Christmas Is Coming. And So Is Jesus.
Christmas Is Coming. And So Is Jesus.
A blessed First Sunday of Advent to you.
Advent is four weeks of Sundays when we get ready for Jesus.
The scriptures are surprisingly dark.
That's because they're NOT lessons about Christmas.
They're lessons about Advent.
Big difference.
Advent is about hope. Hope is hard.
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In the Gospels, when they told people to "get ready" for Jesus, it wasn't the Baby Jesus.
Babies are sweet. The gospels had something else in mind.
THEY were writing about the RETURN of Grown-up King Jesus – the SECOND Coming.
Their Advent wish was for an apocalypse.
Apocalypse.
A world-replacing revelation of a new heaven and a new earth.
The dead rising.
Christ finally (finally!) taking his place on the Eternal Throne,
to judge the nations,
to overthrow all other kingdoms.
Oh, the scripture of Advent is frightful.
--
But – it's Christmas season. Right?
We're supposed to be "merry."
It's required.
People get un-merrified when the checkers at Walmart don't say, "Merry Christmas."
But – if we went by the scriptures of Advent, they'd be saying, "Merry Apocalypse?"
Not even MSNBCnow says that.
We smile and say, "Merry Christmas," or "Happy Hanukkah," or "Happy Holidays," because that's what nice people do.
But not the Bible.
During these days, we hang our stockings with care.
But not the Bible. The church of the Bible – hangs hope on an Armageddon of good vs. evil, judgment of the nations, cosmic cataclysm.
So, yes. CHRISTMAS is coming.
Joy to the World.
But the scriptures – the Bible – wants us to remember that CHRIST is coming.
He's coming BACK.
Warning to the world!
A new heaven and a new earth is coming.
And you don't want to be "left behind."
Ho, ho, ho?
–
Christmas.
Hey, y'all, Christmas is coming.
Wait. Christmas is coming?
Yes indeed.
It's coming fast!
Only 24 days left, people.
Why are you sitting there?
Get on your phones.
Go to Cordova Mall
if you dare.
Decorate.
Plan a menu.
Buy festive socks and ugly sweaters.
Inflate those oversize yard reindeer.
Make your list. Check it twice.
On Walmart.
On Amazon.
On credit and layaway.
On e-wallets and crypto and gift cards this very day.
Now, cash away, cash away, cash away all -- because nobody under 60 uses cash anymore.
Charge!
Christmas is coming.
But what if it didn't?
If you watch any of the TV specials, or any Christmas movies, you know.
You know every year Christmas needs to be rescued.
Every year, Ebenezer Scrooge has to re-learn it.
The Grinch steals it.
If it hadn't been for Rudolph with his nose so bright.
Or Buddy the Elf singing Christmas cheer.
Or the all-time classic – Ernest Saves Christmas.
And if your grandkids haven't seen that one, time to pull out the VCR.
Thank goodness for Christmas saviors.
Like, Tim Allen.
And Chevy Chase.
And Macalay Culkin.
And Bruce Willis running barefoot through that building.
Saved it.
Evildoers and bouncing bumbles be warned.
Christmas always wins.
We preachers, though, are contractually obligated to remind you that this ISN'T Christmas season.
This is ADVENT season.
This is ADVENT.
ADVENT! Gosh darn it.
We're like the grumpy referees throwing yellow flags, because it's our JOB to keep the rules.
Christmas season doesn't start until Christmas Day.
That's when you get the 12 days of presents nobody would ever wish for.
A houseful of birds. A drum line. Leaping dancers knocking over the furniture.
When all we really want is the new iPhone.
Bring us some figgy pudding – and bring it right NOW.
We want a tree, even if we call it a Chris MON tree.
It's tradition.
Nobody wants to break a Christmas tradition.
Nobody wants Christmas stolen.
And nobody wants to trip over the Baby Jesus on their way into Walmart.
IMHO it's OK to smoosh Advent and Christmas into one season.
The world needs more hope, peace, joy, and love.
And if that's what you get from gathering around a food court, or putting antlers on your car, singing carols and sloshing egg nog –
then God bless us, every one.
Let Christmas be Christmas.
You be you.
Christmas is coming.
Don't let anyone steal it from you.
–
But first, Advent.
Advent exists to remind us that there is no shortcut to hope.
There is no shortcut to hope, to peace, to joy, to love.
Hope is hard. Peace, joy, and love are hard.
And if you take shortcuts to them, you're fooling yourself.
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But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Then two will be in the field; one will be taken, and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Christmas is coming.
But JESUS is coming, too.
He's coming back.
But when? December 25?
Nobody knows.
Not even Jesus.
…about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son….
The Bible does say Christ IS coming again and there will come an Advent.
But Advent can go by other names.
And Jesus can, too.
He's a SNEAKY one, Mr. Jesus.
Surprising. Shocking.
Like a burglar in the night.
--
I understand the shock of personal theft.
I know this may be hard to believe but back in the 80's, I had a car with a totally tubular custom sound system.
I could pull up beside you at a stoplight in my 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI, bass blaring, shaking my license plate and my fillings.
The Circuit City cassette player had an extra 30-watt amp in the glove box and 10-inch JBL speakers professionally mounted in the cardboard hatchback panel.
If your windows were down you'd hear me blasting Talking Heads from several cars away.
I remember how violated I felt the first time my sweet Knight Rider got broken into and my system stolen.
I remember, the second time, how mildly irritated I was.
I remember how the third time, Jake from State Farm welcomed me back like a good neighbor.
You get your stuff stolen enough times – after a while, the urgency gets old and the deductible gets high.
People in the time of Matthew were tired of waiting around for Jesus to come back.
Their hopes had been stolen once, twice, three times?
More?
The thrill was gone.
When the preacher started preaching about Jesus's new advent, people started checking their watches.
--
Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken, and one will be left. Keep awake, therefore….
Don't be left behind.
We know it as The Rapture.
The concept of the Rapture comes less from the Bible and more from the Rev. John Nelson Darby in 1830's Ireland.
The people of Ireland have always known how it feels to be left behind, excluded.
Darby himself left or was asked to leave several churches.
Back in Bible times, the Israelites were way too "familiar with the [arresting] ways of the Roman Empire."
If you got taken by the Romans, you WISHED you'd been left behind.
Any day, without warning, you could be snatched away by soldiers, disappeared.
The left behind were the lucky ones.
Context is important in Bible study.
The Rapture is super essential to a lot of people and a lot of churches.
Maybe to you. I'm not gonna argue.
Personally, I don't think scaring you to death makes you love Jesus more.
Threats create performance.
Pretending to be loving isn't the worst thing.
To me, the Rapture's like the ChatGPT of faith.
Can it be helpful? Sure.
But is it authentic?
What I really don't like about The Rapture – and it sounds weird to say that – but what I don't like about the Rapture is that it's a shortcut.
The Rapture is lazy.
All you have to do is sit around and eventually, God will snap his fingers and make the bad stuff – and bad people disappear.
But today we're just reading Matthew 24.
The next chapter of Matthew – chapter 25 – says making the bad stuff disappear is OUR job.
Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, welcome the outcast, visit the prisoners.
Lord, when did we see you and do this?
"Whenever you did this to the least of these, you did it unto me."
Waiting for God to be Mr. Fixit – waiting for the Rapture -- steals our power.
We already have the power –
You and I have the power right now –
To help Jesus come back to people in need TODAY.
And remember, Jesus is sneaky as a thief.
He could be wearing a disguise.
He might look like the couple in the doorway, holding their hungry baby beneath a streetlight.
He could even be disguised as you.
Hidden IN you.
You, feeding the hungry.
You, healing the sick.
You, doing the hard work of salvation for goodness' sake.
Finding Jesus – holding onto Jesus – finding hope – holding onto hope – is no snap.
Hope is hard work. Bringing hope. Feeling hope. It's the opposite of lazy.
So how does the real hope of Christ's Advent look?
--
Little apocalypseses.
Some of us know too well – how the Holidays can be really hard.
For a lot of folks the holidays aren't happy.
They're just hard.
Telling us to cheer up doesn't help.
Adding the end of the world and the fear of being "left behind" doesn't turn that frown upside down.
If you're one of the holly-jolly who go around singing "All I Want for Christmas is You," good for you, but stay away from Karaoke bars.
Sing your heart out.
But be mindful that many people –
all they want for Christmas is for it to go away, and for you to get out of their face.
And to please stop singing that song.
"Bah, Humbug!" can be a cry for help.
I think the sobering scriptures of Advent are one way the church can say, "We see you. We get it."
If your Christmas is darker than blue, maybe Advent is more your speed.
If you or someone you love is listening or watching –
and if you or someone you love is facing a personal Apocalypse –
Depression, anger, sadness –
there is no shame –
no shame from Jesus, no shame from God –
no shame from this church.
You're not a mistake.
You're not weird.
You're not unholy because you don't want to be inhaling the highs of a world overdosing on cheer.
Some times feel like the end times.
People have always wondered if it would take a new heaven and a new earth to make things right.
The saints and apostles and prophets sure did.
They wrote about it.
In the Bible.
You're in good company.
–
The other side of Advent.
The other side of Advent is a reminder that Christmas may have been the first time Christ came to a broken world, but it isn't the last.
There's hope for Christmas.
But there's also hope for every today, no matter how the world tries to steal your holiday, your holy day, your holy-ness.
We light candles for Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love.
I'm sure – certain – the disciples of Jesus must have felt like they were little bitty candles in a world on fire.
Their world was blowing up, too.
Wars, protests, hunger.
Executions.
Put Jesus's crucifixion at the top of that list.
How can anyone have hope for the future when the world is pouring gasoline on the flames?
Doesn't it feel ridiculous to be lighting candles for hope, peace, joy and love when their light is so small?
But look. There they are.
Hope, peace, joy, and love are still here.
Some are yet to be lit.
Some will go out.
But like Jesus – they'll come back.
If we re-light them.
The light endures.
During Advent the church takes time – time for you and me to put our efforts, our work behind being bravely hopeful,
to set our minds and hands to the work of rebuilding, re-creating the heavens and the earth.
To help someone else find hope, even if we don't feel hopeful.
To work at being peaceful, even when the world is flying apart.
To be joyful that we care enough to shed tears.
To love even if it feels like your love is being crucified.
Scripture says,
Come, let us walk in the light of the LORD!
even if we don't know what we're walking into.
Come, let US walk with courage – let us walk with hope this Advent – hope for new light, reborn light in the Lord.
God's promise is – the hope will come back, just like Jesus,
with Jesus – and with us.
[eos]
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