Advent Lutheran Church

“Gracious and merciful God; on this day when Advent is ending and little more can be done by human preparation, I commit to you all my incomplete tasks, my unfulfilled hopes, and my unprepared heart. Lift them from me and give me in exchange peace and serenity to accept the gift of your Word, and to hear anew tonight the gospel of the birth of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." (The Rev. Dr. Timothy Lull)

We’ve been talking about Hope for the last four weeks.  The season of Advent is all about hope – in fact, that’s why Advent’s color is blue - it is the color of hope.  Advent calms us like waves kissing the seashore, rhythmic and peaceful.  Advent quiets us in our preparations, in the hustle and bustle - so that we can creep up to the manger and take a peek inside.  What is it that we hope to see there, in that ancient manger that we approach with wonder year after year after year?

They say “there’s no place like home for the holidays,” And many of you have spent a lot of time and effort on travel during the last week, because no one wants to leave home for the holidays - unless, perhaps, you are going “home” to honor elders, or roots or a previous dwelling decorated with memories.  It is somewhat like the salmon swimming upstream - we are drawn to be with those we love – and we take great pains to do it.  Because no one wants to leave home for the holidays.  But consider, (as Gettysburg Seminary President Pastor Michael Cooper-White did in his Dec. 2011 meditation in The Lutheran) that leaving home is exactly what God did, and we “... recognize that God chose to leave the heavenly home that first Christmas.”

If you have ever been apart from those you love at Christmas, you know the longing to reconnect.  Skype, email, cell phones, Facebook just do not hold a candle to being there in person - to touching and embracing those we love “in the flesh”  – one life being with another.  And that is why God became flesh to dwell among us.  That connection is what we are looking for in the manger.  And that is why God chose to begin there.

There is a lot of leaving in tonight’s story:  The angels left (them) and (went) into heaven; the shepherds returned to their flocks in the fields; Mary and Joseph will go home to Nazareth; and the wise ones will go back to their homes in the East.  Many of you will return to homes far and near from whence you have come.  But never forget:  Jesus, too, left his home – and gave his life to be with you.  

We who gather to celebrate the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, keep the festival where our deepest values reside:  in our homes and in our churches, in our relationships, and in our hearts.  And each December we take a journey of the heart, into our past, into our family history, into our very core to find once again that “spirit of Christmas,” that sense of something bigger than ourselves.

This is not a private celebration, but one for the whole people of God.  To us – the ones who sit tonight with hearts yearning to be (individually and as a community,) the people God created us to be:  Advent People of Hope - bearers of the good news that there is something more than this, something beyond here, someone who loves us for exactly who we are this very minute, here and now, forever.

Many of you are here because your life as a “shepherd,” satisfying as it might be, still longs for the holy; for an encounter with a divine messenger to speak a word of hope beyond your wildest imagination, a word that once pronounced brings a deep joy, and requires a multitude of angels to fully express it. 

You have come tonight with people all over the globe - to touch, just for one, brief shining moment, the face of God and be comforted – and now you journey into the night, into your celebrations and your lives – with the gift of faith that somehow changes you, and makes you new.

So come and lose yourself in the Xmas spirit - lose yourself in God.  In fact, imagine falling backward away from everything you think you know; letting go of the past; letting go of even the present certainties, and letting God catch you.  Then imagine resting amidst all your leavings, all your losses and grief – with the peace that God’s love provides.

Hope that brings strength out of fear; love out of loss; light out of darkness and resurrection out of death.  This homeless child will share everything he has; everything he is.  That is what we seek in the manger.  And that is how hope is fulfilled.  AMEN.