Narrative Advent 2

A Very Gothic Christmas

Beginning the Story

A very long long time ago Christmas had another name. It was called Yule – and was a celebration of the darkness. Well – for Vikings and all of those pre-medieval folks of Europe it was a 12 day festival and feast centering around midwinter – around the great hunt of Odin in the sky – and was accompanied by an increase in the undead walking around…

For a thousand years before Jesus was born Christmas was a time of Ghost Stories!

And that continued right through the Christian Era – when Christmas was modernized in Victorian England it was done with the popularity of a ghost story – the story of a hapless merchant named Marley who came back to haunt his business partner – Ebeneezer Scrooge...

You all know the tale – Scrooge was a mean-hearted miserly man who is urged by a progression of ghosts to med his ways and start being compassionate. All of this happens on Christmas Eve and by journeying to his own past, present and future with the accompanying ghosts – Scrooge is transformed into a giddy, loving, generous man who keeps Christmas in his heart every day.

Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol in the 1800s – and he wrote it in a particular style, a genre, part of romantic fiction called Gothic Horror. There are four notable examples of Gothic Horror when you look it up – Dracula, Frankenstein, The works of Edgar Allen Poe, and A Christmas Carol.

There is another thing about Gothic Horror – the stories are …. trans-formative. They focus on the change that the reality and darkness of life cause on an individual – whether it is Frankenstein’s monster coming to grips with the hatred humans have for that which is different – or Dracula falling in love with the doppelganger of his long lost love – the events change the characters. By confronting the darkness and evil they grow and become better.

How is that for a different spin on Christmas? I am taking back the original pagan way of seeing it – Christmas is about finding your way in the dark.

Sharing the Story with kids

Candles in the Window

This tradition started in Ireland. It was originally about lighting a candle to help Mary and Joseph find their way to Bethlehem…. Because it was also something that Catholic families did in a country where being Catholic was illegal. It was a secret symbol for the priest who might be walking by that a Catholic Family lived here… and might want a visit.

Either way – it was about lighting the way in the darkness and became a symbol of hope. 

A Reading

Esther 4:1-17
So let me tell you a story – a biblical story…
When Mordecai learned all that had been done, Mordecai tore his clothes and put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city, wailing with a loud and bitter cry; he went up to the entrance of the king’s gate, for no one might enter the king’s gate clothed with sackcloth. In every province, wherever the king’s command and his decree came, there was great mourning among the Jews, with fasting and weeping and lamenting, and most of them lay in sackcloth and ashes.

When Esther’s maids and her eunuchs came and told her, the queen was deeply distressed; she sent garments to clothe Mordecai so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he would not accept them. Then Esther called for Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs, who had been appointed to attend her, and ordered him to go to Mordecai to learn what was happening and why. Hathach went out to Mordecai in the open square of the city in front of the king’s gate, and Mordecai told him all that had happened to him, and the exact sum of money that Haman had promised to pay into the king’s treasuries for the destruction of the Jews. Mordecai also gave him a copy of the written decree issued in Susa for their destruction, that he might show it to Esther, explain it to her, and charge her to go to the king to make supplication to him and entreat him for her people.

Hathach went and told Esther what Mordecai had said. Then Esther spoke to Hathach and gave him a message for Mordecai, saying, “All the king’s servants and the people of the king’s provinces know that if any man or woman goes to the king inside the inner court without being called, there is but one law—all alike are to be put to death. Only if the king holds out the golden scepter to someone, may that person live. I myself have not been called to come into the king for thirty days.” When they told Mordecai what Esther had said, Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.”Then Esther said in reply to Mordecai,“Go, gather all the Jews to be found in Susa, and hold a fast on my behalf, and neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids will also fast as you do. After that I will go to the king, though it is against the law; and if I perish

The Story Unfolds

The story of Queen Esther is, yes, you guessed it, a Gothic Horror. Or at the very least a story where darkness and tragedy transforms an individual. I read you a section of the middle – and most of us do not know the story, despite it being one of the most famous stories of the Bible to feature a woman hero.

So let me give you an overview of the book of Esther.

Esther lived in ancient Persia about 100 years after the Jews were conquered by Babylon. When Esther's parents died, the orphaned child was adopted and raised by her older cousin Mordecai.
One day the king of the Persian Empire, Xerxes I, threw a lavish party. On the final day of the festivities, he called for his queen, Vashti, eager to flaunt her beauty to his guests. But the queen refused to appear before Xerxes. Filled with anger, he deposed Queen Vashti, forever removing her from his presence.

To find his new queen, Xerxes hosted a royal beauty pageant and Esther was chosen for the throne. Her cousin Mordecai became a minor official in the Persian government of Susa.

Soon after, Mordecai uncovered a plot to assassinate the king. He told Esther about the conspiracy, and she reported it to Xerxes, giving credit to Mordecai. The plot was thwarted and Mordecai's act of kindness was preserved in the chronicles of the king.

At this same time, the king's highest official was a wicked man named Haman. He hated the Jews and he especially hated Mordecai, who had refused to bow down to him.

So, Haman devised a scheme to have every Jew in Persia killed. The king bought into the plot and agreed to annihilate the Jewish people on a specific day. Meanwhile, Mordecai learned of the plan and shared it with Esther. Esther urged all of the Jews to fast and pray for deliverance. Then risking her own life, brave young Esther approached the king with a plan.

She invited Xerxes and Haman to a banquet where eventually she revealed her Jewish heritage to the king, as well as Haman's diabolical plot to have her and her people killed. In a rage, the king ordered Haman to be hung on the gallows – the very same gallows Haman had built for Mordecai.

Mordecai was promoted to Haman's high position and Jews were granted protection throughout the land. The Festival they created to honour this was Purim and is still celebrated today.

So the Bible tells a story of how an evil villain plotted to kill an entire people – and the rich Queen who was pretending not to be Jewish sees this happening and is changed by it – admitting her faith and saving her people.

Esther – Scrooge – Frankenstein – Dracula…. It is a powerful story because it cuts close to the quick – we get it. We allow ourselves to become comfortable, or even comfortably numb, to the horrors around us in order to be happy, or rich, or famous, or just to make our lives simpler – and that works for a while – until we turn out the lights.

Ideas to Take With Us

So we have the story of Esther – we have the story of Scrooge – and we have the story of us.
Here is the Gothic story of Jesus – there was an evil king, who was so full of himself that when he heard a prince had been born who would eventually be more powerful than him – decided to have every male toddler and baby in the country killed. It was a horrific time. The Romans conquered and it made matters worse.

In the midst of the pain and darkness however – some people chose to allow the experience to change them, to start to see things differently, to embrace love as an answer – and the leader of this movement was one of the few children to survive that horrible night of the long knives.
Christmas is Yule is midwinter is darkness with the glimmer of light.

It is, to again quote dickens a time when we should, as Scrooge declared: “honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!”

So I want to make the case for seeing the darkness of the world and allowing the light of Christmas to transform us in the midst of it. Allow this season to work its magic in your soul – and it shall be a very Merry Christmas indeed.

Advent 4 - A

A SIGN

Introduction

I cannot tell you how many times in my life I have looked for a sign. Some little signal from God to let me know that everything was going to be all right... I have prayed, I have hoped, I have bargained... I have even decided that the sign was there....

Sometimes I make it a 50/50 split with God. “Ok, God, if I drive around the corner and there is a tree still with leaves on it, I am going to take that as a sign that you want me to do this...”

Part of me knows full well that I am talking to myself – that a sign from God would not be leaves left on a tree randomly by the side of the road just when I wanted there to be leaves. I am talking to myself and justifying my decision.

But O for a sign. Some divine answer written across the sky in giant gold letters saying – THIS IS WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO DO! - I think there are times we all wish the answer was a little clearer, a little more obvious, a little more black and white.

Times when we knew what was the right thing to do.

We have been preparing for Christmas throughout the weeks of Advent by talking about ancient prophesies and bits of wisdom that people were hoping for with the Messiah. We even got nine months out and talked about what Mary was hoping this birth would be.

Well – lets move a little closer now to the due date. Lets advance to the point where Mary is showing, obviously, that she is pregnant – and let’s take a moment to consider this all from a different angle – that of the fiance. I am pretty sure Joseph was looking for a sign. He wanted God to tell him what to do...

Because let’s face it. This was a tough situation. He had not slept with Mary, she was claiming no one ever did, the family and crowds were talking, Mary’s life was on the line, maybe his too... at the very least their reputation was on the line...

The easiest thing and best thing for him would be to cast her out, let her take her own chances, forget about this and move on. After all, it was probably an arranged marriage, it was not really about love yet. He probably hardly knew this girl.

What is the right thing to do for his family? For his reputation? For his carpentry business? Or for that matter, how did he feel about all this?
This is part of the Christmas story too...

With the Kids

- cards and feelings – getting in touch with who we are and what we feel about the season...

Wrestling with the Texts

Have you ever seen a family coping with some stressful situation that seems beyond your own ability? Like a child getting cancer, or a child being born blind, or the death of a ten year old in a tragic car crash...

Almost every time I meet these people my first response is always to say, wow... they are coping with things with such grace, they are being so strong, look at how much love that family has for each other even when things are tough...

I see it every day in other relationships as well. Students looking out for each other, adults struggling with their aging parents, sickness and death taking one spouse... and for the most part what I see is that we are way stronger than we think.

Still....

The other side is true as well. Perhaps, sadly, even more true. We see marriages end, we see kids estranged from parents, we see abused runaways on the street. We see mental illness lead to drug addiction and prison. Just as often as I see people being strong, I see people being broken.

And I know there is a there but for the grace of God moment in all of this.
I have been broken. I have given up. I know what it feels like.

...

Ok, so I want you to see this as very human, I want you to understand that we are made of strong stuff but that any one of us could find ourselves broken by the weight of the world.
Now, look again at Joseph. He is not rich, he does not live in a city where there are hundreds of prospects, he does not come from a high society family, and yet, miracle of miracles, he gets engaged, to a young, seemingly happy and bright women. Her parents have the dowry, it is perfect.

Then she becomes pregnant.

Pregnant because she sleeps around? Pregnant because a Roman soldier raped her? There really is no good possibility here. Think about how a rape victim is treated today. Think about what society thinks of High School students who get pregnant. Think about the rumours when a wife gets pregnant after a man has a vasectomy.

Imagine how bad it was 2000 years ago? There were no women's rights, there were no divorce laws. This was a society where if a man says out loud three times that he is divorced, then he is. A woman is property. A woman exists to serve the man and bear him offspring. Which, by the way, in the thinking of the day do not even contain DNA of the woman – just little versions of the man growing up to carry on the name.

By law Mary must be put to death. By custom Joseph needed to move on and forget about this marriage. By the thoughts going on in the average persons head he needs to get angry and leave her. Why should he raise another mans son? Why should he be with an immoral and untrustworthy woman. Who, by the way, is probably a lair or insane ... saying she has never had sex...

But... we are told... and angel appears to Joseph. He has a vision. This child is going to grow up to change the world.

One night, one vision, one moment in time.... and Joseph marries his young bride and raises this child from another father as his son.

What we often gloss over in these stories is that so many amazing things had to happen for this to work out, including picking just the right step father for Jesus. A man who would believe the ramblings of a crazy young girl and show love and compassion despite all wisdom and tradition telling him not to. A man who would listen to the voice of the angel in his vision and see the possibility that perhaps Mary was telling the truth.

Conclusion

An angel talking to you at night is a pretty convincing sign from God. You could take the story to be telling us that. But I actually do not think that is true.

Scrooge saw a ghost talking to him and managed to convince himself, for a minute or two, that it was only some bad food he ate the night before playing havoc with his thinking.

And we have all done that. Dismissed the sign as being a coincidence. Dismissed the vision as being a dream. Seen someone smile at us and thought to ourselves they really cannot be smiling at us. Had someone tell us they thought we could do it, and known in our heart that we could not.

Joseph could have woken up and forgot about the night before. He could have dismissed it as a dream of wishful thinking. He could have said that God is not real anyway or else why would I be in this situation. He could have done a million things to convince himself to put her away quietly, he even could have put her to death himself. It was within the law.

But he didn’t.

What Joseph did was look in his heart and realize that this person needed the love of God more than anyone in that moment, and he had it within himself to give it.

There are signs around us all day. God is speaking to you right now. And most of us have the ability to hear, if we just accept that life is never black and white and we move into the mystery of Christmas. God did the unexpected and it changed the world. Joseph did the unexpected and it changed the world.


So go out and do the unexpected. It just might change the world.

Christmas Eve 2011

The Story Thus Far

Isaiah and Luke 2:1-7

We have all heard the story, if not at church in the last few years, then maybe on television, or you read it in a book, or something. It seems part of the collective consciousness to say that once a long time ago, in a little town, in a stable behind an inn, a baby was born.

We are also told that the heavens rejoiced, that kings trembled, that wise men searched him out.

It happened to fulfill a prophecy…

It happened so that the people who walked in deep darkness might see a dawning light on the horizon… It happened so that God might increase the joy of a people struggling in a time of uncertainty.

Legend has it that a German Priest by the name of Martin Luther began the tradition of decorating trees. 

One crisp Christmas Eve, around the year 1500, he was walking through snow-covered woods, thinking about the Christmas sermon he would preach.  Time slipped away from him and it began to get quite dark. Luther began to get nervous as the shadows lengthened and he could hear the howls of wild animals around him. 

Just then, he looked up at the night sky to see it filled with tiny pricks of light – twinkling blue and silver stars. As he looked around, he was struck by the beauty of a group of small evergreens. Their branches were dusted with snow and shimmered in the moonlight. 

He was no longer afraid

. 

When he got home, he set up a little fir tree indoors so he could share this story with his children. He decorated it with candles, which he lit in honour of Christ's birth. All of a sudden the image of the birth of Jesus as God's light shining in the darkness for everyone made more sense to him…

This is the same light that the prophet Isaiah talks about when he tells us that God sends light to those who walk in darkness. It is as true now as it was then.

Wonder

Do you know what an Angel is? Most religions have them, but we in the Jewish Christian and Islamic tradition know them as Messengers.

Angels come to bring a word from the Lord - When Mary first conceived, it was the Arch-Angel Gabriel who broke the news to her and helped her to be excited about what would transpire. Joseph moved from anger to understanding about the whole pregnancy situation only when an angel appeared to him in a dream.  

And after the birth of Jesus, it was a choir of angels that brought the good news to the shepherds, and in that moment, “the glory of the Lord shone around them…”

I see that as awe… everything lit up, it overwhelmed them, God was present…

I don’t know what most of you do tonight when the presents are wrapped and the kids are asleep and everything is ready… I remember when I lived with my five brothers for a brief period of insanity that the 11pm on Christmas Eve was magical.

We would sit in the living room, only the lights on the tree illuminating the world. Outside would be dark and quiet. No one would be fighting, we were usually allowed some rum in our egg nog… and it was somehow, momentarily, perfect.

The Celtic folk call this a thin place – a time where the line between heaven and earth is a little blurry. A time where you realize there is more than meets the eye going on. Those moments are indeed quite rare, but they often happen on Christmas Eve.

Whether it is as a child waiting for Santa, or seeing the presents under the tree, or the quiet of a night filled with significance…. If we are open to it, the Angels are still bringing a message from God.

And the message is the same as it always has been, a message of God’s glory and of peace for us.

Treasured in the Heart

In the 119^th Psalm we are told that God has hidden love deep within our hearts. In fact, there is a tradition that says we spend our whole lives searching outwardly for that love, and it is only when we realize it is hidden within us that we become capable of loving fully.

I think too often we forget the last words of the Christmas story, that Mary “Treasured these things in her heart.”

I was listening to an interview with Rabbi Harold Kushner the other day and he was talking about how it is a good idea to go to the graveyard and read the tombstones every now and again. He pointed out that never once will you come across ones that say things like: Brett Anningson, good with numbers; or exceptional preacher; or anything remotely like that… what you will see is devoted wife, loving son, you will see expressions of the heart.

Too often we have those moments in front of the fire, or sitting around the tree, or opening presents, or feasting with family, and then go back to work the next day as if it is all over. We forget to treasure those moments that allow us to see the world from a different perspective.

Christmas is a time that we can let seep into our soul. It is the coming of the light into an otherwise darkened world. And it is not just right now, it is forever.

So enjoy it, revel in it, relax in it, but let it seep into your very soul. Tomorrow the light is dawning.

 Words of Reflection:  Sharing the Light & Blessing

Look around this sacred place and see all the lights that are burning. 

See the light that shines in each of us.

From the Light of the World comes light for every one of us to take into our corners of the world. 

Take this light with you tonight and remember who you are and who has made you.

Tonight, light has broken through the darkness.

New life is starting right now!

Go forth and live in the light.

Go forth in peace to love and serve our God.

Advent 2- B 2011

Of Prophets and Kings

Introduction

What are you waiting for?

I sort of asked that question last week as well, but the thing is, Christmas has context… It doesn’t just happen, there is a reason. 

The thing about being a Christian is that you are supposed to be an “as if” type of person.

Let me explain. As Christians we are called upon to live as if God’s promises were true, as if the world were what God meant it to be, as if the goodness of God was more powerful than the evil we see around us.

Or think of it this way - We live in a time of war and terrorism, but we are called to live as if peace were more important. We live in a time of instant communication and gratification but are called to live as if peace and tranquility were of a higher value. We live in a time of natural disaster but are called to live as if there was security. We live in a time of poverty and chaos but are called to live as if people have more value than things.

So when we say, Christmas is coming… we are making a powerful theological statement. We are saying, something changed, something will change again, and we recognize and celebrate it.

Comfort O Comfort

Imagine for a second that you live in the time of the prophet Isaiah – Isaiah was the counselor to the king, during a time when two different nations wanted to drive the Israelites off of their land, the Syrians were at war with them, and the Assyrian Empire was waiting in the wings to take what was left. It was a time of darkness, despair and utter hopelessness, a time when people wondered why God had abandoned them, and this is what Isaiah called to his beloved people in the temple:

“Comfort, O comfort my people… Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength… lift it up, do not fear… Here is your God! See, the lord comes… he will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom…”

White Gift (children’s time)

White Gift Sunday dates back to 1904 in Ohio. The wife of a Methodist minister and her two daughters came up with the idea of giving gifts wrapped in white paper at Christmas time to people in need.

Gifts are wrapped in white so that they will be anonymous. People who can only give a little will not be embarrassed.

There is a Chinese tradition where all the people gave their king a gift wrapped in plain white paper so that every gift would look the same. Each person gave the king what they we re able, and the king welcomed them all.

The White Gift shares in the spirit of Christ and the God of love at Christmas. We give gifts of love to people in need. These gifts are often nonperishable food items which are distributed to people in the community.

White Gift Sunday celebrates the stew a rdship of Go d’s love and giving at the time of year when we remember the coming of the King of Kings.

Prayer of Dedication of White Gifts

Holy God, you are the giver of all gifts. We come before you today with these white gifts given in our Lord’s spirit of love. May they be offerings of love, symbols of our faith in you and signs of the work of Christ’s church. Bless us as we dedicate these gifts in the service of others. AMEN

The Struggle

This is the second Sunday of Advent, and I have to say, the world does not seem very “Christmassy” maybe it is the lack of snow, maybe it is that the radio stations are not playing any Christmas music yet, I don’t know; what do you think, does it seem as Christmassy as other years? Does it feel like it is three weeks away?

The Psalmists and Paul try their best to remind us that even in the times that life seems hard, Christmas is on the Horizon. They do not say it quite like that – but listen again:

“Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God… A voice cries out: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain.”

“Surely his salvation is at hand… Steadfast love and faithfulness will meet; righteousness and peace will kiss each other. Faithfulness will spring up from the ground, and righteousness will look down from the sky. The LORD will give what is good, and our land will yield its increase.”

So believe in tomorrow, have hope, keep the faith, something is about to happen… we forget that urgency, but that is what people have always felt, that the world is changing out from under them… And it truly is, we live in those changing times…

Repent

And the context of Christmas is the very real world we all live in; a world that, as we all know, can make us lose sight of all these Advent words, Hope, Peace, Joy and Love.

Jump ahead 500 years and we come across another prophet, this one closer to the original Christmas; Jesus’ cousin, John; who we sometimes call the Baptist. This wild and crazy prophet shows up outside of Jerusalem wearing a camel skin cloak and eating locusts with honey. He is so out of place that he draws a crowd – and then he begins to preach:

“Repent. The Kingdom of God is at hand.”

Now what we sometimes miss in this story is that John is pretty much recreating Isaiah for his generation. The people are still stuck in a war torn country – this time it is the Herodians and the Romans who have divided the spoils, and they are still wondering where God is.

The writer of Mark saw this – he even quotes Isaiah when he describes what John is doing – preparing a way for the Lord in the wilderness, making level every mountain and hill and raising up every valley and smoothing every rough places.

Now what else did Isaiah say? “Here is your God, see, the Lord comes!” Both Isaiah and John start with where we find ourselves and offer us a message filled with grace – a message about God’s presence with us – and how that can change everything.

There are people out there that think Christianity and other religions are “quaint” that they are from another time and another way of seeing the world… I think the messages, and the problems faced, are timeless…

Why does this world suffer from more depression, more suicide, and more pain than we ever have?  Could it be that the same sort of injustice, the same sort of poverty, the same sort of misery that was there in Isaiah’s time, or John’s time, is still there with us now?

We all struggle with meaning, and we all wonder if things will ever get better…

So here is the good news – here is the Gospel – as told by the Archangel Gabriel to a lonely young girl afraid for her life: “you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son… he will be great, and of his kingdom there will be no end…” And you remember what Isaiah said the kingdom of God would be like? The Lamb and the lion, the baby and the snake, will all live in harmony with one another.

Conclusion

See, God still has a message for us in these dark times. Peace, I leave you with – not as the world understands peace, but as God does – wholeness, love, wonder, joy, and safety – peace. This is the grace of God and the love of God which Jesus came to show us.

So as we wait remember that our calling is to be the ‘as if’ sort of person that the world needs. The birth of Jesus in the dark of midwinter was a reminder that nothing bad ever gets the final say…

I heard a great quote this week and I want to finish my sermon with it…

A Candle is a message to the darkness – saying, “I beg to differ!”

Christmas is coming.

Advent 1 - B 2011

Heavens Breaking Forth

Introduction

Christmas has broken out all around us. Santa is back in the malls, the carols are blaring and the preparation has begun in earnest.

What are you doing to prepare? Have your shopping all finished? Planned all the meals? Baked all the goodies? House all decorated?

Advent is the name we give to this season in the church. It is also the beginning of our yearly cycle of living along with Jesus. In four weeks we will remember the birthday and all of the Bethlehem part of the story. Then we will grow up with him, head towards Jerusalem and try to follow along like the disciples.

But we are still four weeks away from Jesus. We are still preparing for Christmas.

And I get that, I really do, I understand that it takes a lot of work to get ready for a celebration like this – but on another side of it all – what is it we are preparing for?

Jesus is born in Bethlehem. So what?

Children’s Story

Deck the Halls – Adapted from sermons4kids.com

In his book, "Oh, the Places You'll Go," Dr. Seuss talks about a place called "the waiting place." He describes it as a useless place where people are just waiting.

Waiting for a train to go

or a bus to come, or a plane to go

or the mail to come, or the rain to go

or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow

or waiting around for a Yes or No

or waiting for their hair to grow.

Everyone is just waiting.

I don't particularly like waiting, do you? I don't like it, but I don't know of any way to avoid it. We all have to spend some time in this "waiting place" that Dr. Seuss talks about, but I don't think it has to be a useless place. While we are waiting, life goes on, and we must make good use of our time. What can we do? Well, we could read a good book or call a friend on the cell phone. We could make a list of things we need to do today or, we could even study for our weekly spelling test. Well, maybe that's going a bit too far, but there are many things we can do besides just waiting.

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. Advent means "to come." Do you know what's coming? Of course, Christmas is coming. This is an exciting time, but it may also be a difficult time of waiting -- especially for children. Waiting for the day when you can open the gifts that you see under the tree. What can we do to make this time of waiting for Christmas more than just a useless time in the waiting place? Well, we can think about the true meaning of Christmas. We can think about Jesus and his love. We can think about giving instead of receiving. We can enjoy all of beautiful music and the decorations of the season. When we do those things, we will find joy in the waiting place.

We are waiting for Christmas, but we are also waiting for something else. We are waiting for Jesus' return. He told us that he would come again and he told us to watch and be ready for him. What should we do while we are waiting? We should worship and praise him, love and serve him, and share his love with others. When we are doing those things, we will be ready for his return, and we will find joy in the waiting place.

Strengthened till the End

The Psalms and Paul’s writings are always filled with affirmations that God is here, that God is good, that God is coming… These people were seriously sure that they were waiting, and that they would probably not have to wait that long, until something happened – God rescued them, or Jesus came back, or their enemies were defeated or they were justified in front of the naysayers…

Paul sure has a high opinion of the faithful… I only wish I was thinking about the things that he is on about – instead, I am thinking about what to buy everything for Christmas. I am thinking about how great the ads are on TV and what they make me wish I was getting for Christmas.

It makes me go back to my original question – what is it all about? What does Christmas mean?

The Little Apocalypses

Charles Dickens arguably brought Christmas back to life in the Western World. He was the biggest proponent of the season and its effect on people. We all know Scrooge and the Ghosts of Past Present and Future – but there are poems and other stories of the season that Dicken’s wrote as well.

In them, he was almost speaking of the future – of the way that Christmas can change someone… he was almost talking about the Kingdom of God, coming on earth…

At the same time, he was a realist – he knew a thing or two about human nature… and dear old Mr Scrooge would never have changed without a little bit of the old fear of God.

I like to think of passages like we have before us today as the “Stick” to Jesus “Carrot.”  He knew enough to try different teaching methods, and he knew enough to be able to say that sometimes we have to hit rock bottom if we are going to be able to change… so here it is – the bad news… the world can end in a second.

In fact, for many of us, it does. A stroke, a car accident, getting fired… And you have to be ready, you have to be prepared, you have to keep awake…

But if we are awake to it, Christmas, the spirit of it… will be all around.

Conflicts? What Conflicts?

I don’t get that there is something bad about the secular Christmas. I think if anything, we should be celebrating it. I mean, ok, don’t go borrowing money for gifts… but the idea of celebrating, of sharing presents, of feasting, of visiting, of decorating…

There is nothing wrong with that. In fact, each of those things, in their own way, are a reflection of God’s love.

And perhaps that is what we are preparing for… the inbreaking of God’s love into our otherwise grey worlds.