WHERE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS AT HOME
SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT 2008

One of my favorite, for lack of a better term, ‘non religious’ Christmas carols is the old classic ‘ Silver Bells’, a song in which the composers paint a clear picture of Christmas time back in those pre mall days when people were drawn to the Main Streets of  cities, cities both big and small. Actually, one of my earliest Christmastime memories was walking with my mom through the streets of downtown Putnam, hardly a place one might call a large, thriving metropolis, walking on a bitterly cold Friday night, with voices blaring aloud such familiar seasonal words. You know the song to which I am going to refer. . After an introductory allusion to busy city sidewalks adorned in ‘holiday style’, the writers cut to the chase as they state:

In the air, there’s a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile

Dear friends: It has long been acknowledged that there is just SOMETHING about this Christmas season that brings out the best in people, that those so often worn down by the frustrations and the worries of everyday life, find comfort and solace and cheer in the smiles and the laughter of children as they sing songs, jangle bells, eat cookies and open presents.. You will see that simple enjoyment this afternoon as we will gather to watch our children act and sing in their annual Pageant. I saw it first hand Friday night as over 30 people of all ages wound their path through the streets of Union, visiting many homes along the way, young and older alike, members of our congregation which had sponsored this event and many of their invited friends. In the laughter of the children, the caravan of cars winding up and down Union roads and hills, in music, both solemn and playful, emanating from their lips and voices , I’m here to tell you that in that cold midwinter evening, in the air there WAS a feeling...in the air, a feeling  of Christmas!

You know, we do all need a little Christmas, as that other ‘non religious’ carol goes. We need these different seasons of the year to remind us of what we can all too readily forget in what can be for many the grind or drudgery or simply routine of everyday living. Yet, at this glorious time of year, when the JOY of this season hovers all around us, more than ever do we need to remind ourselves of a reality so basic and yet so true that it’s easy to just pass it by when instead we need to pause and be confronted by the power of its truth. And what, you might ask, is that truth we need to face, this great lesson in what most Christians acknowledge to be the greatest season of them?

Well, listen now to the POWER, as I said, in the simplicity of this lesson: That for those of us who follow Jesus Christ, Christmas might be a season, but our Christianity is not. Our faith in Jesus, our journey as His disciples, might pause to draw inspiration from these stories of old and the customs that have surrounded them, those traditions in which we have been raised, but whatever goodness we glean from this wonderful season, whatever PEACE and HOPE and LOVE we might feel as confronted by wreaths and mangers and special songs, whatever positive changes we might feel in our lives as we celebrate with family and friends, all of this belongs not only to THIS SEASON but instead to the entirety of our lives.

My friends, do you see what am I saying? Do you think that makes any sense? You need not speak out loud, but give it some thought in your mind, in your heart, in your soul!

You see, one thing that is really clear about Christmas is that it CAN make a difference in people’s lives. Just look at how people give food and clothing to those in need, at how many bills and coins are dropped in those Salvation Army buckets, at how family and friends who have fussed and feuded put down their arms and try to coexist, to be together at least in some degree of PEACE.

Now, there’s a word for these kind of positive changes and that word is..... TRANSFORMATION.  Paul, in Romans 12, calls for us to be transformed. He dubs it the ‘renewing of our minds’ It is wonderful to see the transformations that occur at this ‘most wonderful time of the year’...yet a third allegedly nonreligious tune. Yet, you see, dear friends, there is a bigger picture here. This faith we profess, Christianity, is a religious faith in which TRANSFORMATION must not be merely seasonal, but rather be part of everyday life. Not merely SEASONAL.....a part of EVERYDAY LIFE!

In other words, my faith in Jesus, your faith in Jesus, just has to make a DIFFERENCE in the way you and I live. It’s not that people who don’t believe in Jesus can’t exhibit magnificent human qualities , that’s not the point. Rather, it is that for those of us who DO, for this religion to be what it is cracked up to be, it has to make a difference. In direct terms, for Christianity to be what Christianity is supposed to be, those teachings of Jesus, the Jesus we sing about at Christmas, have to take ROOT in who we are and how we live our lives. Just as those Christmas carols we sing MOVE US to look around and experience something different, carols that don’t even pretend to be OVERTLY RELIGIOUS, so MUCH MORE must JESUS move us ....and that movement has to occur EACH AND EVERY DAY!

The real test, you see, The real test of how we have been affected by Jesus is whether the words we profess, words like PEACE and HOPE and LOVE and JOY....whether they really ABIDE IN US. Do they live in us? Because of our faith, have we become more peaceful? More loving?  More joyful and hopeful?  Does our faith in Jesus live in us or have we relegated our faith to the realm of an insurance policy against what might occur in that great unknown, an unknown before which we might catch ourselves trembling?

In the letter of Peter we read today, we heard tan interesting phrase as the Biblical author attempted to show the relationship between this earthly life and that  perfect world for which those early Christians were so eagerly waiting. He spoke of a day when ‘righteousness would be at home.’ As I read this assigned reading weeks ago in preparation for this sermon, a simple thought crossed my mind: That all of these wonderful qualities of which we speak and sing and light candles, all of this somehow must find its HOME within us and if doesn’t and it’s NOT THERE, we need to be transformed; we need to be changed!. And I also got to thinking that it does not come easily, that along life’s journey, we need examples to inspire us. Now, there’s far more to Jesus, of course, than just being an EXAMPLE, but when you think about HOW he handled His own death, how He dealt with being hated, how He forgave even those who were killing Him, well, I don’t know about you, but I find that’s sure an awful lot of example, wouldn’t you say?

We need examples to inspire us, those who can help us in this lifelong journey of transformation.  I just read this great book, to which I referred on my blog. It’s called AMISH GRACE.  Now, because the Amish dress differently and live differently and because their most noteworthy geographic concentration has become such a goldmine as a tourist area in Pennsylvania, many people simply dismiss them as a curiosity, as sort of cultish and  out of the mainstream. Truth be told, most people, even within Christianity, don’t really know their history either.

But this book, written by three college professors who have studied the Amish in depth, does something else. It makes very clear that the Amish people aren’t a bunch of sad dispossessed individuals vulnerable to a Jim Jones like religious maniac, susceptible to flying planes into buildings in the name of religious allegiance. Not at all!  This book focuses on what you will probably remember: That terrible murder of Amish schoolchildren in Lancaster County just a couple of years back, a murder perpetrated by a disturbed man who walked into the school house, terrorized these students, and then proceeded to kill several of them.  Now the focal point of this book is the incredible degree to which Amish parents, grandparents, relatives, neighbors and friends, FORGAVE the killer, to the point where several were actually present at HIS funeral as he had committed suicide following his commission of these evil deeds and how they reached out in kindness to the killer’s wife and children!.  The authors raised the natural question of HOW these people, so devastated by the senseless death of these innocents, could EVER bring themselves to forgive, a forgiveness I have come nowhere close to completely describing! If you get a chance, read the book.....

They interviewed many Amish family members and friends and asked the question WHY. WHY FORGIVE? The answers were stark and simple. You see, the Amish folk take JESUS  seriously.  They may not have a lot of the trappings of a typical church, but, boy, THEY TAKE JESUS AND HIS WORDS VERY, VERY SERIOUSLYand to understand them the authors make clear that you’ve got to comprehend how seriously they take Jesus. Hence, some of their answers: ‘ Why is everybody surprised?, asked one Amish man, “ It’s just standard Christian forgiveness. It’s what everybody should be doing.’ ‘ Refusing to forgive’ said another, ‘IS NOT AN OPTION. It’s what everybody should be doing.’ The authors spoke of how the Amish are drawn to the Biblical image of Christians as a ‘light on the hill, a light that shines in the darkness and provides a witness to God’s grace by faithful practice.’  Another simply said: ‘ We have to forgive. We have to forgive if we want God to forgive us.’To which I’d suggest that really is  not too radical for Christian  believers who say in church every week: FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS...AS WE FORGIVE...

My point in raising all of this on an Advent morning is a simple one: REAL CHRISTIANITY is not seasonal. It’s about every day and it is transformational. It’s like the Christmas Tree Shop that’s open every year! Might be a bad example, but I think you get my point!

 When I read this book, I thought about another book I read, something we discussed years ago, of which I wrote at length in my doctoral thesis, of those Christians in Le Chambon, France during World War Two who secretly took in Jewish families who had fled to avoid the terror of concentration camps and extermination. I remember an elderly Christian woman being asked why she did this, possibly risking her own life in the process. She spoke of her own Christian faith and then added:’ It was just the natural thing to do.’

You see, dear friends, those outer actions of the isolated Amish in Pennsylvania, of those courageous Hugeonot Protestant Christians in France in the midst of the nightmare that WAS the Holocaust, THOSE are clear , bold examples that this Christianity of which we joyfully sing this season, these stories which can bring smiles to our faces and can move our very hearts to goodness, these stories are NOT about a SEASONAL religion. Instead they are tales of FAITH in a Savior who can inspire us to ACTION and CHANGE, a Savior who MUST be THE force of the very TRANSFORMATION of our very lives, lives  which are far from perfect and STILL in need of that FULFILLMENT to which Advent points and promises.....
Let it be a TRANSFORMATION in which the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God, that peace and hope and love we have received as a daily Christmas gift, that RIGHTEOUSNESS will find a home, a home in our hearts .......a home in the way we live our lives!

AMEN+