Sermons

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Only the Beginning
December 19, 1999
4th Sunday of Advent with musical drama “Navidad Nuestra”
Pastor Dan Baumgartner

It’s a great thing to see the gifts of so many come together, and lead us in worship this morning.

Our musical drama this morning is most appropriate, I think. This is the last Sunday before Christmas. What we’ve just seen and heard reminds us of the story … the simple, clear, moving story of Christ coming into our midst. We need to hear the straight and simple story … not because it’s a pageant, or tradition, but because it is our story … at least, it’s the beginning of our story. We also need to hear the straight story because our culture has done so many things to complicate it, to mess it up. I’m reminded of this constantly at this time of year. I want to issue you a challenge this morning, if you’re up to it. Take a drive, and go see the Christmas lights in some neighborhood. Our family did this last night, so I assure you this is not fiction. If you do this, you’ll eventually find a house that fits this description:

The house will be lit up with blinking, cascading small white lights, as well as the larger red, green, blue and orange ones outlining the roofline. And there, in the front yard, will be a well-lighted, 3-foot tall nativity scene. It’s complete with a stable and hay spread around the yard, Mary and Joseph, a baby Jesus in a crude cradle … perhaps even a cow and donkey. It’s beautiful. But then as you continue to survey the yard, the confusion sets in.

For what to my wandering eye should appear? In the corner of the yard, headed for the stable of Bethlehem is a chunky guy in red driving six reindeer, including the front one whose nose is a huge red light bulb. As your mind grapples with the significance of these two images, you realize in horror that the sled is on a direct path to run over the top of a huge white snowman, hooked up with a loudspeaker that is blaring out Bing Crosby singing “Frosty the Snowman.”

You look again, and see that if the sled swerves to avoid Frosty, they’ll be in danger of causing a multiple person accident, because there are three ancient kings also making their way across the lawn towards the Bethlehem stable. One of them is on his knees, and you know there’s no way he’ll be able to get up in time to avoid Rudolph and the sled. To add to the confusion, in the opposite corner of the yard, a bunch of elves are hammering away in a workshop, apparently oblivious to anything else going on in the vicinity.

Now distracted, your eye looks upward, directly over the stable. There used to be a simple star there, but the ingenious homeowner took it down and installed a flashing red and green “Season’s Greetings” sign. Try to explain all of that to your children! No, we need to hear it again, and again, as we have in the musical this morning:

“The angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”

There’s a second reason I enjoyed this Navidad Nuestra. Perhaps you were surprised that the story did not end with the shepherds at the stable, or at least the three kings coming to pay homage. That’s the usual place to end a nativity scene. It’s neat and clean and polished, and we leave with a nice picture of this bouncing baby boy Jesus, wrapped in a gleaming white blanket, and carefully installed into a loving family, with the stars glowing overhead.

But not in this drama, and not in the Bible. Instead, it ends with the flight of Mary, Joseph and Jesus to Egypt. Perhaps that caught us a little by surprise. We didn’t expect to see a Christmas play end with the holy family scurrying out of town, looking in fear over their shoulders to see if the soldiers were coming. We rarely stop to consider that when God’s Son came into the world … he came into OUR world … a world that is confusing and sometimes dangerous. From practically the moment of His birth, Jesus was forced to flee as a refugee … to a strange and pagan land … to avoid the threat of violence in his homeland. And though he later returned to this region, it was always this way for Jesus. He lived his whole life in an environment of struggle, pain and fear. We read about those things in the newspapers today, we see it on CNN…but here? In the Christmas story? When God chose to come into the world, to be God-with-us…it was no carefree decision. But God’s choice was to come anyway.

Christ’s birth was the beginning … only the beginning. Advent is the beginning of the church’s year…not the end. Saturday we will celebrate not the end of things, but the beginning. Christmas is not the culmination of God’s presence with us, but the beginning. And if the drama leaves us feeling a little unfinished … it’s a good reminder. Because Jesus’ being among us is unfinished. It continues. The presence of Christ continues to write our stories. The God we follow is a living, active God…not a God of the history books.

At Advent we celebrate God’s presence in our lives. Not 2000 years ago, but the daily presence of today. And this morning we celebrate by taking communion together. In this mysterious and powerful way, we get to experience the God who is with us.

The holiday season for some is one of the toughest times of the year. There are among us those who carry tremendous tensions from our family interactions of the holidays. The invitation for you from Jesus is “Come. Come lay your tension, your burden down.”

Others of us are dealing with extreme crises of health, or are caring for people who are failing. The invitation for you from Jesus is “Come. Come receive strength.” Some of us are at weak points in marriages or relationships, and this time of year finds us broken and confused. The invitation for you from Jesus is “Come, and be healed.”

Some are missing loved ones who have never been gone at Christmas before…I’m one of those…I found myself at Starbucks one morning this week, writing some reflections about my grandfather who died in May, and tears began to run down my face. For us, the invitation of Jesus says, “Come, and receive my comfort.” I don’t know what your need may be this morning. In need of forgiveness, of a friend, of wisdom … the invitation of Jesus is for you …. “Come.”