The Ghost of 1st Christmas Future: Then
to Now
A sermon
delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson
December 14, 2014
at Gordonsville
Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia
Isaiah 2: 1-4
Hebrews 12: 1-12
Let us pray,
Help us to see despite our eyes
Help us to think outside of our minds
Help us to be more than our lives
For your eyes show the way
Your
mind knows the truth
Your
being is the life.
Amen.
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the
sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is
set before us, 2 looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our
faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross,
disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne
of God.
3 Consider
him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may
not grow weary or lose heart. 4 In your struggle against sin you
have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5 And you
have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as children—
“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;
6 for
the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts.”
7 Endure
trials for the sake of discipline. God is treating you as children; for what
child is there whom a parent does not discipline? 8 If you do not
have that discipline in which all children share, then you are illegitimate and
not his children. 9 Moreover, we had human parents to discipline us,
and we respected them. Should we not be even more willing to be subject to the
Father of spirits and live? 10 For they disciplined us for a short
time as seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, in order that
we may share his holiness. 11 Now, discipline always seems painful
rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of
righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore
lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make
straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint,
but rather be healed. [1]
So we've now been visited by the first two
spirits. The Ghost of Christmas Past whisked us through the Before Christ
world, showing us a world of darkness, controlled by might and power, all
fueled by fear. And then we looked at the Time of Christ, the Roman Empire, the
Pax Romana, Herod, the differing Jewish Communities that were in existence when
Christ was born. And now we look to the future at the first Christmas, the time
that was from then until now. Before Christ the world was mired in fear and
control. The powerful controlled the truth, proclaimed whatever they wanted as
truth, and used that truth to control the people of the world. And even though
there were major breakthroughs leading up until the Roman Empire, the Axial
Age, to name one of them, Greek Democracy, Roman Republic, but only a few years
before the birth of Christ, that flickering light of freedom was replaced as it
had always been by Empire. . . law was replaced by the dictates of one man,
this Augustus - The August one - The Great, Power, Control, Fear, Force. Augustus
did more than just make himself the Emperor, he proclaimed himself a god, and
since he said it, it was. That was all it took to become a god, just say that
you are, and you can if you have legions and centurions at your command. That
is all it takes in our world to proclaim truth. And such is what the ghost of
Christmas Past and Present have shown us, always in juxtaposition with the
truth of Christmas.
At this point in the Dickens' story, Scrooge
is beginning to show some remorse. He is saddened by the past, the choices he
has made, the times that he chose money over relationships, the times that he
chose money over happiness. He saw the joy of others and he gave it all away.
Then in the present he sees the Cratchit family, poor, destitute, young sickly Tiny Tim, so
sweet, yet riddled by the disease that could cost him his life. They have
nothing, but the love they have for each other, the fact that they are facing
their trials, and are not broken apart and divided by them, but are joyously
celebrating through them, this begins to melt Scrooge's cold heart. But now
when the third spirit beckons, Scrooge is overcome with, not regret, or pity,
but overwhelming fear because not only do his actions have real cost to those
around him, and have led him to this miserly miserable point, but they go
forward into the future, and if he were to remain unchanged, his life would
continue on a very sad, lonely, and tragic trajectory, toward his death,
abandoned and alone, perhaps even to wear the heavy chains of Marley's ghost,
or worse, the flames at the bottom of the grave.
So we, as the world, like Scrooge, have been
shown in the last few weeks the missteps of the world, that have brought us to
this point at the time of the Original Christmas. And in the manger we see the
baby savior of the world. We see hope coming into the world. We see a child who
is the fulfillment of a promise, and we ask, is it enough to change us, enough
for us to seek another way? If we were to look at the future from the Birth of
Christ, from the perspective of the first Christmas forward, we would see the
world that has created our own. We would see the history of the world from
Christ to now. What I want us to do today, is again pretend we are like
Scrooge. We are not looking back at the past, but are living in the time of
Christ's birth, the first Christmas. . . and we are looking forward. We have
seen the past, we have seen the baby in the manger and now we look to what the
future looks like to us, if we weren't changed by this first Christmas.
One question that should come to our minds
before we begin is, would the vision of the world looking forward from
Christmas forward look any different from the world that is? In other words,
would Christmas change anything? Has Christmas changed anything? Let's think
for a moment that Christmas did change something. There certainly would be no
thing called the Church, no Saints, no great poetry and music of the Christian
Tradition, we could ask ourselves, would there have been a United States of
America? Would there have been a Declaration of Independence? A Constitution?
Would there be any such notion of things like Equal Rights? or Rights at all?
Would there be any notion of freedom? Charity? Christmas traditions, like
giving gifts? Would there be a dream of peace on Earth without Christmas? Would
there be Joy? Because we do experience Peace, Hope, Joy, and Love. We do.
Christmas has made a difference in our lives. It just has, but the question is
how much? and how lasting?
Because there are certainly aspects of the
world that did not change. So the Ghost of Christmas future comes to the world
and shows it a picture of the Baby Jesus, grown now, betrayed, tried, beaten, flogged,
and now hanging on a cross to die, while the Roman governor washes his hands of
the deed, the people demanded it, it seemed they were afraid of what it all
could mean. It seemed they were afraid of upsetting the Romans, upsetting the
status quo, giving people false hope. It seemed that Jesus had messed with the
wrong power brokers. But then the ghost whisks us forward, and we see a Roman
Emperor becoming baptized as a Christian. We see the mixing of the movement
with the Empire. We see power and might makes right, wielding the cross. We
can't help but wonder if these powerful men are really converting to a Jesus
centered faith existence, or are simply converting in name only, that Jesus has
supplanted Zeus, supplanted Jove, and is now just the most powerful god, small
"g". Zeus had always worried about being overthrown, now it has
happened. The ghost whisks us forward and we see a Germanic chieftain, a Frank
named Clovis, and he is being baptized and crowned by the Pope. . . is he a new
convert? Is he a new Christ follower, or is he just the latest to wield the
cross? The latest, but there are many to follow. Popes, priests, kings, they
all use the cross to rule, but we don't see them teaching love, we see them
teaching fear, we see the threat of persecution, we see forced conversions and
torture, we see the threat of Hell, promises of healing, salvation, positions
of prestige within the church, riches, health and happiness, all not at the
cost of faith, but based on the cost of the coin. Give to us and control your
future. We see soldiers, knights, men at arms, armed with swords, but not the
sword of truth and the armor of God, but armor of iron, with the symbol of the
cross, off to fight the infidels. We see superstition and fear, the remnants of
the old BC pagan religions, ritual and magic, wielded by regular people trying
to gain some control on their own in a world that is so out of control. We even
see reformers, making great strides in the push towards creating a more
authentic Jesus following movement, but they include destroying art and musical
instruments, and more wielding of power, division, and more warfare. We see the
Christian world spread to every corner of the globe through exploration and
mission, but always with the Bible comes the sword, the gun, the bomb, always
with the teaching comes the impelling, the force, the fear. We see Christianity
make slaves of people, excuse slavery, wielding the Bible again to serve
whatever purpose was the most powerful. We see nations going to war with each
other. We see men rising up as strong leaders threatening to take over the
world. We see Wars not fought just between two countries but between all
people, the entire world at war, not once but twice, we see a weapon of mass
destruction, a holocaust of people, genocide, Communism, fear, control, Debt,
Division, Power, Decline, Fear, fear and more fear, and the constant offer of
strong and smart men to take it all over for us and give us real answers and
real tangible salvation, only one election away. . .
. . . and if we are honest with ourselves we
ask if any of it has made a difference. . . for if Christmas is a light shining
in the darkness, if it is a hope we have, a hope of peace, a source of joy,
then it is merely a flicker. . . and we desperately need more. We need more
Christmas, and we need more light. If we think of Scrooge, and his overwhelming
transformation on Christmas morning, we know that the glimpse of his future was
the big thing that changed him, paired with his regret and his pity, it all
changed him. . . but has it changed us. . . we see it, partial change, right.
We get a little hope. We get a little peace, and a little joy, but it is always
tempered with those old enemies, Fear and Control - - The need for security, safety,
our way. . . but Christmas is about faith, and faith lets go, faith believes,
faith can look outward. Imagine Dickens story with Scrooge only partially
changed. He goes from Bah Humbug to giving Cratchit a small raise and the day
off, but come a week later, he is back to his old miserly ways? It certainly
would lack the power. . . Scrooge instead flies from his room, rights all the
wrongs he can, is filled with the spirit of Christmas, and that spirit is Joy!
He is filled with Joy because he has seen the future and he was creating, but
had his eyes opened to a Christmas reality and a Christmas future, where
storing up treasure just has no place, and the misery of being a miser has no
place.
Next week we will look at how our world can
change. . . for after looking at the past, present, and future of the first
Christmas Time, we get to wake up in our world, in our time, on Christmas
Morning, like Scrooge, and be filled with the lasting Christmas Joy, the kind
that sends you out running in your pajamas to give to your fellow man, to love,
to serve, to sacrifice, looking beyond yourself, beyond what you can control,
stepping out in faith not fear. That is what real Christmas conversion looks
like. . . do we have it?
I chose an interesting passage for the New
Testament Lesson today. It is not a normal Advent Passage. We don't usually
talk about the "cloud of witnesses" and "running with
perseverance the race," at Christmas time, but in my Bible this section
was subtitled, "The Example of Jesus" , Jesus, who is the
"pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of "Joy"
endured the cross." There it is "Joy." Joy, Joy, Joy, praise be
to God in Heaven on High. It was for our Joy that Jesus endured the cross, and
so we face trials, we will since forever human beings have faced trials, it is
a part of what being human is all about, what being a follower of God is all
about.
“My child, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,
or lose heart when you are punished by him;
6 for
the Lord disciplines those whom he loves,
and chastises every child whom he accepts.”
One thing that the message of the Ghosts of
1st Christmas Past, Present, and Future all showed us, was/is people trying to
avoid trials. . . it is our fear of the trials of life that make us seek to
control them. But these words from Hebrews and so many other Biblical stories
show us that the trials are where we become strong. . . that the trials are not
to be avoided, but endured. . . and that we will not be forsaken through them.
It is not that we avoid trials through our faith, but that we make it through,
avoidance is where we go astray.
Today we lit the candle of Joy, the special
candle, the pink one. Today we have wonderful music from the bell choir. We
have great and exciting things going on this month all around us about
Christmas. It is a time of great Joy. It is often easy to be joyous on days
like today, but real Joy is tested by the fire of trials, tested by faith
through fear, and tested by the cross we are called to carry. Can we find Joy
in those trials? Can we be made strong in our faith by them? Can we persevere
and run the race, all the while, keeping our Christmas Joy, empowering our
hearts with Joy. The Hebrews passage ends with this line:
"Therefore
lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make
straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint,
but rather be healed."
Christmas is supposed to change us,
supposed to raise us up, suppose to heal our weakness, our lameness, our
crookedness. It is supposed to free us from Fear and Control, filling us
instead with Joy, real, lasting, all encompassing, light all up in the midst of
real darkness, kind Joy. Christmas Joy, let heaven and nature sing it. So may it be. Amen.
[1]The
Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Heb 12:1-13). Nashville:
Thomas Nelson Publishers.
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