Christmas is About Emmanuel

The Christmas we celebrate-- and the world around us celebrates -- really has little to do with the Christmas that is so much a part of our faith history.

It may surprise you to know that for over 300 years nobody celebrated the birthday of Jesus.

The stories and pictures that you and I value about the birth of Jesus and all the events around that — simply were not important to the early Christians.
 
For 300 years they did not worship a baby.
They worshiped an adult "Emmanuel" —
through which they kept having encounters with the holy.
These encounters were important to them.
It was the basis of their new faith.

First Sunday in Advent

Isaiah 40:3-,9
Luke 3:1-11

Today is the  First Sunday of Advent —
a time the church has set aside for us to prepare for the coming of Christmas.
Christmas is the most universally loved holiday of all the church holidays.
It's hard not to get caught up in the "Christmas Spirit", [isn't it?] as the markers go up that announce to everyone that the holiday is approaching:

The Thanksgiving Day parade,
the shopping frenzy known as Black Friday,
carols on the muzak,
decorations on the street poles
lights in the yard,
lights on the house,
lights on the roof,
lights on the chimney,
lights in the trees,
Santa at the mall,
Santa at MacDonalds,
TV specials,
TV commercials, and, of course,
catalogs galore!

Everywhere you look you are reminded that Christmas will soon be here.
And the unannounced task is that "you'd better get ready."

For the most part, we like the feeling that comes with this season, don't we?
We like to see the smiles on children's faces.
We like to receive cards from people we haven't seen in ages.
We like to give gifts to special people in our lives.
We like to share time and meals with people we just don't seem to have time for at other times of the year.
For the most part, Christmas is a happy time.

But the Christmas we celebrate -- and the world around us celebrates -- really has little to do with the Christmas that is so much a part of our faith history.

We say, Christmas is for children, and so it has become in our American culture.
It may surprise you to know that in most cultures in the world, Christmas is NOT primarily a day for children.

In fact, throughout our faith history Christmas was and is for adults.

It may surprise you to know that for over 300 years nobody celebrated the birthday of Jesus.

But, there is ample evidence that Christians have always recognized and celebrated the specialness of Jesus — universally called the Christ — and identified in Matthew as Emmanuel — God With Us.

Each Sunday, from now until Christmas, I intend to look at how those earliest Christians celebrated Emmanuel —
and look for clues as how you and I can have the very best Christmas ever this year,
celebrating the Presence of Christ, God With Us, Emmanuel.
 
When we sing one of the most ancient of all our songs, 0 Come, 0 Come, Emmanuel,  we place ourselves squarely alongside Christians through the ages who approach this season with a profound faith.

Of course, we all know (intellectually, if not out front)
that none of our New Testament was written at the time of Jesus.
No one was going along taking it down in Gregg Shorthand – or what ever they had in those days.
No one was observing events all day and writing in a diary at night.

All of the writings we have about Jesus were written some years after Jesus was killed.

The very earliest writings we see in our New Testament are the letters of Paul.
The very earliest of these letters – I and 2 Thessalonians –
were written around 25 years after Jesus was killed.

The very earliest Gospel we have is Mark -- which can be dated to around 50 years after Jesus was killed.

All the other writings were later than that. Since the Bible was codified, we have discovered a whole slew of other writings of the time – you have heard about some of these found among “The Dead Sea Scrolls” or other places in the desert within the last 40-50 years.
The earliest non-cannonical gospel that has been found has been recently published as “The Gospel of Thomas.”

So, curiously, when we ask the question: what do these very earliest writings say about the birth of Jesus?
The answer is: Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Zero.  Nothing at all.

It was of no importance to them.


The fact that is was important to three of the Gospel writers is what we will be looking at in the weeks to come.

But, today, these very earliest writings — say nothing about the birth of Jesus.

They say nothing about the birth of Jesus, but they all write about the specialness of Jesus —
that through their experience with the adult Jesus, they were sure they were experiencing the holy — Emmanuel — God With Us.

No one celebrated Christmas at all for over 300 years after Jesus died!
It just wasn't done.

This was the time of the Roman Empire.
And Israel was part of the Roman Empire.

You know the Romans had a whole slew of gods
that were important to their life —
and each of the conquered territories usually came
with a whole slew of gods the indigenous people worshiped.
There were pagan gods everywhere.

To the Jews, and we need to remember, these early Christians were Jews,
these pagan gods were not even close to the One they knew and
experienced through a thousand year history.

And so, we have discovered writings from around 200 years after Jesus was killed, that deal with the fact that because the pagans celebrated the birthdays of their gods, it would be wrong for Christians to celebrate the birthday of Jesus.
Jesus was special.
Jesus was God with Us.
Jesus was Emmanuel.
But, Jesus wasn't like the pagan Gods.
And shouldn't be treated as such.
No birthdays for Jesus. (Out of principle.)

Of course, another issue was that nobody knew when Jesus was born.
Again, there were no records kept.
No one was around filling out forms to be filed.
We have no mention of the Disciples ever celebrating Jesus' birthday,
so we assume that it was not of great importance to Jesus.
Apparently, he didn't tell anyone when his birthday
was — and apparently no one asked.

But, as you can guess, that didn't keep folks from speculating.

After some 150 to 200 years passed, people starting trying to figure it out.
One popular writer wrote that Jesus must have been born on May 20.
Others presented convincing arguments that Jesus' birthday must be April 18,
others favored April 19,
others thought it more likely was May 28.

Within a few years it became a popular pastime to speculate on the date of Jesus birth.
The well-known Hippolytus thought, for sure, that Jesus was born on January 2.
But others carefully figured it must be November 17, or November 20, or perhaps March 25.
In  243 it was promoted that Jesus' birth should be celebrated on March 21, because that was believed to be the date on which God created the sun.
The debate went on for over a hundred years.
There was no agreed on date of Jesus' birth.
There was no celebration of Jesus birth.

In fact, it was the year 336, when the Christian church first celebrated Christmas –
and it was on December 25.

This was one of Constantine's first acts to make Christianity the religion of the empire.

So many other pagan religions already had some sort of celebration at this time, that it was natural to tell the people, "you are to stop these other celebrations to these other gods, and make this one common celebration of the birth of Jesus."

As one theologian wrote in 320 about December 25: "We hold this day holy, not like the pagans because of the birth of the sun, but because of him who made the sun."

And, so for nearly 1700 years now most Christians celebrate the birthday of Jesus on December 25. [Except for the Armenian Church and some Orthodox Churches —
the birth of Jesus is important to them, but it is celebrated on January 6 along with his baptism and Pentecost.]

As we look at these earliest writings reflecting the faith of the very earliest Christians, we find some common threads that speak to us and give us clues as to the kind of celebration that is appropriate for us.

First of all, it is clear that people had extraordinary encounters with this Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus "connected" the people who encountered him with a life other than they knew --
where downtrodden were lifted up,
where the lame walked,
where the blind could see,
the lonely befriended,
transgressions forgiven.
Through encounters with this Jesus, people experienced "the Holy".

(Was it encounters of a third kind?]

Was it encounters with Yahweh — Jehovah — the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — the Great I Am?

And, these encounters with Jesus - this experience of the Holy - didn't stop with Jesus' death.

The "People of the Way" still had "holy" encounters with and through this man they knew as Jesus.
They could explain it as "Emmanuel".
For them, Jesus was "God With Us".
For those that encountered him, Jesus was Emmanuel.
The heart of Jesus teaching was that anyone could -
and would - encounter Emmanuel when certain things were done.

For me, a crucial part of what we celebrate here at Christmas is Emmanuel

That our celebrations are just not complete until we go looking for Emmanuel.

It's kind of like those children's books, Looking for Waldo.  
 You and I are called to go looking for Emmanuel.

As we do, we need to put a few things aside:
first of all, forget what you think Jesus looks like.
Forget the pictures of Jesus.

Again, we don't know what Jesus looked like.
No one was there to take video of his birth or ministry.
No one was there to take a photograph.
No one was there to sketch a portrait.
Again, it wasn't important to them.

But, not only are we called to look for him, we are called to minister to him.
And we are given some very specific instructions.
This is what Matthew 25 is about.

Christmas can be truly special if we are purposeful about our decorations
purposeful about our trappings
purposeful about the stories we tell and read
purposeful about the movies and videos we see.

Christmas is really about encountering the holy.
But the truth of the matter is, that most of what we do —
most of what we will do between now and Christmas Day —
has nothing to do with encountering the holy at all!

My favorite Christmas Stories are ones in which the hidden Christ is revealed:
stories about encounters with ordinary people that turn out to be encounters with the holy —

So, stories and pictures that you and I value about the
birth of Jesus and all the events around that —
simply were not important to the early Christians.

For 300 years they did not worship a baby.
They worshiped an adult "Emmanuel" —
through which they kept having encounters with the holy.
These encounters were important to them.
It was the basis of their new faith.

And, as they found out,  anyone could have these encounters
by feeding the hungry,
clothing the naked,
tending the sick.

That's how they found Emmanuel.
That's how they knew Emmanuel.

And, today, that's where — that's how — you and I will know Emmanuel.

May this Christmas be your best ever.

Amen.

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, USA, heard these words during a worship service on the First Sunday of Advent, November 27, 2011.

Letting ThanksGiving Become ThanksLiving

Be thankful in all circumstances.
This is what God wants from you.

Leviticus 19: 16-18
I Thessalonians 5:15-18

Our holiday will be somewhat different this year.  Most of us will not be gathering with families to stuff ourselves, “enjoy” family stories and an afternoon of merriment and familiar foods.  
True, in recent years our celebrations have less and less to do with our traditional understanding about our reasons for Thanksgiving in the first place.  We have long ago given up reading the annual Presidential Proclamation as we have realized the Pilgrims were giving thanks for something completely out of sync with the scenario we learned in school.    

In recent years, I have capitalized on the cultural celebrations of this season by introducing congregations to theological reasons for celebrating this holiday that have nothing to do with the images we have imprinted in our collective minds.

For me Thanksgiving is not just for one day out of the year,
but Thanksgiving is very basic to how we see and understand our faith.

Indeed, the most basic part of our faith, the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mt. Sinai, begins with a thanksgiving for the faith that our forefathers and mothers gave witness to.

Paul could write to the believers in Thessalonia,
“Be thankful in all circumstances.
This is what God wants from you.”
And, it is a message you and I need to hear:
“Be thankful in all circumstances.
This is what God wants from you.”

Now, we can say that thanks giving is a good thing, and perhaps we can buy into the scripture study that tells us that God wants no sacrifice without thanks giving,
but, these days social scientists are collecting mounds of evidence that promotes positive affects of giving thanks at all times for all things.

The evidence mounts:
People who make simple exercises of thanksgiving as a way of life,
people who make thanks giving into thanks living,
people who have an "attitude of gratitude"
are in better physical health,
sleep better,
have lower levels of stress hormones in their blood,
and are happier than those who don’t.

One contemporary writer declares:
“The most psychologically correct holiday of the year is upon us.”

Thanksgiving may be the holiday from hell for nutritionists, and it produces plenty of war stories for psychiatrists dealing with drunken family meltdowns.
But it has recently become the favorite feast of psychologists studying the consequences of giving thanks.
Cultivating an “attitude of gratitude” has been linked to better health,
sounder sleep,
less anxiety and depression,
higher long-term satisfaction with life
and kinder behavior toward others, including romantic partners.

A new study shows that feeling grateful makes people less likely to turn aggressive when provoked.

“Be thankful in all circumstances.
This is what God wants from you.”

Of course, it is difficult for us to be thankful at all times, isn’t it?
But, time and time again, evidence piles up with personal testimony to what can happen when folks purposely change their behavior and look for things to be thankful for – even when times are tough, and it seems there is nothing to be thankful for.

But, today, there is good news to be heard.
There are many research projects today that have developed techniques and tools we can use to help us in our task to
Be thankful in all circumstances.

Work at the University of California and at the University of Miami
teaches what can happen when a person does something as simple as taking an inventory and writing down five things for which you are particularly grateful - simple things, little things, big things - like a friend’s generosity, perhaps;
or something you may have learned,
or a sunset you enjoyed.

The gratitude journal they suggest is brief —
just one sentence for each of the five things —
and as they teach it, it is done only once a week,
but after two months there are significant effects.  
Time and time again, people keeping the gratitude journal are more optimistic
and feel happier.
They report fewer physical problems
and spend more time physical exercising in some fashion.

A study of polio survivors and other people with neuromuscular problems showed that folks who kept a gratitude journal reported feeling happier and more optimistic than those in a control group,
and these reports were corroborated by observations from their spouses.
These grateful people also fell asleep more quickly at night,
slept longer
and woke up feeling more refreshed.

“If you want to sleep more soundly, count blessings, not sheep,” the researcher advises in his book on gratitude research.

“Be thankful in all circumstances.
This is what God wants from you.”
And it is also has great benefits for us.

In an experiment at Northeastern University, researches sabotaged each participant’s computer and arranged for another student to fix it.
That was the test.
Afterward, the students who had been helped were likelier to volunteer to help someone else —
a complete stranger — with an unrelated task. Gratitude promoted good karma.
And if it works with strangers ....

Now, the thing is, we can try it out.
You don’t have to take my word for it.
You don’t have to sit there and think, “well, that sounds nice, Preacher, but it’s not very realistic."

Well, I’m here to tell you it works!
No matter how dysfunctional your family, gratitude can still work, says a researcher at the University of California, Riverside.
Just try it out, she says.
On one day
“Do one small and unobtrusive thoughtful or generous thing for each [person you meet]
“Say thank you for every thoughtful or kind gesture. Express your admiration for someone’s skills or talents — wielding that kitchen knife so masterfully, for example.
And truly listen, even when your [uncle Bob] is boring you again with [that same story he tells over and over again].”

Don’t counterattack.
If you brace yourself for insults, consider a recent experiment at the University of Kentucky.
After turning in a piece of writing, some students received praise for it while others got a scathing evaluation: “This is one of the worst essays I’ve ever read!”

Then each student played a computer game against the person who’d done the evaluation.
The winner of the game could administer a blast of white noise to the loser.
Not surprisingly, the insulted essayists retaliated against their critics by subjecting them to especially loud blasts — much louder than the noise administered by the students who’d gotten positive evaluations.

But there was an exception to this trend among a subgroup of the students:
the ones who had been instructed to write essays about things for which they were grateful.
After that exercise in counting their blessings, they weren’t bothered by the nasty criticism —
or at least they didn’t feel compelled to amp up the noise against their critics.

“Gratitude is more than just feeling good,” says Nathan DeWall, who led the study at Kentucky.
“It [actually] helps people become less aggressive by enhancing their empathy.
“It’s an equal-opportunity emotion.
Anyone can experience it and benefit from it,
even the most crotchety uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table.”

Why does gratitude do so much good?

“More than other emotion, gratitude is the emotion of friendship,” one researcher says.
“It is part of a psychological system that causes people to raise their estimates of how much value they hold in the eyes of another person.
Gratitude is what happens when someone does something that causes you to realize that you matter more to that person than you thought you did.”

Another exercise you can try is called a gratitude visit.
This exercise, devised by folks at the University of Pennsylvania, begins with writing a 300-word letter to someone who changed your life for the better.
Be specific about what the person did and how it affected you.
Deliver it in person, (but safely) preferably without telling the person in advance what the visit is about.
When you get there, read the whole thing slowly to your benefactor.
“You will be happier and less depressed one month from now,” Dr. Seligman guarantees in his book “Flourish.”

Be thankful in all circumstances, our Book says.
This is what God wants from us . . .

Worshiping in a local church on a regular basis
can cause people to feel and act more gratefully, as demonstrated in experiments at Baylor University.
Other research shows that praying can increase gratitude.

One person speaks about how keeping a gratitude journal has affected her life.
She has been suffering from fibromyalgia and had become quite overwhelmed by the constant pain in her life.
And, she took the challenge of using a gratitude journal on a regular basis.
Every night as part of her bedtime routine, she would try to list five things she was particularly thankful for.

She writes:
“Sometimes I struggled to find 5 things for which I was grateful;
occasionally, one of those was, ‘I'm grateful this day has ended.’
But I stuck with it.

Gratitude is not about "looking at the bright side" or denying the realities of life.
Gratitude goes much deeper than that.
It's about learning from a situation,
taking the good to help deal with other challenges in the future.
It's about finding out that you have more power over your life than you previously imagined.
You can stop being a victim of your circumstances and reach out to the joy in living.
If you open your heart to the good in your life, gratitude becomes as much a part of your life as breathing.

I have found joy at every turn, from appreciating the beauty of nature to improved relationships with family and friends.

I still have muscle pain and fatigue.
Those symptom levels remain fairly constant.
But that journal opened the door to unconditional happiness with the hand I was dealt.
I can look beyond the pain and fatigue and look forward to each day and the joy it will bring.”

“Be thankful in all circumstances,” our Book says.
This is what God wants from us . . .

When we live with an attitude gratitude
things change for us.
Things actually change for us.
And it is real.
You can feel it when it happens.

And, when you do, nothing short of a miracle happens.
“Be thankful in all circumstances,” our Book says.
This is what God wants from us . . .

Amen.

The congregation of Christ Presbyterian Church, Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, heard a version of this sermon on November 22, 2011.