Isaiah 11:1-10More doom and gloom this week. Isaiah once again provides the ligher side of the scripture, and Matthew once again plunges us into the cold water of fear and despair. And then there's that whole question of Santa Claus everyone is talking about this time of year. Should we pay, or should we go?
11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
11:2 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.
11:3 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;
11:4 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.
11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.
11:6 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.
11:7 The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
11:8 The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder's den.
11:9 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.
11:10 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.
Psalm 72:1-7, 18-19
72:1 Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to a king's son.
72:2 May he judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with justice.
72:3 May the mountains yield prosperity for the people, and the hills, in righteousness.
72:4 May he defend the cause of the poor of the people, give deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.
72:5 May he live while the sun endures, and as long as the moon, throughout all generations.
72:6 May he be like rain that falls on the mown grass, like showers that water the earth.
72:7 his days may righteousness flourish and peace abound, until the moon is no more.
72:18 Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
72:19 Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
Romans 15:4-13
15:4 For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, so that by steadfastness and by the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.
15:5 May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,
15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15:7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,
15:9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name";
15:10 and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people";
15:11 and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him";
15:12 and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope."
15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Matthew 3:1-12
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,
3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
This will end up being the sermon I could never give from a pulpit, because in it I will tell the truth. Not the truth no one can bear, but the truth we can't ever speak in public, especially from the pulpit. I mean, of course, the truth about Santa Claus.
Well, as much truth as can be told. We all know, generally and more or less, that Santa Claus is derived from St. Nicholas. What we know of Nicholas is actually largely conjecture and probably spurious. But his story lingers, especially the part that connects Nicholas to strangers bringing gifts to those who deserve them. This story, of course, gets connected to Matthew's gospel. Matthew tells us about the wise men who come, bringing the infant Jesus gifts. Already, of course, we get that story wrong, because Matthew doesn't say there were three wise men, and he doesn't say the came the night of his birth. Matthew has them come up to two years later. The Orthodox church still celebrates the gift-giving part of the Nativity story on Epiphany, in keeping with Matthew's strangers bearing gifts. But we have moved it to Christmas day, and we associate it with Santa Claus in a kind of reverse thief story.
The Santa Claus story we are all sure has been around since the ancient of days is actually largely the creation of Clement Clark Moore and "The Night Before Christmas." Christmas was a raucous celebration in earlier times; a veritable "Feast of Fools" in which the poor got to demand some benison from their masters. Well, of course, in America we don't have serfs and lords of the manor; but we do have very distinct economic divisions. Moore's poem domesticated the Christmas revels by presenting the home invader as a kindly old peddler who came, not to take from the wealthy and comfortable, but to give to them. What had been a celebration requiring some gift giving by the master to the peasants, became an insular celebration of the family hearth where the father was only obligated to shower gifts on those he was already responsible for: his children.
When you think about it literally, Santa Claus is a house-breaker. He gains surreptitious entry, walks around in the sacred space of your home, and leaves; all while you are sleeping. Indeed, we tell our children, if they don't go to sleep Santa won't come. Any other time, we'd stay up to make sure the thief doesn't break in; but this time of year, we go to bed early, to give him the best possible opportunity.
We do it, of course, because he brings us something. But how do we connect that with Matthew?
3:1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming,This is not the language of Christmas we want to hear. We tell our children about "naughty" and "nice," but as Jesus would say later, who of us would give our child a serpent if they asked for an egg? Who of us would really give our child coal in their Christmas stocking, and nothing else? We don't threaten out children, we reward them. So how do we connect that story, to this part of the Christmas story? Where is Santa Claus in Advent?
3:2 "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near."
3:3 This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said, "The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.'"
3:4 Now John wore clothing of camel's hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
3:5 Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan,
3:6 and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.
3:7 But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
3:8 Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
3:9 Do not presume to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our ancestor'; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
3:10 Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
3:11 "I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
3:12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
Maybe it's time we returned Santa to the role of thief; to the one who takes from us, rather than gives. Christmas is already that way, of course. It takes our time, our money, our effort. December can be the most stressful time of the year: shopping, crowds, traffic, credit card debt, packages to mail out on time, the rising cost of shipping...it adds up quickly. We begin cranking the handle of the machine the day after Thanksgiving, and by Christmas Day we flop onto the sea of wrapping paper, spent in more ways than one and completely exhausted and tired from all the effort. We don't celebrate the "Twelve Days of Christmas," we want the whole thing put away by December 26th. We've had a month of it, that's enough! But if we returned Santa to the role of thief...if we "de-domesticated" the holiday....
Paul wishes a blessing on us:
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.It's a radical blessing, actually. It turns all our expectations upside down. It's a blessing that comes in the context of welcoming all people into the basiliea tou theou:
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,Notice the Gentiles keep getting mentioned over and over again? It runs like a silver thread through everything Paul mentions. This is reconciliation language. This is calling people to turn out toward strangers, toward those they have already identified as "not us." "Gentile," like "barbarian" to the Romans and the Greeks, simply meant "those who are not us." It's a domesticated word, a word that defines who is in and who is out, and here Paul says: Everybody is in! But he knows that makes us uncomfortable, so he starts with a prayer:
15:6 that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
15:7 Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.
15:8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the circumcised on behalf of the truth of God in order that he might confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,
15:9 and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, "Therefore I will confess you among the Gentiles, and sing praises to your name";
15:10 and again he says, "Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his people";
15:11 and again, "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles, and let all the peoples praise him";
15:12 and again Isaiah says, "The root of Jesse shall come, the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall hope."
May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus,and then Jesus becomes the reconciler, the one who can bring us together. But Jesus is also the thief, the one who comes when we least expect it, the one who takes away our comfort and security and leaves us with....what? Well, maybe openness to reconciliation; maybe openness to others, to those who are not like us, who are not within the blood confines of our family. The thief who enters our house and leaves, not what we desire, but what we need. When the angels came at the nativity, they did not sing to the leaders: the priests, the kings, the mighty and powerful. They bypassed all of those and sang to the shepherds, the outlaws who lived on society's margin, both literally and figuratively. They turned the equation on its head. Like thieves, they snuck in when least expected and took away our assurance of our importance by declaring the good news to those we would think least important. Even Isaiah's words of hope and comfort point to a radical shift in the social order:
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.Just ask yourself, seriously: when was the last time that happened? When was the last time the poor were judged righteously and the meek given equity? What would it look like if that were to happen now? What would be taken away from us, rather than given?
This is the season of giving, but something is taken from us in our rush to give. Something of the season’s beauty has been stolen from us, and we don’t even know there’s been a thief. Read the accounts of American celebrations in the years before factory goods reached every corner and washed up in great piles in every house. Christmas was celebrated in simple ways, because it was the only way to celebrate. The gift of a day free from labor, free from farming and harvest and animal care, was a treat indeed. The gift of an extraordinary meal, of play, perhaps even of a sweet, was a wonder. This has all been stolen from us. We have stolen it from ourselves. St. Nicholas, the story goes, prevented a theft, a theft of innocence. He judged righteously for the poor and gave the meek equity; so today we call him a saint. We don’t emulate him, we don’t even venerate him. Instead we steal his story from him, and give it back to ourselves. And now the thief is coming to take this all away from us, again.
What is coming is not comforting: if it were, the mothers of the children of Bethlehem would have no cause to weep again. If it were, Herod would have no cause to order the deaths of innocents. If it were comforting, the magi would have stayed home. What is coming is not comforting. If it were, the angels would have stayed in heaven, the shepherds undisturbed in their fields, Mary untroubled by the visit of Gabriel, Zechariah unchanged by the pregnancy of his wife, Joseph unconcerned with the strange pregnancy of his wife, the Holy Family unburdened as they made the journey to keep the census. What is coming promises to change all that, and make life harder for everybody. Upon the presentation of the child we wait for, Simeon will tell the mother “A sword will pierce your own soul, too.” What is coming is a thief who will take all our comfort from us and leave us vulnerable, leave our defenses down once again, as only an infant child can do.
Open and exposed and perhaps, this time, able to reconcile. Perhaps this time give us hope, maybe this time grant us the encouragement to live in harmony with one another. Open and exposed, perhaps this time we will stand with the shepherds, unashamed that they are outlaws, unconcerned with how they look and act and smell, we will be able at last to hear the angels singing. Perhaps this season will open our hearts so the thief who steals in will steal our complacency and our indifference and our comfort, and leave us listening to angel song. There is no reason to believe they have ever stopped singing. There is no reason to think this song has ever changed:
Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name forever; may his glory fill the whole earth. Amen and Amen.
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