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A Christmas Memory: A Christmas Hope
Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44
James Lowry
First Presbyterian Church, New Bern, North Carolina
Well, it’s official.
As of today,
it’s the most wonderful time of the year.
Today is the day to make the formal announcement
of the start of the season.
No matter that they decorated the stores
soon after Halloween
or maybe even before;
it’s our Jesus whose birth we remember…
and whose coming we await…
so we get to say
when the Advent Season officially starts.
Today is the day!
Let the season begin!
I warn you
any shopping you did before today
may not count…
at least that’s the argument I give
for doing all of my shopping at the last minute.
I think I’ll go this afternoon
and get the boxes of Christmas decorations
off the top shelves
in the guest room closets.
Oh, what memories are in those boxes!
I don’t know how it is with you
but we never throw any Christmas decorations away.
We just keep adding new ones…
adding new memories.
Digging through those boxes
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is like digging through the past:
There’s the Christmas of ’48, for example. That’s the year I got an electric train and a watch. In those days nobody ever got more than one big gift. I think Santa must have made some wrong assumptions…. It’s what he got for shopping too early…. I think there must have been arrangements for a train when it turned out a watch is what I wanted. I got the train and the watch… watch wrapped in a peanut brittle box… Santa had a sense of humor back then… Westclox… could hear it ticking all the way across the room.
Oh, what memories. Oh, what hope!
Then there was the Christmas of 1970. That’s the year we had a three-year-old dressed in red pajamas so excited she couldn’t sleep and a new-born nestled in our arms like baby Jesus.
Oh, what memories. Oh, what hope!
Then there was the Christmas of ’86. That’s the year daughter, Nichols, was dating what’s-his-name. It’s the first year we had extra feet under the table for dinner on Christmas Eve. Never will forget ole what’s-his-name. Think his name started with a “J” or some such letter as that.
I’m teasing, of course. He was a nice young man. His name was Jason. I would like nothing so much as to hear he’s graduated from college and doing well… maybe even married… to someone else’s daughter.
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Oh, what memories. Oh, what hope!
So, now, which is it for you? Is Christmas for you mostly a memory; or is Christmas for you mostly a hope?
More to the Advent point, is getting ready for Christmas, for you, mostly a journey into the past; or is getting ready for Christmas, for you, mostly a, journey into the future?
Is Christmas a memory that takes you back in time to the grandest memory of them all… a memory wherein you dust the cobwebs off the cockles of your heart and chisel the rough edges off the corners of your soul so you can remember once more the little town of Bethlehem?
Do you remember the shy young couple just barely in their teens; the tired innkeeper doing the best he could; the angels singing; the shepherds keeping watch; the bright star shining; the wise men giving; the cattle lowing…
“The little Lord Jesus, no crying he makes”?
Or, is Christmas mostly for you a hope… a hope that takes you to some sure tomorrow and the grandest hope of them all… a hope wherein you dust the cobwebs off the cockles of your heart and chisel the rough edges off the corners of your soul so you can hope once more for that day when the earth shall be filled with the glory of God
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as the waters cover the sea?
Do you hope with certainty just now that some day swords shall be beat into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks and on that day there will be no need to send troops to Kosovo or any place else… ever? Do you hope with certainty these weeks before Christmas that some day a banquet shall be spread and no one will go away hungry… hungry of body or hungry of soul… ever? Do you hope with certainty in these days that some day every tear shall be wiped away and death shall be no more and there shall be no more mourning nor crying nor pain anymore… ever?
“Come, thou long-expected Jesus, born to set thy people free.”
Well, now, which is it for you? Getting ready for Christmas, is it, for you, mostly a journey into memory; or is it, for you, mostly a journey into hope?
Careful now! Don’t answer too quickly; and, whatever you do, don’t say both. Both, of course, is the obvious and right answer.
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Our journey of the season is both into memory and into hope;
but it’s far too early in Advent yet to give the easy and obvious answer. We must live, all of us, for yet a while in the tension of the question. We must draw deep breaths, all of us, for yet awhile… breathe the air, both thin and thick, that blows between what we remember so clearly and what we hope so dearly.
Jesus said it would be thus. Jesus said we must live each day in the tension between what we remember and what we hope:
Each day must be like Noah building an ark; Each day must be like a man plowing a field; Each day must be like a woman grinding grain; Each day must be like all of us doing whatever it is we daily do to live as God wishes us to.
In the days of our lives, said Jesus, doing whatever it is we do, we must live in the tension between that which we surely remember and that for which we surely hope.
We remember Bethlehem. We hope for a new heaven… …and a new earth.
It is in that very tension, said Jesus,
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that our lives and our work find meaning and purpose…
and faithfulness…
faithfulness to the God of our memory to the God of our hope.
Ah, but hear this good news. The time in the tension does not have to be tense. How does the Advent hymn go?
“He will give to all the faithful, his own self for heav’nly food.”
That’s it, isn’t it? Here in what we do today… here at this table what we remember and what we hope are joined inseparably together.
Here at this feast we taste the memory of Christ and we taste the hope of Christ till he comes.
That’s it! This is the place to begin the Advent journey. What better place than this table?
After we have tasted the memory and the hope then we can go home and get out the decorations… plan the parties and the feasts wrap the presents and address the cards…
Oh yes, address the cards. Be sure that some of your cards have a picture of what we remember… of Mary and Joseph and Jesus
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and wise men and shepherds and angels…
Be sure also some of your cards have a picture representing what we hope… a picture of a lion eating straw (you’ve seen cards like that) with a lamb snuggled comfortably under the lion’s chin and a little child leading them… a peaceable kingdom.
Better yet, Send your very best friends one of each.
No, that’s not fair. Send one of each to everybody on your list.
Notes
1 Adapted (along with an anthem) from Isaiah 11:9
2 From Isaiah 2:4
3 Image adapted from Isaiah 25:6
4 From Revelation 21:4
5 From Matthew 24
Journal for Preachers
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