Living in a Post-Christmas Word

 This is from my original notes in planning last week's sermon (December 26th, 2001) with a few edits for readability. I post it partly for my own "file" and partly for a few who had some trouble hearing Sunday. Even with a mic, I realize my voice doesn't always come through really clear :-). 

Isaiah 61:10-11 and 62:1-3

I delight greatly in the Lord;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness,
as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,
    and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
¹¹ For as the soil makes the sprout come up
    and a garden causes seeds to grow,
so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness
    and praise spring up before all nations.

Zion’s New Name

62 For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent,
    for Jerusalem’s sake I will not remain quiet,
till her vindication shines out like the dawn,
    her salvation like a blazing torch.
² The nations will see your vindication,
    and all kings your glory;
you will be called by a new name
    that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
³ You will be a crown of splendor in the Lord’s hand,
    a royal diadem in the hand of your God.

I love weddings. Like REALLY, REALLY love weddings. So, I love that scripture includes so much imagery from weddings.

Dan and I actually  got married right here where I’m standing 18 years ago next week. And Dan’s little sister, Sarah, got married this past year to this guy, Alex, from Connecticut. I don’t know if you guys remember, but A LOT of preparation can go into a wedding. And maybe even more now days. There’s that official Facebook post with a picture of a ring, and a status change. There are engagement pictures, cake taste testing, and visiting venues. Trying on dresses has become its own event. Then there’s bridal showers and rehearsal dinners. And each of these pieces of the preparation is in itself a part of the celebration. But it’s not THE celebration.

So, here’s what happened with Sarah’s wedding. By February of 2020 she had said yes to the dress. She had the perfect venue reserved with a view of the Superstition Mountains. We had invitations to a shower sent, lavender plates and tiny cactus candles ordered. And then the world came to a screeching halt right before the shower, and about six weeks before the wedding.

The venue called with the sad news. The couple made hard decisions. A small exchange of vows, and a signing of a marriage license happened in the presence of three well-spaced immediate family members, and a cousin who was an ordained Baptist minister.

BUT…the planning continued and one year later we finally had the huge ceremony and celebration Sarah and Alex had hoped for, prayed for, and even paid for, surrounded by people they love. 

There was dancing. There was a photo booth. And there was a food truck that served us LOBSTER ROLLS. And then…all those months, and really years, of planning were over in a flash.

But it wasn’t over. Not really. Sarah was given a new name, and the Grier family had begun. And now…Sarah and Alex are expecting! Sarah is growing me a new nephew named Dylan, arriving in March! The Grier family is both right now…and still coming! 

In the very same way, the Kingdom of God is like that, right? When we pray, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven” we acknowledge that just like the Grier family, the kingdom is both right now…and still coming.

I recently attended a class on Christian family traditions, and the speaker, Trey Brooks, used this same analogy of the planning process of a wedding to help us understand advent and Christmas. There is joy in the anticipation...the cookie baking, the tree decorating, the candle lighting...but the main event doesn’t END on Christmas, with an anticlimactic pile of shredded wrapping paper. It’s a beginning.

 In fact, I learned something!

You know that song, the 12 Days of Christmas?! It’s based on how the church used to celebrate advent season followed by Christmas season. The 12 Days of Christmas START on Christmas, and each item listed in the song symbolizes a part of the story of God, and it ends on 3 Kings Day, a holiday devoted to recognizing the arrival of the wise men. How cool is that!

Now going back to the analogy of the wedding, I can’t speak for Sarah, but I’m going to be transparent with you today and tell you that my first year of marriage wasn’t always easy. Dan and I came from two different families, with two different ways of doing things. He had no idea that he folded towels wrong, and I had no idea that I made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches wrong. We had assumptions about what side of the bed we would sleep in or what an appropriate amount of money to spend on a Christmas gift should be. There was an old way of doing and being and then there was a new way of doing and being.

Likewise, in that moment 2,000 years ago, when God came to earth as a fully divine and fully human baby, the world changed. The event we’d all been waiting for had come. A relationship, where man and God had once walked together, was once again restored. Salvation had arrived in Bethlehem, and we who would follow him, were given a new name.

There was a before Christ came. And there was after.

We may have folded the towels a certain way or made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with half as much peanut butter before…but Christ introduced a new way of being.

Here are a few things that he introduced, for those who would choose to take His name…

1.       We are a people who choose peace and forgiveness not violence and revenge

. I     In Matthew 5:17-48 there’s a list of how things were done before, and how it’s going to be different now. I call this section "the you've heard it saids." 

        One of those things is that we’re not going to retaliate with violence. Some will point to stories from the Old Testament to justify retaliatory violence. But it is my personal belief that that age ended when the kingdom of God came to earth. There's a lot I don't know, and I'm still learning. I don't know which thigs necessarily changed and which things just didn't fully reflect the heart of God before. But I only see one example in our New Testament of a Christ follower responding with violence. It was Peter, and it didn't go well.

        ^{Matthew 5:43} “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor^[i] and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 

       In Timothy Keller’s book, “Prodigal Prophet” he shares the story of a tragedy that struck the Amish community. In October of 2006 a gunmen took the teacher and students of a small Amish schoolhouse hostage, shooting 5 before taking his own life. Keller states, “Within hours of the shooting, the Amish community had come around both the parents and the wife of that shooter, who lived there in that area, had come to them and expressed sympathy and said they wanted to be with them for the hard days ahead. When the shooter’s funeral occurred, more than half the people who were at the funeral were Amish people. And an Amish spokesman said that all the families who had lost children forgave the shooter and his family. “

      Amish Christians don't have it all right. They don't always get grace right. But this? This was beautiful. And it wasn't normal. It was weird, in fact. But I think we're called to be a little weird.

      This is what “Thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” looks like through a post-Christmas Day filter.

2.      The next thing Jesus introduced into a post-Christmas world is that We are people who serve others

        Matthew 20:27-28 says, "and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave— Just as the son of man did not come to be served but to serve.”

I     This is something I have seen played out in my church. I have learned to serve by watching others serve. It's one of the things I love best about who we can be.

I    The example I chose to describe a life of service is  Mother Teresa. I grew up admiring her so much. I read the biographies, I clipped out the news articles. I remember the day she died. She chose to leave a comfortable station to live among the poorest of poor like the poorest of poor in the slums of Calcutta, India. She slept on a mat on the floor and would reach out to lepers and give them a dignified place to spend the remainder of their short lives. She continued this lifestyle until she died at the age of 87.

      I hesitate to use Mother Teresa as an example because she's now literally been made a saint in the Catholic church. So it’s almost a cliché to say, “I’m no Mother Teresa.” But guess what? The same exact Holy Spirit that enabled her, lives in your heart and mine. You don't get a lesser version! We each can have the Mother Teresa version of the Holy Spirit. There is nothing she had that we don't have access to! Imagine what God can do in your life and in your unique circumstances!

In a post-Christmas world we are also a people who bear one another’s burdens

   Paul's instructions to the early church were to “^Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

A  Also, "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ." Galatians 6:2

      One example of this is the story of Desmond Doss. He was a 7^th Day Adventist, and therefore a conscientious objector who was recruited during WWII. He chose to serve as an unarmed medic. He was bullied and threatened throughout his training and viewed as a liability to his comrades. But during the battle of Hacksaw Ridge, during the month of May in 1945, he saved 75 men who were to be left to die, despite being unarmed, under fire and at one point even injured himself. Desmond Dos didn't have to do this. This wasn't safe! But God didn't call us to be "safe" did he? He became the first and only conscientious objector to receive the medal of honor. His response was to say he was just fulfilling Matthew 7:12, “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

        A second example is Reverend James Reed.  In March of 1965, hundreds of pastors traveled to Selma, Alabama, to join Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in finish the march across the Edmund Pettus bridge to raise awareness for equal voting rights, after the first attempt to march across had been disrupted by a violent and deadly attack. 

     On March 19^th, 2,500 gathered on the bridge for a time of prayer. Following that gathering, 3 clergy members were cornered and beaten. It would have been easier for Rev. Reed to say, “This doesn’t impact me. This is not my burden to bear.” But God didn't call us to easy either, did he? Because he lived in the ways of a post-Christmas world, Rev. Reed knew that if his brothers and sisters in Christ in Selma, Alabama had a burden, then it was his burden too.

     So, just like marriage after the wedding can be a little difficult, living in a post-Christmas world might take a little adjustment as well. We’ve been transformed. We’ve been given a new name. There’s a new way of living.

       But, one thing it is not, it isn't boring. And it's not anti-climactic.  This isn’t about standing in a pile of boxes and tissue paper and taking ornaments off a tree. The party is just starting as we live as this changed people in expectation of Christ’s return.