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A Crummy Commercial?

A Crummy Commercial?

December 2, 2007

Text: Isaiah 11:1-10

Isa 11:1-7

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear;

4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

6 The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together. 8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den. 9 They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

NRSV

If you’re among the fifty or so people in the world who haven’t seen the movie, “A Christmas Story,” here’s what it is about: Christmas in the 1940’s, and a little boy Ralphie’s quest for a Red Ryder BB gun.

The background for the brief scene you’re about to see is this. Ralphie has just received his long-hoped-for Little Orphan Annie decoder ring. He’s listened to the announcer on the Little Orphan Annie radio show, sponsored by Ovaltine, give the secret numbers that he’ll use the ring to decode. Once he gets the secret message, he’ll be able to help Annie in whatever dilemma she’s found herself.

Ralphie’s locked himself in the bathroom for this mission. Adding to the drama, his kid brother is pounding on the door—he needs to get into the bathroom too, but not to use a decoder ring.

Watch.

Isn’t this the way we feel about Christmas, sometimes?

A “crummy commercial?”

We have such hopes—Christmas is our magic decoder ring, which will usher in a new age, filling our hearts with happiness. Over the next few weeks we’ll proclaim, “joy to the world, the Lord has come!” “Peace on earth, good will to all!” “Good Christian friends REJOICE!”

And then we’ll leave our Advent-wreath adorned sanctuary and re-enter the world “out there.” We’ll be concerned with “50% off, and no payments until 2012.” We’ll leave our Christmas-tree adorned sanctuary and read about terrorist plots, car bombings, and tsunamis.

And we’ll think to ourselves, “A crummy commercial?” We get lured into the season, so someone can make a buck? We get enticed by words like “peace” and “joy,” only to discover it was a practical joke, only to feel more sharply the thorns of life upon which we fall—broken hearts, broken bodies?

A crummy commercial?

We do hope, don’t we, for the “peaceable kingdom” the prophet Isaiah talked about in today’s lesson.

The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them.

Wouldn’t that be beautiful?

And aren’t we skeptical?

At the start of his career, legendary showman P.T. Barnum displayed an exhibit entitled “The Happy Family.” It consisted of a lion, a tiger, a panther, and a baby lamb, all lying down peacefully with each other. People flocked to see it. They were amazed—could this actually happen? Is the peaceable kingdom for real? Barnum was asked whether he planned to keep the exhibit. “The display will become a permanent feature,” he is quoted as saying, “if the supply of lambs holds out.”

Barnum’s “Happy Family”—a crummy commercial, to get people to buy tickets.

Yes, it’s a little easy to be jaded, skeptical this time of year. We’ve had our hearts and hopes set on the magic of Christmas for so long, only to be shown the magician had something up his sleeve…

HOWEVER…

This morning I want to suggest a way of looking at Christmas that may help us be much less skeptical, and much more hopeful.

The problem with Christmas isn’t about how we use or mis-use it.

The problem with Christmas is that you and I, in our heart-of-hearts, are basically impatient people.

WE WANT CHRISTMAS JOY, WE WANT THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM, NOW!

The fact is, though, that God doesn’t work that way.

Just because Christmas isn’t the rule of life now, doesn’t mean it’s not going to be. If it took God billions of years to make things just right on this planet for life, maybe we shouldn’t rush God in making things just right on this planet for love. Jesus didn’t come into this world to make everything right, all at once. He came into this world to start something that will make things right, once and for all.

Put simply,

We shouldn’t RUSH God.

I want to believe that with each passing Christmas, in some mysterious way, God moves us closer to the time when the lion shall lie down with the lamb, and the lamb won’t be nervous. I want to believe that with each verse of every Christmas carol we sing each year, we participate with God in moving closer to the time when a little child, and not a politician, will lead us. I want to believe that with each retelling of the Christmas story, we move a little closer to the time when a child shall play in the streets of Baghdad without fear.

THE CHRISTMAS STORY IS GOD’S WAY OF SAYING, “MY KINGDOM IS BREAKING INTO THIS WORLD, AND NOTHING WILL BE ABLE TO STOP IT. HAVE FAITH, HAVE PATIENCE—AND DREAM WITH ME!”

“Dream with me.”

You know, maybe that’s how we prepare for the Christ’s child coming this year.

Maybe our response to the Christmas story isn’t a frenzied opening up the decoder ring box, expecting great things all at once.

Maybe our response is to…DREAM.

I like the “A Christmas Story” movie because it’s a dreamy rendition of Christmas past. The snow silently falling. The big, multi-colored Christmas lights. The department store Santa. The excitement of Christmas morning with toys under the tree.

But maybe Christmas isn’t about dreaming of how it used to be. Maybe it’s about dreaming of how it’s going to be.

Christmas is God’s way of saying, Dream with me of a world…

…Where the word “terrorist” has dropped from the vocabulary.

…Where “Sunni” and “Shi’ite”, Irish Catholic and Irish Protestant, can share supper together at the same table, and smile and laugh together.

…Where justice and righteousness are the beacons of society, and people are judged “not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character,” as Martin Luther King once said.

…Where all people have food, water, clothing, shelter, healthcare.

…Where children can play from home to home in a neighborhood, without fear, and Amber alerts are no more.

Maybe this Advent season, the best thing we can do to prepare is to dream. And if we dream vividly, in detail and color, then we might be better able to experience the power behind what God did that first Christmas night.

Shortly after Christmas last year, I visited the World War One exhibit at Union Station in Kansas City. The thing that struck me was how terrible the trench warfare was, where both sides simply dug in and waged wave upon wave of violence upon each other.

On one Christmas Eve, the soldiers hunkered down to have a miserable holiday. The only relief was silence from the shelling and shooting. But then, against the silent backdrop, a German soldier broke out in quiet song.

“Stille nacht, stille nacht…”

He was singing Silent Night.

Gradually some British soldiers began to sing back, in English. Soon both sides were singing, and an unofficial truce was declared. Soldiers, under white flags, joined each other in no-man’s land. They celebrated Christmas together.

Now, you might have heard of this incident before. But you might not have heard the “rest of the story.” After the Christmas truce, when they returned to their respective trenches, these men wouldn’t fire on each other any longer. The enemy now had a face, and it looked like theirs. The troops had to be replaced on each side because they fired over each other’s heads rather than at each other.

—Roy T. Lloyd, “The gift of light,” December 29, 2002, Day 1 Web Site, day1.net.

The lion lies down with the lamb. British and German soldiers share a drink in no man’s land, and can’t point guns at each other any more.

Christmas isn’t a crummy commercial.

Christmas breaks down barriers.

Christmas IS God’s kingdom breaking into this world.

Christmas is God’s dream, coming true.