Romans
13:8-14, Isaiah 2:1-5
First
Sunday in Advent 2013
A few weeks before Halloween, I
couldn’t help but notice that most of the major stores seemed to have openly
welcomed the “Christmas Creep.” I don’t
mean “creep” as in a particular person judged as being odd and disturbing to be
around. I mean “creep” as in that slow,
stealthy retail approach of putting Christmas items out for purchase and
display. It’s a creep because it seems
to start unsettlingly earlier and earlier every year. Bags of yellow-orange white tipped candy
corn are found shelved next to red and white Candy canes. Spooky masks suddenly find themselves
neighbors with plastic smiling North Pole elves. Decorative Thankgiving cornucopia gets
crowded out by pre-decorated table-top artificial evergreens. And the “Christmas Creep” really likes to
worm its way into our ears, as overhead speakers drop sleigh-bell saturated tunes
deep into our psyches. You know you’re
encountering this creep when you shout loudly and defensively within your head,
perhaps too aloud, “But it’s not even Halloween or Thanskgiving yet!”
Studies about this phenomenon generally
reveal a negative public response to it.[i] Folks resent feeling pressured to buy stuff
early, feel upset that they can’t seem to really enjoy the distinctive,
traditional features and values of each holiday, and get stressed by the
quickening of the calendar. This said,
studies also reveal that from an economic standpoint the “Christmas Creep” is a
positive thing. Stores are very smart to welcome it.
One way or another, I believe we all
get caught up with this creep. But as faithful
people in Christ, may we be very cautious about allowing it to define what it truly
means to prepare for Christmas. May our spiritual preparation not get overwhelmed
and coopted by secular consumer pressures.
Let’s all instead be focused on the fact that we as Christ’s church have
our own kind of Christmas creep to catch ourselves up into. This will happen when we slow down and
intentionally invest time into preparing our hearts and homes to watch and wait
for the greatest gift of all time – the arrival of Jesus, God with us.
On the church calendar, this time of
watching and waiting begins today and is known as the season of Advent, a word that
means “coming” or “arrival.” Advent is
a four week daily journey that helps us grow in our faithful understanding
about both advents of Christ – the
first one in Bethlehem, and the one yet to come. “It’s
meant to get us ready,” writes a colleague, “not for a present-opening party,
but for a transformational celebration of the birth of Jesus.”[ii]
On this first Sunday of true
Christmas preparation, we focus on and light a candle for hope. One thing I find is
always important to remember about hope is the need to spend time recognizing
why it is needed. We say things all the time like “I sure hope
so” and “that’s what I’m hoping for.”
It’s a way of expressing a desired, positive outcome. The measure of how much we sincerely mean
this I believe depends on how well we are willing to honestly acknowledge the reality
of what is being hoped against.
The great prophet Isaiah could not
have been clearer about stating what humankind was hoping against. In doing so, he was equally clear about proclaiming
what to hope for – our Savior.
While he was alive on earth, he had
been speaking to the children of God living around 700 B.C. in ancient Judah,
especially its capital city of Jerusalem.
His words about what to hope against comes to us right away in the very first
chapter of the Old Testament book bearing his name. Since we didn’t just hear this read aloud,
here’s a quick summary – the people had become “offspring who do evil,” “who
deal corruptly,” whose multitude of religious rituals had come to be an
“abomination” to God because the people hypocritically continued to perpetrate
immorality and injustice. Their violent
disrespect, their desecration of all that God had given to and taught them throughout
Israel’s sacred journey had brought and would continue to bring nothing but
destruction to them from within and from without. Isaiah
named all this and more as an urgent call to repentance -- for them to turn
away from sin and turn back toward the sacred.
He knew well that unless they
were fully aware and accepting of their need to do this, they would not be
truly prepared to receive his holy vision of hope in “days to come.”
What to hope for is mentioned some
in chapter 1 and then more fully in chapter 2.
He does so using the beautiful imagery of the “mountain of the Lord’s
house.” For the faithful folks who heard this prophecy
first hand, they would have mostly interpreted this as a hopeful word about God’s
physical reestablishment of Jerusalem atop Mt. Zion along with its great
temple.
More broadly and symbolically, however, this
imagery pointed to God’s kingdom on earth beyond that time and place. It
pointed to a future time when holy instruction about how to walk on this earth
while looking up to the paths of holy hope, love, joy and peace would be mapped
out in a new way. It pointed to day
when the old religious ways would be seen through a new light, a light that was
to be both visible to and welcoming of all
people, not just the Israelites. By
the gracious, all-encompassing power of this new light, scarlet red sins would
look white as pure snow, and death-dealing instruments such as swords and
speers would be seen as tools for taking care of God’s creation and people. We know from Isaiah 7:14 that he knew this Light,
the Savior, would come into the world by way of a young woman giving birth to a
son and naming him Immanuel, which means “God with us.”
On our slow, steady spiritual walk
of preparing for Christmas we humbly and joyfully reflect on how Jesus’ arrival
back in ancient Bethlehem fulfilled Isaiah’s prophesy. Because of that advent, the hope of
salvation was firmly and forever established on earth. The hopeful, peaceful, loving and joyful transformational
light of our Savior has been shining ever since from the “mountain of the Lord’s
house” for all to see. It is visible and
welcomes everyone wherever on earth faithful people are gathered as the
church. We are given grace and called upon
by God to look up among the many lowered heads of despair and see beyond the
horizon, to a glimmer even in the midst of darkness … to hope.[iii]
So as we continue to swiftly prepare
for Christmas, may we take great care not to forget to walk in this illuminated,
holy way. May it not be overrun by all
the other things we feel we have to do.
Giving this Advent season proper faithful attention will help -- journeying
here to be together for worship; lighting
Advent candles and opening calendar windows at home, accompanied by prayer,
Scripture reading and reflection; making extra time to be a hopeful light to folks
suffering all sorts of darkness; giving
additional effort to live honorably and kindly and with generosity and
compassion. As Romans 13 reminds us, we know this is not a time for spiritually
sleeping through to Christmas eve and dawn.
The commercialized, secularized
Christmas creep isn’t going anywhere.
If it keeps growing, it just may mean that more and more people will just
have to be pay attention to Christmas all year long … which is not a bad thing
when considered in the right Light!
Amen.
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