Rev. Lin Smalec Salem Church, Waynesboro, PA
WHAT IF THERE WERE NO CHRISTMAS?
First Sunday of Advent
27 November 2005
A few years after World War II ended, a professor at Oxford University in England wrote a series of children’s books that captured the imagination of a generation. In just a few weeks, the first and most popular of those books will be brought to the big screen in a blockbuster movie that promises to capture the imagination of new generations.
That professor was Clive Staples Lewis, better known as C. S. Lewis. The series of seven books, published one a year from 1950 to 1956, is called “The Chronicles of Narnia”, and the first book of the series is “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”.
I’ve been mentioning this book and movie for several weeks now, and we have made copies of the book available to each family here at Salem. How many of you have read “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”? If you haven’t read it yet, there are still copies available - and if we run out, we’ll gladly order more. And the movie will be out December 9th, so if you don’t like to read, you’ll be able to see it on screen.
Now a few weeks ago, one of you asked me a question that I think many of you are probably also thinking. She said, “Pastor Lin, this book is like a fairy tale. What does it have to do with Christianity and Christmas?” Ah, good question!
Think back to when Jesus taught the people who followed him. Did he use lectures and bible study? Sometimes - but his favorite way to teach was through stories - stories called parables. Well, this book is like a parable - it is a teaching story that contains within it powerful spiritual truths. Sometimes we can hear those truths more easily if they come in a form other than Scripture. They seem more accessible, easier to understand that way.
That is why, in this season of Advent, the weeks leading up to Christmas, we will let this entertaining book illuminate for us some wonderful and amazing truths about God’s great Christmas gift to us, His son, Jesus Christ.
The book begins with a family of four young English schoolchildren, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, who are sent away from London to live in the countryside with a mysterious professor and his housekeeper. This was during World War II, and the great cities of England were being bombed regularly by the Nazi’s. So it was common for children to be sent to a safer place in the country.
Shortly after arriving, the children are exploring the old house, and in one room they find a big old wardrobe. Now some of you may not know what a wardrobe is. In olden days in England and other parts of Europe, they did not build closets. So where were they supposed to hang their clothes? They built large pieces of furniture called wardrobes, sort of like cabinets to store clothing.
The youngest child, Lucy, decides to look in the wardrobe, and as she walks in, deep into the back, past the old fur coats hanging there, she enters another world - a world of snow and ice, dark and bitterly cold. Nearby is a lamp post - an old fashioned kind of streetlight, kind of like the ones we have here in downtown Waynesboro. And by the light of the lamp post, Lucy sees a strange sort of creature coming toward her - a faun, a being who is half human and half goat. The faun is wearing a warm scarf around his neck, carrying a number of parcels and an umbrella to keep off the falling snow.
The faun, who we find out is named Mr. Tumnus, is of course quite startled to meet Lucy - and delighted when he finds out she is a “daughter of Eve” - in other words, a human being. Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy that she is now in the land of Narnia, and then he invites her to his home for “tea” - which in England means more than just a cup of warm brew, but also a nice, cozy kind of supper.
After the meal, Mr. Tumnus tells Lucy all kinds of tales about life in Narnia, and then he begins to play a strange kind of flute - the music from this flute makes Lucy feel quite drowsy. And when Lucy finally rouses herself to leave, Mr. Tumnus bursts into tears and admits the truth to her.
You see, he had been trying to enchant her and keep her there until he could turn her over to the White Witch. The White Witch had ordered that anyone who found a human being - a “son of Adam or daughter of Eve” - in Narnia was to turn them over to her. But now that Tumnus had actually met Lucy, he just couldn’t do it!
And who is this White Witch? She calls herself the Queen of Narnia, but she is a usurper, not the rightful ruler. She has magical powers, including the power to turn any who oppose her into solid stone. She is cold, selfish, evil. And it is she who has made it winter in Narnia for 100 years - constant, frozen, endless winter - “always winter and never Christmas!”, as Mr. Tumnus sadly says.
This, then, is our introduction to the world of Narnia. It is a beautiful world, populated, as we will see, with a variety of creatures from mythology and fairy tales, as well as both talking and non-talking animals. It is a world in which there are both good and evil creatures, and some who are a little of both. It is a world that is under a curse - where it is always winter, but never Christmas.
But Narnia is also a world of hope - a world that waits for the coming of Aslan, “the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-beyond-the-Sea” - Aslan, the great Lion, who with a shake of his mane and the sound of his roar will bring spring and life to Narnia once again.
Always winter, but never Christmas! Can you imagine such a horrible place? Always cold and frozen and gray and dreary, without even the joy and celebration of Christmas to break up the gloom! In a way, this could be a description of our world - not in a physical, weather-related sense, but in a spiritual sense. After the fall of Adam and Eve, when sin entered human life, our world entered a spiritual winter - the perpetual frozen hopeless state of sin.
And yet, our Creator God had a plan. He promised to His chosen people of Israel that He would some day send them a Messiah - a Savior, one who would redeem people of their sins and break down the barriers between God and all humanity. This Savior would come from the family line of the great King David, son of Jesse. Listen to these words of God’s promise through the prophet Isaiah:
“A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 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. 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.” (Isaiah 11:1-2, 10, NRSV)
The people of Israel waited, trusting in God’s promises through His prophets, waiting for the great King and Savior to arrive, he who would bring life to a world frozen in sin.
And around two thousand years ago, God’s promise was fulfilled. In a small town near Jerusalem called Bethlehem, a baby was born. The child’s mother was a young virgin named Mary - his father, the Holy Spirit of God. The child was descended from King David, and his birth was proclaimed by an angel of heaven, who told the shepherds in the nearby fields,
“I am bringing you good news of great joy for all people; to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you; you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” (Luke 2:10b-12, NRSV)
That child was named Jesus, and the day of his birth is now celebrated as Christmas.
But what if it had never happened? What if Jesus had never been born? What if there were no Christmas? What if - like in Narnia - it were always winter, and never Christmas?
What if there were no Christmas? We wouldn’t have parties and gatherings, holly and mistletoe, Christmas trees and stockings by the fire - we wouldn’t have Christmas cards and newsy family letters - we wouldn’t have Christmas presents wrapped in bright paper and bows - we wouldn’t have Santa Claus and Rudolph and the Grinch wouldn’t have anything to steal! - we wouldn’t have little kids dressed up in robes as shepherds in the church Christmas pageant - we wouldn’t have candlelight services - and we wouldn’t have “Joy to the World!” or “Silent Night”.
What if there were no Christmas? What would the world be like if Jesus had never come? Because Jesus taught that we are not only to love God, but to love our fellow human beings as well, the followers of Jesus over the years have established many institutions that have changed the face of our world. Imagine a world without hospitals and orphanages, a world without universities, a world without nursing homes, a world without organized ways to care for the poor and the desolate.
What if there were no Christmas? What if it were always winter - the spiritual winter of perpetual, frozen, hopeless sin - and never Christmas? We would never be able to atone for our sins or earn our way to God’s side - we would be forever separated from God by our sin. It is Christmas that begins the process of melting that sin away. Jesus himself said:
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3:16, NRSV)
At Christmas, the Son of God is born - born to die. Whenever we look at that baby child in the manger, we must see behind him the shadow of the cross. The Christ child born at Christmas will grow up to be a carpenter, a teacher, a miracle worker, and most importantly, he will grow up to be the Savior, the Messiah, the one who will redeem all humanity from their sins through his death on the cross.
What if there were no Christmas? Then we would not have to make a decision. For you see, Christmas forces upon us a most important decision - will we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior? Will we accept his sacrifice for our sakes? Will we turn our lives to God and seek to be a faithful follower of Jesus? Or will we continue to live in the cold, frozen life of sin? Scripture says this:
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23, NRSV)
Thanks be to God, we do have Christmas! Because of that marvelous fact, that gift of God’s love, our world and our lives are changed forever.
And as we shall see next week, when we continue our exploration of Narnia, Christmas finally comes to that world too. Our Christmas comes in the form of a man who is also God, Jesus. In the world of Narnia, Christmas comes when the son of the Emperor, the great Lion Aslan, returns to their world. Join us next week, when we encounter the power of love!
Let us pray:
Father God, it is hard to imagine our world without Christmas. Thank You for Your most precious Christmas gift, Your own Son, Jesus. Thank You for sending him to be our Savior. Forgive us for those times we take Your gift for granted, and help us this day to turn our hearts anew toward Christ, to accept the salvation he brings to us. Help us, Lord, in the midst of the Christmas hustle and bustle, all the shopping and wrapping and parties, to remember the true reason we celebrate.
And we thank You, Lord, for inspiring C. S. Lewis in his writings, and for leading this special book to be made into a movie. We pray, O God, that those who view this movie will see the spiritual truths it contains. May eyes and hearts be opened to You during this Christmas season.
We pray these things in the name of the Lion of Judah - the Promised Savior - Jesus Christ. Amen.
RESOURCES:
1) C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe © 1950 by C. S. Lewis Pte. Ltd.
2) Devin Brown, Inside Narnia © 2005 by Devin Brown, published by Baker Books.
