Isaiah 12:2-6 December 13, 2015

Christmas – It’s Not Just for Starbucks Anymore

The war against Christmas is not a thing.It’s not only over, it never was.I say this confidently because Christmas has always been a part of my life and I sure,

always a part of yours. Even if we were to define the Christmas season as officially beginning when manufacturers saw the possibilities’ of connecting sales with celebration, that all got started in the 1870s. Everyone in this church was born after that. You have always lived with Christmas.

In fact, the Christmas season seems to get longer in duration every year. If you look closely, you can spot Christmas decorations on sale in shops before Halloween. Christmas in July – very popular. And there are Christmas stores that are open 365 days a year.

This year the media tried to cause a stir by talking about how Starbucks had taken Christmas off of their seasonal coffee cups. Where there used to be snowflakes, now all the cup had to show for itself was a simple red cup with a green Starbucks logo. When I see red and green together, I think Christmas.

What we do during the Christmas season is another thing altogether.

Everyone has permission to be nostalgic during the holidays, because our lives are full of Christmas memories. One of the big problems with this practice is that the older we get, the farther away we move from the innocence and joy that filled our imaginations of Christmas’ past.

Exhibit A: Charles Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”. Even a miser like Ebenezer Scrooge travels to the past and remembers Fezziwig’s great Christmas parties and other joys of childhood. The present isn’t so bright and the future is downright scary!

And with childhood’s joy in our memory, this year’s Christmas can’t hold a candle to what we remember. And why bother with candles anyway this year? There’s no snow! El Niño, I blame you!

And when the news of the day is filled with stories of injustice and violence, including the theft of packages by porch pirates, where can we find Christmas joy?

The Bible has an answer: We find real joy in God, the source of joy and love. Unlike our own memories that are ruled by time and space, God is constant and everlasting and able to meet our needs and bring us out of ourselves and into the awareness of Emmanuel, God-with-Us.

In three simple steps, we can rediscover the joy of God’s presence. We remember God, we give thanks to God and we praise God.

The writings that we now know as Second Isaiah were written by a prophet who was living in Babylon at the time of the Jewish exile. The temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed and many of the best and the brightest in Judah had been captured and relocated in Babylon. People were beginning to lose hope, feeling as if their God had left them for good.

Isaiah was well aware that God had many good reasons to abandon them. They were not the most faithful of followers and deserved the misfortune that they received. But God would not let them suffer forever. Isaiah combines remembrance of God with thanksgiving and praise of God.

Isaiah 12 begins with a verse that I should have included in the scripture reading: “You will say in that day: I will give thanks to you, O LORD, for though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me.” Songs of thanksgiving were popular back in the day (Psalm 138), and the prophet sees no reason not to keep singing them.

“Sing praises to the LORD, for he has done gloriously”, Isaiah writes. God’s nature is to do good things for us, and this verse of praise echoes Exodus 15 and Miriam’s song that was sung after God had delivered the Hebrews by parting the Red Sea: “Sing to the LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

Beyond thanksgiving and praise, this is a song of salvation. “Surely God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid, for the LORD GOD is my strength and my might; he has become my salvation.” God is in the business of saving us. As Psalm 27 proclaims: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”

Isaiah’s trust in God would be shown to be wise, for Cyrus and the Persian army would defeat Babylon and the exiles would return to Judah. The temple would be rebuilt.

And one day the Messiah would come.

When we sing Handel’s “Messiah” during Christmas or Easter, we do so because we believe that God has come to us in Jesus Christ to forgive us, save us and guide us in the way that leads to peace on earth and eternity in God’s Kingdom.

It comes to us wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.It comes to us as answered prayer when a lonely time is touched by God’s love or when

we are guided by God to care for another person.It comes to war torn areas of the world when God guides rescue workers, doctors and

missionaries to be of help and assistance.For us, in Christ, we receive God’s love and care. Jesus also invites us to become

instruments of God’s love.Because Christmas is alive and well, we have this special time to celebrate God’s love

for us. But Christmas isn’t just for this month or for Starbucks. The joy and love at work today is with us forever.

Jesus comes to us as one of us, born into a poor family, growing up in a hick town, traveling with a ragtag bunch of disciples without money in their pockets or a place to sleep for the night, as part of a small and persecuted religion. God in Christ begins at the bottom so that everyone might be included. Jesus is rejected by the world and yet rises from the dead to proclaim that nothing will keep God from loving us.

You are hearing this message because there is no guarantee that you will be in church on Christmas Eve and you need to hear a Christmas sermon. But you hear them every week, anyway. The choir will share a Christmas cantata next week because there is no guarantee that you will be here on Christmas Eve, but you need to hear Christmas music, anyway.

Today and everyday is a day of rejoicing. When we remember Christmases past or focus on ourselves, the world and its problems can overwhelm us. But when we are able to think about God’s love for us through Jesus, we can hear once more: “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NIV)

So, it’s early, I know. But Merry Christmas, anyway! Christmas is not just for Christmas anymore.