All around us signs of Christmas loom at us – reminding us that there are only a few more days to get ready and so much to get done.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
Well, the signs are all around us.
Christmas is coming . . .
So, are you ready for Christmas yet?
We know Christmas will be here before you know it.
The signs that Christmas will soon be here are over the place:
We had the Parade.
The stores opened early.
The high school football games were played.
We had our turkey and pumpkin pie.
The decorations went up all over the public streets and shopping centers.
Christmas tree lots are filling up with fresh cut trees.
It’s a Wonderful Life was on Television last night.
The tree is up – decorated with those magnificent Chrismons.
But, the main way we can tell Christmas is near:
Peggy and Ted Matter’s Christmas card came on Friday.
Today, Christian churches all over the world begin our season of Advent – a time to prepare ourselves for the coming of Christmas.
All around us signs of Christmas loom at us – reminding us that there are only a few more days to get ready and so much to get done.
For most of the world around us, the Christmas season has begun.
But, our faith says “Wait a minute!”
This time before Christmas is a time for us to reflect on what Christmas means to our faith – our personal faith as well as our corporate faith.
I am of the belief that Christmas is so important to our faith.
It is so basic to our understanding of God and Jesus.
Without Christmas – and the stories that are told about it – the rest of our faith would be nonsense.
I really like Advent and Christmas because it gives us a chance to get down to raw basics and to hear stories that impact our faith and how it gets expressed in our lives.
There is an ancient proverb that says:
“God created man because he liked good stories . . . .”
Well, we have some mighty good stories that are passed down to us about Christmas.
And, the fact of the matter is, you will not hear these stories anywhere else.
With all the hoopla around us, with the bombardment of all of those images of stuff to buy to ensure our happiness, and assuage our guilt, and spread the joy of the season, with all its fa-la-las,
would it surprise you to know that this Christmas stuff is really very very recent?
The Puritans that first came over from England – did not celebrate Christmas at all.
In fact, that was not unusual – most Protestants did not celebrate Christmas.
In fact, laws were passed to prohibit the celebration of Christmas – it was actually illegal to celebrate Christmas in Massachusetts until sometime after 1850!
Of all of the seasons and special days we celebrate, Advent is the most recent.
Advent is a time we consciously set out to reclaim the reason for the season – to remember the stories leading up to Christmas and attempting to find a meaning in the celebration that is so ubiquitous.
Especially in these times of global warfare,
in times of distrust and polarization within people of our country,
with signs of doom and gloom all around us, and so few signs of hope,
there needs to be somebody – or somebodies – saying “wait a minute” –
slow down –
let’s remember what’s important.
Because, our faith speaks to times like these.
You may, or may not, remember the musical Mame; but, you do remember one of the songs from the show:
We Need a Little Christmas.
In a particular distressing time, Mame gathers the kids around and tells them they are going to get ready for Christmas:
we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute, . . . .
We can relate to this, I think.
Particularly this year, particularly today,
we need a little Christmas.
For I've grown a little leaner,
Grown a little colder,
Grown a little sadder,
Grown a little older, . . . .
For we need a little music,
Need a little laughter,
Need a little singing
Ringing through the rafter,
And we need a little snappy
"Happy ever after,"
Need a little Christmas now.
Need a little Christmas now.
We have come to see Christmas as an essential part of our faith.
This when we in the church celebrate God with us – Emmanuel.
This is when we remember that at a particular time in history, God stopped being other and became us.
And, so we will recall the birth stories.
But, we will remember that God continues to be with us.
God continues to be birthed over and over again.
And, like most people in the world that night over 2000 years ago, we, too, are likely to miss it – even when it happens right in our midst.
You see, at Christmas the stories about the birth of John and the birth of Jesus remind us that God has become human….
All around us, people are getting ready for Christmas – but they are missing the point.
Most of our preparations for Christmas revolve around bringing out the decorations and setting up the lights, and getting the cards out, and planning the meals, and buying the presents, and buying the presents, and buying the presents (no, the merchants don’t want us to forget that part), and wrapping the presents and decorating the tree, and . . . and . . . and . . . and . . .
It goes on and on and on and on...
This is the season that will make or break most merchants.
And we are called from all sides to do our part.
But, that is totally off base – totally different from what we Christians need to do in order to understand and properly celebrate Christmas.
Although for several hundred years, Christians simply did not celebrate Christmas, Christmas has for us become arguably one of the two theologically most important holy days.
It’s time to get ready, we say, but why?
And for what?
Do you remember that play, Camelot?
Maybe you saw the movie.
It’s a story by E.B. White about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
We’ve seen the play several times – the first time Richard Harris played King Arthur and young Sir Lancelot was played by Robert Gullet.
Actually, the movie has Richard Harris in role of King Arthur, also.
And the last time Camelot came around again Robert Gullet played King Arthur and some young whipper-snapper played the young Sir Lancelot.
But, that’s how it goes.
Camelot the story of peace, joy, love, prosperity that once filled the land of England.
But is it also the story of how all this was destroyed by the unfaithfulness of Arthur's wife, Queen Guinevere, and of his best knight, Lancelot.
The climactic last scene of the story takes place on the eve of a mighty battle – a result of this betrayal.
Arthur's forces line up against those of Lancelot in a conflict that has been forced upon the king.
As Arthur reluctantly prepares for the battle, he discovers a boy – about thirteen years old.
Arthur questions the boy, who tells the king that his name is Tom.
And then he reveals why he is there. "I've come to fight for the Round Table”, he says.
“I intend to become a Knight of the Round Table."
The king, disillusioned about the shattered peace which his Round Table had symbolized, asks how the boy Tom knows about it.
"Was your father a knight?
Was your mother saved by one?
Was your village protected by knights?"
Tom's reply was simple, yet profound. "Oh, no, my Lord," he says.
"I only know of them -- the stories people tell."
This gives the king pause for a moment, as he considers the wisdom he has just heard.
And then he says to Tom, "From all the stories people tell, you wish to become a knight.
Tell me what you think you know about the Round Table."
Tom replies with great excitement: "I know everything.
Might for right.
Right for right.
Justice for all.
A round table where all knights would sit in unity. Everything."
Then King Arthur, as his world is crumbling around him, realizes that he has just heard this mere boy speak the words of hope that he had lost sight of.
And, instantly, Arthur knows what to do.
He forbids Tom from fighting in the coming battle and commands him rather to hide behind the lines until the battle is over.
He knights him right there as "Sir Tom" and commands him to return to England – alive – and to grow up and to grow old – and to remember the story of Camelot.
He that’s when he says to Tom,
Each evening from December to December,
before you drift to sleep upon your cot,
think back upon all the tales you remember – of Camelot.
Ask every person if he's heard the story –
and tell it strong and clear if he has not –
that once there was a fleeting wisp of glory called Camelot.
Now, the King’s aid reminds him to hurry for it is time for the battle.
Arthur moves briefly toward his army, but then pauses.
With triumph in his voice, he asserts, "I have won my battle, and here in this boy is my victory.
What we did with the Round Table will be remembered. You will see."
Arthur sends Tom off on his mission to tell far and wide the story of Camelot.
You see, this is an Advent story.
It is most interesting that the author of this play chose December to December for the period in which the boy should remember about Camelot.
We would say Advent to Advent, but it is in fact December to December, isn’t it?
Our church year provides for us a way to remember the story of Jesus from beginning to end and from end to beginning again.
God's story with us is one that began in perfection – at a time in the Garden of Eden when all was peace and joy like Camelot in the successful days of Arthur's Round Table.
Like Camelot, paradise in Eden was lost through unfaithfulness.
And like Eden and Camelot, this is the story for each of us, as it is played out in our lives over and over again.
God's love and grace is realized and accepted, only for us to turn our backs on God in unfaithfulness.
And God forgives us and takes us back and gives us his love and grace all over again.
In a cycle that continues, our story is like the story of the movie Camelot, for we, like Arthur, know that the shattered vision is not the end of God's story with us.
No, the story does not end there.
The Good News of Christ presents us with a vision of what the Kingdom of God really is, and, therefore, what the church is called to be.
Over and over again, we are called to tell the stories of the Kingdom of God –
to remind ourselves of how the church is to look in the fullness of God's time and to share this story with those who do not know it.
We are called to remember how God would have us act and how he would have us be.
In order to celebrate Christmas, we need to hear the stories.
You are not going to hear these stories anywhere but here, in this church – or in other churches like this one.
Between now and Christmas we are going to be telling the stories.
The novel on which the movie Camelot is based is called The Once and Future King.
Jesus, our lord, is also a once and future king.
Indeed, part of the story we remember is that God has entered our world of experience as flesh and blood – that’s the Christmas story: Emmanuel!
And that God continues to be with us.
And our task is to keep alert, to keep awake,
to get ready, so we don’t miss the Christ in our midst.
In Advent, we recall the expectation and waiting and watching and longing for the Coming of Christ into the midst of our humanity.
In Advent we especially remember, and we anticipate, what God promises.
Like Tom of Camelot, we know everything, because we have heard the stories about God.
And, like Tom, it is our mission not only to remember,
each December to December,
but also to tell the stories far and wide –
reminding those who have heard them,
and proclaiming them afresh to those who do not know the story of the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Now, friends, listen up, for, an incredible part of this story is that we are the Body of Christ.
If Advent is a time of waiting, as some suggest, it is a time of waiting for us to realize that we – you and me – are at the center of the Christmas story.
This year, let us see that the story about the birth of that baby some 2,000 years ago, is a story about us.
It is a story the world needs to hear from us.
It is a story we need to hear.
In the Camelot of God's Kingdom, we will know the stories of God's power
and we will be transformed into God's likeness.
Pay attention. Listen up. These stories are our stories.
Amen.
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