Matthew 3:7-12

Have you ever known anyone who just went overboard at Christmas?  They over-decorated, over-cooked, over-partied, over-dressed, over-gifted?  They just overdid everything?  I know I have known people like that over the years.  If you were looking for Christmas with them, you didn’t have to look very far. 

For example, I’ve known people who decorated everything inside and outside their homes.  Take the home of one of my parishioners in South Carolina.  Inside, there were those carolers everywhere, on the mantle, on the end tables, even on the edge of the stairs.  There were multiple Nativities, arrangements of candles, greenery over the mantle and over the doors, lighted candles in the windows, and stockings hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.  And outside there were blowups galore, Santa and his sleigh, Santa in a helicopter, Santa in a train, snowmen, angels, dogs and cats, and even a Nativity tucked in the midst of it all.  It was like Home Depot and the Martha Stewart department of Macys had an explosion and it all landed at this particular home!

There are lots of people who just can’t help themselves when it comes to Christmas.  And there are lots of things that we enjoy during the Christmas season that are fun and enjoyable and pretty, but really don’t have anything to do with Christmas at all.  They look the part, I guess, but there is not much depth to them.  Sleigh bells and cookies, flavored coffees, red and green decorations, snowmen, Santa and Rudolph and The Night Before Christmas.  The candle I put on my front porch to light the wreath on the door.  Eating the Rice Krispies treats my Aunt Mary made for me every year.  The train that went around the Christmas tree.  The silver icicles that had to be hung one at a time, one at a time, as my mother instructed us. 

Sometimes we may focus so much on getting the outward appearance of Christmas right that we miss the deeper meaning of the season altogether.  Or some people never get it at all.  For them, Christmas is only about the outward celebration.  The real meaning never penetrates into their hearts and spirits.  Kind of like the Grinch, they have not been touched by the true spirit of Christmas and their hearts are simply two sizes too small.  But before we too quickly judge other people, perhaps we would do well to ask ourselves a question that Matt Rawle poses in his book, The Heart That Grew Three Sizes: Finding Faith in the Story of the Grinch.  He talks about how the Grinch got his ideas about Christmas from watching the Whos and their elaborate celebrations, the multitude of gifts, the huge feast, and the lavish decorations.  And then he asks, “If the Grinch were looking down at your house during the holidays, what would he think was most important to you?”

Look around your house in your mind.  What do you see?  We have a Christmas tree with lots of ornaments on it.  Some were gifts from loved ones.  Others were homemade when we were kids, and take their places for purely sentimental, and not artistic, reasons.  There are beautifully wrapped gifts under the tree, that we probably spent more on than we should, but that were selected with love and lots of thought as to what the recipient would enjoy.  There are colored lights on the fence out back and a lighted Snoopy watching over the bird feeder.  We have a new addition in front this year:  an inflated dachshund with a multi-colored sweater.  We don’t have a Nativity out, because the cats would knock down the pieces or make off with Mary and the baby.  There is Christmas music on the piano waiting to be played and the Advent study book is on the table.  We have Christmas sweaters hanging in the closet and a Christmas hat that lights up.  There are many Christmas DVDs, including “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas” (which does include a portion of the Christmas story from Luke), “Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer,” and many, many versions of “A Christmas Carol,” as well as “The Little Drummer Boy.”  So, all in all, I think the Grinch would conclude that the secular celebration of Christmas is important to us, as well as the sacred celebration.  How about at your house?

The complaint that John the Baptist had about the Pharisees and Sadducees was that they were hypocrites.  Their religious practice was all about putting on a good show, looking the part.  They appeared to be deeply committed to God, but on the inside they were not.  Their spirits, their hearts, were not godly.  They did not practice what they claimed to believe.   And sometimes, even at Christmas, we are guilty of the same thing.  We talk a good game, we look the part, but we are not really committed on the inside.  Our hearts, our spirits, are not really filled with Christ.  Our houses may be the best decorated on the block, we may have the most beautiful Nativity ever made, we may sing the carols with the best voices in the choir, but if we don’t have hearts full of love for Jesus, then it is all just about appearances, there is no depth to it.

You know, last Christmas looked a lot like Christmas, but it didn’t really feel like Christmas to me.  My house, and probably yours, was decorated for the holidays.  I enjoyed driving around and seeing people’s yards all lit up with lights and blowups.  But there was something missing.  We were nine months into COVID, we were not meeting in person for worship, and everything just felt out of whack in so many ways to me.  I missed gathering in the sanctuary with you.  Yes, I lit an Advent candle every week, but it wasn’t the same standing there in the sanctuary alone.  Preaching via Zoom I could see some of your faces, but they were so tiny on the computer screen that I couldn’t really see your reactions.  We had recorded music, but it wasn’t like singing carols together.  And Christmas Eve was so hard with remote worship!  That’s usually my favorite service of the year, my favorite moment of the year, when we light the candles and turn off the lights and sing “Silent Night.”  And it didn’t happen.

We spent a lot of time last year, at least I did, trying to figure out what was absolutely essential about worship, and in particular, about worship in Advent and Christmas.  What could we not do without?  Well, we had to have scripture and a sermon, we needed to light Advent candles, we absolutely had to have music.  So how could I provide those necessary elements?  It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best we could do.  And it was a way to be together and celebrate the birth of Jesus.

This year, we are blessed to be able to be together in person to enjoy the rituals and the decorations and the music.  We can see each other’s faces and hear each other’s voices.  We can see the Advent candles, we have the beautiful decorations.  It still isn’t perfect, because we can’t sing the carols, but we can listen to them together.  We have figured out how to do this the best way that we can for now.  And we will do the best that we can for Christmas Eve, in order to be able to meet in person.  Because what matters most is celebrating the coming of Jesus into the world.  We may not be able to sing, we may not have a traditional candle-lighting, we may have to wear masks and practice social distancing, but the important part of worshiping at Christmas will happen.

This is the Sunday of hope, and I, for one, am in need of hope.  Hope that the pandemic will end in the coming year.  Hope that there will be no more deaths from COVID.  Hope that we can finally get rid of our masks for good.  Hope that we can sing in church again.  Hope that the divisions in our country will be bridged, that hearts will be softened and families will be healed.  Hope that racism will be named and addressed and driven out of our public life.  Hope that peace will come on the whole earth.  Hope that peace will come in all our homes.  And hope that Christmas will be something we celebrate with more than superficial gestures, that we will do more than just look the part.  Hope that we will celebrate the birth of Jesus with love in our hearts for the Christ-child and for all of God’s children.