Under the holiday spell of the past month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, we Americans have shelled out over $950 billion on toys, turkeys, travel, tinsel, and beautifully decorated trees. But with all of the hype and hoopla how easy is it each year for Christmas to come and go and we miss its real meaning and its majesty?
The Psalms are filled with reminders that all of creation and every moment of every day is filled with the majesty, glory and beauty of God, but like the people in the subway station on that day when Joshua Bell played beautiful music on a spectacular instrument, we rush through our little lives and so easily miss the beauty and majesty of God. Psalm 118 declares, “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Our psalm today, psalm 24, announces that “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,for He has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers” (verses 1 &2). But as obvious as God’s glory and majesty should be according to the psalms, it seems our eyes aren’t always so trained to see it, even when it’s right in front of our nose. We get so focused on our own little existence and we miss the bigger picture. We’re so often mired in the muck of our own disappointments, bad moods, worries and frustrations that we don’t always lift up our heads as psalm 24 urges us to do.
How many times do we snap at our spouse in frustration or anger, rather than thank God for this best friend He’s placed into our lives for each and every day?
How many times do we yell at our kids because they’ve gotten out of line rather than praise God for the blessings of family?
How many times have we driven to work so consumed with putting out some fire or dealing with a personnel problem that the beauty of the trees and the sky never once registers as we pass it by at 75 miles an hour—especially considering how colorful the foliage was this year?
You see what I’m talking about? Why are we so oblivious to the glory of God? But it’s not just our eyes that create problems for us in this regard. Psalm 24 mentions our legs, our hands, our hearts, our tongues and even our souls as problematic, too:
“Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in His holy place? [The answer:] He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to what is false and does not swear deceitfully” (verses 3&4).
That certainly doesn’t describe us, does it? How can we stand in the presence of God and His majesty and glory? We don’t have clean hands and a pure heart, and we have too often lifted up our soul to falsehood and have sworn deceitfully. We are sinners and have no rightful place in the presence of God. It makes sense that we have trouble noticing His majesty in creation, because the Bible states in no uncertain terms that we are by nature sinfully blind and deaf to the things of God. We have no real righteousness, even when we are on our best behavior. And if we don’t see the proof of this in our lives from day to day, then we aren’t just blind, we are stupid. The bible says, “If we say we have no sin, we only deceive ourselves and truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8).
If nothing else, the fact that every year we reach Christmas Eve—even after a month of Advent preparation—and, yet, still feel more stressed by schedules, holiday planning or some other detail of life rather than be astounded by the love of God revealed in the manger. How often does Christmas come and go and we barely soak in this miracle?
As if sun and moon, stars and sky, hills and mountains, and beautifully colored foliage weren’t enough to bring us to our knees in awe and wonder at the majesty of God. As if spouse and children, family and community weren’t enough to open our lips in thanksgiving and praise to the Lord of Glory. But more than anything else, Christmas should be that one occasion when we can’t help but be filled with joy and exultation, because at Christmas God literally rubs His glory in our face.
But we can’t see the glory of God, not on our own. We can’t stand in His presence because of our sin. Because our hearts and hands and souls are too infected and dirty with unholiness, ingratitude and selfish existence. So what does God do? God comes to us. We can’t stand in His presence so He stands in our presence. Our hands are too dirty, so He comes with clean hands… and a clean heart. He stands in righteousness for us when we fall down in sin and failure. This is what Christmas is all about!
“Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle! Lift up your heads, O gates! And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory” (verses 7-10)!
Christ the Lord enters the equation. He’s the one who truly can abide in the presence of God. He was true God even as He was true man. He has a pure heart and clean hands, He is not false or deceitful in any way, and certainly He has sought the will of the Father at all times. He is all the righteousness we need.
I don’t have to hang my head in shame. Christ my righteousness has entered into my world and purchased justification before the holy God for me! “O peaceful hearts and happy homes/To whom this King in triumph comes! The cloudless sun of joy is He/Who comes to set His people free” (LSB 341). The Christmas Child is born into the flesh so that you and I might have an eternal relationship with God through this Child, because of this child, and in this Child.
But as glorious and wonderful as this sheer act of grace is—Christmas is a gift from God. But the fact that it really is a gift is the thing we most easily miss. People have the hardest time believing it. Why? Well, probably because we’re okay when it comes to other free handouts or receiving other kinds of gifts, but when it comes to eternal life and our standing in the eyes of God, we think we somehow have to earn it. Satan has so tempted mankind to follow his pride rather than trust God to give everything. We make our religion all about me and what I can do for myself. It’s no wonder that Scripture calls Satan a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44).
We constantly doubt God’s favor upon us. We look to our sinful and unrighteous actions, words and deeds. We are haunted by our past sinful choices. And in the present, we dwell on the fact that we seldom ever feel very holy, or inspired, or “on fire” for God. We don’t pray enough, read our bibles enough, or do enough good works. And we think all of this is proof enough that we’ve got a long way to go if we ever hope to be good enough in the eyes of God.
But Christmas is God’s slap in the face. He backhands us across the face with His glory and grace. He puts Himself in the strangest and most unholy of places—in a dirty manger where cows and donkeys chew hay and slobber on feed. He surrounds Himself with dirty shepherds and a humble mother and father. He does this to show you and me that God’s righteousness isn’t earned, it’s given. It’s shown. It’s revealed.
Lift up your heads, ye mighty gates!
Behold, the King of glory waits.
The King of kings is drawing near;
The Savior of the world is here.
Life and salvation He doth bring;
Therefore rejoice and gladly sing.
To God the Father raise
Your joyful songs of praise.
A righteous Helper comes to thee;
His chariot is humility,
His kingly crown is holiness,
His scepter, pity in distress.
The end of all our woe He brings;
Therefore the earth is glad and sings.
To Christ the Savior raise
Your grateful hymns of praise.
Listen to Psalm 24:10 one more time: “Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, He is the King of glory!”
Don’t miss it! Merry Christmas! Amen.
O Lord, open my lips... 