Time has passed rather awkwardly these past few months. Without many of our traditional events and celebrations it has been hard to mark the passing of time. The spring arrived with a whisper of an Easter, the summer seemingly came and went without a 4th of July, and the fall all but forgot about the Reformation. Time has passed rather awkwardly these past few months. But despite the rather awkward passing of time, Christmas decoration are up, Christmas music is playing on the radio, and the Hallmark channel is pumping out one cheesy Christmas movie after another. There are signs all around us, even with the coronavirus literally lingering in the air, that it is time for us to celebrate Christmas.
I remember how, as a little boy, I would get excited for Christmas. It seemed as if the days dragged on forever as I anxiously and excitedly waited for Old Saint Nick to visit. The closer we crept to the big day; the slower time seemed to move. Christmas Eve was the worst; on Christmas Eve, time inexplicably stood still. I remember, as the second hand of my bedside clock struggled to make its way through the minute, laying in my bed wide awake. It seemed as if all my senses had been heightened by the adrenaline of my anxious excitement. My eyes stared intently out my window through the falling snow searching for any movement in the darkness beyond, my ears listened for a footstep, the jingle of a single bell, or the crunch of a cookie. My nose sniffed the air for the scent soot being scrapped from the chimney. I placed a hand on the wall so that I might feel the slightest thumb or bump coming from the room where our stockings were hung by the chimney with care. As a little boy, Christmas Eve was greatest/worst night of the year.
I don’t get as anxiously excited about Christmas as I did when I was a little boy, which is both surprising and a little sad. It is surprising and sad considering how much more I now know about Christmas. I have spent the better part of my adult life researching ancient prophecies about Christmas. I have studied the accounts that describe the Christmas event; I have parsed the individual words from the original language to ensure that no detail of the event has been overlooked. I am not saying that I know everything there is to know about Christmas, but I know a lot. I know a great deal more than I did when I was a little boy and what I now know is Christmas is even better than my little boy mind could ever imagine. Someone far more important than Santa Clause is coming to town and the gift He brings is vastly superior to any gift that a man or woman has ever placed under a tree. Knowing what I now know about Christmas it is both surprising and a little sad that I don’t get as anxiously excited as I did when I was a little boy.
I suppose the awkward passing of time is partly to blame. The Coronavirus has a cocooning effect on people. Not only does it cause us to be socially distant from one another, but it threatens to make us spiritually distant from our God. Without the constant encouragement that comes from the weekly gathering together of fellow believers it is easy to drift away. According to the Barna Research Group, “One in Three Practicing Christians Has Stopped Attending Church During COVID-19” both in person and online.[1] Seems odd, doesn’t it, that simple virus would cause Christians to abandon Christ at Christmas? Maybe it is less odd when we consider the effect the relentless passing of time has on us.
Year after year we celebrate Christmas with one eye on the manger and the other on the sky. You see, Advent is a celebration of the coming of the one and only Son first as David’s son and one day as David’s LORD. Advent is a celebration that anticipates the second coming of the one and only Son, but year after year, nothing happens. The year comes and the year goes with no second coming in sight. As a result, over time, our anxious excitement begins to diminish. Oh, we still celebrate. We gather for worship, we sing songs, we decorate our homes, we make merry, and we give gifts, we do all the things our neighbors do, all the things Norman Rockwell and Charles Dickens tell us to do. We celebrate Christmas, we have just learned to do it without the anticipation of the second coming, we have learned to celebrate Christmas without Christ. Maybe that is why we no longer celebrate Christmas with the anxious excitement of a child?
Thankfully, before it’s too late, Jesus injects a little anxious excitement into our Christmas celebration. Today Jesus say to you, to me, and to all who believe, “Watch!”
In Mark 13:32-33 Jesus says, 32 “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 33 Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.” Our watching is to be an anxious watching. Jesus tells us to “Be on guard! Be alert!”
As I was writing this sermon my son stopped by the church on his way to a tree stand. He was dressed head to toe in camouflage and was grinning from ear to ear. You see every fall four out of five people in my house come down with a serious case of deer fever. Mysteriously Michelle seems to be immune to the fever. She thinks sitting in a tree stand for hours at a time watching an empty field is a boring waste of time. She, like many others, is under the misguided notion that hunting is a passive pursuit. But hunting is anything but a passive pursuit. A good hunter is constantly scanning their surroundings for a glimpse of a tail or tip of an antler, they are listening intently for the snap of a twig or the rustle of leaves, they are aware how the air itself that blows their scent in a favorable direction. They check and recheck their weapon to make sure that the arrow is properly knocked, the sights are secure, and the release is ready. Hunting is so much more than sitting in a tree stand watching an empty field. Hunting in its purest form is hours of anxious watching.
Jesus wants us to celebrate Christmas with the anxiousness of a hunter. He wants us to be constantly scanning the scriptures for the prophecies of His Son and the promises for His people. He wants us to listen intently to as the preacher announces that our sins are forgiven, and that our salvation has been secured. He wants us to check and recheck that the belt of truth is buckled around our waist, the breastplate of righteousness is securely in its place, and our feet are fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.[2] Jesus wants us to celebrate Christmas with one eye peacefully resting on the manger but the other eye anxiously watching the sky because just as the hunter never knows when a big buck will step into the field “no one knows about that day or hour” when the one and only Son will come again. Therefore, Jesus says to you, to me, and to all who believe, “Watch!”
In Mark 13:34-35 Jesus says, “34 It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with his assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch. 35 “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn.” Our watching is to be an excited watching. Jesus tells us that “the owner of the house will come back”.
It has been a long time since the one and only Son was wrapped in swaddling cloths and laid in a manger; a long time since He promised His disciples “I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am”[3]. We have no way of knowing if Jesus considers the past 2,000 years to be the evening, or midnight, or the hour when the rooster crows or the dawn. As saint Peter reminds us, “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”[4] It has been a long time already and there may very well be a much longer time yet to come. We have no way of knowing when He will come, but what we do know is this, He is coming. “the owner of the house will come back”. The one and only Son will return!
Year after year we celebrate the birth of our Savior. We gather around a manger and celebrate that God so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son to live as our substitute and die as our sacrifice. We celebrate the sending of the One and only Son with one eye peacefully resting on the manger, but the other eye is excitedly watching the skies, for God has promised that His Son will come again, not as our substitute and sacrifice, but as our savior. The one and only Son who was once born as a babe in Bethlehem will come again bearing the gift of salvation for all who believe. “the owner of the house will come back”. Therefore, Jesus says to you, to me, and to all who believe, “Watch!”
If this year, because of the awkward passing of time due to the coronavirus or the relentless passing of time that we all endure, you find yourself celebrating Christmas without the anxious excitement that you once did, then I encourage you to remember that even if it seems as though time is inexplicably standing still the one and only Son is coming to town and the gift that He brings is not found under a tree but on one. I encourage you to remember that while no one knows about that day or hour when the one and only Son will return, we do know that He will return. Therefore, Jesus says to you, to me, and to all who believe, “Watch!” Amen.
[1] https://www.barna.com/research/new-sunday-morning-part-2
[2] Ephesians 6:10-20
[3] John 14:3
[4] 2 Peter 3:8