December 5 – John
SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT – JOHN 1: 9-18
It may be hard to believe but this morning is the second Sunday in Advent already. We have hardly finished eating the last of the leftovers from Thanksgiving, yet, the Christmas holiday season is upon us. The hustle and bustle of rushing around baking cookies, putting up Christmas trees, buying and wrapping presents, and on and on until we wear ourselves to a frazzle has begun!
When some people are asked what they yearn for at Christmas, they answer “for the whole thing to be over.” They are tired, weary, and perhaps even broke from over-indulging in what the advertisers tell them they must have to make everyone happy during the Christmas Season. When the reality of human life crashes the Currier and Ives expectations of the season, people are often left feeling let down! In fact, they often feel a little like Scrooge and his “bah humbug.” They know that something is missing in their lives, but they can’t quite put their finger on it.
This year our Advent Bible Study is based on the famous Christmas story of the Nutcracker. Many of us have probably seen the ballet or read the story at one time in our lives. In the story we see Clara waiting for Christmas, and coincidentally, advent too is a season of waiting. Just like our children or grandchildren wait impatiently for Christmas to arrive, many of us as adults also have a problem with waiting. We live in a culture that wants everything instantaneously. We don’t want to stand in line at the grocery store, we don’t want to wait in line at the bank drive-through, and we sure don’t want to sit waiting in traffic. Waiting is hard, and we have to work at accepting it as just a part of everyday life.
The advent season is one of waiting with anticipation, waiting for the joy of celebrating the birth of the Christ Child; that is, if we don’t let all the other parts of how our culture celebrates Christmas get in the way. There is nothing inherently wrong with our Christmas traditions. How our family celebrates the holiday is important. It is part of the glue that holds families together as well as what makes the holidays special for us. It is traditions such as the hanging of the greens and the Christmas Eve Candlelight service that gives us that feeling of contentment and joy that we all want to feel during the season. Perhaps we enjoy it so much as it is connects us with the awe and joy of the Christ child.
In the story of the Nutcracker, twelve year old Clara looks through the key hole of the locked door to the family’s drawing room where she can see dancing and little bits of other hustling and bustling, and not only does Clara’s anticipation of entering the drawing room go way up, but her curiosity is heightened. She wanders just what she will see when she is finally able to enter the drawing room.
Advent season is truly a time of anticipations. It is also a time to let our curiosity run wild thinking about the miracle of the Christ Child. The miracle of the birth itself! Perhaps we wonder about some of the details such as who delivered the Christ Child, or did they having any bedding other than straw? There are no concrete answers to these questions, but being curious and thinking about the Holy Birth helps us to realize the very human part of the story. The Christ Child, although divine, was indeed human while here on earth. He came into the world just as each of us have, he felt the same emotions and disappointments that humans feel, and he did all those common, ordinary day in and day out things that humans do. He slept, He ate, He worked, and He needed drinks of water throughout the day, and on and on.
Advent is a time to marvel at the whole story of Christianity; a time to turn inward and to think about our own faith. It is a time to marvel that the Christ Child born so long ago is still with us and working in our lives this very minute. It is also a time to think of our own journey through life with Christ at our side. That is, the bottom line is keeping Jesus at the center of it all not only at Christmas time but every day of our lives. Psalm 27:14 tells us to “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!”
In the Nutcracker story, Clara is told that she can’t enter the drawing room until the lights on the Christmas tree are lit. When she does enter, it is the lights shining in the semi-darkness that delight her. Perhaps you were like me when I was a child. I could not wait until the Christmas tree was put up. Often it was lopsided, because we cut one ourselves from the woods, but it didn’t matter for it was transformed into a thing of beauty once the lights were lit; you know the big bulb type that if one bulb when bad, the whole string of lights would not light up until you had found the culprit and replaced it. Once the tree was lit, my brothers and I would lay on the floor looking up through the tree at the lights wondering at its beauty. To me, the lights kicked my anticipation of the coming holiday into high gear.
Today, the lights remind me of the light of Christ. Without the birth of the Christ Child, our world would still be dark. A darkness that ended in death with no return. A darkness that could quickly zap our hope. For hope is what the birth of the Baby Jesus brought to all mankind. It is this time of waiting and anticipating that points our hearts to the real gift of Christmas, the Christ Child!
As we leave here this morning, may this time of Advent provide each of us the opportunity to look within ourselves, to think about our own faith and what the season really means to us in our hearts? May each of us remember that Jesus is indeed the reason for the season, and may we hold fast the hope that the birth of the Christ Child brought into this world, and may we share it with others. Let us remember what Psalm 27:14 tells us to “Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the LORD!” Amen