Looking Forward to Christmas

Advent III

December 15, 1996

John 1:26b Among you stands one whom you do not know

This past week our grandson Jake was stuck at our house for a few hours, which usually means watching Rugrats or sheer boredom for a six-year-old. But somehow this week Jake got to exploring the upstairs bedrooms. He discovered that his grandmother has turned the guest bedroom into a sort of Santa's workshop with wrapping paper and ribbons. And what is more, Jake discovered mysterious boxes and packages of different sizes and weights. Jake proceeded to investigate. Believe me, Jacob was pleased with himself. He was excited! I'm not sure if Jake has what I could theologically call a proper Advent spirit, but I can tell you he is certainly looking forward to Christmas.

Of course, our anticipation of Christmas and all it stands for is much more mature than a six-year-old's, or at least I would hope it would be. Still, there is still something of that little child in each of us, and I'm glad there is. Our Christian faith, when it is mature, can enjoy human traditions, and gifts, and carols, and all the rich human mosaic that brings families together again and again for the holidays, just so long as the trappings don't become ends in themselves. We understand that.
But maybe we think we understand Christmas better than we do. Advent means Christmas is coming. Again. We've heard all the sermons about "Let's keep Christ in Christmas..." We've been there before. We've done that. We the "Jesus part" of Christmas— know who Jesus is— don't we?

John the Baptist said two things that might help us anticipate Christmas a little better this year. First, surprisingly, he said, "I am not Messiah!"

John turned aside questions about himself, for he knew he was just a messenger, a voice crying in the desert. It certainly sounds like stating the obvious, but John told us something both about himself, and about how to get ready for Christmas when he told us who he was not. Sometimes we need to say what we are NOT. When it comes to really changing lives, we need to understand just how limited we are in ourselves, and how important it is to point them to the One who can make all the difference. The sooner we realize "I am not God!" the better. John the Baptist knew we all need to know Jesus.
But then, John the Baptist said, "Messiah is already here with you and you do not know Him!" Maybe this Christmas we need to look for Jesus in ways we haven't looked for him before!

Certainly we Christians DO know Jesus! John was speaking to those sinners who were coming to him for baptism when he said they didn't recognize Messiah— wasn't he? Certainly this does not apply to me! I have heard about Jesus all my life! I cannot remember a time when I didn't know about Jesus, and did not believe "Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so!" I certainly DO know Jesus!

Yes, we do know Jesus! We do not need to get saved all over again to understand what Christmas really is about. But in John the Baptist's words is a kernel of truth for you and me, here today: however much we know Jesus, and however precious he may be to us, there are wonders and surprises in store for those who want to know Him better, and are willing to ask Him into the scene where they are.

Jake will find as he grows older that while Christmas presents are always nice, the good feelings they bring don't last forever. He'll find out if he's spiritually smart that our hearts really crave being loved, and being able to respond in love. That is what really meets the needs of human hearts.

And if that is true on a human level, it is also true on the highest level, our relationship with God.

Advent is when we celebrate the miracle of miracles: the fact that God loves us so much he gave his only begotten Son to become one with us, to live among us, to die on the cross for our sins, and by his rising from the dead provide eternal life to every one who believes in him. Advent is when we rejoice in the gift of a Savior. But Advent is also when we try to grasp the fact that God is not just interested in our "souls" but that he loves us, and wants us to love Him. Advent is a time when the people who know Jesus best seek to express that desire to know Him better. If we have not learned the daily walk with Jesus as Friend, then in some sense "one stands among us that we do not (yet) know (as we might.)"

Advent is for right NOW! It is not ancient history! We need to understand that Advent is not trying to identify with the people who sat in darkness, and imagine what it was like before Jesus came. Millions of people still need the message John the Baptist shouted. And we ourselves, in our deserts of isolation, or nights of darkness of the soul, can cry out for God to come, even as we know He is now with us. The "One among us" cares very much where YOU are right now.

Advent is for right NOW! It is not ancient history! But more than 1,000 years ago hymns were written to express the deepest longings of the human heart for Christ. There were seven titles or names in those hymns:"Come, O Come!" (the "O Antiphons") Come thou Wisdom from on High; Dayspring; Root (or Rod) of Jesse;     Key of David; Adonai (Lord!); Desire of Nations. But all these are summed up in the most familiar of all, "O Come Emmanuel!" And that name means, "God with us!" God IS with us, waiting for us to ask Him into our lives where we are right now!

It is in that coming— in the certain knowledge that God is indeed "with us" that there is JOY - an audacious thing, certainly NOT the product of our will and energy, but rather the result of realizing that we are not alone, not lost— but that God Himself is here with us. This Emmanuel does not "fix things" necessarily in the way we think they ought to be fixed. He simply says, "If you will open your heart to me, I will come to where you are and I will never, ever leave you again!" We get the idea that if this is true, then maybe we can face the unthinkable. We're still very human, very fragile. But Jesus is, too— human, that is— and he shares his strength with us.

One very human story illustrates the power of love that comes to where we are:
Henry Carter, a pastor and an administrator of a home for emotionally disturbed children, tells of an encounter he had one Christmas Eve that gave him a new insight and perspective. He was busy with last minute preparations for the worship service, when one of the floor mothers came to say that Tommy had crawled under his bed and refused to come out. He followed her up the stairs and looked at the bed she pointed out. Not a hair or a toe showed beneath it. So he talked to Tommy as if he were addressing the bucking broncos on the bedspread. He talked about he brightly lighted tree, the packages underneath it and the other good things that were waiting for Tommy out beyond that bed.

          No answer.

Still fretting about the time this was costing, Henry dropped to his hands and knees and lifted the spread. Two enormous blue eyes looked out at him. Tommy was 8, but looked like a 5 year old. He could easily have pulled him out. But it wasn't pulling that Tommy needed it was trust and a sense of deciding things on his own initiative. So, crouched on all fours, Henry launched into the menu of the special Christmas Eve supper to be offered after the service. He told of the stocking with Tommy's name on it, provided by the Women's Society.

Silence.

There was no indication Tommy heard or that he even cared about Christmas.
At last, because he could think of no other way to make contact, Henry got down on his stomach and wriggled in beside Tommy, snagging his sport coat on the bedsprings on the way. He lay there with his cheek pressed against the floor for a long time. He talked about the big wreath above the altar and the candles in the window. He talked about the carols all the kids were going to sing. Then, finally running out of things to say, he simply waited there beside Tommy.

After a bit, a small child's chilled hand slipped into his.

Henry said, "You know, Tommy, it is kind of close quarters under here. Let's you and me go out where we can stand up." As they slid out from under the bed, Henry realized he had been given a glimpse of the mystery of Christmas.

Hasn't God called us too, as Henry had called Tommy, from far above us? With his stars and mountains and his whole majestic creation, hasn't God pleaded with us to love him and to enjoy the universe he gave us as a gift?

And hasn't he drawn closer through the Bible, and through preaching, and conviction for sin? At then that very first Christmas God stooped to where we live, and came all the way down to live among us. And we have heard, and received, and found assurance of His salvation.

But even this very day, wherever we are in our spiritual journey, One is among us, where we are, that is willing to "get under the bed" with us and stay with us until we have the courage to come out and go with Him, and He will go with us.

PRAYER for Advent III

     Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us; and, because we often are so easily centered in ourselves, let your light shine on us, to show us how very near

You are to us, and how very much You love us. We invite you to enter every part of our lives. O Come and let your bountiful grace and mercy speedily help and deliver us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, One God, be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen

#155 - A Name I Highly Treasure