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A sermon is a manner of oral communication and therefore words and sentence structure/order would be added, altered, or deleted at the moment of delivery. + In Nomine Jesu + The Rev. Evan Gaerther Much of life is spent waiting, on the verge, at the tipping point, ready set go. When anticipation and expectation become reality, when God's good will for the world is revealed for all to see, God with us, then what? On this day, our yearning, our hunger and thirst for righteousness, is fulfilled. The Savior has come. So now what? It is hard to wait for Christmas. Is that why we have been having in the stores Christmas for the last three months? Right after Halloween, stores rushed the Yuletide for all to purchase. Was it because we are not very good at waiting? I remember when I was a kid in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. We got tickets for the circus. I counted the days down till the circus was coming to town. 8 days, 7 days, 4 days, now is the day. We went early to walk around the arena and see the elephants and the clowns. We got there and well…the clowns looked kind of old. The elephants were not that interested in me or anything else. The flying trapeze didn't seem that much different than the monkey bars at Hamilton Elementary and jeez…they needed a safety net. Is this all there is to a circus? Waiting and counting down with anticipation is a wonderful feeling when what is coming is a fulfillment of all that is looked forward to. The time of waiting over the four-weeks of Advent can be a wonderful time of building expectation. Is something lost when we decorate the tree early? Should we sing carols in Advent? What about the poinsettias, should they be out for all to see? Too soon for carols! Too soon for the greens! Too soon for the trumpets! The countdown of Advent is a time of preparation but like the circus, sometimes Christmas doesn't arrive with all that was expected. Is it a problem of oversell, over-expectation. The circus had great banners of wild animals made tame, acrobatic men and women flying through the sky, and well in that arena in Wisconsin it disappointed this 6th grader. Not so much because it wasn't a good circus, but that in my dreams it was going to be so much more. Do we expect too much from Christmas? Does all the preparation work of Advent oversell the possibilities of what a little baby can accomplish? John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." Mary sang, "he has filled the hungry with good things." Zechariah gave these good words upon the birth of John, "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people." Isaiah promised, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." The angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest!" The shepherds said, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened!" We expect peace, joy, goodwill, and the fulfillment of our collective expectation. We get instead a baby in a manger in a dusty little town of Bethlehem. Certainly there was the nine-month nervous waiting for a baby by Mary. The wait was over and when the time had come Mary gave birth to her first-born son. There is the big difference in Mary's life between "We're having a baby" and "We just had a baby." Mary moved from hope to reality, from waiting to well…now what? The waiting and expectation are over and now Mary looks down into the manger and sees her waiting over and expectation fulfilled. As she looked down at Jesus, does she see all that she planned? There is a thing about preparation and waiting. Preparation assumes you know what the goal is and so you are just in the process of getting there. Waiting considers that one is waiting for something that when they see it will know they don't need to wait any longer. Today we celebrate that the wait is over and we meet in the Christ Child the truth, the truth that has a face, a name. The Savior Has Come. He is not what is expected in a child. Certainly he coos, fills his diaper, and nurses upon the breast of his mother. But all too quickly the question is transformed from, "Mary, when are you going to have a baby" towards "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" The wait is over, expectation has become fulfillment. Jesus is coming becomes Jesus has come and will come again. Christmas day is a moment when waiting transforms into receiving. The greatest gift we get from Jesus today is his salvation. He saves us from sin. He saves us from our temptations. And he even saves us from death. The Savior has come is a declaration that our waiting and expectation has been fulfilled. But I still long for peace, joy, goodwill, and the fulfillment of all that is promised. I still look for evidence that the government will be on his shoulders. I still desire the Wonderful Counselor that brings reconciliation to all that struggle and hurt. Even now the news is filled with the sad story of Bobbi Jo Stinnett, the pregnant woman who was killed in Missouri. Daily the headlines are filled with events like the mess hall bombing in Mosul. But we don't need to look to the news to know that in each of our lives there are daily headlines of frustration and disappointment. The wait is over. Christmastime has come. The wait is over. The Christ child is born. Now what? The angel pointed the shepherds to the manger in Bethlehem. John the Baptist pointed his disciples to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World. Where are you being pointed to this Christmastime? The wait is over, the preparation has found fulfillment. Now is the time of receiving. By faith we receive the Christ Child that has been born. By faith we receive his love and care and mercy. By faith we now see as look down at this baby in a manger that the Savior has come. So where is the peace, joy, goodwill, the good news? It does not come overnight. But the wait is over. The Savior has come is a promise that speaks in the declarative. The headlines will continue. The wonder of what's next will not always be answered. But one thing has been answered. "When?" Now is the time to point to the peace, joy, good news that has been born. Will you take the risk and look in the manger and see the Christ Child? Will you take the risk to discover that God's plan for you is possibly something different then what you have been preparing for? In W.H. Auden's "A Christmas Oratorio," he portrays the wise men on a hard journey to Bethlehem to visit the Christchild. Then he records theirs words on the way back home, after they have seen the baby. They tell of their joy at finding the child. But there is also a sense of foreboding. If this is God with us, then what does that mean for us? Considering the significance of this Savior, one of the Magi says, "one might want another birth." Did they come this far for "death or for birth?" Having gone so far to see the baby, were they ready to see the baby? On the way home were they ready to take this good news for what it was and not what they wanted it to be? The wait is over. Christmas is here. The Savior has been born in the city of David. Blessed be the Lord the God of Israel for he has visited and redeemed his people. Now What? Now that the wait is over we take what we have seen and heard, not what a Pollyanna dream of everything changed overnight. We go and make disciples of nations by baptizing and teaching all that the Lord has commanded us. The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works. Having looked into that manger and seen the Christ Child you are no longer a people for yourselves. Preparations and expectations may have been taking you one way, but now through the Lord you are being made into a people of righteousness for the Lord's Sake. Soli Deo Gloria
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