4 For everything that was written in the past
was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of
the Scriptures we might have hope. 13 May the God of hope fill you with
all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.
- Romans 15:4,13, The New International Version, (Grand Rapids,
MI: Zondervan Publishing House) 1984.
What is your perfect Christmas scenario?
Is it a warm dining room scene in a comfortable home, table groaning with delicious food, the affectionate conversation of three generations over a holiday dinner? Is it a retreat in the country, tucked away in a quiet location, a gentle dusting of snow freshly fallen, covering the dirt and muck of winter? Does it include moments by the fireplace, reminiscing about the past and looking forward with optimism and excitement?
It all sounds good. But maybe something closer to the truth was voiced a half century ago? in 1949, more exactly? when he recorded some novelty Christmas songs. Using the pen name Yorgi Yorgensen and adopting a fake Scandinavian accent, Yorgi sang, "Oh, I yus' go nuts at Christmas." Here's what he said in the middle of the story:
Yus' before Christmas dinner I relax to a point.
Then relatives start storming all over the yoint. . . .
After dinner my Aunt and my vife's uncle Louie
Get into an argument; they're both awful screwy.
Then all my vife's family say Louie is right,
And my goofy relations, they yoin in the fight.
Back in the corner the radio's playing,
And over the racket Gabriel Heeter's saying,
'Peace on earth, ev'rybody, and good vill toward men!'
And yust at the moment someone slugs Uncle Ben.
They all run outside vhoopin' so the neighbors vill hear?
Oh! l'm so glad Merry Christmas comes yus' once a year.
Advent is a season for preparing, for waiting. It is a time for patience. We live and celebrate under less than ideal circumstances, most of us, yet what we have to look forward to keeps us committed to what we face now. From St. Paul's letter to the Romans we learn something about
We learn to
I.
Somehow there has endured the persistent myth that things were different for first century people the first century church than they are today. The apostles were there for much of the first century, of course, and there were moments of great miracles and spectacular growth. Yet the book of the Acts tells us how the church in Jerusalem experienced insult, persecution, imprisonment, hypocrisy, factionalism, and martyrdom?and it had not yet even left town. As St. Paul moved beyond Palestine, new Christian churches suffered additional tensions. Paul himself admitted in a different letter, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches (2 Corinthians 11:28).
The church in Rome lived in the present tense, and Paul used words like endurance and encouragement for them. The picture in endurance is that of a weight lifter holding a heavy barbell over his head, bracing himself, planting his feet, keeping arms locked, standing sturdily under it. The picture in encouragement is that of a commanding officer reviewing his troops, or, better maybe, of a football coach walking from man to man along the sideline, calling them out, reassuring them, sharpening their focus. "You can do this! You can with the battle! You cab win the game!"
To endure the present tense, Paul pointed his readers to the future perfect. Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through patient endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. What sustained God's Old Testament saints through the present tenses of their lives was the reassurances of a future perfect. Abraham, David, the prophets declining kingdoms and exile were reminded of a future perfect kingdom. All these people were still living by faith when they died, wrote the author to the Hebrews. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. . . . They were longing for a better country?a heavenly one (Hebrews 11:13, 16).
We seldom get to choose the circumstances of our lives; more often they find us. But the discomfort of our circumstances can seem to be magnified at Christmas. What is tense in your present? No matter how well-intentioned you may think you are, you cannot control the destructive behavior of someone in your family. You cannot prevent a spouse or a child from going his or her own way. You cannot undo the harsh words, the wasted moments of a past year. You cannot restore a more favorable economic picture, or re-establish the job security you once knew. You cannot interrupt the march of time as it moves all of us closer to the grave and takes people we love from us.
Our present tense bolstered by the promise of a future perfect, the promise in His Son, in a different world to come, the promise of a different life to share. Christmas? the Savior's first coming? assures us of that future and provides a down payment of that life for us now. THE SPIRIT OF ADVENT gives us strength to endure what we cannot undo, to wait for fulfillment, to put regrets behind us, to look ahead with hope.
II.
Doesn't it seem that it was a long time ago when George Bush was running for President? Do you remember one of his slogans? He said, "I am a uniter, not a divider." We may never know how much he may have lived up to his promise if he had been given the chance to rule in normal times. The most perverse thought of all is that Osama bin Laden has probably united Americans more effectively than any American politician could ever hope to do.
A uniter, not a divider. God Himself had acted as a divider in Israel's history. One of the purposes of that mammoth body of legislation He gave Moses at Sinai was to separate Israel from its neighbors. Circumcision, diet, Sabbath laws, all were designed to divide Ephraimites and Edom, stand between Manasseh and Moab, separate Israelites from Philistines and Persians, from Greeks and Romans. By the time Paul wrote this letter to a congregations of Christians in Rome, there were Jews living in major port cities and minor outposts across the Mediterranean. "Moses has been preached in every city . . . and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath," Peter once remarked (Acts 15:19). What had kept them Jews through those harsh centuries were those laws that had divided then from the rest of humanity. Jewish people often must have felt separated, and sometimes they may have felt superior to others.
It fell to Paul's generation, particularly to Paul, to announce the great good news that the dividing lines were being erased, the walls torn down, the separations removed. Certainly in a congregation like this one in Rome, Jews and Gentiles could focus on what divided them, and they would always remain Jews and Gentiles, with everything those names implied. How revolutionary it was for Paul to say, Accept one another. They could accept what divided them in view of the greater things that united them.
Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you. To prove that this had always been God's larger intention, he quoted from Scripture, from the Psalms, from Deuteronomy, from the story of the patriarchs. The Gentiles can praise the same LORD because Jesus came to be servant and Savior to them too. They too, were part of all peoples of the earth that were to be blessed through Abraham.
I don't imagine that divisions between Jews and Gentiles affect this congregation or many other congregations we know? yet I am sure they could or they would if a significant segment of this congregation was Jewish. Maybe for us the dividers are black and white, or white and Hispanic, or Euro and Asian. Or we may be divided by money or education or advantage, by what zip code we live in, what music we listen to. Older, lifelong members may be divided from a younger generation, newer to the church and less bound by its traditions. We may disagree over the songs and liturgies we prefer in worship.
Accept one another. You need not become identical to one another. Accept one another, just as Christ has accepted you. Look at what unites. God so loved the world. . . . Everyone who believes in him will not perish (John 3:16). He came to reconcile the world to himself (2 Co 5:19), the whole world. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28). The same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Romans 10:12--13).
I don't how much you plan to go "yus' nuts" for Christmas, or how much you can prevent it. But surely the place to begin is here, among God's people in the Church, listening again to the promises of God, looking once more into the lowly manger to see the Lord Jesus once more:
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child
Make Thee a bed soft, undefiled,
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
It is there we will find endurance to live with the imperfect and overcome what divides us. For there we can see, in the spirit of Advent, how the best is yet to be. Amen.