‘Tis the Season
This week we continue in our series looking at the signs, symbols, and stories told around Christmas time. We are probing into our collective cultural consciousness to see the ways in which God is revealing God’s self in the present. We are asking the question whether Christianity needs to be at the forefront of our culture for it to be powerful. How important is it that we say, “Merry Christmas” versus “Happy Holidays”? How important is it for our contemporary culture to put Christ back in Christmas? I’ve seen and read a number of comments of this nature over the last few weeks. But I want to say this loud and clear, it is not the job of our culture or our society to put Christ back in Christmas. It is the mission and ministry of the church to be the church. The question we are faced with today is not that of reclaiming the holidays within our culture. Rather, on this day when we have lit the love candle, the question is this: “what is the gospel that we as the church proclaim?”
Our sign this morning says, “Tis the Season.” “Tis the season” comes from the 1862 Christmas Carol “Deck the Halls.” Deck the halls of course, means to decorate for Christmas. The song invites us to prepare the wreaths, to make music for your guests, and hail in the new year. It is a wonderful Welsh song that we sing with great glee and joy. It’s a song that both rings in the new year and celebrates the Christmas season. Despite all its fa la la la la’s, there is no mention of Jesus. While it has been in and around our Christmas celebrations for a hundred and fifty years, it is no more Christian than any other secular song we might sing. Yet, it has found itself a staple of Christmas caroling.
This is due to the melding process of symbols and traditions over times. It’s arrival into England coincides with the predominant Christian celebration of Christmas. Despite having no mention of Jesus in this carol, its reference to traditions, celebrations, and parties directly references the Christmas season. If we listen carefully, we see that this song associates’ wreaths, garlands, clothing, and winter fires more with Christmas than Jesus. Notice the candle within our advent wreath that this song chooses. Instead of this season being one of faith, hope, love, or Christ, the song says that this is a season to be jolly and to be filled with joy. It is no coincidence that this song lifts up outer arraignments and then calls it a season of jolly. It is a song that spends so much time on the exterior that it crucially leaves behind the foundation the season is built upon. As people we all search for happiness, but this song, shows how our culture desperately seeks the outer arraignments of only to find their interior arraignments hollow and empty.
“Deck the Halls” invites us to prepare our homes, fill our cups with good drink, and to start our party with music and celebration. Yet, no reason is given for celebration save that it is for its own sake. We are to sing our Fa la la la la’s for the sake of the party and the season. And while this is indeed fun—having friends, family, or loved one’s over is an occasion of joy in itself—these occasions only last for a moment. They are not able to sustain our happiness in perpetuity. If we seek happiness and the moments described in “Deck the Halls” as our end, we will eventually find ourselves tired and weary. It is ironic that we continually fill ourselves up with possessions and moments of happiness, and yet we as a society are lonelier than ever. How come? Is it not because we have added the happiness candle to our advent wreaths? Is it not because happiness has become and idol that supersedes both joy and love? As a people, we cannot have connection without the deep filling of love. We can have happiness in our hearts without love, but we cannot have lasting joy without love.
Our passage this morning is another song that rests on an alternate foundation. Our passage is the song of Zechariah which we Christians have called the “Benedictus.” We name this song “Benedictus” because of the songs opening which begins with “Blessed be.” It is a song that offers praise to God for the birth of John the Baptist. John’s birth marks a reversal of fate for Zechariah and Elizabeth after their period of infertility. It also announces a reversal in the fate for humanity. Blessing in this song has a twofold meaning. Here, the works of God bless both the larger people of Israel and their promised Messiah but also the particular promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth with the birth of John.[1] Interestingly, the universal hopes touched upon by Israel are accomplished through the particular witness of faithful communities. In this way, Luke signifies human capacity to praise God by living in covenant with God. In other words, we have the ability to bear witness to God’s work in history as we respond to God’s grace in our lives. We can experience God’s grace as Jesus sees us, as the Spirit is attentive to our needs, and as our Creator delivers and redeems our lives. As a result of this experience, we are able to offer praises up to God in response. The movement described in this song is one that flows from God’s grace into the deepest and darkest corners of our hearts into all areas of our lives.
God has not only seen us but looks favorably upon us. God not only knows us, God not only sees our current predicaments, but God has made God’s self manifest in our lives. God shows up, literally visits with us, to interrupt prolonged seasons of barrenness. God wrestled with Jacob. God parted the red seas. God led Israel through the wilderness. Our invitation this advent season is to take part in this activity, rather than to call upon others to do so. We as worshippers of Jesus are enabled by the power of God to participate in the movement of grace God did in our own lives. The people who need to put Christ back in Christmas is us.
The first part of Zechariah’s song does not praise God for sending John. Instead, Zechariah praises God for raising up “a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,” that is, for sending Jesus.[2] Full of Old Testament allusions, these verses referencing the Psalms praise God as their deliverer. Jewish eschatological hopes will be fulfilled, promises will be kept, the covenant with Abraham will be remembered, and all enemies will be overthrown by the “horn of salvation” whom God has raised up.[3] These things are not accomplished by thrusting Christian values into the public sphere. These things are not accomplished by Supreme Court Justices, Presidents, or the arraignments of exterior garb. These things are accomplished by the horn of salvation who God has raised up. We need not be concerned whether or not folks say Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas, but we should be concerned about the interior state of our hearts. Remember Matthew 7:
21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?’ 23 Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.’[4]
Which song is the song of your heart? Does it sing “Deck the Halls” or the “Benedictus”? Does your heart seek the one who is the way, the truth, and the light, or does it seek the shadow of that one? Does it seek the lip service of putting Christ back in Christmas or the concrete substance of being Christ’s light in the world. The song of the Benedictus is a song of substance. Zechariah and Elizabeth were truly those who experienced the grace of God and acted upon it. They were ones that did not expect the world to take shape around them, but themselves were doers of Gods word. Will show the world we are Christians by our actions, or will we continue to plague ourselves with fruitless culture wars? Will we be the light of the world ourselves rather than asking others to shine on our behalf?
I went to a Christian undergraduate college and Seminary, but many of my friends never attend church. They are annoyed at the hypocrisy. They are frustrated that the church seems regressive rather than progressive. They say it has lost its relevancy. Yet I say this to our community today. The church is not lost even as our culture becomes more secular. The church is not lost even when we say happy holidays. The church is not lost as attendance decreases and churches are closing. The church is the home of the faithful who worship and witness to Jesus who was born, lived, and died for us and for our salvation. The longing in people’s hearts cannot be filled with holiday slogans or Christian entertainment. The longing in people’s hearts can only be filled with the grace of God. Faith movements and church growth don’t occur by sharing religious posts on Facebook, they occur when every aspect of our lives point to Jesus. They occur when we move from faith-in-pews to faith-in-action. It happens when we let our love candles shine; when we proclaim the gospel and occasionally use words. When even our Happy Holidays is interlaced with the compassion, mercy, and tender love so that it proclaims the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church must once again proclaim the Benedictus and witness to the good news of Jesus Christ from the bottom up. Do not be troubled by the rise of the secular for it is an opportunity to do what the church does best: proclaim the good news of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[1] Yolanda Norton, “Commentary on Luke 1:68-79,” Working Preacher (Luther Seminary), accessed December 6, 2021, https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/second-sunday-of-advent-3/commentary-on-luke-168-79-7.
[2] Luke 1:69.
[3] Fred B. Craddock, Luke, Interpretation, a Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1990), 32–33.
[4] Matthew 7:21-23.
