Chirstmas Happens Each Day - Over and Over Again

Christmas is about incarnation - it is about Emmanuel - God being with us - today - each and every day.
It is not something that comes just once a year - it happens each day over and over again.

And that is something to celebrate!

Oh, sure, we may not always know how to celebrate Emmanuel in our lives each and every day, 

but our task is to keep our eyes open so we recognize it when we see it.

You know, if I heard it once, I heard it a hundred times this year.
Usually it was said in a crowd of people -
sometimes in the check out line,
sometimes in a crowded aisle -
invariably some person with a harried look on their face would turn to me and say, "Thank goodness Christmas comes only once a year!"

I would usually offer a sympathetic smile -
perhaps a manly grunt or two -
but I never thought the setting appropriate for me to launch into a diatribe
about the benefits of considering alternative celebrations more in tune with tenets of our faith.

But, that is where my mind would go.
For Christmas is about incarnation - it is about Emmanuel - God being with us - today - each and every day.
It is not something that comes just once a year - it happens each day over and over
again.

For two or three hundred years, Protestants were so taken by this point that Christmas day was not celebrated at all.

In fact, many American colonies had laws banning the practice.

By putting all of our emphasis on one particular day commemorating a event that happened long ago, we lose an important part of our faith understanding and it is easy to get lost in the hoopla of the culture around us.

It is a little easier to keep a proper perspective by celebrating what the church calls the
Christmas Season - twelve days of Christmas: beginning December 25 and continuing until January 6.

There were periods of time in our family when we found special things to do each day of Christmas to remind us that Emmanuel is about now - not just a story about then.

Folks in some cultures exchange a gift each day during the twelve days of Christmas.

Folks in other cultures spend twelve days visiting friends and family members - ostensibly looking for the Christ child as did those wise men from the East in our sacred story.

Others spend each day during the Christmas season finding things to do for others - remembering Jesus' admonishment that we are to do for the less fortunate among us.

Whatever we do in this time before The Epiphany, we are reminded that Christmas really does not come but once a year -
but, continues to happen again and again now and into all the tomorrows to come.

And that is something to celebrate!

Oh, sure, we may not always know how to celebrate Emmanuel in our lives each and every day, but our task is to keep our eyes open so we recognize it when we see it.

This takes some training and practice, of course.

But, I am convinced, it happens.

Let one of our resolutions for the new year be to live as though Christmas was real and continues every day our lives.

That's worth celebrating, don't you think?

As for me and my house, we will continue to relate to others as though they are Christ incognito.

If you can, join us each Sunday to hone our skills at recognizing the hidden Christ around us.

If you can't join us, pray for us - as we will for you.

See you in church.

Advent: A Time of Expectancy

What are you expecting for Christmas this year?

Probably not much, huh?

Especially these days with a general malaise pervading our world, 

the war drums pounding louder and louder, 

the seemingly unending threats from terrorism, the economic doldrums, 

and the years and years of Christmases past, 

most of us will approach Christmas this year with low or no expectation.  

While the world around us views these days before Christmas as a time for buying gifts and parties and entertaining, the Christian church calls this a time of Advent – a time of expectancy.

“The coming of the Lord has been the inspiration of the Christian world.  

The power of any life lies in its expectancy.”  
These words were written some 200 years ago by Phillips Brooks, 

who also wrote “O Little Town of Bethlehem”;  but, they are pertinent today:
The power of any life lies in its expectancy. 

What you expect affects what you see.
What you expect affects what you experience.

Expect the worst, and you usually find it, don’t you?

But, the thing is, there are always surprises, aren’t there?

During these days before Christmas, our Advent season, we will be looking at stories in our faith that are about expectancy – and surprise. 

For us, Christmas is about surprise. 
It is about the presence of Emmanuel – God With Us. 
In the stories we remember and read and tell at Christmas, almost everyone is surprised, aren’t they? 

Mary was surprised. 
Joseph was surprised. 
The Shepherds were surprised.  

The folks in Bethlehem were surprised. 
The political leaders of the day were surprised. 
Even the wise men were surprised.  

(Perhaps the only ones who were not surprised were Old Anna and Old Simeon who lived with the complete expectation that they would see and experience Emmanuel in their lifetimes.)

You see, we remember and celebrate Christmas because of Emmanuel – a concept so radical and so surprising that it affects our entire world-view. 

Our Christmas stories confirm that God’s ways are mysterious.  

God really does seem to prefer to be incognito.  

This seems to have been true 2000 years ago.  

And it seems to be true today, doesn’t it?

For me, our primary task during Advent is to point to signs of the presence of this incognito Emmanuel in our world and lives today. 
Our Advent theme song could be: “Where, O where is Emmanuel?  Where, O where can he be?”

Like that children’s game, Where’s Waldo?, let us hone our discernment skills so we can see Emmanuel in these days and times of our lives.

During these Sundays ahead, we will tell the stories from our faith-history –  

stories you will hear no where else! 
These are stories we need to hear, again and again.
These are the stories our children need to hear, and our children’s children need to hear!
These are stories that speak to what we may expect to experience –

if we only knew where and how to look.

Where else are these stories being told today? 
Not on TV.   

Not in school.   

Not in many family gatherings. 
It is so important to make church a part of our schedule – 

especially at this time of year.
[Yes, I think there should be a rule: no opening of presents until after the Christmas Eve Candlelight service of stories and songs.]

The power of any life lies in its expectancy. 
Expect more.  

Expect God to be with us in our malaise.

Our God is with us!

Don’t miss his presence this year!

See you in church,