Well, good morning, everyone. It is the fourth
week of Advent. This is the week we focus on
love, and because we don't have a Christmas Eve
service, we also focus on the light of Christ
that came with his birth. Christmas is, as we
just said, there's a lot happening at Christmas.
It's not just the holiday, is it? It's the stuff
wrapped up in the holiday. And we live in America,
so it's wild in America. There's really no other
country in the world that does what America does
at Christmas time with the stuff, right? It's
busy. It's big. It's heavily commercialized.
It starts in August. But life gets really busy
all of a sudden we know what's coming and so
there's really no way to be like oh that's just
in the future because we're just confronted with
it really really early and so You know we know
what's coming down the barrel and then when we
get here like all of a sudden like late November
December like it all breaks open. Everything
happens. So how many have attended a Christmas
or a seasonal holiday program in the last two
weeks? There it is. There are parties that some
of you dread and some of you are really excited
about. There are gift exchanges. You are buying
gifts for people at work. You barely know. Who's
participated in a white elephant gift exchange
that you ended up pulling something out of your
closet for? Nobody is raising their hand, but
I know you have done it. Who has ever had a secret
Santa in an environment that you're like, who
is Tyler? And then Tyler's like, it's me. Merry
Christmas. There are family photos. Listen, the
family photos that you do in October are amazing
because you have been preparing for two months,
and I don't know how you do it, but you've done
it, and it's incredible. But that's a part of
the mental load of what you're doing to get things
ready for Christmas. We have to get the pets
Christmas sweaters and hats, and then all the
family descends upon the house in matching pajamas,
100%. And then you have to get the matching pajamas.
And they have to be different than the year before.
And then, like, in this huge, huge, like, Fast
and Furious lead -up, all of a sudden, it's just
done. Like, it goes by so fast. And we often
don't feel like we got to experience Christmas,
or at least what we think Christmas is supposed
to be. We all just become these whirling dervishes.
And sometimes you wonder if what you just experienced
was even real because you're done and you're
like, what was that? It was all activity. And
it can almost feel like the busy, the activity,
the crazy was actually the thing. And even during
Advent, we're meant. to pause. We're meant to
remember hope and to pause to remember peace
and to pause to remember joy and pause to remember
love and look towards the light that came to
live within us at Christmas. We're meant to do
those things, but how? And the following is not
a new idea and each year it feels like more of
a struggle, but it can be an honest to goodness
fight to make room. to take time like you're
wrestling for it for the remembering of the Christ
child in all of it and the contrast always is
that there is any time in our lives in our year
that we need to make room for these gifts it
is this season and I would arguably say love
is the one that we need the most Not to rank
the gifts of God, but I guess I just did. But
even in Corinthians, it says, and the greatest
of these is love. But the presence, but what
the presence and the indwelling of love means
for us in our world is not to be understated.
And 1 Peter 4a implores us to consider that above
all, love each other deeply because love covers
over a multitude of sins. And yet in the season
of Advent, we barely have time to think of it
some years. And some of us are confronted with
how little love we have for the people around
us. How difficult it can be because we're in
close proximity with some of the people that
have been the most difficult in our lives. So
each of the prior weeks of Advent, we are given
a week to consider hope before we turn over to
peace and then joy. But some years, if the calendar
falls just right, We might have three days to
consider the gift and presence of love because
of how the Sunday falls in relationship to the
day of Christmas. And those days are often filled
with the realities of last -minute shopping and
preparation. It's very hard to take a beat and
to focus on this week, this week's reflection.
And it's sobering to consider that even our best
attempts are systematically undermined. by the
environment that we live in. In our imaginations,
we can imagine that the time leading up to Jesus'
birth was also a busy time. There's these reflections
in the scriptures of what all the activity that
was happening. So heaven's postal system was
in full force. Messages were being sent all over
the place for a few months. Zechariah and Elizabeth
each got a message. Mary's cousins. They were
each visited. Mary herself gets a visit about
becoming the mother of Jesus, and she rejoices.
She visits her previously mentioned cousin, and
they're both going to have babies, and both announcements
came by the way of angelic beings, and so that
was uniquely relatable. Oh, an angel visited
you too about your baby? That's cool. Joseph
got a visit from an angel in a dream as well.
The visitors from the east said they got a message
of sorts by way of the stars and the shepherds
saw the angels. So there were so many messages,
such a flurry of things. And in addition to all
the heavenly correspondence, Joseph got a message
from the government bidding them to come to Bethlehem
for the census, as if that wasn't enough. And
I'm sure Mary was stoked about that. We got to
go on a trip? That's fun. So much is happening.
And the stuff. Around this baby Messiah, the
heralding, the announcing is so much. The expectations,
it all seems so grand, it's so big, it's so a
lot, it's so heightened. So let's read in Luke
2, 4 through 20. We're going to read the account.
And I would invite you to stand if you can and
as you're able to give attention to God's word.
As we turn our hearts and attention to this story.
And to this remembrance, according to Luke. So
Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth
in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of
David, because he belonged to the house and line
of David. He went there to register with Mary,
who was pledged to be married to him, and was
expecting a child. And while they were there,
the time came for the baby to be born, and she
gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped
him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because
there was no guest room available for them. And
there were shepherds living out in the fields
nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.
An angel of the Lord appeared to them. The glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were
terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not
be afraid. I bring to you good news that will
cause great joy for all the people. Today in
the town of David, a Savior has been born to
you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be
a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in
cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly a
great company of the heavenly hosts appeared
to the angel, praising God and saying, Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace to
those on whom his favor rests. And when the angels
had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, Let's go, let's go to Bethlehem
and see this thing that has happened, which the
Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and
found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying
in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread
the word concerning what has been told them about
this child, and all who heard it were amazed
at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary
treasured up all these things and pondered them
in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they
had heard and seen, which were just as they had
been told. Let's pray. God, add your blessing
to this word, to this story. May the truths of
it sit deeply in our heart. May we also ponder
these things deeply and hear what you need to
say to us and seal them upon our hearts today.
We pray this in your name. Amen. So your question
this morning was reflecting back to some of the
traditions you had as a kid, if you are a kid,
and what were some of the traditions that you
experienced that you love. I'm an only child,
so I really looked forward to Christmas evening
at my house. People came over. We were a household
of three. And though I am deeply introverted,
my aunt and uncle and cousins would come, and
I always looked forward to it. My uncle, this
is one of our traditions, my uncle would do a
remarkable, exquisite, full -on lyrical dance
to 12 Days of Christmas. And it was astounding.
Yes. Thank you. That's the appropriate reaction.
And I have a very clear memory of him, and he
was a very tall guy, standing on his very tippy
toes for the five golden rings. I loved it. It
was something to behold. And then for those few
precious days after Christmas when you were still
home from school, you'd relish in the freedom
of those days, the slowness of those days. I
would get games for Christmas. That seems like
a good thing to get a young person. But let me
remind you, I'm an only child. Who am I playing
these games with? Thank you. Thank you. So, I
mean, mom was home from work, from school. Grandma
was in town. So there were a few days that we
would play games. But then when those days were
up, You know, they inevitably come to an end.
I was back to setting up Monopoly for a game
with myself. It's the part when you know Christmas
is finished. The guests have gone. The dishes
have been washed. The gifts, having been tested
and tried on and played with, have been absorbed
into the household. The returns have been made.
The house has been cleaned up. Life returns to
normal. And the shine and the wonder and the
magic having seemingly come and gone so quickly.
But Luke 2 .20 says, and the shepherds returned
to their fields. It happened to them too. The
visitors left. The angelic rejoicing had come
to its end. Mary and Joseph moved to Egypt and
life, actual real life, was really about to begin
for this small little family of three. So yes,
this extraordinary miracle had come to fruition
in the deep breath after the bustle of the special
time, but what now? The lead up to the main event
is often so grand, so heralded, but then what?
We see this also in our lives and like weddings,
right? Wedding is traditionally a huge event.
There are months of planning. There are wedding
showers. Gifts are bought and given. There's
a lot of money spent. People travel for this.
And everything is leading up to a very big day
for a couple who have said that they are deeply
in love and want to spend the rest of their lives
living out this beautiful love towards one another.
And so they have a wonderful celebration. And
then, and then, The people leave, and the gifts
have been opened, and the bills start coming
in, and they are left with each other. And that
can actually be really scary, because now it's
just so real. And so the season of Advent will
come to a close this week. We will move next
into the season of Christmas tide. It's the actual
12 days of Christmas. It's from Christmas Eve
through to Epiphany, which is January 6th. And
what comes after that? In the church calendar,
ordinary time follows. There are two spots of
ordinary time in the church calendar. You see
it here when we have the green cloths on the
table. Approximately the month following the
Christmas season and the weeks after Easter,
the stretch of Easter and Lent and Pentecost
near the end of May. Through to Christ the King
Sunday at the end of November. So we have two
periods of ordinary time. When they take up a
significant amount of time. Ordinary time falls
after the big events. After the bigness of Christmas.
And after the bigness of Easter. Lent and Pentecost.
The shepherds return to their fields. And they
had to carry what they experienced into the places
that they lived and they did their work. and
did the ordinary stuff of life after this big
experience. The challenge always is how to take
the gifts and wonder of one season, when the
joy and the feelings of the event are close and
big and within easy reach, and how to carry them
into the realness of the ordinary. At Christmas,
we remember that the love of God has been dynamically
revealed. to the world through Jesus. The light
of Jesus has come to us. And there was rejoicing
and spectacle and people came from near and far,
but now life is just life. The dishes ask for
our attention and the car needs gas and the laundry
needs to be done. The bills have to be paid.
The doctor has to get visited. The kids need
to be dropped off at school and the homework
needs to be done. The email needs to be answered.
The snow needs to be shoveled and the lawn needs
to be mowed. The shepherds returned to their
fields. However, there's a bit more to pull from
here because just before the shepherds returned
to their fields, we have a small reflection on
Mary. And she treasured up all these things and
pondered them in her heart. The things we talk
about during the Advent season are not things
that just show up and make us feel good. They
are birthed in us. And they are meant to become
a part of us in these precious special times.
And then we must hold them in our hearts as we
return to the fields and we need to tend to them
and care for them. In the ordinary, in real life,
we take the things that were once again birthed
in us during the season and we hold them. We
carry hope and tend to its care. We carry peace
and we tend to its care. We carry joy and tend
to its care. We carry love and tend to its care.
We carry the light and we tend to its care. In
the season of Advent, we re -enter the story
of when Jesus came to us, but much like those
that were there, we can't stay in the refuge
of the night when Christ was born. We have to
hold these things in our hearts and go back to
the fields. And so during the season of Advent,
we don't just wait for the arrival of hope and
peace and light, Jesus himself. We don't just
wait for the arrival like guests that have come
for the holidays. We welcome these things into
our lives to stay, to take up residency in us,
to go along the way with us. And even though
the big events will pass, we cannot sustain the
energy that exists in those times. And so the
big events will pass. We return to life with
the gifts that came with the season. We go back
to the fields holding these things in our heart.
We go back to the fields remembering the goodness
and telling the stories to all who will listen,
like our dear shepherds. And we tend to the gifts,
caring for them, keeping the light lit, not letting
it go out. And so as you go forth from this season,
As you return to the fields, as you move back
into the ordinary, may you carry with you the
gifts of the season. May you carry with you the
light and tend to its care. Is anybody familiar
with the tradition of the Celtic Christian tradition?
There's a really beautiful history of the Celts.
very much caring for the things of the ordinary.
This is what stands out in their traditions.
And so if you look through Celtic prayers, they
are very much about like milking the cow. I'm
not kidding going to the bathroom. There are
very, very simple prayers about the comings and
goings of the ordinary. And so the ordinary is
actually quite special. It is where we tend and
care for things. It is the regular maintenance,
right? Which feels so mundane, but we know how
it is when maintenance goes undone. When things
go uncared for. When you don't clean out the
gutters. When you don't get the oil changed.
When you don't mow the lawn. The city comes after
you. I've heard that happens before. And so I
was a new homeowner at the time. I didn't understand
how things worked. But we ask for God to care
for us as he cares for us as we tend for the
precious things that we've been given that have
come with us into the fields. So I am going to
pray this prayer, this Celtic prayer, or this
prayer from the Celtic tradition. As we finish
this morning. God be with me in this, your day.
Every day and every way. With me and for me in
this, your day. And the love and affection of
heaven be towards me and in me towards others.
All that I am, Lord, I place into your hands.
All that I do, Lord, I place into your hands.
Everything I work for, I place into your hands.
Everything I hope for, I place into your hands.
The troubles that weary me, I place into your
hands. The thoughts that disturb me, I place
into your hands. Each day that I pray for, I
place into your hands. Each person that I care
for, I place into your hands. Show me what a
blessing it is that I have life and work to do.
And sometimes, and most of all, when the day
is overcast, And my courage faints. Let me hear
your voice saying, you are my beloved in whom
I am well pleased. Amen.