We come
to that awkward Sunday in the season of Christmas when we find ourselves out of
touch with both the rest of the world and much of those in the wider
Church. The wider world, of course, has
moved on to New Year’s Eve celebrations and meaningless bowl games on New
Year’s Day. The after Christmas sales
have been pillaged. The trees have been
put away. And most folks have their heads
in the sand about their upcoming credit card bills that will arrive later this
month. In some ways, those who self-identify
as Christians are indistinguishable from the wider world. I have friends in other denominations who
have put away their decorations, after having taken part in the same sales and
observing the same bowl rituals.
Some
years we get two Sunday’s in Christmas, if the calendar falls just so. This year, of course, we get only one. When next we gather in 2019, we will
celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany.
Christmas is, even for us, all too brief.
In the
grand scheme of things, I often wonder why the awe and wonder of Silent Night,
Holy Night was not celebrated a few weeks more.
I mean, we are talking about the Incarnation here, the Holy Mystery that
God became fully human, born of the flesh of the Virgin Mary His mother. Maybe we should make it a bit longer to fit
the absolute magnificence of the event?
I’m
guessing the early Church figured out we were pretty much like the early
Apostles and disciples. They wanted to
spend more time in the mountain top experiences, and Jesus consistently sent
them back into the valleys of death to proclaim that He, and His kingdom, had
come near. And, truth be told, the real
awe and wonder of Jesus’ presence among us might not be the Incarnation. Some may be more overwhelmed in thanksgiving
for His willingness to suffer for us and to die for us, and that is totally
understandable. It’s kind of like
arguing over whether this Belgian chocolate or that Belgian chocolate is better
or, since we are Episcopalians, arguing over whether Dom Perignon or Taittinger
champagne is more appropriate for celebrating the New Year. Great, you look at me like I’ve lost my mind
on the chocolate but totally get the meaning thanks to the champagne?
I know
those questions have buzzed about me this week as I have had conversations with
folks in the secular world and in the church world about Christmas. Most of my secular conversations have been at
Publix and Kroger. While my kids and Karen
and I love a great roast beast Christmas dinner, the leftover sandwiches with
Havarti cheese and homemade horseradish sauce.
Each day, it seems like, I have been at one place or the other. As I have checked out with ladies with whom I
speak all the year round, I have wished them a Merry Christmas. The first couple days they did not want to
tell me my business, but Christmas ended Tuesday. With all four ladies I tried the whole Christmas is a season in the Church that
runs from the Nativity to the Epiphany, the coming of the Wise Men. That got me all kinds of blank stares. So, I resorted to the secular proof of the
Twelve Days of Christmas. They know I am
a priest. They think I am nice enough to
engage them on anything and, for the most part, give Godly advice. But I cannot know what I am talking about
when I say Christmas is a season and not a day in the Church. But, the Twelves Days of Christmas song? That’s better than Wikipedia once they
realize it’s about the season! I take it
as a small victory that one of the ladies at Publix asked me if I got Karen
five gold rings for yesterday.
Within
the Church, the conversations are far more nuanced. Friends in other denominations have remarked
that our wreaths are still up, that our poinsettias are still out, that we use
the candelabra like it’s a catholic feast, and all those kinds of
questions. Usually, the questions come
back to some suggestion that we are lingering too much on the birth of Jesus
and not enough on His death and Resurrection.
I try to explain we remember it all each and every time we celebrate the
Eucharist, that for us it is all intertwined for most of the year. But, we in the Church, every bit as those
without, need to be reminded of why we are so awed, so overwhelmed by the idea
that God would become human, what the Incarnation really means to us and for
us.
Even
Episcopalians and Adventers, though, have had their opinions about the
season. I have had several conversations
about why the Church celebrates the martyrdom of Stephen on the 26th
and the Feast of the Holy Innocents on the 28th every year. For those who like to observe a nice, quiet,
joyful Christmas, those celebrations and remembrances seem more suited to other
times of the year, like Lent. I’ve had
to remind folks here of Carola’s teaching when she was with us, and folks in
the wider church about the fact that we are living in that tension between the
“already” and the “not yet.” We know how
this story ends; we just don’t know when it ends. And we who are God’s heralds, His sons and
daughters, recognize that we live in a world that still fights against Him,
that tries hard to overcome His light with its darkness. And so, those feasts call us back into the
world. Like the Apostles who viewed the
Transfiguration of our Lord, we are not allowed to bask in the glory of the
promise. We are sent back out into a
world wrecked by sin, by guilt, by shame to minister in His Name and to
proclaim the truth Monday night makes possible.
Speaking
of which, if you have been visiting with family for a couple weeks and you have
expressed a wonder about the comforting and afflicting natures of good sermons,
this will not be one of those, at least I hope it will not be one of
those. This is a day about comforting
His people and focusing on the glorious calling He has offered each of us –
there are no intended spiritual wedgies on my part this morning!
If you
have a picture of Jesus’ birth, it comes from Matthew and Luke. Mark, as many of us should know, jumps into
Jesus’ ministry as an adult. Mark is
mostly a crucifixion and resurrection story with a bit of an introduction. Matthew and Luke are the ones who provide us
with the Annunciation, with Joseph’s doubts, with Elizabeth’s baby leaping in
the womb at Mary’s voice, with the manger, with the shepherds, and with the
angelic choir. Those “earthly” details
are largely eschewed by John. John
places Jesus’ birth in the cosmology of salvation history. John argues that this Birth was the Birth to
which and for which all Creation pointed and longed.
If I
asked you to name the most famous verse in John, most of you would probably
cite 3:16. It’s understandable. We can’t go to a basketball or football game
without seeing the verse. For God so loved the world . . . . What is the second most famous verse in
John? My guess is that many would argue
that 1:1 is the second most famous. I
did have someone argue in favor of the unity prayer from chapter 17. I must confess, it was a good argument. We both finally agreed that it might be more
important, but not as well known to folks in the pew.
Part of
the reason that you know this passage so well is that you get to hear it t-2-3
times every year, depending on the cycle and the number of times you attend
church. Those who attend church only on
Christmas each year get to hear it at the end of the service as they light
their individual candles, reminding them of the truth of this passage. All that we are is based in Him. He is the true light, but He promises to
plant a light in us, if we allow.
But that
light planted in us, that calling us to be heralds of His Gospel, is for a
glorious purpose. We might think it cool
to remember that Jesus came down from heaven and became fully human, but the
truth is that He did it for far more significant purposes than just to be
“cool” or create in us “warm fuzzy feelings.”
And, although Jesus died that we might be reconciled to God, there is
something else at work in this Holy mystery we call the Incarnation. We pass over it because of its familiarity;
we often ignore the Gospel aspect of the prologue of John’s writing because it
is buried in the middle of this paragraph.
Why did God do this? Why did God
come down from heaven? Why do we remind
ourselves of the mystery and awe each and every year?
Look at
verses 12-13. But to all who received Him, who believed in His name, He gave power to
become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh
or of the will of man, but of God.
Look, I get that our adoption cannot be completed without the Passion
and Death of our Lord. I understand that
as well as anyone here. But it is this
feast of the Incarnation which we celebrate and whose purpose is revealed to us
in John’s writing. All this, all this
described in the wonder and majesty of John’s Gospel was for the glorious purpose
of making it possible for those who desire so to do, to become children of God. We know, of course, how that is finally
accomplished, but this day we remind ourselves of His glorious purpose and our
glorious calling! Our backgrounds do not
matter. Our skin colors do not matter. Our ethnic or tribal allegiances do not
matter. Our past failures do not
matter. Our self-loathing does not
matter. This day, we remind ourselves
that THAT NIGHT happened so that we who desired it could become children of
God!
Whatever strikes
against us because of our flesh, because of our mortality, because of our sins
and shortcomings are begun to be erased, if we but want them erased. Jesus came at this point in salvation history
for the express purpose of making it possible for us to become children of
God. In this day and age of broken
families, in this day and age where we read and hear and know all too well the
failures of human family members, how freeing, how hope-planting is the
certainty that we can choose to be children of God?
Of course, there is an obligation that comes
with our choosing to be a child of God. You
and I, by virtue of our desire to be His child, are called to witness to His
love. You and I are called to bear
little crosses even as His Son our Lord Christ bore the Cross, but even that is
done in the shadowy glory of the Empty Tomb.
We are, like the angelic choir that glorious night, heralds of His
Gospel in a world that still rejects Him, in a world that would rather choose
darkness than His light. We know, beyond
a shadow of doubt, that God can redeem all our sufferings and even our
death. And so we lift those crosses, we
witness His Gospel, knowing that the world in which we live is not the world to
which He finally calls us. We feed the
hungry and clothe the poor and pray for the sick and support one another
through whatever trials certain that one day, one glorious day in the future,
we will see Him face to face, as a friend and not as a stranger! We welcome all who come seeking Him and
seeking to be His child, just as those before us welcomed us in all our tattered
clothing with all our emotional baggage.
And, much as that Christ candle flame passes from that white candle from
person to person during the singing of Holy Night in our liturgy, His love, His
Gospel, passes from person to person thanks to His intervening grace and will.
More
significantly, even though the world covets the darkness and rejects Him at
every turn, that light planted in us helps point those living in darkness to
the One who created them, the One who redeemed them, and the One who has
greater plans in store for them than they can ask or imagine, if only they
would seek Him. And that, my friends, is
why the world needs to spend a bit more time in the season of wonder; that is
why we would do well to consider the seriousness of our calling. That my dear Adventers, is herald we are
called to be not only in this season, but throughout the year and throughout
our lives, until He comes again and completes the work He started in a little
town called Bethlehem two millennia ago!
In Christ’s Peace,
Brian†
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