‘Tis the day after Christmas; now what do we do?
Tomorrow it’s back to the rat race. What’s new?
We’ll box up the manger and throw out the tree.
And next year we’ll do it again. Wait and see!
There’s some change, but mostly each year seems the same.
How long has it been since the baby first came?
There’s often a let-down feeling after Christmas. There’s such a mixture of hope and hard work, expense and expectation, partying and, sometimes, pondering. And then it’s over, and what has happened? Is anything really different? Baby Emma has another ear infection. Russians lob more shells into Ukraine. The Visa bill arrives. There is more evidence of influence-peddling in Washington.
Was Christmas just a hiccup in the everlasting sameness of things? A song by Tom Lehrer, a satirist popular in the sixties, goes like this:
On Christmas Day you can’t get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore,
There’s time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.
Did Christ’s coming really make any difference at all?
The year moves through its cycle of death and rebirth, summer, fall, winter and spring. There’s beauty in the ebb and flow of the year. Christians celebrate these seasons, also; God’s creation is good. But is that all Christmas is? A punctuation mark in the eternal circle? In many ways the calendar of the church, the liturgical year, reflects the calendar of the earth’s seasons as well. We move from Advent to Christmas to Epiphany, from Lent to Holy Week, Easter and Pentecost. There’s a beautiful certainty to that rhythm, a certainty that anchors us to life, and gives it shape and meaning. In the midst of the chaos of life, we are reminded that God is present with us and orders all things. And this does make a difference. But does the circle just keep on endlessly repeating itself?
This cycle also helps the preacher looking for a text. The lectionary gives four texts for each Sunday of the year: one from the Old Testament, one from the New, one Psalm, and one reading from the Gospels. This helps us make sure that we don’t leave out any part of God’s revelation to us and helps us to notice connections that we might not otherwise make. My own bias at Christmas is to emphasize the Incarnation, Immanuel, “God with Us.” I could happily preach on John 1:14 every year: “And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” This truth never becomes stale, never goes out of date, and always applies.
But Christmas is also about the fulfillment of a promise. As we just sang, “Isaiah ‘twas foretold it....” God promised Israel to send a savior, a king who would rule with righteousness and justice, a king who would end oppression, a king whom all would acknowledge and obey. But today’s reading from Isaiah isn’t one of the classic Messianic prophecies. It’s not a promise. It’s a call to action.
"I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth." [Is 62:6-7]
What does this have to do with us?
Why was this verse chosen for the first Sunday after Christmas?
Isaiah was inspired to write these words of comfort to an Israel which had been captured and taken into captivity, whose city and temple had been destroyed, whose God had appeared to have abandoned them. And just as he had foretold, the exiles returned to Jerusalem and the city was rebuilt. Just as he had foretold, a child descended from their great king David was born who would be the savior of all people. Matthew and Mark, Luke and John cite these and other prophecies in their gospels. Jesus himself announced at the beginning of his ministry that the time Isaiah had spoken of had come when the poor would hear good news, the brokenhearted would be healed and the captives freed. Weren’t Isaiah’s prophecies fulfilled with the coming of Jesus? Why are we reminded of the charge to Jerusalem’s sentries on the first Sunday after Christmas?
The Gospel reading for this first Sunday after Christmas is from Luke. It’s about two people, Simeon and Anna, who had been waiting for God to fulfill his promises to Israel.
"Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying: 'Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.' ... There was also a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old; she had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and then was a widow until she was eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem." [Lk 2:22-40]
Their job was done. They had been appointed by God to watch and to witness to the coming of the Messiah. They had obeyed the injunction given in Isaiah 62. Clearly, putting these two passages of Scripture together shows us that. Anna worshiped day and night, fasting and praying, reminding God of his promises. And that promise was fulfilled with the birth of Jesus Christ. Simeon was freed from his obligation to watch and wait on the day that Jesus was brought to the temple.
Is that what these two passages are about, additional proof that Jesus is indeed the one promised by God? Or is there more here for us to hear and obey?
I think there is.
Simeon and Anna do not only provide proof that God keeps his promises. They also provide models for us to follow. Simeon was old. He was tired. The reward he asked from God when his work was done was to depart in peace. Anna was eighty-four years old, almost unimaginably ancient in those days, and she had spent almost her entire life focused solely upon God. They had both seen the last independent Jewish kingdom, the Maccabees, replaced by the Roman occupation. They had lived through the brutal excesses of the reign of Herod the Great. They had watched the growing conflict between the snobbish hereditary priesthood and the popular upstart Pharisees. And yet they did not lose hope. They continued to believe in the promises of God, and they remained faithful to their charge long after the average person would have given up and lost heart.
In a way they were lucky; they lived to see the fulfillment of the promise they had been told to pray for, to watch for, to long for. Others did not.
Isaiah wrote his prophecies almost eight centuries before the birth of Christ. Surely many others in that time were as faithful to watch and pray as Anna and Simeon, while others lost heart, and still others were deceived by their hopes into following false Messiahs.
You and I face the same choices.
It’s been 2,000 years since the baby Jesus came into the world.
And the promise still isn’t complete.
We can see that, as we look around the day after Christmas. Where is the king that will rule in righteousness and justice? Where is the promised peace and brotherhood? Where is the universal acknowledgment of the sovereignty of God? I have a Jewish friend whose chief argument against considering seriously the deity of Christ is that nothing has changed. There are still wars, and earthquakes, and famine, and sickness; justice is still perverted, babies still die of hunger. Relationships between men and women, parents and children, between nations and races and generations are all filled with conflict. Where is God? Is God really with us? Who is Immanuel/God-With-Us? If Immanuel is real, if Jesus Christ is God-With-Us, where is he?
During the first generation after the resurrection most of Jesus’ followers believed that his promised return in glory would come during their own lifetimes. When it didn’t happen the way they expected some lost their faith, some revised their faith, and some kept it.
Let us be among those who keep it.
Theories about the second coming of Christ abound. In almost every generation self-appointed prophets spring up who announce that they have figured out the day and coming of the return of Christ. They announce it with loud fanfare; their followers, hoping - as we do - that the time for the final fulfillment of the promise is really at hand, wait breathlessly for the clock to tick away the final moments.
The time comes and goes, and Jesus doesn’t come.
And the world watches, and calls them fools for taking prophecy seriously.
And we watch, and wonder what to believe about the second coming of Christ.
If we are to be fools, as some will call us for believing even in the first coming of Christ, let us be fools for the true Messiah, not for a false one. We are not to try to lock God into our timetable. Neither are we to shrug and say it doesn’t matter to us. Instead, we are to watch, and pray, and wait for God, believing that God will act, showing the same kind of steadfast faith and obedience that Simeon and Anna did 2,000 years ago. It was not easier for them to remain steadfast in the face of social pressures than it is for us. They, too, saw war, oppression, social injustice, and division among God’s people. And yet they continued to believe that God would keep his promises.
I have three godchildren, whom anyone who hears me preach more than a few times always hear about. The eldest, is 5 1/2. And he has more good reasons for staying up just a little bit later than you can imagine - unless, of course, you have had a 5-year-old of your own. I was going to give you an example of one recent evening when I didn’t get them all to bed until an hour and a half past their usual bedtime simply because of the sheer virtuosity and staying power of Ted’s delaying tactics. But it would take nearly the same hour and a half to tell you about it and I’m sure you’d rather I moved right along to the point I’m trying to make, which is, when you really want something, and believe that it’s possible, you push for it. You only stop pushing when you stop wanting it, or stop believing in it.
Isaiah calls to those appointed as watchers on the walls of Jerusalem not only to watch and to wait. They - and we - are not to let God rest, either, but ceaselessly remind him of the promises. We are to nag God, to badger Him, if you will, with the same urgency with which our children pester us to stay up late. If we really believed God, if we really wanted Christ to return, we would, wouldn’t we?
And what does it have to do with Christmas, anyway?
First of all, Christmas shows us that God keeps his promises, even if it takes a long time by human standards.
Secondly, at Christmas God-in-Heaven did, indeed, become God-With-Us. From that moment on, Jesus has been God-With-Us in a way never before experienced on earth, first walking with and teaching his disciples, and now with us, his Church, through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Many here in this congregation have known the living presence of Jesus Christ, God-With-Us, in a way impossible to describe yet as real as the morning news - if not more so.
Thirdly, Jesus Christ has appointed us not only to be watchers-on-the-walls, but workers-in-the-vineyard. And he is present in the world to the same extent that we are present in the world on his behalf. If we look at war and injustice and ask, “Where is God?” the answer may be looking back at us from our mirrors. The answer to the question, “Where is God?” may be, “God is waiting for you to say, ‘Here am I. Send me.’”
And finally, Christmas was only the beginning, just as Easter, too, was only a beginning. We’re simply not done yet. The final chapter hasn’t been written. Or, more precisely, it has been written, but it hasn’t taken place. The book of Revelation paints a glorious picture of the end of history, when Jesus Christ does come to reign, with power and riches, wisdom and strength, honor and glory and blessing. There will be a time when “God himself will be with us and be our God. He will wipe every tear from our eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things will pass away... The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants ... will see his face.” [Rev 21, 22]
Christmas is a promise. The birth of the baby Jesus is both a promise fulfilled, and a promise made. Just as we look back to that day, and remember, and rejoice, let us look forward, and remember, and believe, and rejoice. And we have a part to play in the keeping of that promise. As Isaiah told the watchers on the walls of Jerusalem,
"Give the Lord no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth."
You are charged, O people of God, with the same charge. Remember Simeon and Anna. Badger God. Nag Him. Give God no rest, until he establishes the reign of Christ on earth.
