Advent - Love and Light w/Jenn Swift

Well, good morning, everyone. It is the fourth

week of Advent. This is the week we focus on

love, and because we don't have a Christmas Eve

service, we also focus on the light of Christ

that came with his birth. Christmas is, as we

just said, there's a lot happening at Christmas.

It's not just the holiday, is it? It's the stuff

wrapped up in the holiday. And we live in America,

so it's wild in America. There's really no other

country in the world that does what America does

at Christmas time with the stuff, right? It's

busy. It's big. It's heavily commercialized.

It starts in August. But life gets really busy

all of a sudden we know what's coming and so

there's really no way to be like oh that's just

in the future because we're just confronted with

it really really early and so You know we know

what's coming down the barrel and then when we

get here like all of a sudden like late November

December like it all breaks open. Everything

happens. So how many have attended a Christmas

or a seasonal holiday program in the last two

weeks? There it is. There are parties that some

of you dread and some of you are really excited

about. There are gift exchanges. You are buying

gifts for people at work. You barely know. Who's

participated in a white elephant gift exchange

that you ended up pulling something out of your

closet for? Nobody is raising their hand, but

I know you have done it. Who has ever had a secret

Santa in an environment that you're like, who

is Tyler? And then Tyler's like, it's me. Merry

Christmas. There are family photos. Listen, the

family photos that you do in October are amazing

because you have been preparing for two months,

and I don't know how you do it, but you've done

it, and it's incredible. But that's a part of

the mental load of what you're doing to get things

ready for Christmas. We have to get the pets

Christmas sweaters and hats, and then all the

family descends upon the house in matching pajamas,

100%. And then you have to get the matching pajamas.

And they have to be different than the year before.

And then, like, in this huge, huge, like, Fast

and Furious lead -up, all of a sudden, it's just

done. Like, it goes by so fast. And we often

don't feel like we got to experience Christmas,

or at least what we think Christmas is supposed

to be. We all just become these whirling dervishes.

And sometimes you wonder if what you just experienced

was even real because you're done and you're

like, what was that? It was all activity. And

it can almost feel like the busy, the activity,

the crazy was actually the thing. And even during

Advent, we're meant. to pause. We're meant to

remember hope and to pause to remember peace

and to pause to remember joy and pause to remember

love and look towards the light that came to

live within us at Christmas. We're meant to do

those things, but how? And the following is not

a new idea and each year it feels like more of

a struggle, but it can be an honest to goodness

fight to make room. to take time like you're

wrestling for it for the remembering of the Christ

child in all of it and the contrast always is

that there is any time in our lives in our year

that we need to make room for these gifts it

is this season and I would arguably say love

is the one that we need the most Not to rank

the gifts of God, but I guess I just did. But

even in Corinthians, it says, and the greatest

of these is love. But the presence, but what

the presence and the indwelling of love means

for us in our world is not to be understated.

And 1 Peter 4a implores us to consider that above

all, love each other deeply because love covers

over a multitude of sins. And yet in the season

of Advent, we barely have time to think of it

some years. And some of us are confronted with

how little love we have for the people around

us. How difficult it can be because we're in

close proximity with some of the people that

have been the most difficult in our lives. So

each of the prior weeks of Advent, we are given

a week to consider hope before we turn over to

peace and then joy. But some years, if the calendar

falls just right, We might have three days to

consider the gift and presence of love because

of how the Sunday falls in relationship to the

day of Christmas. And those days are often filled

with the realities of last -minute shopping and

preparation. It's very hard to take a beat and

to focus on this week, this week's reflection.

And it's sobering to consider that even our best

attempts are systematically undermined. by the

environment that we live in. In our imaginations,

we can imagine that the time leading up to Jesus'

birth was also a busy time. There's these reflections

in the scriptures of what all the activity that

was happening. So heaven's postal system was

in full force. Messages were being sent all over

the place for a few months. Zechariah and Elizabeth

each got a message. Mary's cousins. They were

each visited. Mary herself gets a visit about

becoming the mother of Jesus, and she rejoices.

She visits her previously mentioned cousin, and

they're both going to have babies, and both announcements

came by the way of angelic beings, and so that

was uniquely relatable. Oh, an angel visited

you too about your baby? That's cool. Joseph

got a visit from an angel in a dream as well.

The visitors from the east said they got a message

of sorts by way of the stars and the shepherds

saw the angels. So there were so many messages,

such a flurry of things. And in addition to all

the heavenly correspondence, Joseph got a message

from the government bidding them to come to Bethlehem

for the census, as if that wasn't enough. And

I'm sure Mary was stoked about that. We got to

go on a trip? That's fun. So much is happening.

And the stuff. Around this baby Messiah, the

heralding, the announcing is so much. The expectations,

it all seems so grand, it's so big, it's so a

lot, it's so heightened. So let's read in Luke

2, 4 through 20. We're going to read the account.

And I would invite you to stand if you can and

as you're able to give attention to God's word.

As we turn our hearts and attention to this story.

And to this remembrance, according to Luke. So

Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth

in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem, the town of

David, because he belonged to the house and line

of David. He went there to register with Mary,

who was pledged to be married to him, and was

expecting a child. And while they were there,

the time came for the baby to be born, and she

gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped

him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because

there was no guest room available for them. And

there were shepherds living out in the fields

nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.

An angel of the Lord appeared to them. The glory

of the Lord shone around them, and they were

terrified. But the angel said to them, Do not

be afraid. I bring to you good news that will

cause great joy for all the people. Today in

the town of David, a Savior has been born to

you. He is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be

a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in

cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly a

great company of the heavenly hosts appeared

to the angel, praising God and saying, Glory

to God in the highest, and on earth peace to

those on whom his favor rests. And when the angels

had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds

said to one another, Let's go, let's go to Bethlehem

and see this thing that has happened, which the

Lord has told us about. So they hurried off and

found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying

in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread

the word concerning what has been told them about

this child, and all who heard it were amazed

at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary

treasured up all these things and pondered them

in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying

and praising God for all the things that they

had heard and seen, which were just as they had

been told. Let's pray. God, add your blessing

to this word, to this story. May the truths of

it sit deeply in our heart. May we also ponder

these things deeply and hear what you need to

say to us and seal them upon our hearts today.

We pray this in your name. Amen. So your question

this morning was reflecting back to some of the

traditions you had as a kid, if you are a kid,

and what were some of the traditions that you

experienced that you love. I'm an only child,

so I really looked forward to Christmas evening

at my house. People came over. We were a household

of three. And though I am deeply introverted,

my aunt and uncle and cousins would come, and

I always looked forward to it. My uncle, this

is one of our traditions, my uncle would do a

remarkable, exquisite, full -on lyrical dance

to 12 Days of Christmas. And it was astounding.

Yes. Thank you. That's the appropriate reaction.

And I have a very clear memory of him, and he

was a very tall guy, standing on his very tippy

toes for the five golden rings. I loved it. It

was something to behold. And then for those few

precious days after Christmas when you were still

home from school, you'd relish in the freedom

of those days, the slowness of those days. I

would get games for Christmas. That seems like

a good thing to get a young person. But let me

remind you, I'm an only child. Who am I playing

these games with? Thank you. Thank you. So, I

mean, mom was home from work, from school. Grandma

was in town. So there were a few days that we

would play games. But then when those days were

up, You know, they inevitably come to an end.

I was back to setting up Monopoly for a game

with myself. It's the part when you know Christmas

is finished. The guests have gone. The dishes

have been washed. The gifts, having been tested

and tried on and played with, have been absorbed

into the household. The returns have been made.

The house has been cleaned up. Life returns to

normal. And the shine and the wonder and the

magic having seemingly come and gone so quickly.

But Luke 2 .20 says, and the shepherds returned

to their fields. It happened to them too. The

visitors left. The angelic rejoicing had come

to its end. Mary and Joseph moved to Egypt and

life, actual real life, was really about to begin

for this small little family of three. So yes,

this extraordinary miracle had come to fruition

in the deep breath after the bustle of the special

time, but what now? The lead up to the main event

is often so grand, so heralded, but then what?

We see this also in our lives and like weddings,

right? Wedding is traditionally a huge event.

There are months of planning. There are wedding

showers. Gifts are bought and given. There's

a lot of money spent. People travel for this.

And everything is leading up to a very big day

for a couple who have said that they are deeply

in love and want to spend the rest of their lives

living out this beautiful love towards one another.

And so they have a wonderful celebration. And

then, and then, The people leave, and the gifts

have been opened, and the bills start coming

in, and they are left with each other. And that

can actually be really scary, because now it's

just so real. And so the season of Advent will

come to a close this week. We will move next

into the season of Christmas tide. It's the actual

12 days of Christmas. It's from Christmas Eve

through to Epiphany, which is January 6th. And

what comes after that? In the church calendar,

ordinary time follows. There are two spots of

ordinary time in the church calendar. You see

it here when we have the green cloths on the

table. Approximately the month following the

Christmas season and the weeks after Easter,

the stretch of Easter and Lent and Pentecost

near the end of May. Through to Christ the King

Sunday at the end of November. So we have two

periods of ordinary time. When they take up a

significant amount of time. Ordinary time falls

after the big events. After the bigness of Christmas.

And after the bigness of Easter. Lent and Pentecost.

The shepherds return to their fields. And they

had to carry what they experienced into the places

that they lived and they did their work. and

did the ordinary stuff of life after this big

experience. The challenge always is how to take

the gifts and wonder of one season, when the

joy and the feelings of the event are close and

big and within easy reach, and how to carry them

into the realness of the ordinary. At Christmas,

we remember that the love of God has been dynamically

revealed. to the world through Jesus. The light

of Jesus has come to us. And there was rejoicing

and spectacle and people came from near and far,

but now life is just life. The dishes ask for

our attention and the car needs gas and the laundry

needs to be done. The bills have to be paid.

The doctor has to get visited. The kids need

to be dropped off at school and the homework

needs to be done. The email needs to be answered.

The snow needs to be shoveled and the lawn needs

to be mowed. The shepherds returned to their

fields. However, there's a bit more to pull from

here because just before the shepherds returned

to their fields, we have a small reflection on

Mary. And she treasured up all these things and

pondered them in her heart. The things we talk

about during the Advent season are not things

that just show up and make us feel good. They

are birthed in us. And they are meant to become

a part of us in these precious special times.

And then we must hold them in our hearts as we

return to the fields and we need to tend to them

and care for them. In the ordinary, in real life,

we take the things that were once again birthed

in us during the season and we hold them. We

carry hope and tend to its care. We carry peace

and we tend to its care. We carry joy and tend

to its care. We carry love and tend to its care.

We carry the light and we tend to its care. In

the season of Advent, we re -enter the story

of when Jesus came to us, but much like those

that were there, we can't stay in the refuge

of the night when Christ was born. We have to

hold these things in our hearts and go back to

the fields. And so during the season of Advent,

we don't just wait for the arrival of hope and

peace and light, Jesus himself. We don't just

wait for the arrival like guests that have come

for the holidays. We welcome these things into

our lives to stay, to take up residency in us,

to go along the way with us. And even though

the big events will pass, we cannot sustain the

energy that exists in those times. And so the

big events will pass. We return to life with

the gifts that came with the season. We go back

to the fields holding these things in our heart.

We go back to the fields remembering the goodness

and telling the stories to all who will listen,

like our dear shepherds. And we tend to the gifts,

caring for them, keeping the light lit, not letting

it go out. And so as you go forth from this season,

As you return to the fields, as you move back

into the ordinary, may you carry with you the

gifts of the season. May you carry with you the

light and tend to its care. Is anybody familiar

with the tradition of the Celtic Christian tradition?

There's a really beautiful history of the Celts.

very much caring for the things of the ordinary.

This is what stands out in their traditions.

And so if you look through Celtic prayers, they

are very much about like milking the cow. I'm

not kidding going to the bathroom. There are

very, very simple prayers about the comings and

goings of the ordinary. And so the ordinary is

actually quite special. It is where we tend and

care for things. It is the regular maintenance,

right? Which feels so mundane, but we know how

it is when maintenance goes undone. When things

go uncared for. When you don't clean out the

gutters. When you don't get the oil changed.

When you don't mow the lawn. The city comes after

you. I've heard that happens before. And so I

was a new homeowner at the time. I didn't understand

how things worked. But we ask for God to care

for us as he cares for us as we tend for the

precious things that we've been given that have

come with us into the fields. So I am going to

pray this prayer, this Celtic prayer, or this

prayer from the Celtic tradition. As we finish

this morning. God be with me in this, your day.

Every day and every way. With me and for me in

this, your day. And the love and affection of

heaven be towards me and in me towards others.

All that I am, Lord, I place into your hands.

All that I do, Lord, I place into your hands.

Everything I work for, I place into your hands.

Everything I hope for, I place into your hands.

The troubles that weary me, I place into your

hands. The thoughts that disturb me, I place

into your hands. Each day that I pray for, I

place into your hands. Each person that I care

for, I place into your hands. Show me what a

blessing it is that I have life and work to do.

And sometimes, and most of all, when the day

is overcast, And my courage faints. Let me hear

your voice saying, you are my beloved in whom

I am well pleased. Amen.