Isaiah 2:1-5
It’s to haul out the holly, put up the tree, fill up the stocking, it’s time to deck the halls again. Yes once again we are anticipating the biggest event of our year, that wondrous day we call Christmas. Since the day after Halloween, or was that the day after Labor Day, I can’t remember, we’ve been receiving catalogs showing us pictures of happy families in matching pajamas enjoying a quiet moment together. On TV we have been regaled with commercials of a crazed woman preparing for the Target two day sale and on the internet we’ve seen ads that promise healthy living and the promise of good organization in the form of electronic gadgets. (1) For some of us this frenzied season can seem like our greatest fear but for all of us these jam packed four weeks of Christmas preparation is the manifestation of our deepest longings.
As I review the sermons that I have preached in Advents past, I have noticed a disturbing pattern. While trying to share the good news of the incarnation of God with us through the nativity of Jesus, I’ve crusaded against frenzy of the season. But I realize that I was just as steeped in the hub bub of the season as you all. No matter how hard I tried to go back to the reason for the season, the birth of the Christ child, I’d still be drawn into the excitement of finding that perfect gift. I’d get caught up in eating drinking and merry making at many a Christmas gathering. And on most Advent evenings I could be found in my living room enjoying my umpteenth Christmas cookie while watching “Frosty the Snowman.” “A Charlie Brown Christmas” “Rudolph the Red nosed Reindeer” and my personal favorite “A Christmas Story.” Which I’ve probably watched over a half a dozen times just last year alone. Yes I am a Christmas show junkie!
Why do the cultural and commercial messages of the secular season have such a hold on us? What compels us in these four weeks of Advent to shop ‘til we drop, gather night after night with our friends and families at open houses, celebrate with co-workers at company Christmas parties and watch cartoons that explore the true meaning of Christmas? Perhaps it is because these things respond to our deepest, truest need for something bigger than ourselves. We yearn for the nostalgia of our bygone childhood wonder. We look forward to being together with those who are dear to us. We hope that this will be the Christmas where our dreams will come true.(2) In all of this holiday rushing around what we are straining towards is something of meaning, we longingly cry for the love, joy and wholeness of life that is not counterfeit. We hear the invitation to walk toward to the light of the world, Emmanuel, God with us, the Christ Child.
In this morning’s older testament reading we hear the prophet Isaiah offer a vision of God fulfilling the deepest longings his people. That all people from all nations will come together to seek God together so that they may learn from God his ways and so that they may walk together in God’s path. God will be the judge between nations and arbitrate for many peoples. Scholars note that Isaiah is saying that God “will make an actual difference in the way the world works: inequities will be balanced, shackles will be loosed, wrongs will be set right. Out of this justice will come transformation—weapons of violence will be turned into instruments for nourishment. The nations will put their swords down, and will not train for war anymore.” (3) This passage ends with an invitation to walk in the light of this transformation. To have hope in a world made new.
All of gift giving, the pictures of happy families on Christmas cards, the yuletide gatherings and the Christmas shows speak to a very deep and real hope for peace, harmony and love. The gatherings we partake in and the gifts that we buy for each other is our way saying, “I see you.” The beloved Christmas shows that we watch over and over and over again represent our desire to believe in things that seem impossible, such as a reindeer who saves the day with his shiny red nose, a snowman coming to life or the hope of transformation such as a Grinch finding the true meaning of Christmas.
This morning for the children’s sermon I shared the story of the Grinch who stole Christmas. We don’t why the Grinch hated Christmas, but we do know that he resented the merrymaking of the citizens of who-ville. He wanted to put a stop to the noise, the singing and the feasting. He wanted to keep Christmas from coming so that the whos of who-ville would be just as miserable as he was. He stole their presents, trees and food in hopes of taking away Christmas. But his dastardly plan didn’t work. On Christmas morning he is shocked to find:
“Every who in who-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without presents at all!
He HADN’T stopped Christmas from coming!
IT CAME!
Somehow or other, it came just the same!...
And what happened then…?
Well…in whoville they say
That the Grinch’s small heart
Grew three sizes that day!
And the minute his heart didn’t feel quite so tight,
He whizzed with his load through the bright morning light
He brought back the toys! And Food for the feast!
And He…HE HIMSELF! The Grinch carved the Roast Beast.” (4)
The Grinch was transformed on that Christmas day. Through seeing the whos of who-ville gather as a community he found peace, love and harmony that he didn’t know he was longing for.
As we commence upon activities of this season let us remember that as we are looking for gifts, cooking, merry making and yes even Christmas show viewing, we are participating in the excitement and anticipation of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We hope for a better future with the coming of Emanuel, God-with-us and we look forward to the world becoming transformed by the culmination of our deepest longings for peace, love and harmony being satisfied. May the heart of the world grow three sizes larger on that day!
(1) Stacy Simpson Duke, “Isaiah 2:1-5 : Pastoral Perspective.” Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary Year A, Vol. 1 (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010), 2.
(2) Ibid., 3
(3) Ibid., 4
(4) Suess, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. (New York: Random House, 1957)
1 comment:
I think this works well. One thing I'd consider at the very end - since your theme is how shopping and watching Christmas movies (etc) is one way we all participate in the excitment and anticipation of hope, the hope of the Incarnation - I'd say that again - along with the other points you make.
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