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Thursday, December 06, 2007
Watch Out For Christmas
Isaiah 2:1-5; Matthew 24:36-44
Kids love and hate, all at the same time, the long wait for Christmas that sets in right after Thanksgiving Day.
Wish lists show up in your e-mail. Unsubtle hints are dropped in conversation. Cryptic notes appear on refrigerator doors and tucked into bedtime books.
But why oh why do the days crawl by so slooooooowly?!
I remember one Christmas Eve ages ago, when I was sent to bed with one assignment: Go to sleep, go directly to sleep, or Santa Claus would have to fly right past our house with his sack full of presents.
But everybody knows you can't possibly fall asleep under that kind of pressure. Even so, I finally felt myself drifting off. Then, just as I settled in, I heard ever so faintly -- sleigh bells! Right outside our house! Down into sleep I gladly went, content that at long last the long wait was over.
I told that story on my materialistic little-boy self in Sunday's sermon.
Then I compared that impatient waiting and watching for Santa's appearance to the world's long dark night that ended at last with Christ's coming at Christmas. And I explained the symbolism of our Advent wreath and candles.
An endless circle of evergreens -- eternal life. Four purple candles -- royal gravitas, gradually glorified as more candles are lit week by week. Finally, the white Christ candle -- centered right there at the heart of the matter, Immanuel (God-With-Us).
Through the cold, dark month of December we're on the lookout, watching for signs of his coming. Watching.
All well and good. But we also need to watch out! That's what the Bible passages for Advent 1 tell us.
Somebody somewhere decided our Advent season should be not just preparation for Christ's coming at Christmas, but also for his second coming to wrap up human history.
So, according to Matthew... and Isaiah... Watch out! Wake up! Pay attention! This Christmas thing turns out to be very serious stuff. Life-and-death serious.
Hey, I didn't make this up. I'm just the messenger trying my best to tell the gospel truth.
Listen to the GODcast!
posted by Jack Buckley at
3:26 PM
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