Psalm 148
Matthew 1:18-25
One of the personal readings I do every Christmas is from W. H. Auden’s epic poem, A Christmas Oratorio: For the Time Being.
The part that is particularly apropos for today begins:
“Well, so that is that.
Now we must dismantle the tree,
putting the decorations back into their cardboard boxes –
some have gotten broken –
and carrying them up to the attic.
The holly and the mistletoe must be taken down and burnt,
And the children got ready for school.
There are enough left-overs to do, warmed up, for the rest of the week –
not that we have much appetite, having drunk such a lot,
stayed up so late,
attempted – quite unsuccessfully – to love all of our relatives,
and, in general
Grossly overestimated our powers.”
W. H. Auden wrote these words in England during the early 1940's, but they pretty much describe what most of us are feeling right about now, don’t they?
Like all the others around us, we celebrated Christmas.
It wasn’t too hard to catch the Christmas spirit and we entertained, and went to family gatherings, and exchanged gifts, and shopped until we dropped, and sent a few cards, and read a few cards, and we listened to the glorious music of the season, and perhaps even read a story or two, and we decorated, and we visited.
And, now, after weeks of doing this, we are beginning to feel like we’ve done it now.
As W. H. Auden says, “So that is that.”
Now, its time to move on.
And, then we come to church.
And the preacher is still talking about it.
Of course, for weeks now, when we’ve come to church we been expecting to sing Christmas carols and such, but the preacher kept talking about something called Advent.
And now, we can’t take down the decorations because Christmas is not just one day, but twelve!
And, the church says, the season of Christmas lasts until January 6 – what is called the day of Epiphany.
Again, the church seems out of synch with the rest of world – and that makes us somewhat uneasy.
After all, no one we know will be celebrating 12 days of Christmas – much less anything called Epiphany.
[I’ve never heard a store around here advertising Epiphany sales.]
But, it is a fact that in many cultures and many countries in the world, Epiphany is a much bigger celebration than Christmas day.
[And, we will celebrate Epiphany right here in this very room next Sunday, you won’t want to miss it.]
In weeks past you have heard me say that I believe that Christmas is at the very heart of our faith.
The stories of our faith that have been passed down through the ages to us speak to the very essence what Christianity is – how we relate to the creator of the universe and how we relate to others around us.
We looked at the fact that we really do not know the actual day Jesus was born – apparently it was just not important to those early believers. Jesus never talked about it. The Disciples never sang happy birthday to Jesus. And no one ever shared pictures of the baby Jesus. It was not important to them.
What was important was what they believed was his message and the authority he must have to be delivering the message so clearly and so forcefully.
And, so we need to know, that no matter how good hearing and singing and believing certain things makes us feel –
the real meaning of the season has nothing to do
with gifts, or trinkets, or lights, or candles, or trees, or parties, or dinners, or children, or movies, or shopping, or cards, or Santa, or crosses for that matter.
Christmas is for adults.
The key to understanding Christmas is Emmanuel.
Emmanuel is this Hebrew word that means, “God Is With Us”.
It is significant that we recall and remember that at this time in history – during the heyday of the Roman Empire,
in this particular part of world – an out of the way, nondescript place of no significance to anybody –
the ultimate authority of the universe, the Creator of all that is, broke through the barriers – the walls of the cosmic egg – and came to live among, alongside, and with us mortal beings.
God is no longer confined to the highest heavens, or to the other side of the wall, or to behind the curtain of the holy of holies.
No, this is about Emmanuel.
God is with us, we say.
At Christmas we remember the message and we celebrate the exact point when it happened in history.
But, the kicker is, the real message is, that it didn’t just happen once and that was it.
God did not simply open the door and say here I am and then leave.
Emmanuel, we say. God is with us, we say.
That’s what we remember through the Christmas stories.
And, Emmanuel, we believe.
God is with us – still. Today. And tomorrow, and all of our tomorrows – Every second of every minute of every hour or every day.
Emmanuel.
W. H. Auden continues his poem:
“Once again, as in previous years,
we have seen the actual vision
and failed to do more than entertain it as an agreeable possibility,
once again we have sent him away,
begging though to remain his disobedient servant.
The promising child who cannot keep his word for long.
The Christmas feast is already a fading memory,
and already the mind begins to be vaguely aware
of an unpleasant whiff of apprehension at the thought of Lend and Good Friday which cannot, after all no, now be very far off.
But, for the time being, here we all are,
back in the moderate Aristotelian city
of darning and the eight-fifteen,
where Euclid’s geometry and Newton’s mechanics would account for our experience.”
______________________
“And the kitchen table exists because I scrub it . . . .
. . . . at your marriage all it occasions shall dance for joy.”
For us, Emmanuel is something to be continually discovered – something continually to be celebrated. Emmanuel!
Our God is with us, we say.
But, often we lose sight of the significance of Emmanuel.
Often we lose cognizance of the presence of Emmanuel.
We lose touch with this most basic of beliefs – Emmanuel.
What would it mean for us to live as though we actually believed Emmanuel?
Keep Christ in Christmas we say.
And that’s fine, but so often, like the rest of the world, we tend to put Christ away with the baby Jesus and the rest of the decorations.
Friends, the truth of the matter is that we cannot confine Christ to Christmas.
The Emmanuel we seek, the Emmanuel we proclaim,
the Emmanuel we celebrate is basic and primary to the faith we hold – and yet is so misunderstood.
The Gospel of John tells us: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. “
That means that Christ is where we are -
whether we want it to be or not,
whether we recognize it or not.
The Christ is there.
It cannot be held in the manger.
It cannot be held within the family.
It cannot be held within the church.
It comes to us everywhere;
It is with us everywhere.
Oh that we might see it,
Oh that we might recognize it,
Oh that we might serve it where we are.
To be sure, there are places that none of us want to be, aren’t there?
But, there are no places that Christ isn’t.
Our Christ wants to be with us,
wherever we are,
whether someplace exalted and beautiful and holy,
or someplace humble and humdrum and ordinary. "No palace too great, no cottage to small."
Teresa Hooley wrote a striking little verse called "Christ in Woolworth's."
(Does anyone here remember Woolworth's – Woolworth’s was what we used to call a five and dime, a place where you could find a variety of items at cheap prices.)
The verse went like this:
“I did not think to find You there-
Crucifixes, large and small,
[a dime and a nickle], on a tray,
Among the artificial pearls,
Paste rings, tin watches, beads of glass.
It seemed so strange to find You there
Fingered by people coarse and crass,
Who had no reverence at all.
Yet - what is that You would say:
"For these I hang upon my cross,
For these the agony and loss,
Though heedlessly they pass me by."
Dear Lord, forgive such fools as I,Who thought it strange to find You there,
When you are with us everywhere.”
Folks, it is right for us to do what we are doing today.
We can’t keep Christ confined to Christmas day.
Emmanuel!
Christ is present with you everywhere, every day.
Let us not stop looking for it.
Let us not stop celebrating it.
We sing:
He hath opened heaven’s door,
And we are blest forevermore.
Christ was born for this!
Christ was born for this!
In every moment of this coming year;
even in Woolworth's – or Reasors, or in Walmart; even at home and at work.
Look for, and celebrate Emmanuel – God with us. Everywhere.
Amen
