“That’s the
Spirit!”
December 4, 2022
Dear brothers and sisters, grace and
peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
Amen.
I’ll just come right out and admit
it: the past few weeks, for various reasons, it’s been a bit more of a
challenge to have the “Christmas spirit.” When we think of the “Christmas
spirit,” we think of an attitude of almost permanent joy, happiness, and peace
that comes with the overall atmosphere of the season. There are different kinds
of sights, sounds, and even smells, especially lights, decorations, trees, Christmas
carols, Santa Claus going “ho ho ho,” pine, mint, chocolate, everything else
which we usually associate with Christmas. In other words, because it’s the
Christmas season, we want to feel happy, cheerful, and upbeat all the time. But
different things can tend to get in the way of doing so, because, even though
it’s the Christmas season, we still have to deal with everyday life. We still
have our usual daily duties and worries: bills to pay, assignments to complete,
tasks to accomplish, places to go. And I imagine for many of us, it’s also been
a bit more of a struggle anyway because we’ve had to deal with so much this
past year: rising prices, having to balance our budgets, our favorite stores
and restaurants being short staffed, unexpected health diagnoses, covid still
being with us, struggling to get back to normal even with two years after the
pandemic, all kinds of other things which have made us, as we get to the end of
the year, stressed out.
I can tell you, though, that at
least a couple of things have happened to me this past week which have helped
me get in the spirit of Christmas again. There were a few events taking place
over the past couple of weeks which were causing me a bit of stress, and which
were causing me to be stuck in a cycle of worry. Seriously, especially this
past week it was a bit hard for me to look at Christmas decorations and hear carols
and feel a cheerful spirit. So what did I do? I finally decided I’d had enough,
I was tired of being stuck, and so I prayed. Specifically, I prayed, as I’ve been
encouraging all of you the past few years, for God to come and take control. And
He did. He resolved a number of things I’d been having to deal with, in ways I
didn’t even expect, but He still came through, like He always does. And not
only that, He gave me opportunities to experience Christmas in another, more
rewarding way – by helping other people. I got to help pack the Christmas boxes
for CAMP this past Monday, which will be given to everyone who comes in this
months: and by the way, CAMP would like to thank us for generously donating
bottles of pancake syrup for the Christmas boxes, which will be a blessing for
all those who need extra food for the holiday. And then, just yesterday, I got
to go with many of you to Hands Against Hunger, and was really happy we all were
able to do it again for the first time since before covid started. Along with
over three hundred other people, we all prepared food packets which will be
sent overseas to Somaliland, a region in northeast Africa where many people
live in constant fear and hunger. I am also really encouraged by an anonymous
donor who offered to buy gifts for the Valley View Giving Tree, so we as a church
family can be able to help children in our local community that we as well,
just as we’ve done in the past. This afternoon, we’re welcoming Damac, who will
bring the good news of Jesus to us in a different and exciting way. Next week,
we’re going to be caroling and bringing cheer bags. This is what Christmas
really is all about: bringing hope to people, especially those in dire need, by
blessing them in special ways with the love of Jesus. These are also all ways
that the Holy Spirit has been leading us, during this holiday season, to share
God’s healing and life-changing power with others.
All this is also what Paul encourages us
in today’s Second Reading from Romans, verse 13: “May the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.” The true spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit
– the spirit and power of Jesus. The reason we celebrate Jesus’ birth in the
first place is to remember He is the one true God who came into the world as
one of us – to bring the life-changing power of God right into our own very lives,
and, again, so we can bring that same power into the lives of other people. And
Jesus can change our lives, minds, hearts, and attitudes, especially if we are
stuck in negativity because we think our situation, or the world is hopeless. The
Prophet Isaiah, in today’s First Reading, actually helps us to see that,
because of Jesus, the Savior and Messiah who was promised at that time, nothing
is hopeless. Even in Isaiah’s time, things seemed out of control: God’s people were
being attacked on all sides by their enemies; they were living under kings who
were leading them astray; and they were scared about their future. But Isaiah
actually gives us a vision of what would almost seem impossible: the poor
receive justice; there is no more war or conflict, and people and animals don’t
harm each other. In other words, there is hope for the present and the future.
In Jesus, there is always a reason to be encouraged. As Paul also says in verse
4, “Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that
through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”
The best ways we can hold on to hope with everything going on right now are to
pray, and to read our Bibles every day, to hear again and again God’s
uplifting, affirming, and encouraging words for us – that He is still with us, on
our side, and is at work for us.
If we really do trust God, and we are
staying close to Him, then we are promised that we will experience joy and
peace. Trusting is more than just believing God exists: it’s letting Him rule
us, even as He rules the whole world. The God who causes the wolf and lamb to lie
down together in peace can also bring peace to us, and our troubled lives and
world. One of the many sights of Christmas we see are signs saying “peace on
earth” – and this peace not only will come when Jesus comes back in glory, but
this peace is already here. We can have peace if we ask Jesus to come into our
hearts and minds and give us the peace we need, removing all obstacles to our
peace and happiness.
In this Advent and Christmas season,
and as we hear John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading, we are also called
to repent – but not in the way we would think. Usually, when we hear the word “repent,”
we think of stopping doing wrong things and starting to do right things. It
would be easy to try to point out what we think everyone else is doing wrong, to
criticize what we think are certain errors in society, and how everyone else ought
to shape up. But that’s not what that means for us today.
Instead, it means: Time to get back on
track. We’ve had a lot of things happen in the past couple of years that have
knocked us off track, and have caused us to take our focus off of God and what
He promises. Up until covid, we were living in a fairly secure kind of way, but
then everything happened, and threw us into a near constant state of stress and
insecurity. Covid, its aftermath, and a number of other events of the past
couple of years, mostly social and political, caused us to turn inward and go
into survival mode, where our focus has gone off of looking forward with hope and
optimism to what God can be able to do, and instead looking at everything which
seems to be going negatively, losing hope in what God can accomplish. But if we
are asking “What can God do?”, then we are glorifying God. Like the people of
Isaiah’s time, we may be scared about our future, even feeling under attack,
but we still have the same promise as back then: God has planted His banners of
victory in our world. Jesus was born, died, and rose again victorious over
death and every enemy, and so God is glorious and reigns supreme over all, and
over us.
So are we glorifying God? What we mean is,
are we living according to the Holy Spirit, who helps us live according to the spirit
of Jesus? Are we letting Jesus rule over us, to take control of our cares and
struggles, so we can be free to live in peace with ourselves and each other?
And, in living in peace, to be free to live for other people, and bring peace
and comfort to them?
So do you want to get into the true
Christmas spirit? Well, it’s actually one we live year round: letting who we
are and how we live show who Jesus is and what He wants for all of us. It is
living in peace and unity with each other, accepting each other as we are, just
as Jesus accepts us as we are. It is also being hopeful and optimistic, not in
some sort of naïve way, but believing that even though things may be difficult
right now, Jesus is still going to turn everything around, and maybe make it even
better than it was before. And it is one, as we trust in Jesus, where we live to
give what we have to others – our time, our material blessings, and in many
other ways we can help someone’s needs. In just a few minutes, we will be receiving
Communion, and, as we eat and drink Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and
wine, we will be filled with the power of Jesus and with the Holy Spirit once
again. If we want to experience the Christmas spirit all the time, that’s how
to do it – to let ourselves overflow with hope, hope that comes from believing
in Jesus and living that same hope, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Now may the peace of God, which
passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
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