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December 2, 2007
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Advent
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Pastor Brian Shimer
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"The Conflict of Christmas"
Romans 13:11-13; Isaiah 2:1-5; Psalm 122 and Matthew 24:36-44
- Welcome to the 1st Sunday of Advent… that season of "COMING" when we look at the fact that God promised and Jesus came the first time in fulfillment of many prophecies; and we look at the fact that Jesus yet comes again in our lives day by day and don't we need Him; and we look at the fact that Jesus will return.
The fact that Jesus once came in fulfillment of prophecy is something we carefully note in this season for it confirms how faithful God is. Since God promised and came in Jesus Christ the first time, God will fulfill his promises.
God has promised to be with us today-and God will be faithful. We can anticipate meeting God in the day to day life we live.
God has promised that Jesus will return - and as Jesus first came proving God's faithfulness to His promises we can count on this promise that Jesus will return; but we don't know when He will come.
Even in the days of the apostles people were scoffing at the idea that Jesus would return. They were saying then: "Where is this coming he promised?" But God is faithful. What God has promised God will do. It does not matter really how long delayed Jesus' return is, what matters is living each day and in that we discover the conflict of Christmas.
- My brothers and sister and their spouses and I were in the living room watching old slides. It was Christmas Day. We had had a great morning together. We had eaten a wonderful dinner. My dad had leaned back his chair, placed his hands over his belly and exclaimed as he always did: "Delightful!" And then we had ended up watching slides. We were laughing at how we looked, when my mom came to the door in tears. Christmas often involves tears.
I don't know what it is about relationships with those closest but we tend to take advantage of them. We may do alright loving the stranger, but it is the "known person" our wives, our husbands, our family members with whom we often fail.
Somehow it had never occurred to any of us that perhaps we ought not to be leaving the room before the dishes were done. Somehow it had not occurred to my mom to say anything sooner. Perhaps it was a family system assumption that mom was to clean up after the meal. But she stood there in tears and let us know in no uncertain terms what had her upset. Immediately the slides stopped, we all went and helped to clean up, and then all of us, mom included, came back and enjoyed the old pictures of the old days.
That situation was easily remedied… but not all dynamics are so quickly solved. You all could name situations, times around the tree when all became tense and ugly, family meals that turned out less than wonderful, times of shopping when the stress overwhelmed your heart, the sense of indecision some encounter when looking for gifts, and the list goes on.
What of issues with promiscuity, use of drugs and alcohol, gluttony, and issues with over spending for which this season is famous.
It is not the secularization of the season that robs us of the Christmas we hope for, but usually just the reality of the darkness of human sin in a season when we expect everything to be filled with light.
The culture wars that surround the season are infamous - the use of the word "holiday" to replace Christmas, the banning of carols from schools, the disallowing of a nativity scene on public property or in housing developments, the issue mistakenly raised by some Christians over the substitution of the letter X for Christ in the word Christmas. This use of X many still believe denigrates Jesus, but it is actually an old custom-the X was used for the name Christ even in the first century for in Greek the X is the letter with which the name Christ begins.
All the cute slogans: "Jesus is the reason for the season" "Wise men still seek him" are all attempts to keep before people in our culture the meaning behind Christmas.
- But even if we strive to keep the meaning we can forget that Christmas arrives with conflict - look at the first Christmas - they travel to register in Bethlehem - imagine 9 months pregnant, on a donkey, traveling some 30 miles at a walking pace and you tell me there is no conflict! There was no place to lodge! The place was packed with travelers. Putting up in a cave - not pristine accommodations - animals, straw, visitors, wise men and then a dream, a flight to Egypt, Herod's attempts to kill Jesus.
If people say the really silly thing about wanting to have a Christmas like the first Christmas they are seeking to live in a hallmark card. Christmas is filled with Conflict because Light came in the person of Jesus into a dark world.
"The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it… He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive him."
Light and Dark are in conflict. Herod graphically demonstrated the murderous conflict that first Christmas. And we see it lived out around us day by day.
But this is not the toughest conflict of this season - that conflict is not one external to our lives, not the culture wars about what name to call something - no the toughest conflict exists within our hearts, within my heart, for it is there that light and dark still battle.
Although I love Jesus and seek to follow him day by day, still I set up impossible expectations for this season, I seek to buy the best gift, seek to do the right thing, seek to serve Jesus all the more, seek to reach out to more people and so much of this "good light stuff" is colored by the motives I find within me to be liked, to gain love, to look good.
- This is where Jesus' word about the fact that He will be returning are good for me to hear. It is a good reminder that the most important battle that I fight is not the secular struggle for the name of Christmas, but the internal battle to be wholly the Lord's as I wait for his coming.
There are wonderful aspects of this season, but in all honesty, there are hard times as well. So, it helps me to keep my head straight about one fact: Jesus is coming soon.
Certainly that may not be today, as Jesus says, "no one knows the day or hour of His coming" but it matters little how long until He comes, still the fact that He is coming remains. The words spoken by Him to his disciples are a good reminder to us as well.
Simply He tells us to Keep Watch for his coming - to Be ready.
For me if that is His message and that message comes into this season of anticipation, then perhaps, just perhaps I may need to think seriously about HOW I follow him in this season. How do I "keep" the light of this season, the joy, the peace, the fellowship blessings, the richness, without allowing the very season to become an idol at which I bow, from which I hope to receive blessings?
How do I keep watch for Jesus' coming - his second coming to be sure, and his daily coming into my life?
First, it helps me to not expect this season to be a panacea for all the ills of my life, but to allow it to be what it is --- a busy, full time of outreach and love.
Next, I heard a story recently which did much to help me "keep watch" for Jesus.
Just two years ago the leadership of a Portland congregation Imageo Dei with about 1500 members decided to challenge their congregation to change how they celebrated Christmas. Concerned about how caught their yuppie congregation by the craze of the spending spree during the holidays, they called them to do four things with this season. For me these four things epitomized a way to "keep watch".
First, they challenged them to worship Jesus more, this season. They taught how worship is not just what they did in community at church, but worship more correctly was what they did with their bodies all week long. So, "worship Jesus" with their bodies, day by day in all they did. This awareness of Jesus, of worship, is a great way to "keep watch".
Second, they called their people to spend less on Christmas - to not buy their way through the season but to make gifts, to find simple things, to give their time to one another, and spend time with people.
Third, they called them to give more to others by giving relationally. They challenged them to give of themselves in this way, and then to bring all they would have spent on gifts and give it into an Advent Offering at the church.
They were surprised when that one offering totaled nearly 100,000 dollars!
Finally, they encouraged them to "love more" - this offering was given away. They gave 25% to dig wells for the poorest of the 1.1 billion people around the world whose children are dying at a rate of 22 children per second from water borne diseases when there is clean water literally beneath their feet. So, they gave a quarter of that offering to help these children. Then, the remainder they used to "love the poor" in their community, to support local ministries that were already doing a great work and to work with them.
Worship More, Spend Less, Give More, and Love more - four simple ways to "Keep watch" this Christmas.
Last year, four other congregations joined in this movement now being dubbed the Advent Conspiracy and a quarter of that offering was nearly half a million dollars. Great works have been supported for the poor around these congregations and Jesus seems to think much of such ministry for he has told us when you do this to the least of these my brothers you have done it unto me.
None of us can escape from the conflict of Christmas, but we can be aware that the conflict is normal and we can keep watch for Jesus, we can be ready by worshiping more, by spending less, by giving more and by loving more and as we do that, we will truly experience a very merry Christmas.
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