"Christmas Every Day" (sermon)

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday August 25, 2024 (Christmas in August!)
Scripture Reading:  Isaiah 35:1-10

Note:  Every summer, we gather weekly for Church Family Movie Nights; and this year we are linking our Sunday morning worship to the movie we watched the previous Tuesday. This week’s reflection is tied to the movie The Muppet Christmas Carol. You can read a summary of this movie by clicking here, or watch the trailer by clicking here.


Even though the movie trailer doesn’t give a good sense of the story of A Christmas Carol, I think that it is a story that many of us are familiar with.  Ebenezer Scrooge begins the story as a miser – focused on making money, no matter who is hurt in the process. He especially hates Christmas, because at Christmas he sees the world being wasteful with their money rather than making money. On Christmas Eve, he is visited by a series of ghosts.  First of all, the ghost of his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, visits him and warns them that he is destined to an eternity of fire and chains if he doesn’t change his ways.  Then he is visited by the ghost of Christmas Past, who reminded him that when he was young, he didn’t hate Christmas, but his life was gradually turned away from relationships with people and towards a relationship with money.  Then he is visited by the ghost of Christmas Present, who shows him that people in his life are to be filled with the joy and love of Christmas, despite not having much money or facing other challenging circumstances.  And finally he is visited by the ghost of Christmas Yet to Come who shows him the bleak future he will face if he doesn’t change his ways.

At the end of the morning, Scrooge wakes up a changed person.  He is generous, he builds relationships with the people in his life, and Charles Dickens tells us, at the end of the book, “it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us!”

 

To me, A Christmas Carol is a story of transformation.  Scrooge is one person at the start of the story, and another person at the end of the story.  He is transformed by his encounter with the ghosts.

 

And, if you’ll pardon the cheesy word play, our lives as followers of Jesus are also transformed by an encounter with a ghost… though not the ghost of Christmases past, present, and yet to come!

 

The work of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit, is the work of transformation.  We are created in the image of God, but then, because of our human nature, all of us fall short of God’s expectations in different ways.  I can only truly speak from my own experience here, but I don’t think that anyone is able to be completely perfect 100% of the time (and as I mentioned one Sunday earlier this summer – if you have figured out how to be completely perfect 100% of the time, I want to talk to you to learn your secret).  We may not be as miserable and miserly as Ebenezer Scrooge, but every person has their foibles and imperfections.

 

But like I said, the role of the Holy Spirit is one of transformation.  She works in our hearts and in our lives, transforming us more and more into who God created us to be, transforming us more and more into the image of Christ.

 

We don’t have to do it alone.  In fact, I don’t think that any of us can change either our own lives nor the lives of another person.  But the Holy Spirit, working in us, is able to turn us towards goodness and love.

 

The reading from Isaiah that ______ read for us is one of the traditional Advent readings, and it is full of images of transformation. The desert will be filled with abundant blossoms.  Weak hands and feeble knees will be made strong.  Streams of water will appear in the desert and springs of water will appear in the thirsty ground.  Sorrow and sighing will be replaced by joy and gladness.

 

Now, the context of Isaiah is of exile.  The Babylonian army had laid siege to Jerusalem, and eventually destroyed the city and carried the people away from the only home they had known, carried away to a foreign land.

 

There are three distinct parts to Isaiah, and the voices are different enough through the three parts that most scholars strongly suspect that there were three different authors writing in three different generations.  The first part of the book speaks about the movement into exile; the second part of the book holds the promise of return to the land; and the third part of the book speaks of restoration and rebuilding the city and the temple.

 

To hear chapter 35 of Isaiah, with its images of transformation, you might assume that it comes in the second part of Isaiah that speaks of the promise of return, but this chapter actually comes from the first part of Isaiah.  These beautiful images of transformation are being written in the context of being carried off into exile.

 

Even in the midst of destruction and death and exile, First Isaiah is able to assure people that it wasn’t going to be this way forever.  Even if this is a desert time in your life, a time will come when water will flow and flowers will blossom.

 

And transformation is the heart of the story of Christmas.  At Christmas, God is born as human flesh and blood.  God is born as a vulnerable baby, forever transforming our vulnerable flesh and blood and bringing it into contact with God.  The world is being transformed, because of Christmas.

 

So hear the song that the angel sang when they appeared to the shepherds that first Christmas, “Don’t be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people!”  The good news of Christmas is that God meets us in our vulnerability, in our frailty, in our imperfection.  But the good news continues, because God doesn’t leave us there, but is always transforming us, by the Holy Spirit, so that we can flourish.

 

No matter what desert you are traversing in your life – I don’t think that we have any Scrooges in the church, but we all face different sorts of deserts at different times in our lives – and no matter what desert you are currently traversing in your life, know that this isn’t your forever.  Know that the Holy Spirit is working her transformation in your life, and that springs will flow and flowers will blossom.  The peace of Christ is yours, and the joy of Christmas will sing in your heart, not just at Christmas but every day and always.

 

Thanks be to God!