Pausing for Christmas
Text: Luke 1:46-55
Well, we’re getting close…
—The decorations are up, everything is set… Or at least so we hope.
—Many of us have had our Christmas parties already, and all that’s left is the big celebration and service tonight.
—However, we ARE still in Advent, technically Christmas does not start until tonight, and continues for 12 days after that… but since everything is looking like Christmas… well… I can keep it Advent-like and reflect on all of our Christmas preparations. So instead, I’ll tell you a bit of my own experiences:
For five years during my post-secondary education, I worked in a retail store. For four of those years, I worked in a games specialty shop. You wanted Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or a really difficult puzzle? You talk to me. For one of those years, I worked in a computer store —big surprise. Yet my experience from working in the retail business let me see the Christmas season in a very different light. There are some things that people buy all the time, that are constant throughout the year. However, with games… well… we were very dependent upon the major shopping seasons. The Christmas rush made our business, we would not have been able to make it from year to year without it.
It made for a very different year. We would not be busy for the bulk of the year, but from the Thanksgiving weekend on through there would be standing room only in the store. When I would get out of the store, trust me, the LAST thing I wanted to do was to go into another store to find gifts for my family and friends.
Now, here we are again, measuring how few shopping hours we have left before Christmas. We have all of our plans, how many people we need to visit, how many cards we have to send… My guess is that many of you are sitting there remembering how many more things you need to do before tonight. I have to wonder how much of it is going through the motions, doing all those things that we have to do in order to make Christmas Christmas.
Here’s a question for you. Amidst all of these preparations and rituals that we go through at this time of year, how many of us have actually taken then time to stop? How many of us have taken time to Pause for Christmas?
Chances are we probably haven’t… because there’s so much to do. Once Christmas is over we can rest!
Here’s a question for you? Why?
Why is it that we put ourselves through such a wringer and busy schedule each and every year? Is that the way we’ve always done it?
—Maybe it’s our childhood expectations: When we are children, everything about Christmas is big, is wonderful… We carry this same vision into adulthood, expecting the same dazzle we did when we were kids. Yet now, we are the ones that produce it… both for ourselves and for our children.
—Commercial messages feed into this… for if we are to have the ideal Christmas, we must by all the ideal accoutrements… I remember a few years ago of one commercial that was released around the time of the live-action version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that illustrates this. Clearly a product endorsement, partly as a joke, but really not the in best of taste, it distorted the wonderful narrative at the end of Dr. Seuss’ tale. It went something like this: “The Grinch learned that perhaps Christmas means something more, that happiness does not come from a store… but just in case he’s wrong, there’s always VISA!!!”
—But really, nothing can compete with memory. We build our expectations up so high that nothing can live up to them…
Not only that, but our Christmas tradition tells us that we have to feel happy, generous, loving… Not everyone can live up to this… I don’t think there’s anyone I know who can sustain it for a whole season.
—In light of this, it is not surprising that depression soars at this time of year.
Maybe we need to hear a few words of wisdom… According to Luke, when Mary was told that she was going to give birth to the Christ child, she sang these words:
“and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
Everything is reversed… The rich are brought down, the poor are lifted up. All of our expectations and thrown out the window…
A few years ago, as I was preparing a sermon for Christmas, I was reading through some pastoral care resources that had arrived at the church I was working for at the time. We would order small pamphlets throughout the year for people to pick up at their leisure, with titles addressing different pastoral concerns the congregation might have. In addition to the regular shipment, they send me samples that I can browse through. One of them was a little gem with an unlikely title: “Feeling Depressed at Christmastime” written by Lisa Engelhardt. I wish I had more of them, but for now, I can share one of its pearls of wisdom.
“Much of our Christmastime stress seems to stem from our frenzied preparations. It’s easy to become so wrapped up in superhuman efforts to pull off our Christmas extravaganza that we forget the original meaning of the observance. After all, Christmas is about God becoming human —not the reverse.”
Wow… suddenly a light came on for me. I shared this with a few people, and have continued to do that over the past year, and I have seen the light go on for them.
Christmas is about God becoming human, not the other way around.
Maybe we have to look at a mirror and see our own humanity looking back at us, realizing our own limitations and learning to live with them in hope. Christmas is about God becoming human, sharing the same experiences that we have: highs, lows, joy, sorrow and everything in between. When you peel away all the wrapping at Christmas, remember that Jesus is at its core. Everything else is just window dressing. We are celebrating Emmanuel, God with us. The traditions that we celebrate help us to remind us of that fact, but when they become a chore instead of a blessing, maybe it’s time to pause… and perhaps even set them aside.
With just these few hours before Christmas, in the middle of our frenetic pace, let’s slow down… Pause… Remember… Jesus is more than JUST the reason for the season, as the saying goes. It’s more than that, Jesus is God with us, God becoming human. It is God reminding us that we don’t have to do everything, we don’t have to be Divine… because God became human. It is enough to know that God loves us for who we are where we are… In the middle of our stress, strained relationships, and our high expectations… remember that all those years ago, Jesus snuck into our lives in the most unlikely of places… Jesus does not appear in the palace. Jesus does not appear in some grand spectacle, but in a place very limited and very human, in a quiet, humble and un-decorated manger. That’s something to think about… Amen.
Well, we’re getting close…
—The decorations are up, everything is set… Or at least so we hope.
—Many of us have had our Christmas parties already, and all that’s left is the big celebration and service tonight.
—However, we ARE still in Advent, technically Christmas does not start until tonight, and continues for 12 days after that… but since everything is looking like Christmas… well… I can keep it Advent-like and reflect on all of our Christmas preparations. So instead, I’ll tell you a bit of my own experiences:
For five years during my post-secondary education, I worked in a retail store. For four of those years, I worked in a games specialty shop. You wanted Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit or a really difficult puzzle? You talk to me. For one of those years, I worked in a computer store —big surprise. Yet my experience from working in the retail business let me see the Christmas season in a very different light. There are some things that people buy all the time, that are constant throughout the year. However, with games… well… we were very dependent upon the major shopping seasons. The Christmas rush made our business, we would not have been able to make it from year to year without it.
It made for a very different year. We would not be busy for the bulk of the year, but from the Thanksgiving weekend on through there would be standing room only in the store. When I would get out of the store, trust me, the LAST thing I wanted to do was to go into another store to find gifts for my family and friends.
Now, here we are again, measuring how few shopping hours we have left before Christmas. We have all of our plans, how many people we need to visit, how many cards we have to send… My guess is that many of you are sitting there remembering how many more things you need to do before tonight. I have to wonder how much of it is going through the motions, doing all those things that we have to do in order to make Christmas Christmas.
Here’s a question for you. Amidst all of these preparations and rituals that we go through at this time of year, how many of us have actually taken then time to stop? How many of us have taken time to Pause for Christmas?
Chances are we probably haven’t… because there’s so much to do. Once Christmas is over we can rest!
Here’s a question for you? Why?
Why is it that we put ourselves through such a wringer and busy schedule each and every year? Is that the way we’ve always done it?
—Maybe it’s our childhood expectations: When we are children, everything about Christmas is big, is wonderful… We carry this same vision into adulthood, expecting the same dazzle we did when we were kids. Yet now, we are the ones that produce it… both for ourselves and for our children.
—Commercial messages feed into this… for if we are to have the ideal Christmas, we must by all the ideal accoutrements… I remember a few years ago of one commercial that was released around the time of the live-action version of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” that illustrates this. Clearly a product endorsement, partly as a joke, but really not the in best of taste, it distorted the wonderful narrative at the end of Dr. Seuss’ tale. It went something like this: “The Grinch learned that perhaps Christmas means something more, that happiness does not come from a store… but just in case he’s wrong, there’s always VISA!!!”
—But really, nothing can compete with memory. We build our expectations up so high that nothing can live up to them…
Not only that, but our Christmas tradition tells us that we have to feel happy, generous, loving… Not everyone can live up to this… I don’t think there’s anyone I know who can sustain it for a whole season.
—In light of this, it is not surprising that depression soars at this time of year.
Maybe we need to hear a few words of wisdom… According to Luke, when Mary was told that she was going to give birth to the Christ child, she sang these words:
“and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants forever."
Everything is reversed… The rich are brought down, the poor are lifted up. All of our expectations and thrown out the window…
A few years ago, as I was preparing a sermon for Christmas, I was reading through some pastoral care resources that had arrived at the church I was working for at the time. We would order small pamphlets throughout the year for people to pick up at their leisure, with titles addressing different pastoral concerns the congregation might have. In addition to the regular shipment, they send me samples that I can browse through. One of them was a little gem with an unlikely title: “Feeling Depressed at Christmastime” written by Lisa Engelhardt. I wish I had more of them, but for now, I can share one of its pearls of wisdom.
“Much of our Christmastime stress seems to stem from our frenzied preparations. It’s easy to become so wrapped up in superhuman efforts to pull off our Christmas extravaganza that we forget the original meaning of the observance. After all, Christmas is about God becoming human —not the reverse.”
Wow… suddenly a light came on for me. I shared this with a few people, and have continued to do that over the past year, and I have seen the light go on for them.
Christmas is about God becoming human, not the other way around.
Maybe we have to look at a mirror and see our own humanity looking back at us, realizing our own limitations and learning to live with them in hope. Christmas is about God becoming human, sharing the same experiences that we have: highs, lows, joy, sorrow and everything in between. When you peel away all the wrapping at Christmas, remember that Jesus is at its core. Everything else is just window dressing. We are celebrating Emmanuel, God with us. The traditions that we celebrate help us to remind us of that fact, but when they become a chore instead of a blessing, maybe it’s time to pause… and perhaps even set them aside.
With just these few hours before Christmas, in the middle of our frenetic pace, let’s slow down… Pause… Remember… Jesus is more than JUST the reason for the season, as the saying goes. It’s more than that, Jesus is God with us, God becoming human. It is God reminding us that we don’t have to do everything, we don’t have to be Divine… because God became human. It is enough to know that God loves us for who we are where we are… In the middle of our stress, strained relationships, and our high expectations… remember that all those years ago, Jesus snuck into our lives in the most unlikely of places… Jesus does not appear in the palace. Jesus does not appear in some grand spectacle, but in a place very limited and very human, in a quiet, humble and un-decorated manger. That’s something to think about… Amen.
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