Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
The preparations
have begun in our house and throughout the communities in which we live.
You walk into the
stores and Christmas is all around. No
surprise as the decorating and selling begins as soon as Halloween is
over. Black Friday has become the most
significant day of the year for retail sales.
Billions of dollars are spent.
In our own home
we have a tradition regarding our Christmas preparations and our observation of
Advent.
Beginning with
the first Sunday in Advent, Karla takes a portion of our Christmas decorations
out each week. She often begins with
Christmas quilts for our beds. The
nativity scene, a beautiful carved one that I bought for her when we were in
Russia, takes its place on the mantle.
Christmas quilts
and pillow cases adorn our beds. And yes,
Karla has made so many quilts over the years that we have seasonal ones that
she switches out through the course of the year.
Usually, about a
week before Christmas, the tree goes up.
It was a tradition in her family to wait until her sister Alicia’s
birthday to decorate the Christmas tree.
It’s kind of funny now because we observe that tradition, but Alicia’s
tree is already up and decorated. Our
tree then remains up through the Christmas season and comes down following
Epiphany, on January 6th.
Finally, the
Christmas baking begins.
Sandbakkels,
Pfefferneise, Krumkakka, Homemade Oreos, peanut brittle, Chex mix, fudge,
spritz, and a variety of other treats fill the house and our stomachs. Actually there are so many cookies and treats
that they cover a counter in our laundry room throughout the season.
But the most
important thing is the making of the lefse.
Our recipe comes
from Grace Lutheran Church in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Rice the boiled potatoes and add enough
butter and cream so that you can taste each (it’s a lot of butter and cream),
then they are chilled over night. In the
morning they are rolled out with flour and fried on the lefse grills. After they come off the grill they are placed
on a towel in a “clean” garbage bag to keep them moist and tender.
And then, they
are buttered and rolled up with brown sugar for a delectable treat. When the lefse is done, we are ready for
Christmas.
Over the years we
have tended to make a lot of the present that we have given at Christmas,
though we still purchased plenty.
A few years ago
our kids let us know they thought it was time to celebrate a grown up
Christmas, meaning that it was no longer necessary to fill the area under the
tree with gifts.
One of the
programs we’ve begun using on occasion is the ELCA’s Good Gifts program, where
essential items are purchased for people living in third world countries, from
water purification kits to pigs, and ducks, and cows.
All the while
these preparations are underway in our culture, you will also hear admonitions.
“Keep the Christ
in Christmas.”
And “It’s a ‘Christmas’
tree, not a holiday tree.”
And “We say ‘Merry
Christmas’, not ‘Happy Holidays”.
I have to admit
that I get amused at all of this.
First of all,
because our Christmas celebration originated with the desire to transform the
various cultural traditions and celebrations that took place around the Winter
Solstice. Basically, primitive peoples
around the world tended to celebrate the Winter and Summer Solstice, and the
Spring and Fall equinox. Christmas and
Easter have their roots in these celebrations.
Christmas was chosen as the date to celebrate Christ’s birth, because it
was already a holiday in many cultures.
It didn’t originate as a “Christian” holiday until quite late. By the way, Epiphany, the 6th of
January was the original celebration of Christ’s birth. Christmas came later in our history.
And related to
that, people in Northern Europe celebrated the Winter Solstice by decorating
with evergreen branches and trees long before Christianity became part of their
culture. Basically, the evergreen was a
sign and symbol of life in the midst of the dead of winter. Christians ‘appropriated’ this cultural
practice, even though there is nothing Biblical about it.
Well, enough of
that.
One of the
questions I’d like for you to consider this day is how the Bible tells us to
prepare for Christ’s coming.
There’s a
liturgical tradition that irritates many people.
We observe the
Advent season, and put off the celebration of Christmas till Christmas.
And as we read
the lessons assigned for this season, it is John the Baptist that takes center
stage.
Zechariah prophesied
concerning his son, John:
“And you, child, shall be called the prophet
of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare the way, to give
God’s people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins. In the
tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high shall break upon us, to
shine on those who dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide
our feet into the way of peace.”
John, in
preparation for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry “went into all the region around the Jordan, proclaiming a baptism of
repentance for the forgiveness of sins.
. .”
The bottom line
is that if we were to take the Bible as our guide in our Christmas decorations,
repentance would be front and center.
John did not call
for decking the halls with boughs of holly, and trimming the Christmas tree.
He bid the people
to repent.
Unless we
recognize our need for a savior, celebrating the birth of the Savior makes no
sense.
That’s what is
lost in all of our culture’s preparation for Christmas.
We trim the
trees.
We deck the
halls.
We sing the
carols.
And bake the
cookies.
Many of us still
send out Christmas Cards.
And we look
forward to connecting with family and friends.
But rarely do we
focus on our own need for forgiveness.
And the Church is
part of this as well.
Last week I
shared with you that even in the Church, the penitential nature of the Advent
Season has been changed. Now the focus
of the season is on hopeful anticipation.
But if you don’t
recognize the need for a Savior, why the hope and anticipation?
For me, this
never was clearer than six years ago.
It was on October
14th that I hit my ‘rock bottom’.
On the 15th I entered chemical dependency treatment at
Kootenai Medical Center where I remained for the next four weeks.
And then, in the
middle of December, I returned to the pulpit and faced my congregation.
The lessons for
the day were about John the Baptist.
And I was keenly
aware of my own brokenness and sinfulness.
And then, that
Christmas Eve, I shared with my congregation that though I had preached about
the birth of the Savior for over 25 years, that year was the first year I
recognized deep down my desperate need for a Savior.
“By the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to give light to those who sit in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of
peace."
As Advent
progresses, I’ve chosen some Christmas carols to sing, which we will begin next
week.
We’ve decorated
the Church.
Yet for all the
joy that comes with this season, and our commitment to keep ‘Christ’ in
Christmas—we also need to remember to keep John in our preparations, for it is
he who prepares the way for the Lord.
And it’s not just
our sins that we are concerned about.
It’s also the
state of the world in which we live.
The signs of the
times are not good.
And we truly do
not know what to expect in the coming months and years.
Last week I
mentioned the fears that abound regarding global warming.
There are also rumblings
in Washington about the state of our democracy.
The Mueller investigation is nearing its conclusion. Will the outcome of that be to exonerate
those involved? Or will it be a day of reckoning,
not only for the President and his administration but for our country as well. Only history will tell.
Fires destroy communities
such as Paradise, CA.
Mass shootings
too frequently make the news.
Drugs remain a
huge problem in our culture, in spite of our waging a War against drugs for
decades now.
The Israelites
wandered out to the Jordan seeking John and heeding his call to repentance.
For them the most
critical issue of the day was the rule of the Roman Empire in their land.
They longed for a
Savior. And they heard John’s call to
repentance.
One of the
reasons we can repent, is that we do in fact have hope that Jesus will save us.
It would be
difficult at best to name our sins and the issues in our world that threaten
us, if we had no hope.
But we do
hope. We have heard the promise.
We can repent
because we already know the outcome and that forgiveness waits for us.
I had an idea as
I wrote this sermon. It probably won’t
ever happen even in my own home.
What if we
prepared for Christmas by hanging symbols of our sinfulness and the sinfulness
of the world on the Christmas tree? That
would give us a visual reminder of why we need a Savior.
One of my
favorite things to do is to turn down the lights, and bask in the glow of the
Christmas tree.
As we have the
opportunity to do that this year, in our homes, and certainly at Church on
Christmas Eve, we should do so remembering that Jesus is not just the reason
for the season, Jesus is the light that shines in the darkness of our troubled
lives and world. And most importantly, that
he came to save us from our sins.
It’s this Jesus
we await.
And for him we
pray, “Come, Lord Jesus. Come quickly
King of Kings. Amen.”
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