Advent IV, Cycle C

"Who Do We Celebrate Christmas Rightly?"

December 21, 2003

The Rev. Dr. David M. Wendel

Saint Luke’s Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Lessons:  Micah 5:2-5a;  Hebrews 10:5-10;  St. Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)

     How does one celebrate Christmas rightly?  This Fourth Sunday in Advent;  just a few short days from the festival of the nativity of our Lord;  with no more new candles to light on our Advent wreath, a good question would be, "How does one celebrate Christmas rightly?"

     You may have never though of celebrating Christmas in those terms--"rightly"?  Who thinks about celebrating Christmas rightly?  Most of us celebrate Christmas the way we did in our childhood--or we try to celebrate Christmas as we remember it, in our romanticized memory.  Maybe we have ornaments and decorations that belonged to our parents, or grandparents--cherished items that flood our minds and hearts with thoughts and feelings that remind us of the "perfect Christmas celebration".  Maybe we have rituals and traditions that we observe, and have tried to pass on to other children in the family, so that they can remember, and recreate what Christmas was like--the way it should be celebrated, in a German, or Norwegian, or Swedish--or Hispanic household.  How should Christmas be celebrated rightly?  Some would say it should be celebrated as in days of old--as our grandparents and great-grandparents celebrated it.  Some of us might say it should be celebrated anew--with little of the trappings of the commercialized Christmas, as it's come to be practiced in the Western world.  Some would say we should throw off the buying of gifts and the supporting of the market-driven economy that urges us to buy, buy, buy--to spend, spend, spend, as if that will buy happiness--as if that will bring us to the true meaning of Christmas.  Some of us celebrate alternative Christmases, in the hopes that this will bring us back to an appreciation of what Christmas is really all about.  And then, there are those of us who would just as soon not celebrate Christmas at all.  Those for whom Christmas only brings up bad memories.  Memories of an alcoholic parent;  memories of an abusive father and a cowering, impotent mother;  memories of never having enough--food, clothing, warmth.  For some, the way to celebrate Christmas rightly, is not to celebrate it at all.  To just grin and bear it, and suffer in silence, until it's all packed away again--till next year. 

     How does one celebrate Christmas rightly?  Isn't it odd that there are so many different ways of celebrating Christmas--often driven by the past, by romantic memories, by yearning to recapture lost feelings, or by a desire to avoid certain feelings altogether?  On the one hand, Christmas is touted as a time to rekindle the dying spark--to renew ties with family, to stir up love for one's fellow man--and woman, to return to values of home and hearth and happiness.  Sometimes, we spend the whole season of Advent preparing a Christmas that will be just so--only to get to Christmas day, to find, it's not so.  The kids don't want to celebrate Christmas the way they did in Norway.  Your husband couldn't care less about those silly little rituals.  Your wife just doesn't make egg noodles the way your grandma used to.  For all the effort, it doesn't feel like Christmas used to.  And often, often, we end up feeling like, Christmas celebrations never measure up anymore.  Often, we end up wondering, why bother?  Why celebrate Christmas at all, anymore? 

     Which is a good question, really.  Why bother, if all we're trying to do is to recreate past feelings, a past feeling, that is founded, not on the true meaning of Christmas--but on relationships, surroundings, trappings, that are long gone, and can never be re-created.  Why celebrate Christmas at all, if our celebrations aim at worldly, earthly, human things--that truly, are not what Christmas is about, anyway?  Oh, we've convinced ourselves, or allowed Hallmark, and Macy's, to convince us, that Christmas is really about gathering around the Christmas tree with loved ones, the perfect family, sharing hot cider and giving each other just what we've always wanted.  And if that's what Christmas is really about--then who among us isn't doomed to disappointment?  Who has the perfect family?  What family always gets along--especially during the holidays?  Who spends the holidays with family anymore?  Whose home looks like a Norman Rockwell painting?  Who gets just what they always wanted?  Who's happy with it, once they get it?  Who, anymore, has the happy, warm household, filled with mom, dad, brother and sister, Spot, the dog, and Mittens, the cat, all living harmoniously--throughout the year, but especially at Christmas, when everyone is particularly appreciative and thoughtful of one another?  Was there ever such a home and family?  And even if there was--is that what Christmas is about?  Can a single person not celebrate Christmas rightly?  Can a couple with no kids, not celebrate Christmas rightly?  Do you have to have a fireplace, stockings hung by the chimney with care, to celebrate Christmas rightly?  Do you have to spend a lot of money, and max out your credit cards, to celebrate Christmas rightly?  Do you have to have only loving, warm, cuddly family memories, to celebrate Christmas rightly?

     Of course not.  In fact, for all the hype, those things are not really what Christmas is all about, anyway.  You only need one "thing", for Christmas--whether you are young or old, single or married or divorced, living in a home in Woodmoor, or in a box under a bridge--you need, only Christ, for Christmas--nothing else really matters.  You need to good news of the Christ, foretold by the prophet Micah, in our first reading;  the Christ who would come forth out of Bethlehem, to be the one who would rule in Israel;  the one who would stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God--so that his people would live secure, because he shall be the one of peace.  To have Christmas, you need only the Christ, proclaimed in our reading from Hebrews, who came into our world to put an end to burnt offerings and sin offerings, offered according to the law in the Temple in Jerusalem--who came to do the Father's will--to sanctify us, and all of humanity, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all, by His sacrifice on the cross.  To have Christmas, you need only the baby, conceived in Mary by the Holy Spirit, to be the son of the Most High God, in flesh and blood;  the baby heralded by John, while still in the womb of Elizabeth--heralded by John as he called people to prepare the way, by living a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins;  to have Christmas you need only the child, in the womb of Mary, to be born, in you, in your life, this Christmas Eve.  For the Christ child, is Christmas.  The Christ child is what Christmas is all about.  The Christ child is what we have been, or should have been preparing for these weeks of Advent--not the coming of Santa,  not the big show around the tree on Christmas morning, not the Christmas feast or the Christmas beast.  Our preparations, hopefully, have been for--the coming of the Christ!  Hopefully, these weeks of Advent, the baby has been conceived, in us, by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Hopefully, you and I have been carrying him in the womb of our lives, throughout Advent--so that, on Christmas Eve, we, with Mary, may give birth to Him--so that we, with Mary, may say, as Jesus is born anew in us this Christmas--to bring us light, and life, and hope and joy--so that we may sing, with Mary, "My soul now magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servant!"  Because, this is how we celebrate Christmas rightly.  By responding to the birth of Jesus, in our lives, by saying, singing, shouting, "My soul, now, magnifies, praises, glorifies the Lord--and my spirit rejoices--rejoices, because God is my Savior--who has remembered me, his lowly servant, and in spite of my lowliness, in spite of my situation, in spite of my-self--He has blessed me, with His Son!"  That is how we celebrate Christmas rightly.  By simply welcoming the Christ, into our lives, and magnifying, glorifying God, because in spite of us--God has sent His Son to be with us--God has sent His Son to be, Emmanuel--God with us--God with you, and me.  To celebrate Christmas rightly, is to have Mary's song, become our song--as we sing for joy, that all you need for Christmas is--Jesus Christ!

     In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.