Have Yourself a merry little Christmas
, let your hearts be lightFrom now on all troubles will be out of sight…
That is the song that we sang on Christ the King sunday to begin to prepare us for the Christmas season
There are many other Christmas songs, they’ve been on the radio since Halloween
That express this same sentiment…
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas
, just like the ones I used to knowWhere the tree-tops glisten and children listen
To hear sleigh-bells in the snow.
There is a sentimentality to Christmas
That I find very tempting.
We are bombarded with images everything being
Warm, welcoming, and ok.
And let’s face it, at the end of a stressful
Trying year, this dream that we might have just a few days
Leading up to Christmas where
Families can get together without disagreements
We can treat others and ourselves to gifts which represent
The love we have but are sometimes just to busy or preoccupied to express
We can remember being young again when there were no responsibilities or worries,
Each day was an exciting new adventure and
And under the tree was something wondrous and energizing
Lets face it,
Trying to pay the bills,
Dealing with work stress
Taking care of kids, which we love, but which can be exhausting
Working through relationship struggles
The list goes on and on of the weights we carry
And the picture of Christmas
A time to say goodbye to troubles
To just be joyful and peaceful
That is pretty tempting
But that isn’t the Bible’s version of the birth of the Christ child.
When Worship and Fellowship met a few
months ago to begin planning for Advent
The word terrified leapt out at us like we had never read or heard it before…
Lk 2:8-10 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. 9 An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
Terrified… in greek phobos from which we derive our word phobia…
Arachnaphobia, the fear of spiders, Glossophobia, fear of public speaking
Xenophobia, fear of strangers or aliens…
The shepherds, did not experience the first Christmas eve as
a time when everything was finally right (at least, not at first)
First,They had an extreme attack of angelophobia,
or perhaps even theophobia,
fear of God and God’s messengers .
Maybe even gospelphobia
Fear of God’s message.
We can’t say that everything is merry and bright for Mary
When the angel appears to tell her
that God has picked her to carry the Messiah
All her plans, all her dreams, shattered
Her peaceful existence, gone
Now instead of plans for a simple happy life
Her mind goes spinning
As she ponders what her village will say
What her parents will do with her
How Joseph will react.
We can’t say that all troubles are out of sight for Joseph,
The trouble is just beginning when the angel appears
To tell him that he must stay with Mary and protect her.
Just when Joseph was setting down roots
Getting his home built for his new wife
And his business set up to provide for her
He is ripped from his roots to guide her to Bethlehem
He is left sheltering her in a stable
And as if that were not enough
The same angel appears again
And Joseph has to gather what little of his things he has brought
With him to Bethlehem and flee to Egypt
To save the baby that is not even his own
From the violence of Herod
No, “I’ll be home for Christmas…’ for Joseph
For Joseph Christmas is fleeing from danger into the dark unknown of life
In a foreign country
The risk of trying to start life over in a far-away land
Everything changed when the angels announced Jesus birth
His birth turned Mary’s life upside down
His birth turned Joseph’s life upside down
The Christmas story of the bible seems to have just the opposite effect
that we hope Christmas will have
God seems a bit of a Grinch…
Going out of his way to ruin our Christmas Spirit
Well, perhaps not ruin,
But confront our Christmas spirit
So the question I suppose, is,
For all the e-mails, articles, head-shaking in frustration and tongue-clucking
About the lack of Christ in Christmas in the culture around us…
Do we really want Christ in our Christmas
Because putting Christ back in Christmas
Replaces a story of merry and bright, troubles out of sight
With Mary’s song
Lk 1:46-53
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
There is something a bit dangerous about this Christmas story with Christ in it
And I suppose that where we view the story from affects whether it will
Cause us joy or phobia.
If, as we have imagined Mary and Joseph,
We have already got a pretty good life,
Maybe not perfect,
But we have plans and dreams
And most parts of our life seem well organized
And properly placed
And going just the way we had hoped
Putting Christ back into Christ
Will be phobia inspiring,
For this Christ child has come to interrupt our plans
Confront our assumptions and
Turn our worlds upside down
There is the story (this is the will willimon part)told of two students...
They had met their Sophomore year at one of our information meetings for the Spring Student Mission Team to Honduras. We've been sending three mission teams to this, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, for some time now. Few students go on one of these teams and return as they came.
He excitedly told me that, after they met that night, they had been going out together and things seemed great between them.
"We're going to Honduras together," he said, "and who knows where it might lead for the two of us?"
So that day, around Christmas time, when I saw him walking dejectedly across campus, I asked, "What gives?"
"Marianne isn't going to Honduras," he said gloomily.
"I'm sorry. I wonder why," I said. "She can't afford the time?"
"No," he said, "Marianne said that her older sister, Clarinda, went down there and it changed her. Made her Mom and Dad furious. Clarinda said she got born again down there. Marianne said she got turned upside down."
Are you sure you want Christ back in Christmas?
Pretty unsettling things can happen to us once we kneel at the manger
On the other hand
If we are more like the shepherds,
Outcasts, ignored or derided,
The announcement of the Christ child will bring joy
If, like the Magi, not kings or wisemen, but mistrusted foreigners,
We have experienced feeling left out, cast aside, or forgotten
Having the world turned upside down might not be such a bad thing
Jesus made a ministry of interrupting and confronting.
By touching lepers,
Guarding prostitutes
Eating with tax collectors
Making all the unwanted, expendable
Folks of the world his sisters and brothers
And proclaiming that they would make up the people of God
Would be welcomed first into the kingdom
Well, that kind of world upending message,
The last being made first,
The least wanted made most wanted,
Well, that would be good news.
And perhaps that is why the shepherds left rejoicing,
And Mary and Joseph submitted to god’s will
And the Magi took the risk of finding a new way home
And a new way in life
And perhaps, just perhaps,
That is what you really want to hear in church
Not let your hearts be light
all troubles will be out of sight
Perhaps you want to hear
God has come to be with us
his presence will interrupt our lives
And his proximity will confront our plans
And when this baby grows up,
He will challenge us to take up a cross and follow
Merry Christmas
