December 21, 2014
Sermon preached by Rev. Donald Ng at the First Chinese Baptist Church in San Francisco.
It’s just a few more days and it will finally be Christmas. Children will soon be tucked in their beds, visions of Legos and iPhones dancing in their heads. When you are a kid, it seems as though Christmas is never going to come. Our granddaughter Sage makes these calendars when she is looking forward to a special day like Christmas and marks off each day until it happens. She has her own Advent calendar hanging on the wall. For adults, however, Christmas seems like it always comes too soon! In fact, doesn’t it seem as though Christmas comes earlier every year?
Advertisers keep pushing the Christmas shopping envelope earlier each year. Last year Kmart kicked off the holiday advertising on September 8 with a TV ad featuring a gingerbread man stalking a woman in an office. That was 108 days before Christmas, violating the unwritten retail rule that bars any advertising more than 100 days out.
Some people now put their Christmas lights up as soon as they take down their Halloween decorations. Some radio stations began playing all-Christmas music formats in early November knowing that once they lock in their listening audience, they’d have them for the rest of the season which leads to more revenue. Black Friday has become Black Thursday as people are now including Christmas shopping as a part of their Thanksgiving festivities. If this keeps up this way, we might be getting Christmas ads for next year on Valentine’s Day. It’s no wonder that people are lamenting that Christmas comes earlier every year.
But while it feels as if Christmas activities are coming a lot sooner these days, the truth is that, historically, we’re not seeing Christmas ads as early as our great-grandparents did a few generations ago. In 1912 not 2014, there was a Christmas ad in October that said, “This may seem a little premature to you, but it really is not— Christmas is coming.”
The early Christmas season actually goes back even further—back to the Victorian era, when many of our modern retail habits were born. A November 19, 1885 ad reminds shoppers to “Keep it in mind! It is needless to remind you that Christmas is coming, but we want everybody who intends on purchasing Christmas presents to comprehend that we are now all ready.” By 1888, the in-store Christmas blowout sale was born, including a line from an 1893 ad for a sale at a Salt Lake department store that sounds more like a holiday ransom note: “This is not a joke. We mean it. We will do it…Monday, Monday, Monday!”
In the early 20th century, shopping early was a good idea to put less stress on the retail clerks to eliminate the inhuman nature of the eleventh hour rush. And during World War I, early in 1918, shopping ads featuring Santa in a doughboy uniform urged Americans to shop to help end the war.
It’s never too early for Christmas. Are you ready for Christmas that will be coming in just a few days? Have you gotten all of your preparations done?
700 Years Earlier
Historically speaking, then, an early Christmas season isn’t all that unusual—at least in the last 150 years or so. In fact, sticking a few more extra months onto the Christmas season isn’t really that strange, especially when we compare it to what we read in the Scriptures. If you think a few months of Christmas ramping up is a big deal, try 700 years! That’s the time frame we’re looking at when we read the texts for today.
700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah was a prophet who gave God’s word to several kings of Judah during a time of crisis in the land. Judah was under threat of invasion by foreign powers, and, as God’s mouthpiece, Isaiah was to offer a sign from God to strengthen the people’s hope. To the surprise of everyone, not least the king, Isaiah didn’t tell them that God was going to provide more horses or chariots, swords or spears to repel the invasion. Instead, the sign was a baby.
“The young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and name him Emmanuel” (7:4). “A child has been born for us; a son given to us. Authority rests on his shoulders and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (9:6).
Now, while we know that babies make for great ad copy, they make for lousy warriors. But what babies do represent is hope, which was in short supply in Isaiah’s days. The prophet looked toward a day when a real king, God’s king, would come to the throne.
Isaiah’s ad was answered in a barn in Bethlehem. The angels announced it to a group of shepherds, who were usually the last people to hear any good news. “To you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. You will find a baby wrapped in cloth and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:11-12). This long awaited Christmas advertisement running for 700 years had finally come true.
Not What We Expected
All of us have received a gift or two and it was not what we expected. It looked better at the store. Fortunately, we have the gift receipt to return it for something we’d like.
If you wait for something for 700 years, that leaves plenty of time to heap on a lot of expectations and when it finally happens no one expected Christmas to come like this.
This baby was from a poor family. His parentage was questionable. He wasn’t born in a palace, but in a barn. He didn’t grow up wearing royal robes; his daily garb was a contractor’s apron. When he started preaching, he didn’t advocate for people to grab their swords and attack their oppressors; instead, he told them to love their enemies, and pray for those who persecuted them. They expected a king who would rule from a throne, not die on a cross. For many in first-century Israel, the arrival of Christmas was not at all what they expected.
No one expected that the baby in the manger was actually God in the flesh. The very one who had given the prophets all those promises about a baby king had come in person to do the job. That had been his plan from the beginning, when the first humans bought into the false advertising of a snake in the Garden, and tried to become like gods themselves. Ever since the third chapter of Genesis, God had been planning to mend the break caused by human sin—and God was going to do it by becoming human himself. God would do it by becoming Isaiah’s advertised king. Look back at Isaiah 9 and you see that Jesus was everything that was advertised.
Isaiah’s Prophecy
Isaiah said that, “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” At the beginning of the gospel of John, we read these words about Jesus: “In him was life, and the life was the light of the people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness shall not overcome it (John 1:4-5). Jesus himself would say, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Jesus came at night, into a world of darkness, and shined forth the light of God’s grace on a hopeless humanity.
Isaiah said that the king would bring joy to the nation. Jesus would bring joy to the whole world. As he taught his disciples, he told them, “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). The joy of Christmas is a joy that comes from knowing that no matter what our circumstances might be, God is with us.
Isaiah said that the king would take away the rod of the oppressor, the yoke of slavery from his people. Isaiah may have been thinking of the enemy at the gates of Jerusalem, but Jesus knew that the real oppressors of humanity are the forces of sin and death. He would take them on himself, dying at the hands of sinful humanity and then rising again to new life, defeating death and liberating those who trust in him from its power.
Isaiah said that all the implements of war would be burned in the fire. Jesus would wear no doughboy helmet, but would come and demonstrate the way of peace, forgiving his enemies and calling for his disciples to love them into his kingdom.
From what I see, Jesus fits the 700 year-old advertising of Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah’s Christmas had finally come, but in a way that delivered even more than advertised.
Christmas came for the love of humanity. Christmas came for the love of you and me.
Christmas to Come
But the first Christmas was only the beginning. The birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus were the beginning of a new age, with God’s people looking forward to the day when God’s kingdom would come in its fullness, when death is defeated forever and God’s good creation restored. The first Christmas was a foretaste, and advertisement of another Christmas to come.
We can see this new advertising in Paul’s Christmas ad in Titus. Paul said, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” That is Christmas past. But now, Paul says, we must live in the light of Christmas future—“renouncing impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:11-13). In other words, Paul says, another Christmas is coming, and it’s never too early to get ready.
I may be the only one here who still uses a Day-Timer organizer to keep my appointments and business trips organized. What I like about my “2-page per week” format is that it tells me what day of the year it is and how many more days are left in the year. Today, it says, “355th Day, 10 Days Left.” Christmas is only 4 days away, the “359th Day, 6 Days Left” in the year. It’s never too early for Christmas to come and we’ll soon start looking forward to Christmas 2015! I hope to learn from our granddaughter Sage who believes that it’s never too early for Christmas.
You still have 3 days of Christmas shopping left this year. It may not be too long before retailers start making Christmas ads year-round. In fact, according to some experts, you might actually get the best price on those Christmas presents if you shop in June, when the “sale” prices aren’t inflated. An early Christmas can be a very good thing if not for your wallets, it’s even better for our souls.
Let’s go out and advertise to the world that Christmas is coming!
Let us pray.
Holy God, the One whom all praise rightfully belongs, we are humbled that the God of the universe, the King of heaven, the Ruler of all, look on our humanity, became one of us and moved into our neighborhood. You set aside your regal standing and eternal honor for us and for our salvation. In seeing you in the flesh, we have seen God. We have been healed by your touch, comforted by your compassion, convicted by your teaching, changed by your grace. You have restored us to our Creator and called us, in turn, to work for the restoration of the whole creation. Thank you for the sacrifice you made, willingly, yet at great cost. We offer our lives in praise, given in praise and service to you and your coming kingdom. In the name of Christ the Savior, we pray. Amen.