The sermon for November 27 was based on Matthew 21:1-9.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Every year it gets harder and harder for me to get uptight about the "premature" celebration of Christmas. It will always be important for the Church to make a clear distinction between the season of Advent and Christmas but I can't to hot under the collar, so to speak, about people who put their lights up the day after Thanksgiving. Who can complain about joy?

There are two distinct season though, the four weeks of Advent and the 12 days of Christmas. And there is a tension between them. There is a tug of war between the lowliness and humility of Advent with its focus on repentance and the joy and conviviality of Christmas with its focus on celebration. The weeks of Advent can be confusing for well-meaning Christians.

We all love and crave the warmth of Christmastime. It's everything we want our home lives to be, cozy, domestic, anchored and hospitable. Christmas makes us feel good and we literally can't wait for it arrive. Each year we start in a little earlier. The Christmas preparations now begin even before Halloween in some quarters. The commercialism of Christmas is unfortunate and in a lot of ways bad for our souls but it's really hard to blame people for wanting to get a head start on warmth, domesticity, tradition and hospitality.

At the same time, we Christians know from Scripture that the proper and most useful preparation for receiving any good thing from God is repentance and humble introspection. We wage a constant battle against the twin devils of pride and self-deception. Even from a strictly social or psychological point of view, our lives would be much better if before we rushed headlong into a season of feasting, shopping and family reunions we spent a little time looking at ourselves, our sins and our need for God's grace.

So how can we reconcile the joy of the Christmas Gospel with the humility of the Advent Law? Do we simply have to endure the one and wait for the other or can they be harmonized in some way? Can the tension resolve itself in to contentment? We might ask the question this way. How can we have joy and life and light and at the same time be fully aware that we don't deserve it? We say every week that we receive Holy Communion with repentant joy and every week I meditate on what that means. What does a life of repentant joy look like? What does it feel like?

St. Paul show us the way in his letter to the Romans. "Let us walk properly," he says, "as in the day... not in strife and envy." (Romans 13:13) In the verse immediately prior to our Epistle lesson, St. Paul says that "love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:10) Love is outward directed. It gives rather than requires. It inspires rather than demands. Love only exist in the presence of a beloved. We need someone to love and to cherish, someone to delight and please. Someone for whom we are willing to change and grow. Someone who's company make us want to celebrate and deserve it. Love takes us out of ourselves in way that gives us access to ourselves.

Jesus arrives in our lives very much the way He arrived in Jerusalem. He comes in humility and in the least expected way. He doesn't just arrive in lowliness though, He brings it with Him and distributes it as it were among us. He inspires rejoicing and celebration as we see in today's Gospel but He also inspires selflessness and service. The people shout their praises but they also engage in a little impromptu street repair. They throw down branches and cloaks and whatever is at hand to make way for the one they love. Where does that kind of love come from?

It comes from Jesus Himself, of course. St. John says that "God is love." (1 John 4:8) As Jesus rides into the city of Jerusalem He says to His people. Today I will be lowly and humble so that you can rejoice and be glad. When He feeds the multitudes, heals the sick and raises the dead He says the opposite. I will be cheerful and optimistic and full of life so that you can repent of what you are and receive the gift of what I am making of you. On the one hand, He makes the children of Jerusalem shout for joy and on the other hand, He invites Himself to Zaccheus' house for dinner. His humility gives us joy and his joy makes us humble.

Jesus' love brings the Law and the Gospel together in way that makes for peace. We want that for ourselves too. We want to share with one another a love that resolves the tension between our unworthiness and our desire to celebrate. St. John reminds us that "We love (God) because He first loved us." (1 John 4:9) Once that Jeanie is out of the bottle though it's hard to put it back in. God gives us His love in Christ and that love returns to Him in our prayers and devotion but it also spills over like so much Christmas cheer into our relationships with the people around us.

God's love for us is shown above all in His forgiveness of us. There can be no hope, neither humility nor any happiness without the cross. In God His eternal love expresses itself in His willingness to forgive our sins. That's what He tells us in Jeremiah. "I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." (Jeremiah 31:34) Among us however love and forgiveness are almost indistinguishable they arrive together and work inseparable. Love makes us forgive one another and our ability to forgive one another keeps our love alive.

This is why the Means of Grace are so absolutely central to our lives. Baptism, Holy Communion, Pastoral Absolution and the hearing of God's Word are the means by which our sins are forgiven and they are the means by which the Holy Ghost fires our hearts with the love of God and of one another. They are the wellspring of charity from which we draw the love and forgiveness that make our lives together even possible.

To put it in more Churchly terms, Absolution is the synthesis of the tension between Advent and Christmas. We love most usefully and contentedly when we forgive one another. Likewise, we forgive most readily, those whom we have learned to love.

What does this kind of life look like when its put into practice here in Fort Wayne? Maybe something like this. Let the overflowing Joy of Christmas keep you cheerful and light hearted during the busy and stressful preparations of the next four weeks but then too let the accumulated lowliness and reflection of Advent keep you graceful and forgiving during the Christmas season. In every case, let God love you and be good to you in the way He wants to and you find it within your grasp to love and be good to the people around you. Amen.

The Peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

Last Updated: 5/27/2009