During the
seasons of Advent and Lent, I try to preach a sermon series that relates to the
season at hand. This year, I’m going to consider our Christmas traditions. We
do many things at Christmas time that we don’t really think about – we just do
them. It seems to me that some of them could use a deeper look. So, on this first
Sunday in Advent, let’s think about our Christmas decorations. By the last week
in November every year, those decorations are everywhere! Even the scroogiest
Scrooge puts up a tree – even if it’s only a little tabletop tree with the
decorations already attached to it. And the sky’s the limit! People decorate
the outsides of their homes with colored lights, window wreaths, inflatable
Santa Clauses, and reindeer that slowly swing their lighted heads from side to
side. Some people even play music synchronized to play with those lights as
they flash on and off!
Many
churches decorate, too, just like we do every year. But decorations like ours
give church history geeks migraine headaches! Why? Because we aren’t supposed
to decorate during Advent! In church circles, Advent isn’t a time for decorations;
it’s a time to lament the state of our world and to yearn for the Messiah’s
arrival. A century ago, decorations wouldn’t have appeared until Christmas
morning; and then, they would have only stayed in place until Epiphany, 12 days
later. (Did you ever wonder what the song “The 12 Days of Christmas” is all
about? It’s talking about the twelve days between Christmas and January 6.) Our
decorations will be up until Epiphany, too; but we surely don’t wait until
Christmas Eve to put them up!
Now, I
suspect that this tradition of decorating long before Christmas has more to do
with Madison Avenue than it does with Christianity. While our faith says, “Advent
is for waiting and hoping,” the economy says, “No, don’t wait! Start Christmas
shopping as soon as you can; the earlier the better!” These days, we see candy
canes and tinsel in stores almost before Halloween is over! Some people barely
get the Thanksgiving turkey leftovers put away in the refrigerator before they
start hanging their Christmas lights. No one wants to wait until the end of
December for Christmas! We’re all like little kids on a trip to Grandma’s house
who ask “Are we there yet?” every mile or so. We just can’t wait to get there! And so… here are the Christmas decorations
– here and everywhere else that we look.
But I’m not
sure that’s not a bad thing. After all, even as we anticipate the arrival of Christmas,
we already know the end of the story. On Christmas Eve, a child will be born to
a peasant couple who have taken refuge in a stable. Heaven will break through to
earth as angels sing about the birth to stunned shepherds; and three mysterious
men from the east will arrive to offer the baby gifts fit for a king. That’s a
story to celebrate! But we also know that the kingdom of that baby isn’t completely
here yet. You heard Isaiah’s description of that baby’s kingdom in this morning’s
scripture reading (Isaiah 11:1-9). The lion and the wolf and the leopard will
live peacefully with the goat and the calf and the lamb. All the creatures of
the earth will be at peace. I haven’t seen that happening yet; and I’ll bet
that you haven’t, either. Woody Allen famously commented on this scripture when
he said, “The lion might lie down with the lamb, but the lamb won’t get much
sleep.” Even though we celebrate the birth of the Messiah, he still hasn’t
brought in the fullness of his kingdom. That means that we live in a time that
we can describe as “already… but not yet.” The Messiah has come “already,” but
the fullness of his kingdom is “not yet.” The Christmas story began 2,000 years
ago; but it hasn’t completely ended yet.
So, what
does that have to do with Christmas decorations? Just this. Our decorations
celebrate the “already” of the story, even as we look forward to the completion
that is “not yet.” The lights that are everywhere in Christmas decorations
remind us that the world is still dark; and that we need the Light of the world
to make it bright for us. But they also symbolize the signs of God’s kingdom that
are all around us if we have eyes to see them! The man who rings the bell at a
Salvation Army kettle on his Saturday off; the woman who buys a generous gift
card at the local food store for a young, single mother and leaves it
anonymously in her mailbox; people who fill shoeboxes with gifts for Native
American children that they will never meet; those are all signs of the kingdom
that began when a baby was born in Bethlehem so long ago. But our world still
has lots and lots of problems. That kingdom of love, justice, and mercy isn’t
completely here yet. Even as we celebrate the “already,” we wait in hope for
the “not yet.”
So… are we
there yet? No. But we will be one day. Christmas – and the kingdom – is on the
way, and nothing we do can stop it. That is the great and wonderful news of
Advent! I think it’s worth some decorations – for a whole month!
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