It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

Loren Tate Mitchell

Original text from 2012

Is 61:10-62:3, Lk 2:22-40

 

It’s Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

 

Our cultural celebration of Christmas has now come and gone.  And since we’ve been seeing commercials and hearing the music since Halloween, for some of us it is none to soon! Gifts are unwrapped and Santa is back home in the North Pole.  Soon the decorations will come down and be put away for next year.  You gave gifts and you received them—for some this was Christmas.  Others enjoyed a family get together.  Families came to share a meal, to laugh and talk.  For some this was Christmas.  Perhaps there were others for who Christmas was a depressing and painful time—maybe it was loneliness, shattered families or other health and financial problems.  Christmas means different things for different people. 

All of this is the cultural side but I wonder what Christmas meant for you spiritually?  Were you too busy entertaining and unwrapping gifts, or did you take time off to withdraw from the celebration for a moment and offer a gift to God? Was Jesus born in your heart again or is that something that you have put off until a later date? 

Did you know that the 12 days of Christmas are not actually the 12 days before December 25, but the 12 days after? We have largely forgotten the traditions of the 12 days of Christmas and confused them with the Christmas shopping season, which promptly ends Dec 25.  Widespread experience with the commercial calendar has encouraged a popular (but erroneous) assumption among consumers that the Twelve Days must end on Christmas Day and must therefore begin on 14 December. The Twelfth Night of Christmas is always on the evening of 5 January, but the Twelfth Day can either precede or follow the Twelfth Night according to which Christian tradition is followed. Twelfth Night is followed by the Feast of the Epiphany on 6 January. In some traditions, the first day of Epiphany (6 January) and the twelfth day of Christmas overlap. These days are important because they give us a way of reflecting on what the Incarnation means in our lives. Christmas commemorates the most momentous event in human history—the entry of God into the world He made, in the form of a baby. The Logos through whom the worlds were made took up His dwelling among us. So you see Christmas is not over yet, it has just begun.  We have some time left! 

Today’s gospel tells us about a man called Simeon who waited a whole lifetime for Christ to be born.  Simon seemed only to have one goal in life and that was to see the Savior. Scripture tells us that he was waiting for the relief of Israel and it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. 

What a surprise it must have been for Simeon, as well as Anna, and all who saw this bundle of joy with their own eyes!  Here is a beautiful child, but still just a child, no different in appearances from sweet Lily Ridenour or little Carson Hamilton.   What’s more surprising is the message that he has come for all people, to deliver the Jews and the Gentiles alike.  Jesus was not—is not—just a symbol of hope and victory but he came to lead the people into a new self understanding and a new relationship with God. 

 

We’ve been waiting, all of this advent season we have been waiting and now he is here!  Do we recognize him?  If we don’t recognize him we go through life as if it is the land of Narnia… always winter and never Christmas!  You know how I am inspired by music when writing my sermons.  This time my help comes from Christian musicians Jars of Clay who have a song called Carry Me which says this:

 

January 1, I got a lot of things on my mind
Looking at my body through a new spy satellite
I try to lift a finger but I don't think I can make the call
So, tell me if I move 'cause I don't feel anything at all....
Carry Me, I'm just a dead man lying on the carpet can't find a heart beat
Make me breathe, I want to be a new man, tired of the old one, out with the old plan

 

It’s January 1, we’ve got a lot of things on our minds.  The world keeps spinning faster and faster and we have to keep up.  But as the lyrics of the song imply, if we simply go through these motions we become numb until we can’t feel anything at all.  Christmas comes into our lives to revive us, to remind us of the love of Jesus that comes to carry us, to rejuvenate in us a new person!

 

 Just like Simeon, we’ve been waiting to see Jesus and here he is.  Friends, Christmas isn’t over, this story is just beginning!  Are we ready to hear the truth of Christ and accept him?  The truth is that God is on the side of the poor, the sick, the lame, the mistreated—all those sometimes rejected by the affluent, the high achievers. God came to dwell among us for all people.  Joseph and Mary come to the temple as a poor couple with two doves and a pigeon to give as an offering to God. Their child was born in a donkey’s feedbox, they live on the margins of society cast out to the margins by a foreign power.  Here comes Jesus, who grew up to become a wandering preacher with no place to call his home, surrendered by his closest friends into the hand of vindictive powers.  Yet through this child who grew (as every other child does) into a man, Simeon’s prophesy was fulfilled, is a surprise that only God can bring, for God’s thoughts and ways are not our own.  Who could have possibly imagined that God would resolve Israel’s plight through a suffering Messiah?  It is still hard for us to wrap our minds around!  Is this the Messiah that you know?  Do you recognize him?  Is it beginning to look a lot like Christmas?

There is no doubt in my mind that this is the Messiah we have been waiting for!  Think about it, what kind of things do you typically wait for?  Getting a present, achieving a goal? Landing a job, finding a spouse? Winning the lottery?  Having a child, building a home?  Where does our desire to fill our lives with things end?  In truth, here in this child whom Simeon and Anna recognize, is a greater destiny and a fuller grace.  There is the consolation that your sins are forgiven, your future is assured.  And with our identification with this suffering servant, there is also the assurance that in our problems and our sorrows there is one who has been there before us and comforts us in a way that no one else can. 

There is a biblical parallel to Simeon in one of Jesus’ parables known as “the pearl of great price.”  It is found in the gospel of Matthew.  “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls.  When he found one of great value he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.”  The merchant finds a pearl which is so spectacular that he realizes that nothing else matters as long as he has the pearl and thus he sells everything else to obtain it.  Now in doing that he has gotten a real bargain.  He may have paid millions for the pearl but it was greatly undervalued since its worth was billions.  When the merchant has the pearl he desires nothing else.  In the same way, when Simeon sees with his own eyes the Messiah, he knows that this is the pearl of great price.  Nothing else matters anymore because he knows the Messiah, the Savior, has come. 

The lesson for us to day is that we should not be content to go through life without truly knowing Christ.  Knowing Jesus is a dream that is within our grasp.  Simeon’s dream can come true in each of our lives, we can know him personally.  We can have a relationship with Jesus as our friend, brother, savior, Lord and king.   There is nothing wrong with our dreams of success, of wanting to be comfortable in this world, to have a family or getting a good education, these are wonderful goals as long as they do not prevent us from experiencing the joy of recognizing Christ.    

Furthermore, if you do know Jesus then be content.  In other words, it makes no sense to be a Christian but to think that true joy and fulfillment are found elsewhere.  This isn’t to say that nothing else matters.  God has given us responsibilities in this world to work and home and school.  God wants us to be involved in the lives of our families and friends.  God desires for us to attend our grandchildren’s ball games and concerts.  True followers of Jesus do much more than sit around reading the Bible and singing hymns.  It is a way of life! But we must remember that nothing is more important than our relationship with God. 

The question is this: Are we finding joy in the great gift God has given?  Are we ready to be a new man, out with the old plan?  Do we understand Christmas as well as Simeon did?  Do we recognize that Christmas is not just one day a year? Do we realize that Jesus’ coming means more than anything else in our lives?  The best way to celebrate Christmas this year is to embrace Jesus as the Messiah, to give thanks to God for what he has done, and to find joy in the gift of our savior. 

When we think about New Year’s Day we think about resolutions!  I’m going to exercise more!  We’re going to eat out less!  I’m going to give up reality T.V.!  We’re going to stick to our budget!  And we will start… tomorrow!   As a week goes by you start to backslide, and then by Feb 1, you can’t remember what you set out to do in the first place.  I have another resolution for you. Replace your old one or add this one to your list. 

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas, and I want to encourage you today to be like Simeon: live in anticipation of Jesus.  Will tomorrow be that kind of day for you?  Amidst the cleaning up from festivities, on the early drive to work, will you be looking for Jesus?  Don’t live in the land of Narnia… the one that is all winter and no Christmas.  Amen.