According to an NBC news affiliate which
aired around this time last year, well over half of us prefer an artificial
Christmas tree instead of a real one. According to this report, only 18% of us
are old school when it comes to our Christmas trees.
My brother happens to part of that 18% and
he proudly reminds me of this every single Christmas. He knows that Penny and I
sold out a long time ago when it comes to buying real Christmas trees. We think
we have a very beautiful Christmas tree, but all he can see are the metal tubes
and the fake pine needles.
I must admit that I’m envious every time I
see his 12 foot tall authentic Christmas tree that has been freshly cut down
and always includes the delightful smell of pine throughout his house. That’s
something you just don’t get with an artificial tree that gets stored in a box
year round.
In one of the churches I pastored, the
young adult Sunday School class invited me to a Christmas decorating party that
was held in their classroom. When I arrived, they had punch and cookies and
after about ten minutes, somebody said, “Let’s
start decorating.”
I watched as a couple of the class members
walked to a nearby storage closet and carried out an artificial Christmas tree
that still had the lights and the decorations on it from the previous year.
They stood up the tree in the corner of their classroom, plugged in the lights,
and someone yelled out, “We’re done. Help
yourself to some more punch and cookies.”
I guess there is something to be said for
real Christmas trees.
Whether you have a real Christmas tree or
an artificial one isn’t really the point. The real question is if our faith is
real or not.
The Christmas story from the Gospel of
Luke is all about keeping it real. The gospel writer reminds us that God risked
everything by sending us Jesus.
The one who would be given the title the
King of Kings was first born in the shadow of the mighty Roman Emperor Augustus
who claimed this title for himself.
The one who would go on to heal the sick, calm
the storm, and feed the multitude would first be placed in a lowly manger upon
his birth.
And the one who would face rejection and
betrayal, would be turned away at his birth because there was no room in the
inn.
Yes, the Christmas story itself is a story
that helps us to keep it real.
Over the past several Sundays here in
church, we have been asking ourselves this very important question. Are we
keeping Christmas real?
During the first Sunday of Advent, we
looked at how we can keep Christmas real by embracing the hope of the coming of
Christ into the world. George Iles once said, “Hope is faith holding out its hand in the dark.” A little later in
our service tonight, we will be doing just that. We will be lifting our lit
candles in the dark of the sanctuary and the hope of Christ will bring light to
this place.
To help make hope more real, some of us
have been doing some fridge journaling where every time we open the refrigerator
we jot down on a note pad, a time when God got us through what seemed at the
time like a hopeless situation.
And then we were given the challenge to
share some of these experiences of hope with the people around us. Sharing hope
with others is a way to keep Christmas real.
On the second Sunday of Advent, we focused
on embracing the peace of Christmas. When we put our focus on Christ, rather
than on the materialism of Christmas, we experience a deeper sense of God’s
peace in our lives.
Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we
seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” One of the ways we can
keep it real this Christmas is by seeking peace rather than division. We will
discover that it’s when we are actively seeking peace, that we will experience
a peace that passes all understanding.
On the third Sunday of Advent, we
discovered that we can keep it real through an attitude of joy. That’s why one
of the candles around the Advent wreath is pink and not blue like all the
others. Blue reminds us to patiently wait for the coming of Christmas but the color
pink reminds us that we can experience joy along the journey.
The pink candle represents the third
Sunday of Advent leading up to Christmas. The church refers to this Sunday of
Advent as Gaudete Sunday. Gaudete is a Latin word that
means “Rejoice.”
Helen Keller once said, “Joy is the holy fire that keeps our purpose
warm and our intelligence a glow.” If you want to keep Christmas real, just
look around at how God is at work in our world, and you this will lead you to a
Gaudete moment of rejoicing.
And this past Sunday, the fourth Sunday of
Advent, we gave some thought to how love helps us to keep it real at Christmas.
It’s when we share the love of Jesus that we experience the deepest kind of
love there is. This love is an unconditional love that accepts us for who we
are and loves us just the way we are.
Morrie Schwartz once said, “The most important thing in life is to
learn how to give out love and let it come in.”
I see so many examples of people sharing
God’s love through our church and it’s all because God’s love is just too
incredible to keep to ourselves. It’s the kind of love that fills us and we
can’t help but to share it with the people around us.
If you are looking to keep it real this
Christmas, just remember these four themes of our Advent season. Hope, Peace,
Joy, and Love. These Advent Candles remind us of how we can keep it real this
Christmas and beyond.
For the past four years, people in our
church and from the community gather at our church’s Crossroads facility on
West Fair Avenue from 8:30 am to noon on the second Saturday of each month. Our mission is simple. We want to be a blessing in our community. We
call this our Second Saturday outreach ministry.
We have painted several of the city’s fire
hydrants, painted over graffiti on bridges, served as volunteers for charity
events, helped with house repairs, laid new flooring at Foundation Dinners,
given away quarters to people at the Laundromat, helped residents at a nursing
home play bingo and chair volleyball, taken bags of fruit and cookies to first
time responders and to people who are shut-in, raked people’s yards, helped
with the Habitat for Humanity resale store, made warm blankets for nursing home
and hospice patients, helped build a tree house for the students at Forrest
Rose school for Developmental Disabilities, along with several other projects
just to give you an idea of what Second Saturday is all about.
A couple of weeks ago, we had fun
assembling and wrapping Christmas presents for several needy families in our
community. I am terrible at gift
wrapping and even I ended up wrapping several gifts that somehow passed
inspection.
One of the people we helped for Christmas
last year is a man in his 50s who shared this letter with us. If anything can
help us keep Christmas real this year, it would be this man’s letter. Here’s
what he wrote and these are totally his words:
“I
receive disability and both kids live with me right now. Me and my wife separated a year ago and in
February, we learned that our son who was 5 at the time was being sexually
abused by a cousin.
My wife had a
mental breakdown and had to stay in a hospital for a while and we both agreed
that it would be best for the kids to live with me but while my wife was in and
out of the hospitals, me and the kids were homeless and we stayed in a shelter
for a couple of months and recently received help to get me and my kids into an
apartment.
From April to
July, me and the kids have lived in a tent, took baths in creek water, cook
food over an open fire. Community Action helped us get into an apartment.
In September, I
had a heart attack and found out I have a big blood clot in my heart. They say I have not got much time so I hope
that this Christmas will be a good one for me and the kids. The kids and I
don’t have much but at least we have a home thanks to people who have helped
us.”
I called this dad to let him know that I
received his letter and that our church was glad to help them for Christmas. I
offered him words of support and shared in a prayer with him, reminding him
that God was with him and that God loved him.
After I hung up the phone, I remember
thinking that Christmas never felt more real to me than it did in that moment. And
I know it had something to do with hope, peace, joy, and love.
This past week, I was
on the phone with my insurance agent. As she was pulling up my policy, she
noticed that I was a minister. To kill time she said, “So Rob, are you ready for your Christmas Eve services? I mean, this is
a really busy time of year for you.”
I told her that I was close to being
ready. She said, “Well, that’s good, Rob.”
Since the computer was slow in pulling up my
information she asked me another question just to pass the time. “So, it must be really hard to preach on
Christmas Eve. Don’t you ever run out of something new to say?”
Now, up until that very moment, I had been
feeling pretty good about tonight’s sermon. All of the sudden, I wasn’t so sure
anymore.
So I told her, “Yeah, it is a challenge, but I think I’m ready again this year.”
She said, “Well, that’s good to hear, Rob.”
Ok everyone, so here’s my super
insightful and genius thought to leave with you tonight. Are you ready for
this? This is going to blow you away. Here’s my genius thought.
This Christmas, remember to keep it real.
Merry Christmas!
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