Like this:

Since December is almost upon us, and the first Sunday of Advent has already come, I was resonating upon one of my favorite songs.  This is a song most anyone will recognize, “Christmas Time is Here” by the Vince Guaraldi Trio.  This is from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special.  It reads…

“Christmas time is here,
Happiness and cheer,
Fun for all that children call,
Their favorite time of the year.”

Christmas is indeed enjoyed by children.  This is no surprise.  Many adults fondly remember Christmases of ages past.  I have great memories of going up to my Aunt and Uncle’s every Christmas as a child.  It was a blissful chaos interacting with all of my cousins.  But what happens when we are no longer children?  Is Christmas still our favorite time of year?

I very much appreciate Charles Schulz and his work “Peanuts.”  His work, while appearing old-timey or kitschy, the comic strip was trend setting and monumental in its day.  I would even call it prophetic as it very much called people towards a different way of living.  One of the ways which Peanuts was so bold is it made kids into little adults.  These little adults at times fought, didn’t treat each other well, and struggled in very adult ways (see one of the many strips where Charlie Brown goes to see Lucy for psychiatric help.

The Charlie Brown Christmas Special is a good example of adults struggling.  The plot is centered around Charlie Brown’s struggle with Christmas.  Does this sound familiar?  Probably.  Struggling with Christmas is not something children generally do.  That falls upon the adults.  The Secret of Christmas that nobody seems to vocalize is the adult struggle with Christmas.  If we believed all of the hype, we would think Christmas is the greatest thing ever in everybody’s lives.  Since I am a pastor, I get to experience and encounter a different side of people’s lives.  People tell me how much they dread Christmas because a certain loved one is no longer with them – for those who have lost a spouse, Christmas can be very hard.  Others tell me how much difficulty they have putting on the holiday – baking, cooking, meal preparation, decorating, gifts.  It gets to be a bit much.  Still others struggle with family – family is not always a joyous thing for people.  To be forced to spend time with family can be a bit much for broken people.  The secret of Christmas that nobody talks about is that people dread Christmas just as much, if not more, than they look forward to it.

Often in the mainline church there is a battle.  I will call the battle Advent vs. Christmas.  Folks on the Advent side wave their arms in an up and down motion trying to get everyone to stop celebrating Christmas, when on the church calendar Christmas hasn’t yet arrived.   In essence, we are still awaiting the coming of Christ.  Others on the Christmas side of things maintain we don’t get to sing Christmas Hymns very often and the rest of the cultural of the world is in full Christmas mode.  I tend to think of the battle as a red herring.  I more so think of the line from Shakespeare, “The lady doth protest too much.”  I have stopped seeing the world that celebrates Christmas as beginning in December as an inability to wait.  I have started to see the world as looking forward more to Christmas being over than Christmas arriving.

The solution to all of this?  Well… for a more detailed look you could read my sermon from the First Sunday in Advent by clicking here.  But I will give a shortened version of the same message here.  In Mark’s Gospel, the disciples after coming out of the Temple say “Teacher, these are really huge buildings.”  Jesus says, “oh, these things will fall.”  He then tells the disciples to “Keep Watch and be prepared.”

Keeping watch for when God is coming in to the world isn’t dreadfully worrying about things.  No… I think keeping watch would be like a child staying up on the night before Christmas.  Waiting in anticipation and excitement.  As such I would recommend you all turn yourself into Children during Advent.  All of those struggles (missing deceased loved ones, preparation, family), shed them, and wait for God to show up.  God might show up when you miss your loved one.  God might show up in all your preparation – cooking, baking, decorating, and even shopping.  God might even show up when you get together with your family you find difficult.

Advertisement