Pastor-Eye-Zzed–Christmas Concert Theology

Christmas Concert Theology

Christmas concerts. What would Christmas be without them? You can take the grinchiest-cold-hearted, anti-Christmas commando and put him or her in the audience of a Sunday School Christmas pageant and their hearts will melt. Guaranteed!

Last Sunday we had our Sunday School Concert. It was called “the Great Christmas Giveaway” and it was truly excellent and full of many wonderful and surprisingly good performances. The story involve some students shopping at a mall for their teachers’ Christmas present and how, through their interaction with some of the store owners in the mall, they learn the true meaning of Christmas. Wouldn’t you just love that to be true? What would it be like if shopping in the mall, and interacting with sales staff ended up being a spiritual experience that pointed us to the truth of Christ? It’s a bit hard to believe such a
thing would happen, isn’t it?

Well, I don’t think so because shopping in the mall is always a spiritual experience for me, because throughout the process, I spend a lot of time in repentance for the thoughts I am having about the crowds and the line ups and the store owners. Then I am always deeply in prayer so that I can find my car in the parking lot! I need my own personal Christmas Star to lead me to my car. Do you have any idea how many tan Honda Accords there are in any given parking lot? I seem to have digressed, let’s get back to the Christmas Concert.

All the children, down to the little guys, got in on the act as part of the choir. The music was amazing and each song had actions that went along with them. Now, I have done dozens of Vacation Bible Schools and close to forty camps and so I am familiar with actions songs. Having said that, I stink at doing them. I am not co-ordinated enough. In fact I wouldn’t be able to tie my shoes if I had to do it in time to a song I was singing.

Well the choir did a great job over all, but some of the little ones, while still better than I would have been, just weren’t old enough to zig when the other zagged. When others were ebbing, they were flowing. When the majority were comme çi-ing, others were comme ça-ing, you get my point. Sometimes their hands were in the same neighbourhood and at other times their hands were in another province. Some kids were faster than the music, some were slower. Some were highly animated others were highly distracted. But, none of that mattered. No one cared that every hand movement wasn’t completely in sync with everyone else, after all this was a Sunday School Christmas Concert— not some military sword drill.

As I was sitting there watching the concert unfold, a thought came to mind. Most Christmas concerts have a lot of mistakes in them. Most concerts have kids running around and tinsel and feathers flying, and the odd technical glitch, but that doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter that the concert wasn’t perfect, because you know what?—It was better than perfect!

What do I mean by “better than perfect”? I mean that if everything had gone flawlessly, with perfect pitch and performance, it wouldn’t have been half as entertaining or inspiring. There is something about seeing a bunch of children doing their best, even if their best isn’t HIGH art, or OSCAR caliber performance.

I would venture to guess that no one has ever thrown tomatoes at a Sunday School Concert. Never has there been a bad review. The flaws and mistakes and retakes are very much part of the charm and attraction. You see, it doesn’t matter if our children mess up. What matters is that they are OUR children and they are trying to please us. In that kind of context, even the mess ups are cherished and enjoyed!

Now you tell me—how refreshing is that!? We all need to experience a place where acceptance and love overrules the all too common world of criticism and competition. For this reason alone, I prescribe Sunday School Christmas concerts. They are an oasis of pure delight wrapped up in the colorful, slightly irregular paper of imperfection.

The Christmas pageant is a lesson about conveying godly love. We experience joy because of who the children are—not because of what they do. As I sat there thinking about this, God spoke to my heart and simply said: “How you see these children is how I see you. How you feel about this performance is how I feel about your life.”

Often we think that God is a perfectionist because He is perfect, but the two ideas don’t really go together. I mean think about it: perfectionism is actually an imperfection. A perfectionist expects too much of him or herself and others. A perfectionist is unrealistic. They are too critical and unforgiving.

Our Heavenly Father, on the other hand, is perfect, and part of that perfection is His understanding of our limitations. How can you be perfect, and at the same time, not understand the needs and imperfections of others. You can’t. So part of God’s perfection is His delighting in the fact that we are trying, even though our performance isn’t always perfect. Part of His perfection is displayed in loving us for who we are—not because of what we do.

Perhaps you’re not convinced that this is a true picture of God? If that’s how you feel, then you need to look at the miracle of Christmas. The miracle of Christmas is that God sent his Son into this world. He sent Him into an imperfect family, to be born in an imperfect stable, for the purpose of taking care of our imperfections, mistakes, and sin by dying in our place. Think about it, isn’t this just another way of God saying: “I’m interested in you—not your performance.”?

What am I saying? Am I saying that God doesn’t care when we sin? Of course not! Sin matters. Sin has consequences. Sin affects our hearts, it hurts our relationships, and it brings difficulties and sorrows into our lives. And because God loves us, God is capable of disciplining us so to help us avoid further pain and suffering. But the one thing that sin doesn’t do is diminish the love of God for us.

The Apostle Paul says it this way in the book of Romans: “But God demonstrates his
own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
(Romans 5:8)

God’s love was demonstrated in Christ paying the price for our sins and dying in our place so that we could live in relationship with Him. Christ’s sacrifice took the issue of our less-than-perfect performance off the table.

If you are a follower of Christ you are now one of God’s children. You have claimed Jesus sacrifice for your sins, so your sins and imperfections are no longer a barrier to His presence in your life. This means that He delights in your efforts, no matter how imperfect. You see, what He cares most about the fact that we are trying. Our performance, no matter how out of sync and uncoordinated it might be, is much more pleasing to Him then our unwillingness to try at all. Our stumbles and off key singing delight Him because we are His children and we are on a journey through life with Him. Each day we have an audience of at least one. God is always in the audience, cheering us on and clapping His hands with abandon, because we are His kids!

The next time a child’s smallest effort warms your heart, remember that the way you feel about that child and their humble efforts, is how God feels about you and your efforts.

There is one difference though. God takes our imperfect efforts and turns them into perfect tools to further His will and purpose. He uses our weakness as His strength. He takes our uncoordinated efforts and coordinates them with His purposes and plan, Praise God! Paul quotes Christ as saying: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9) That is the message of Christmas!


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