What is Christmas really all about?
Sometimes we can become so familiar with a story that we forget or forgo the details of the story, which is what originally made it so compelling and transformative.
And that’s what the Advent season is for in the church calendar.
There is wisdom in the church taking a few weeks to prepare for our Christmas celebration. And if you think that odd or overkill, then that may be a sign that you’ve become unfamiliar with some of the key elements that make the Christmas story so enduring.
What is Christmas?
It’s the story of Jesus coming to fulfill the story of Israel in the most radical and unexpected way possible: their God will become their king!
He will personally deliver Israel from exile and place his Word in their heart, that they might become the nation they were called and created to be: a blessing and light to the world.
Thus, God emerges into the world through the infant Jesus, born into scandal and poverty, into a diminished, oppressed, and powerless family of royal descent.
But: Why does Israel need a savior? Where is their king? Why are they in exile? Where has God been? Why has he been absent?
In the days of Caesar Augustus, the people of Israel were enduring their fourth empire, and it seemed to them that God was no where.
So when the angels announce in the birth of Jesus the Christ (the anointed King) that God is now here, it was good news indeed!
And yet – the arrival of God was not like they had expected, nor did it initiate the rescue they had prayed for.
In our day, the church is the new Israel, we are the people of God, those who pledge allegiance to Jesus as King, our Lord, Savior and Christ.
We are into our 21st century since the ascension of Jesus to his throne at the right hand of God the Father, and though God the Father and Jesus the Son sent the Holy Spirit to be in us, it still feels at times like Christ is no where.
Christ the King of Israel came unexpectedly and saved his people in an unexpected way.
And now we who yearn for Christ to return can begin to empathize with the waiting of Israel as they waited for God to rescue them.
They had no idea how much longer it would be until God came to save them. We have no idea how much longer it will be until Christ returns to set the world right.
Do you ever get tired of waiting for God?
Do you ever lose hope about all that is wrong in our world? In your life?
Do you ever grow weary of waiting for Christ to show up and save you from your troubles?
You and the children of Israel both.
The season of Advent is a time of preparation for Christmas.
What is preparation? Active waiting: you work while you wait, you prepare as you anticipate.
And our four weeks of preparation and anticipation are to be a picture of what our larger life is to be like as we wait and work for Christ to come again.
When it seems like Christ is no where, that’s when faith becomes crucial and you choose to believe that Christ is now here.
We can all be like Thomas, and refuse to trust that Christ is here; and yet like Thomas, we need to hear the words of Jesus to him: you believed because you could see, blessed are those who do not see and yet believe.
I don’t know what you’re waiting on this Christmas.
I don’t know what you are waiting on God to do for you this Christmas.
I don’t know what what you are praying and pleading Christ to fix for you.
Maybe it’s health, or your job, or family, friends, your habits, your heart?
Maybe you want Christ to do something about the loneliness of Christmas, the grief and sadness of Christmas, the hassle and hustle of Christmas, the unfulfilled hopes and expectations of Christmas, the stress and busyness of Christmas, the commercialism and shopping of Christmas, the pain and suffering of Christmas?
To prepare properly for Christmas is to be honestly aware of what you want rescued from in your life.
For Christmas to be a proper preparation for our anticipation of Christ’s return, we must be clear on why we yearn for Christ to come back now and not later.
The people of Israel had a word that was both a cry of suffering and a cry of hope: Hosanna! Lord save us!
It’s a word you pray, it can be a word you shout, it was a word on Israel’s lips and hearts as they labored and lived under the oppressive cruelty of the empires – Rome, Greece, Persia, Babylon, Assyria.
The early Christians had a word for that pain and yearning: Maranatha. Come Lord!
It’s the perfect word for Christians at Christmas.
Depending on how you see and say the word, you can say it Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus! Or you can say it Mara natha: Our Lord has come!
The first Christians looked back to Christmas and declared: Mara antha: Our Lord has come!
And then they would look ahead and declare: Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus.
For you, when you begin to feel like Christ is no where, you can cry out like Israel, Hosanna, Lord save me! You can cry out like the early Christians, Marana tha: Come Lord Jesus!
And when you have been reminded that Christ is now here, you can declare with faith, hope and love: Mara anatha: Our Lord has come!
And this begins to get at the heart of what it means to see Jesus as your king this Christmas.
It means understanding his story and the story of Israel so that you can grasp the first story of Christmas.
By delving into this original story of Christmas, you begin to remember what Christmas is all about, and thus you can prepare and anticipate properly.
Christmas is not about celebrating a day, but an event.
But more than that, it’s celebrating and remembering the one who caused the event, and the one about whom the event is about: the God of Israel who becomes King through Jesus – the Christ of the masses.
Christmas is the beginning of the reign of God through Jesus in the world.
That’s what we are celebrating: the genesis of the kingdom of God where Jesus becomes Lord and Christ and establishes the church through whom he will be present in the world.
No wonder we need words like Hosanna and Maranatha at Christmas.
If God became present in the world through Jesus, and now God and Jesus are present in the world through the Spirit, and if God, Jesus and the Spirit are present in the world through the Church, which is the body of Christ, no wonder we despair and feel like Christ is no where.
It’s easy to see how the church has failed God and humanity and us in so many ways.
But we must remember that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against dark powers and evil forces throughout the heavens and the earth.
The church is the one people on earth where God chooses to dwell by the Spirit of Christ to demonstrate his redeeming love.
God’s design for the church is that they be a people on earth through whom he can bless all the peoples of the earth.
The church is to be a light to the world of what the kingdom of God can look like – a community where righteous justice prevails alongside humble mercy.
The church is the one people on earth that calls on Christ as their Lord, learning to be led by him, learning to serve him, and be his servants of blessing and rescue from evil.
When the church fails, and it seems Christ is no where, we cry out Hosanna, God save us!
When the the church gets it right, and it seems like Christ is now here with us, we can cry out Maranatha, Our Lord has come!
When we lose our way, we can look back to Christmas and remember where our story begins, but then we can also look ahead and remember where our story goes.
Just as God came once through Jesus to renew the kingdom of God through the church, so God will come again with Jesus to fully establish the kingdom of God on earth, and finally justice and peace will kiss.
(Sermon based on 2014 Lectionary Reading for the First Sunday of Advent: Isaiah 64, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19, 1Cor 1:3-9, Mark 13:24-37)
