"More Holly Than Holy?"

(Isaiah 2:1-5, Matthew 24:36-44, Romans 13:11-14)

Rev. Billy D. Strayhorn

INTRODUCTION:

I read about an agent who arranged for an audition with Jay Leno and the Tonight Show, for his client, a talking dog. You can imagine how Leno reacted. He was skeptical at first, but he began to warm up a bit when the dog started out with a couple of jokes and then went into an amusing political satire. The agent pointed out that his client really wanted to be a singer. So, Leno got the band to play. After several songs, Leno was convinced that he'd found a gold mine in this talking dog.

Just then, this huge, ugly dog burst onto the stage, grabbed the little dog by the neck, and bounded out of the room. Leno turned to the dog's agent, who was slowly putting on his coat, and asked for an explanation.

The agent hung his head and said dejectedly. "That was his mother. She wants him to be a doctor."

I. EXPECTATIONS:

A. Expectations. That's what this time of year is all about. Expectations. Remember that feeling of expectation and anticipation you got when you planned one of those supreme surprises for somebody? It may have been nothing more than hiding around the corner all ready to jump out and yell, "Boo!" It may have been a trick you were going to play on someone or a special gift you gave that you couldn't wait for them to open. That feeling, that ball of excitement in the pit of your stomach spread throughout your whole body and threatened to burst out between the fingers covering your mouth holding it all in. Remember that? You could hardly contain it.

If you stop and try, you can feel a similar feeling right now. Can you feel it? It's all around. You can feel it in the air. You can smell it and almost taste it. You can feel it in the passages of Scripture which we just read. Isaiah said, "Come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!" The Apostle Paul said, "Now is the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near." Even Jesus said, "The Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour." You can feel the expectation in their words.

It's the expectation of this season. The expectation of Advent, the expectation of Christmas. All around us the signs of its coming presence are shining bright. It's not just the jingles and ads of the stores as they prepare for the season, though they're certainly present, reminding us that THAT DAY is just around the corner. Those signs are there, but so are the others. The ones more subtle, the ones from God.

All around us is the smell of expectation. The air is filled wreaks with it. Some folks don't know what they are expecting but still they are filled with expectation and anticipation. The tension and excitement build and they wait; some patiently, some impatiently, for this never old, always bold, need to be told event that is about to burst forth upon all of creation.

At times the tension is almost too great to bear. The whole world stands like an anxious father outside the delivery room door. Nervously pacing, hoping, praying. Concerned for his bride. Wondering how his and their life will change. Wondering if he'll know how to hold the baby. Hoping that it'll be all right and that the world will be a little better because of him or her. The excitingly fearful anticipation is almost too much to bear. In this season of Advent, like the father when the first contraction hits his expectant wife, the world stands nervous and trembling, feebly trying to ready itself for an event which is both intimately familiar and ultimately new.

B. All of our passages for today are filled with that tension and excitement of expectation. They call us to live in a time of tension, anxiety and delayed hope. They call us to live in the almost but not yet as we prepare our hearts and homes for that most sacred of celebrations, Christmas and the birth of our Savior.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of the Christmas season. Oh, it's begun already in the stores. They started putting up their displays, the day after Halloween. But for us, the changing of the liturgical colors and the lighting of the first Advent Candle invites us to dream dreams and to permit expectant visions to dance in our heads. This season invites us to fill the cup of today with a full measure of tomorrow. This season invites us to drink deeply of the expectation and anticipation which this season offers.

Advent invites us to look into the future but Advent's most demanding challenge and most exciting promise is the announcement that God has a gift for us. That God wants to give each of us a present even though we don't deserve it. And that gift is a gift of Grace, the Incarnation, Christ, God with us. Salvation, reconciliation, redemption and forgiveness all wrapped up in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.

II. INCARNATION:

A. The Incarnation is almost too big for our minds to grasp. We can't really describe it, words and descriptions are woefully inadequate. Through the birth of Christ God came, not just in human form and likeness but as one of us. One of us: Flesh and blood filled with hungers and desires, longings and feelings, ambitions and aspirations. One of us: Flesh and blood that got tired and cold and became discouraged and disheartened. One of us: An infant at first, who needed his diapers changed and who had to learn how to talk and walk and go to school. One of us: Flesh and blood, human, just like you and me. How did God do that? How could God still be God and yet be one of us and experience what life from our perspective is like?

That's one of the mysteries that theologians have been trying to explain for centuries. I can't do it. All I can do is understand through faith that God in Christ became one of us. And that excites my soul. That excites my spirit. God took up residence in the flesh. Divinity dwelt in humanity to show us the way out of the darkness and into the light of salvation.

B. I read about three-year-old Tommy, and his grandfather who were singing Christmas carols together. But instead of singing "AWAY" in a manger, Tommy kept singing "THE WAY" in a manger.

And you know what? Tommy was right! Jesus IS the way. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. And through Tommy's song we get a glimpse of God's kingdom. And a glimpse of God's great love for us.

Who else but God would come in the form of a baby, helpless and dependent upon those around him, to win a world filled with hostility and sin. Only a love that exceeds all loves could be so self giving. Only the author of love could willingly enter into this world as one of us and bear what Christ bore on the cross for us and for our salvation.

And because the incarnation has taken place, because Christ came and walked among us, we can face the future unafraid. We know that we can handle the ups and downs of life because we know that we're not alone. The Son of God is with us. The Son of God has walked the path we walk, and struggled with what we struggle. We know that life has a purpose and meaning and that there is an ultimate destination.

In last year's Christmas Day Walnut Cove comic strip, Dad walks in and sees Mom sitting in front of the Nativity set and asks, "Whatcha doing, Hon?"

Mom says, "I thought I'd get started putting away decorations and gift wrapping. Every year we buy a bunch of things that get used up or broken before the next Christmas. I was just thinking of the one gift that lasts through the years Baby Jesus."

And Dad says, "The gift that keeps on giving."

Isn't that what fills us with all the expectation and hope? It's not the tree or the lights. It's not the parties or the presents. But rather it is the reminder of God's great love for us that fills us with anticipation. It is the reminder of how special we are to God and the lengths to which God went to make sure we know that. That's what makes Christmas so special. That's what makes Advent so filled with such electric excitement and anticipation. Our decorations are poor attempts at duplicating the joy and splendor of God's grace. The colored lights and the tinsel are just gaudy, worldly representations of something that can only be personified in the infant born and laid in a manger.

III. LIVE DIFFERENTLY:

A. Somewhere around the first of December people begin to change a bit. We begin to change, too. We start thinking of others, shopping and buying gifts and cards for them. The closer we get to the THAT DAY the more urgency there seems to be. Each day seems a little more exciting as the anticipation builds. The fact that Christmas is coming causes us to live differently. We live in the expectation of the season and what it will bring.

But if we're not careful, we could miss the true meaning of the season all together. We could heap to much holly on this holy day and bury it in our attempts to remember it. What we need to remember is that Christmas is not a holiday but rather a Holy Day. The power and grace of this Holy day spill over into and onto everything and everyone else we come in contact with. We should never forget that Christmas is more holy than holly.

Christmas isn't a holiday package wrapped with ribbon and holly. It is a time for meditating, for recalling that night long ago when Bethlehem cradled an infant to its heart and gave humankind the Redeemer of the World.

Christmas should mean kind thoughts, forgiveness, forgetting old cares, old grievances and fears. It should be a time for carving ideals and dreams; an hour for weaving the golden threads of past blessings into a banner of daily thanksgiving.

Christmas is a gift transcending human understanding. It's an angel choir echoing the Song of Songs.

Christmas is imperishable glory from the very heart of Heaven to the furthermost part of earth.

Christmas is God's boundless love melting all grief and all heartache.

Christmas is hope, serene and beautiful, lighting all darkness.

Christmas is the Peace of Christ that passes all understanding.

B. When we view Christmas like that, then it means we really should be living differently. Not just for that month before the celebration. But for every moment of every day of our lives. The call to "be ready" in Matthew, doesn't just deal with the end times. It doesn't just deal with preparations for Christmas. It deals with every day. It calls us to be ready to see the Christ in others and to be the Christ for others. It means living our faith.

And Romans 12:14 gives a good meaning to living our faith. In essence Paul tells us to "Put on Christ like a comfortable garment." Like an old and cherished sweater so that we do not get so caught up in the preparations that we lose the meaning and the message.

In B.C.'s Christmas 1991 edition, the gang is all gathered around a piano singing Christmas carols. The first few words of each song is listed,

"Rudolf the red nosed reindeer..."

"Tis the season to be jolly..."

"Jingle bells, Jingle bells..."

"I'm dreaming of a white Christmas..."

"Deck the halls with boughs of holly..."

"Have a holly jolly Christmas..."

"Frosty the snowman..."

All of a sudden there is a loud shout from Gronk, the little barbaric throw back of a caveman, "YOU DUMMIES FORGET BIRTHDAY BOY!"

Everyone stopped in total shock. And then they all look heavenward and see the Christmas star shining in the sky.

This Christmas many will people forget, neglect, ignore and dismiss the Christ child! He will be all but smothered by the tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbon and make-believe that surrounds our festive occasions. And if we're not careful; if we're not purposeful in our preparations our Christmas will be filled with more holly than holy.

CONCLUSION:

Anticipation. Expectation. And then comes the news. The child has been born. The nursery is ready: crib, changing table, diapers, bottles, clothes, bassinet, bathtub, toys, all those other little things that will make it the baby's home. The nursery is ready. But are we?

Jesus says, "Be prepared." Don't let your Christmas season be transformed from the Awe-filled "O Holy Night" into an awful "O holy nightmare." As you make all your plans and preparations for Christmas, make sure you set aside time for the Holy things as well as the holly things. Prepare yourself; your heart your, home and your family through worship and prayer. Worship here and at home. Reread the stories of Christ's birth all over again. Find a good book of Christmas stories. Find an Advent devotional. "Be prepared."

We are called to wait expectantly, patiently, repentantly to receive the one who comes to us lowly and in a manger. And that someone is Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior. "Be prepared." Don't miss him. Don't let your Christmas be more holly than Holy.

This is the Word of the Lord for this Day.