Sermons

Sun, Nov 29, 2020

Remembering or anticipating?

Sermon for the start of Advent
Series:Sermons
Duration:13 mins 17 secs

The saccharine sounds of carols are being piped… muzak-like… 

through the shopping centre sound systems.

The supermarket shelves are fully stocked with mince pies and shortbread…

fruit cakes and plum puddings.

The freezer sections are bursting with turkeys…

and the cherries are beginning to appear in the ‘fruit and veg’ sections.

There are rows filled with sparkly decorations…

rolls of wrapping paper and gift tags…

and assorted Christmas kitsch––

disposable tablecloths… 

reindeer and holly decorated serviettes… 

tacky table centre-pieces…

and Santa-hats galore.

The fishmongers are busy placing orders.

The liquor shops are almost bursting at the seams. 

The post offices and newsagents are doing a roaring trade.

Tinsel and baubles assault us at almost every turn.

And everywhere, it seems, prices have begun to creep up––

certainly, on anything that might be needed for “the big day”.

If we haven’t already, soon, we will be busy with the task of writing Christmas cards…

adding and crossing things off our shopping lists…

wrapping presents…

putting up trees…

baking and cleaning.

The so-called “silly season” is upon us––

Christmas is less than four weeks away.

Admittedly, it’s all a bit uncertain this year.

We still don’t know what we’re going to be allowed to do and what we can’t.

Under normal circumstances, everyone would be 

frantically preparing…

for what is, for most of us, the biggest day of the year:

when we get together with our families…

eat and drink to excess…

laugh and argue…

swap presents…

and, perhaps silently, wonder why we go through all of this effort…

year after year.

 

For most people, today, in our secularised society…

that’s about the extent of it.

It’s a feel-good time of year when we “count our blessings”––

perhaps, somewhat akin to the American celebration of “Thanksgiving”.

For most people, today, that what it’s about––

even if reality doesn’t always live up to the hype.

For some people, it’s a time for indulging in sentimentality and tradition…

recalling–– 

albeit briefly and perhaps even somewhat glibly––

their cultural or ethnic roots…

or even their long cast-off religious roots.

For some of us, though, it’s more important than that.

For some of us, it’s one of the most holy days of the year…

a day when we recall the birth of Jesus…

whom we believe…

in some way…

incarnated and made known to us the true nature of God.

For us, Christmas is an important time of remembering and celebrating––

giving thanks for his birth and life among us…

for all that he tried to teach us…

and for all that he means for us and for our world.

 

And yet… 

in so doing, have we not turned Christmas into a memorial celebration…

perhaps…

in some ways, not unlike the way that we remember––

cognitively and practically––

other “historic events” like Australia Day or Anzac Day?

As a culture, we’re good at memorialising––

erecting monuments…

cobbling together some quasi-religious rites…

having a few drinks…

and then returning to business as usual.

And that’s the problem with a memorial.

A bit like the statues that we often use to commemorate them––

memorials are, essentially, fixed…

solid…

immovable…

unchangeable…

and their focus is, essentially, backwards.

They’re an effort to keep the past alive.

Sometimes, perhaps, they’re an effort to keep the past relevant.

But, in real terms, they don’t affect us now…

in the present.

And they certainly don’t influence the future––

not in any meaningful way.

For example…

remembering Australia Day doesn’t seem to remind us… 

that all of us, in a sense… 

came here from somewhere else…

thereby affecting our attitudes towards Aboriginal Australians…

or asylum seekers.

Remembering Anzac Day doesn’t seem to remind us of the sheer stupidity and brutality of war…

and that it should only ever be used as an absolute last resort.

And, let’s be honest…

for most of us––

including those of us who are religious––

that’s how Christmas effectively works. 

It’s a memorial.

Its focus is on the past––

on remembering––

and it doesn’t really affect who we are or how we live…

in practical terms…

for the other three hundred and sixty-four days of the year.

 

It may come as a bit of a surprise to learn that the celebration of Christmas was a fairly late development.

The first inklings that we find are from the mid-second century—

more than a hundred years after Jesus lived—

but it didn’t become an established religious tradition until the fourth century.

Furthermore, if we comb through the earliest Christian documents––

namely, the letters of Paul––

there’s no reference to the birth of Jesus at all

Our highly symbolic, metaphorical, and mythological stories came several decades later––

the first act of memorialisation. 

Instead, for the earliest Christians, the focus was not on the birth of Jesus Christ… 

but on his return.

For them, the Advent-Christmas season wasn’t a time to remember or memorialise his birth.

For them, the Advent-Christmas season was an anticipation of his coming again;

when the work that was begun at Bethlehem would be brought to completion or fruition;

when the whole creation would be renewed and restored––

as God intends it to be.

And, to that end… 

in our reading from First Corinthians this morning…

Paul is subtly…

and rhetorically…

urging them to live lives that are morally blameless.

For Paul, we prepare for the return of Christ…

and we work for the completion of Christ’s mission…

in the way that we live, now…

in real and practical terms.

Rather than preparing for a celebration––

let alone a memorial––

we’re invited to prepare ourselves.

We’re invited to live in the present in the light of God’s intended future.

We’re invited to reassess our lives…

and to bring them into conformity with the values of God…

revealed to us in Jesus Christ;

and to live as signs and symbols of God’s intended fullness.

That is what the preparation of the season of Advent––

and the celebration of Christmas––

is meant to be for us.

 

So…

as we begin another Advent… 

and prepare for another Christmas…

let’s pause and ponder:

Will our celebration of Christmas make any substantial difference to the way that we live?

Or will we go through it again as we do every year…

with the same old rituals and fuss…

which last a few days before life returns to normal…

and it’s as though nothing ever happened…

and none of it makes any real difference to our lives or our world?

Will we continue to celebrate Christmas as a memorial––

or will we celebrate it as an anticipation?

Even if we no longer subscribe to the literal notion of the “return of Christ”––

which, let’s face it, makes little sense today… 

metaphysically or even theologically––

can we re-imagine the whole Advent–Christmas season as an anticipation of God’s hope and promise…

breaking into our world…

into our time…

and into our lives;

and inviting us…

even driving us…

to want to see God’s purposes fulfilled?

Can we re-imagine the whole Advent-Christmas season as an invitation––

a bit like Lent––

to reassess our attitudes…

our values…

and our way of life…

so that, in a very real sense, Christ might be incarnated yet again…

through each one of us…

here and now?

Powered by: truthengaged