First Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 40:3-5,9
Luke 1-38
Today is the first Sunday of Advent –
Advent is the season set aside by the church for centuries as time to prepare ourselves for Christmas.
For the church in the Western world, Christmas happens on December 25 – and the Christmas Season continues for 12 days until what we recognize as Epiphany, January 6.
There are Christians that celebrate Christmas day at other times, but we won’t get into that today.
The season of Advent begins the fourth Sunday before Christmas.
So, this year we have 29 days to prepare for Christmas.
Many churches don’t make much out of Advent.
Presbyterians didn’t used to.
But, for the past 40 years, or so, I have placed great emphasis on this time before Christmas.
Because Advent and our celebration of Christmas is so out of synch with the rest of the world around us, we need all the help we can get to help us see the significance to our faith.
Christmas is basic to our faith.
Christmas explains a lot about what our faith is about.
In my opinion, Christmas is the very most significant celebration we have in our church.
It is that important.
But, we won’t messages about this anywhere else this year.
It is very possible to even attend church for 50 or 60 years and never hear messages like this.
But, Christmas succinctly and effectively summarizes our relation to God - and to each other.
Christmas is about Emmanuel! – God being with us.
Christmas is about God – the Creator of the universe and all the worlds that are
and all that dwell therein –
the omnipotent, the almighty, the Great Jehovah, the Great I Am –
Christmas is about God becoming one of us.
Christmas shows just how radical this faith we are a part of is.
God, the Ground of all Being, no longer is relegated to some other-worldly plane.
Our God is here, not there.
We say “Christmas is for children” –
and we do so enjoy the look on children’s faces when they get caught up in the wonder of the season;
But, really, Christmas is much much more.
Christmas is for adults.
As the world around us celebrates Christmas with the parades,
the decorations,
the commercials,
the music,
the sales,
we use this time to prepare for Christmas
amidst believers,
looking anew at the Biblical stories of Christmas to hear what Christmas really means –
to our faith,
and to us.
One contemporary theologian wrote last week:
“We in the Christian churches need to take back the message of the coming birth of Jesus.
The time leading up to Christmas is not primarily about fluffy angels, or even worse, to be confused with guys in red suits or shopping on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
The central message about the impending birth of Jesus should be, as it is in the Bible, about how God-with-us means overturning the extremes of wealth and poverty.
The coming of Jesus is the coming of a strong prophetic message: the Kingdom of god is here and now, ‘in our midst.’”
(Susan Thistlethwaite, professor of theology at Chicago Theological Seminary)
Today, I want to look at how we can prepare for Christmas when times are tough.
There is no question that times are tough these days for many many people.
We have been through eight years now of the worst depression in what, 80 years?
Folks have seen their savings diminish radically,
their pensions disappear (totally in many cases),
and what we thought was a secure investment in a house became a burden instead of an asset.
Many have experienced the recent loss of a loved one – and the loss seems to be exacerbated at holiday times.
And many come to this particular season in ill health – suffering great pain just trying to do our daily do.
These are tough times for many people.
And it is hard, sometimes, to “get in the Christmas mood” when times are tough.
When we read, or hear, or tell, the Christmas stories, it is so easy to overlook the underlying backdrop in which the stories are told.
Mark, Matthew and Luke are very clear about
when these stories take place.
What to us may seem like a casual throwaway dropping of a name or two here and there,
is to the story-tellers concrete citations that these birth stories take place during tough times –
very tough times.
Yes, Israel had their own “country-state” governed by Herod from the capital city, Jerusalem.
But, Israel was taken over by the Roman Empire and was subject to Roman rule.
Whatever the Caesar in Rome wanted, Caesar got.
Rome ruled in matters of taxation, laws, education, and all sorts of life matters.
These were not good times for folks who practiced a faith that demanded unqualified allegiance from the God who led them out of Egypt and gave them 10 commandments and so many purity laws that they were to follow for the faithful life.
These were not good times to be a woman –
and certainly not a young girl.
Women in general, and young girls in particular were thought of as property and had no rights at all.
Young girls were traded off in marriage at a very young age.
The stories of Christmas are set in tough times, indeed.
It seems to me that the Christmas stories come more real to us when we are going through tough times.
More real, that is, if we take time read the stories, to hear the stories, to tell the stories.
Because, what the early disciples knew to be true –
And what our fathers and mothers in the faith affirmed for thousands of years, now –
that God –
the Creator of the Universe and all the worlds that are
the Author of life itself
the Power that infuses the turbines and the nuclei of the world –
became incarnate –
became one of us –
at a particular time in history,
in a particular place,
to a particular people,
in a particular way –
through a baby being born to a young unwed immigrant couple in an unlikely place at an unlikely time –
a time when things were tough all over.
That ‘God entered our world and became incarnate’ is an essential tenet of the faith we have come to inherit and to know.
It seems to me that it is very good news –
good news that should be shouted from the roof-tops –
that in tough times God came to be part of our lives.
It was in tough times that Emmanuel was affirmed.
In the midst of persecution by Rome and Rome’s puppet, Herod, Emmanuel–God came to be a part of us.
To a frightened, underaged, unwed mother who was about to loose it all (possibly her life itself) –
Emmanuel – God was with her.
To Joseph, trying to do the right thing, and be fair, not understanding at all, Emmanuel – God came to be.
And it is particularly good news for you and me,
especially in the tough times we are living in,
Emmanuel!:
That’s the message of Christmas!
Our God is with us.
Today.
And in the days ahead.
No matter what happens around us.
No matter what personal tragedies we experience.
No matter how tough the times are for us.
Emmanuel!
God is with you.
God is with you,
comforting,
consoling,
healing,
leading,
enabling,
ensuring,
enlivening.
I encourage you to take time this year to prepare for Christmas by reading the stories,
join in the conversations,
tell others what we are doing here.
Emmanuel!
When times are tough, let us find a song to sing.
A song like:
We need a little Christmas
right this very minute . . .
I need a little angel
sitting on my shoulder,
need a little Christmas now.
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.
Emmanuel!
God is with us –
especially when times are tough.
Amen.
The congregation of The Memorial Presbyterian Church of Boothwyn, Pennsylvania, heard this sermon as part of their communal worship service, Sunday, November 27, 2016.
