December 3, 2000
Psalm 25:1-10; Jeremiah 33:14-17
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church of San Francisco.
First they were on cigarette packages and diet soda cans, and now they’re on everything from baby strollers to car sun visors. On our new Honda, it reads,
AIR BAG WARNING—Flip Visor Over
Warning: Death or Serious Injury can occur!
Warning labels. A cautionary note on this year’s Halloween Batman costume says, “Mask and chest plate are not protective; cape does not enable user to fly.”
Now it may be that a warning label should appear on the bottom of every monthly bank or brokerage statement: “Economic good times may be hazardous to your health.”
Really? How so? How can good economic times be hazardous to your health?
Economists are discovering a dark side to the booming economy that we are having and at the same time seeing that there’s a silver lining to economic bad times. Here in the Bay Area, the cost of housing is now out of reach for most people including those who have lived here all their lives because the economic times are good. The health of Americans deteriorates during temporary upturns in the economy and improves when business is in retreat.
This is curious. Not at all what we’d expect. We feel bad when times are good, and feel good when the economy is bad.
The researchers found that the death rate dropped in states when the unemployment rate went up, particularly among younger people. A one percentage-point rise in unemployment decreased deaths involving 25-44 year olds by more than 2,900 in 1990.
They also found that as people went back to work, there was an associated increase in homicides, traffic deaths, and accidents of all types. Deaths from heart disease, the flu, and pneumonia also rise by a smaller but significant amount.
So why would bad times be good and good times be bad?
A big reason is that Americans, particularly younger people, tend to indulge more when the economy soars. They eat more and drink more, which is largely why accidents of all types increase. Likewise, obesity increases when the economy strengthens. Our physical activities are reduced and our diet becomes less healthy.
Good times really can be bad for us as we enter the Advent season and start the chaotic countdown toward Christmas. Only 22 days left! While it’s no mystery that overindulgence of food and drink can hurt us, excessive decorating, shopping, and holiday frenzy can too. Warning! Doing Christmas may be hazardous to your health!
Wisdom Warning
During this holiday season, we need “wisdom warning” to fend off the hazardous warnings. Instead of being caught up with the excessiveness and extravagance of the holidays, we may need guidance from the Psalmist.
“Make me to know your ways, O Lord; teach me your paths. Lead me in your
truth, and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all day
long” (25:4-5).
Good economic times can be hazardous to our health, and so can holidays. To get through the season to come, we need to know the ways of God. I am calling you and me, all of us to use these weeks to prepare ourselves prayerfully, to simplify our activities, and to focus on steadfast love, faithfulness, and keeping covenant with God (v. 10).
Christmas Chaos
But first, what’s the cause of all this pre-Christmas chaos? It started in the fourth century when the church chose December 25 to celebrate the birth of Christ. The church lay a Christian celebration over the riotous Roman Saturnalia—a time of uncontrolled feasting and frolicking to welcome the approach of spring.
A puritan minister named Cotton Mather reacting in the 17th century to all of this celebration passed laws to control the feasting and partying in Puritan New England. Mather said, “Shall it be said that at the birth of our Savior we take time to do actions that have much more of Hell than of Heaven in them?”
Mather was raising a basic question that more and more of us want answered these days. It seems that the gods of consumerism have taken control of the season. Under the guise of Christian sharing and generosity, we are giving more time to the gods of Macy’s, Nordstrom’s, and Old Navy than to the God of our Savior. How many of you still have more Christmas shopping to do? You may spend more time in the malls and Union Square than at church this month!
Rather than the Christmas Chaos in Union Square, Christians are turning more and more to the church for guidance in finding alternative ways to celebrate Christ’s birth. You and I, members of this Christ body may be looking for ways to observe the holiday that stand a chance of bringing us some peace and joy. We are seeking a generosity that is more of the spirit than of shopping malls.
Halting the Hazards
What then are some ways to halt the holiday hazards?
One way to avoid the hazards of the holidays is to see Advent as a season of expectation—not gratification. The next few weeks is a time of prayerful preparation, a time of mystery and awe instead of pageants and parties. Some of you are participating in the Advent Bible Study Groups to meet Christ in both the mundane everyday routines of living as well as the extreme boundaries of life’s challenges. Each week draws you closer to the coming of Jesus.
Today you participated in the lighting of the Advent candle of Love. And each week we will be lighting an additional candle to anticipate how Jesus represents for us the meaning of love, hope, joy, and peace until we come on Christmas Eve and see the Christ candle is lit in a sanctuary of darkness—for Jesus is the light of the world.
And like today, we will sing mostly Advent hymns on the four Sundays before Christmas, instead of rushing straight into carols. While “Joy to the World” is bouncing off the walls of the malls the days after Halloween, in our sanctuary we can be singing, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.” By slowly expecting the gift of Jesus, we can experience the mystery and awe-inspiring miracle of God becoming like one of us.
There’s a Catholic priest in Washington, DC who has taken this one step further. He won’t say, “Merry Christmas” until December 24—a reminder that the true Christmas season begins only on that day.
Children at Christmas
Some of you out there with children at home or grandparents with grandkids are saying under your breath and perhaps to me, “Let’s get real.” You don’t understand the pressure that we have right now trying to find that perfect Pokemon for the kids. “Wait until you have grandchildren! You’ll feel the frenzy pressure again!” I think you are right, but it doesn’t have to be so.
In our desire to be good parents and grandparents, we are lured into holiday excesses. Slap on the warning labels! Even in good times, we are stressed out and our children are closer to the hazards of forgetting what the true meaning of Christmas is.
A Sunday school teacher of preschoolers was concerned that his students might be a little confused about Jesus Christ because of the Christmas season’s emphasis on shopping. He wanted to make sure they understood that the birth of Jesus occurred for real.
He asked his class, “Where is Jesus today?”
Steven raised his hand and said, “He’s in heaven.”
Mary was called on and answered, “He’s in my heart.”
Little Johnny, waving his hand furiously, blurted out, “I know, I know! He’s in our bathroom!”
The whole class got very quiet, looked at the teacher and waited for a response. The teacher was completely at a loss for a few very long seconds.
Finally, he gathered his wits and asked Little Johnny how he knew this.
Little Johnny said, “Well…every morning, my father gets up, bangs on the bathroom door and yells, “Good Lord, are you still in there?”
The good Lord is neither in our bathrooms or in the shopping malls. For our children, we might discover alternative ways to celebrate Christmas that would lead them to a fuller understanding of the reason for the season.
Instead of dressing up as Santa Claus, reclaim the older tradition of Saint Nicholas—a true saint. Saint Nicholas, a bishop in the 4th century in Myra (today on the coast of Turkey) quietly and secretly gave gifts during Christmas to the needy.
Instead of giving multiple gifts to a child who might become overwhelmed with too many toys to play with, give in the child’s name to worthy projects like the Heifer Project that provides livestock and training to families in more than 40 countries.
Instead of giving money out of your equity line of credit to your kids so that they can buy gifts for you that you probably don’t really need, encourage your children to give you “homemade coupons.” These are redeemable coupons for “setting the table,” “washing dishes” or some other household chore. Family members can exchange coupons for a monthly back rub, baby-sitting, house painting or a trip to the museum.
A joke making the rounds these days asks what would have happened if Three Wise Women had gone looking for Jesus instead of Three Wise Men. Answer: They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole and brought practical gifts! Stable cleaning beats frankincense and myrrh any day of the week!
In a time of holiday hazards, these kinds of actions are ways that the Lord can move us toward a deeper appreciation of the gift of Christ at Christmas. The Psalmist said,
“All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep
his covenant and his decrees.”
During this Advent season, we are to choose this path of the Lord that leads us to a true understanding of the meaning of Christmas in our lives and in the world.
All of these activities—expecting during Advent, limiting our spending, giving alternative gifts, reaching out to our neighbors—can reduce the risk of holiday hazards and prepare us much better for the central, spiritual event of Christmas.
Hazards of Discipleship
The central event of Christmas is that Jesus Christ is coming into the world. Israel was in exiled in Babylon when Jeremiah prophesied the advent of the righteous one.
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah. In those days and at that time I will
cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David; and he shall execute justice and
righteousness in the land. In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will
live in safety. And this is the name by which it will be called: “The Lord is our
righteousness” (Jer. 33:14-16).
When we take away all the holiday hazards, we discover that to learn how to follow Jesus is going on a hazardous path. In the days to come, it is focusing more on executing justice and righteousness than in acquiring more things. Following Jesus is hazardous to your health after all. We need to slap on a warning label in the bulletin that says,
“Warning: Coming to church and following Jesus on the path of justice and righteousness may cause death and personal injury.”
At last month’s Sojourners meeting when the group planned its programs for 2001, we made a major commitment to the church. Believing and affirming the importance of our ministry in Chinatown, the Sojourners decided to offer itself in the teaching, cooking, and leading in Friday Night School. Our commitment is for the entire Fall semester next year. Every Friday night, there will be Sojourners at church teaching immigrants English and citizenship, cooking to express our Christian hospitality, and leading in songs, testimonies, and prayers to proclaim that Jesus Christ is our savior.
Committing the Sojourners for an entire semester at Friday Night School is potentially hazardous to our health! But out of sheer exhaustion, we hope to model for our children and the world that it is the giving of ourselves rather than the acquisition of more things that we discover the true meaning of Christmas.
In good economic times, holidays are hazards to our health. But when the righteous Branch springing up for David executes justice and righteousness in the land, we too choose to follow Jesus on the hazardous paths of discipleship.
In the Psalmist’s opening verse in chapter 25, it says,
To you, Oh Lord, I lift up my soul.”
We tend to gloss over this beginning passage and overlook its deeper meaning. This passage, “to lift up one’s soul/life” implies directly to one’s life toward a goal. It means offering one’s life, heart, and soul to God.
The Sojourners as a group traveling together through life at First Chinese Baptist Church will direct its life in the name of God toward a goal of service and ministry.
Today, you and I in this holy season of Advent anticipate and await the coming of Jesus to change the world for justice and righteousness.
Let us pray.
Lord, we eagerly and faithfully wait for your coming into the world bringing the love of God—the light of the world to all people. Help us to claim you as our Lord and Savior and lead us on the path of justice and righteousness. May your will be done through us as well as in spite of us. Forgive us when we have allowed holiday activities distract us from the true meaning of Jesus. In the name of Christ in whom we seek. Amen.