Sermon of December 27 -- Bah Humbug

"Bah Humbug"

A Sermon from Colossians 3: 12-17 by C. Dennis Shaw

Pastor of Stratmoor Hills UMC

Colorado Springs, CO

December 27, 2009

The First Sunday after Christmas

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"Humbug" might have faded from the English language a hundred years ago were it not for the character in Charles Dickens Novella, The Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge and his view that Christmas is "humbug."

Humbug could mean "sham," it has also been used to mean "hoax" or "trick," P.T. Barnum once said that "The people like to be humbugged."

What Scrooge meant, of course, was that Christmas and its celebrations and traditions, with a particular emphasis on charity toward the poor, are a sham, an insincere and wasteful ritual.

I have been at times in my life, more like the early Scrooge, than the transformed, benevolent man of the climax … a man who practices the charity of Christmas every day …

I disliked Christmas not for spiritual reasons, but because of the demands people placed on you during that time.

“I want” -- “get me” -- “you didn’t remember me”

For many years, it seemed to me that Christmas was all about getting and wanting, as well as piling up all of the guilt that comes along when you aren’t enthused about the event in the first place and thus procrastinate about remembering the important, lovely people in my life.

Scooge-like, I have been converted …

After a warning visit by the spirit of his dead partner, Marley, Scrooge is visited on Christmas Eve night by three spirits. An angel, who is the ghost of Christmas Past, a jolly rotund man who is the ghost of Christmas Present, and a wraith like figure who is the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

All of them have a role. The ghost of Christmas Past reminds him of the joy he felt during certain times in his past, over Christmas. The ghost of Christmas present shows him how others see him, as well as those around themselves, and how their lives are more joyous with others in it. Finally, Tolkien like wraith that is the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come provides Scrooge a vision of his own future should he not make a change in the direction of his life.

When Scrooge awakes on Christmas Day, he is changed, transformed, a person who sees the world in a different light …

Our reading today is from the suggested text for the first Sunday after Christmas. We spend four weeks of Advent reflecting on what the entrance of the Christ Child will mean to the world, we have the brief moment of his birth, and then, right back to the meaning of his life in our own. No dallying and adoring the Christ Child …

I don’t mean to make that sound harsh, but the early church did not focus on the birth of Christ, rather, they focused what his life meant to them … and primarily this meaning is found in community. Paul, or a protégé of Paul’s, letter to the church at Colossae is an example of what the early church wanted to say about being a follower of Christ.

Colossians of course doesn’t use the idea of humbug, but if it did, it would suggest that focusing on baby Jesus as a cute baby without regard to his eventual role would be worthy of a “bah, humbug”.

Look at verses 12 – 14 … "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."

The author is making the point that whatever they were … and most of the church at Colossae were Gentiles, non-Jews …. they were now part of God’s chosen … and he reminds them through the use of the word “holy” that means you are set apart, you are different than you were … and that God’s love for you suggests that the wardrobe you once wore no longer fits you …

You need to put on a different set of clothes …

Regarding Henry tells the story of Henry Turner, a successful lawyer in New York City who has the world by the tail and little time for his family. Whatever it takes to win major court cases, Henry (played by Harrison Ford) will sell his soul for it. Ethical behavior matters less to him than climbing the corporate ladder and supporting his elaborate lifestyle.

Henry's life changes drastically, though, when he stops at a convenience store late at night and becomes the victim of a robbery. The burglar shoots him in the chest and head. Doctors save his life, but Henry requires months of hospitalization and therapy. He has no memory of his wife, daughter, or colleagues. He enters into an intensive program to reclaim his identity, including wearing clothes he now finds too formal. His family are strangers to him.

After resuming his life, Henry discovers there are aspects of the life he led before, he no longer values: disloyal and dishonest behavior are part of that, and he finally can bear it no more, quits his old job and comes home …

Henry’s wife meets him at the door and breaks into tears. Henry then says "… I have something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" she asks.

"I don't like my clothes," he says, sounding childlike but sincere. "Maybe they used to be my favorite, but I don't feel comfortable in them anymore."

"We'll get you new clothes," his wife says smiling. She reaches to embrace him.

"I want us to be a family for as long as we can, Sarah," Henry quietly whispers. "For as long as we can."

The author of Colossians is saying we have to stop wearing the clothes we were wearing, and Scrooge-like undergo this transformation of our soul, and see the world differently …throw the window open and say “boy, boy, can you tell me what today is” and the boy stunned says “why it’s Christmas day” …

And the clothing that is given to us in the Christmas gift that is the Christ child who grows to the leader of the Jesus Project … this new clothing we are urged to put on are called: compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. And while the words could be understood to be in an individualistic context, the author is driving at the plural … “you all” … a people … he tells the community they are a “people” … “clothe yourselves” …

Sometimes in putting on new clothes we have to stand naked and we get to see the scars of life …

When I am at Fort Carson and am finished working out and shower in the gym, I see men scarred physically by war …

The author of Colossians tells us that part of how we heal those scars of life’s war is to be a people that lifts each other up and perhaps more importantly forgives each other … why, because God forgave you …

Some of you may remember the ugly night during an American League Championship Series when Roberto Alomar spit on an umpire named John Hirschbeck ….

Four years after the incident, Hirschbeck and Alomar are on the same team … the same quest … That ugly moment has been put behind them, and now Roberto and John work together to raise money for ALD (a rare degenerative genetic brain disease) that took the life of John Hirschbeck's eight-year-old son in 1993.

Alomar said: "Maybe God put us in this world to help somebody beat this disease."

I wonder if maybe God didn’t put these two in the world to show us what the love that Colossians is describing to us can be made visible.

Picking up again from Colossians … "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

Notice the encouragement … the exhortation …

Let peace rule … members of one body … Let the word cause you to TEACH … ADMONISH and SING …

And the purpose of the forgiveness is to bind people together into a cohesive whole … a cohesive unit … bound together by Love and accomplishing it in a spirit of Gratitude … Doxology …

Teaching others to do what is right …

Being willing to call to the attention of others what they are doing wrong …

Praising the impact of God in their lives …

In our movie Remembering Henry, Henry confesses he wants to be a family again … his wife offers … "I love you," she offers. "I love you too," Henry says as they embrace. You have the impressing that they will now set about re-teaching each other what is right about caring for others … lovingly suggesting that maybe they are going in the wrong direction, and offering doxology … gratitude for the blessings they have …

You are left with the impression that this is a mature love built on a new respect and a new and different feeling for each other …

Character matters …

The New England Patriots of the 2003/4 NFL Season were a surprising success. It was a young team, in a league and sport that demanded experience …

Eight rookies replaced injured veterans but the Patriots went on to win the 2004 Super Bowl and over the course of that season and the next, set a regular season record for consecutive wins that was broken a few weeks ago by the Colts … The motto of the executive leadership was: "WE ARE BUILDING A TEAM—NOT COLLECTING TALENT."

Their success was due to an unselfish mindset adopted by coaches and players alike.

Dare I say that the Colossians theme is that the Body of Christ is about building a team … not collecting talent …

I want to leave you with two observations …

You each have opportunities to be one of the Ghosts of the Dickens Christmas. You can remind others of different days when they were not so self absorbed, you can give people a little glimpse into their true character or you can point to a future that is imminent without transformation. Do you do it, or do you say “Bah Humbug”, the direction that person is on is their own choice and it isn’t any of my business.

I offer YOU are saying “Bah Humbug” yourself to the message here in Colossians.

You also at times have the chance to listen to others as they comment about where you are … reminding you of a different past, seeing a different present and future for you … Again, you could say “Bah Humbug” to that message, but you are in reality saying “Bah Humbug” to the Colossians scripture, and perhaps more importantly, you are saying “Bah Humbug” to the real message of Christmas …

Jesus came into the world for the express purpose of changing the very direction of our lives. You can keep on the wardrobe you had on before you experience, or you can be like Henry in our movie and see that the clothes you once wore, no longer feel right …

The invitation is there for you …

You can say Bah Humbug, or you can remember this passage from Colossians …

The choice is yours …

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Some illustrations w/in this sermon were drawn from Preaching Today: Remembering Henry, the Hirschbeck story, and the NE Patriots quote specifically.

Christmas Eve Sermon

Christina Gabriella Rossetti was a poet who wrote during the 1800s. She came from a well known literary and artistic family that lived in England. Her father was a professor of Italian and her brothers were among the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which included James McNeill Whistler. Her family friends included Lewis Carroll, author of Alice in Wonderland.

We know her today by two Christmas carols … one “In the Bleak Midwinter” and the other “Love Came Down at Christmas” …. “Love Came Down at Christmas” is found at number 242 in the red United Methodist Hymnals at your seats.

1. Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love Divine;
Love was born at Christmas,
Star and Angels gave the sign.

2. Worship we the Godhead,
Love Incarnate, Love Divine;
Worship we our Jesus:
But wherewith for sacred sign?

3. Love shall be our token,
Love shall be yours and love be mine,
Love to God and all men,
Love for plea and gift and sign.


Notice she has all three verses end with the word sign …

Star and Angels giving us a sign, but then at the end of verse 2, she seems to ask in how our 21st Century English would phrase the question … with what … with what will we worship our Jesus as OUR sacred sign …

And she comes back and answers in verse 3 her own question … we will show our sacred sign for our love of Jesus by possessing it, and then, loving god and all those around us … using loving as means of entreaty … plea… as a gift to others … and as a sign of our faithfulness …

Rosetti does the same play on words with question and then answer in the poetry of “In the bleak midwinter” (UMH 221) … in the last verse she asks “what can I give him (the Christ child) poor as I am …” and her answer is “give my heart”. May I invite you to give your heart in response to God’s gift of the Christ child for you …

Lets confess … we come here tonight for many reasons, probably no two exactly similar or precisely alike ...

Some may be here out of deep spirituality … seeking an encounter with the sacred …

Others may be present tonight because their family insisted upon it … I can relate, I’ve been there … I am sure I went to many a Christmas Eve service because of son, husband, or father obligations.

Others may be here out of some kind of family tradition … you can’t open a Christmas Eve present until you go to church, so you are working off the Christmas “to do” list … “Go to church” – check that box …

Others may be here because you like Christmas carols …and the idea of singing Silent Night with others warms your heart …

I wonder if Rosetti’s use of the image of sign isn’t part of the issue …

Possibly Christmas is a sign for our spirituality.

Possibly Christmas is a sign of who we are as family.

Possibly Christmas is a sign of a more personal, intimate expression of our own quest for shalom … for wholeness … for that inner peace that is hard to define, but we know it when we see it …

When I was a teenager, we would watch American Bandstand, and a new song would be introduced and they would ask a judge, what she felt and the answer would be “I’ll give it a 95, I liked the beat”.

Many of us give Christmas a 95, we like the beat … family, presents, good food, football .. the beat here might be a sign of something that speaks to us across time, across relationships, across our own growth as people …

But I would invite you to listen to Rosetti’s question and entertain the idea of its haunting quality … if the angels and Magi … the wisemen … point to Jesus as a sign, what is our response to that sign …

Our response has to more than appreciating family, presents, good food, football. It has to be more. More what? Rosetti tells what our response should be ….

She suggests that perhaps the issue of love coming down for Christmas is imbedded in three ideas …

Plea … Gift …. Sign …

God becomes incarnate … God becomes “in the flesh” … “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God… the word became flesh and lived among us …”

Is it possible that what God is offering us is a plea to understand that God really loves us … “For God so loved the world …” we are given the Gift of Jesus ….

And that plea is accompanied by the gift manifested in vulnerability … how much more vulnerable can someone be than a human baby. Giraffe baby’s can stand within minutes of birth and can outrun predators within hours … that miracle is repeated throughout the animal kingdom … but human babies are vulnerable to the vagaries of life for a long period … and God “became flesh and lived among us …”

That vulnerability is a sign to us …

Sure … we can erect walls in our lives and say that ‘worthless no good no account hurt me and I am never going to let THAT happen again’ … but that response .. that kind of a sign to the rest of our world hardens us … it hardens our hearts … and it kills the Christmas every day attitude we are called to display …

The American psychologist Karl Menninger once said: ‘One does not fall in love; one grows into love, and love grows in her or him.’

Christmas is in part about allowing that love-seed that God gives each of us, the opportunity to germinate and grow … and by growing in our love for God; we grow in our love for each other …

Roberta Bondi – in her book To love as God Loves … reminds us that when we are standing in a circle with others trying to draw closer to God, we are also invariably drawing closer to each other … in short, trying to get closer to God, brings us closer to each other … it could actually be said the other way … that if we are in a circle with God at the center, that as we move towards each other, we grow closer to God as well …

O. Henry tells us in his short story -- "Gift of the Magi" – about God’s love manifested towards others …

Jim and Della live in a lonely flat …one assumes New York City …of the early nineteen hundreds. They are poor and the economic conditions of the day have attempted to drain hope and joy from their lives …

Jim is the possessor of a family heirloom … a beautiful watch, of which he is very proud … and Della has floor length hair of which she is proud …

The story centers on Della on how she can show Jim her love for him this Christmas and she decides to sell her hair and buy a gold chain for his watch … Jim arrives at home, and is stunned by her short, curly hair … and gives her first her present … O. Henry tells us they are:

“Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jeweled rims--just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair”….

“Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. [Della] held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.

"Isn't it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You'll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it."

Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.

"Dell …. let's put our Christmas presents away and keep 'em a while. They're too nice to use just at present. [pause] I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. ….."

O. Henry as the narrator continues: “The magi, as you know, were wise men--wonderfully wise men--who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. O all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.”

We pray tonight that we gave you the gift of the magi somewhere in our service … and that maybe you saw love come down, this Christmas … and it gave you your sign of how and what to give back to God …

Let me leave you with two questions … questions that I pray are “gifts” for each of you … as well as perhaps a “plea” on behalf of God …

Did you get your sign tonight?

If you did, what was it?

Please stand as you are able and let’s sing Silent Night together …

**


The start point for using Rosetti’s poetry came from a Facebook posting by The Reverend Adam Hamilton of the UM Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, Kansas. The Reverend Kent Ingram, FUMC Colorado Springs suggested ending with the questions … My own Della (Marilyn White) tightened up the manuscript. Thanks to all. The O. Henry tumbled into my brain and wouldn’t leave. Thanks be to God!

Music

I am in a 35 voice choir. My undergrad degree was music ed, but I was a instrumentalist.

My earliest memories of being in "band" was how much the music seemed to touch my inner parts. I wonder if that wasn't the beginning of a life long love of being part of the creation of sound. I say that to some people and they remark "you mean compose?" No ... I mean, taking someone else's musical thoughts in abstract on a piece of paper and move it to sound.

Choir adds a dimension that instrumentalists don't have ... words. The words matter ... making the "c" a little harder to give it intensity is part of it,but the real key is the poetry itself.

Somewhere I once read an article I can no longer find, that said the ancient Greeks would not allow politics and music to be combined. It was too powerful a source of emotion they thought. Maybe I dreamed that. Maybe I was in a parallel universe. I don't remember where I saw it, but it seems true.

I find that being part of the making of music fills my soul.

Peace ...

Darkness to Light

Yesterday, we celebrated the lives of people who have passed away in the last three years at Stratmoor. Some sixteen Saints, associated with Stratmoor Hills have passed away in the past three years. There is a "hole in our soul" from their losses.

In addition to those sixteen names, we also encouraged people to submit a card on anyone who had passed away, whenever it was, and we called their name as well, and we lit a candle for them.

We are a low-church church, and this looked to me when we first talked about it, like a high-church ritual.

I was wrong.

By the time we had all the candles lit, we had read and called into the light, over fifty names at each service. It was an example of where ritual, making a dark room lit by memory, was a powerful sermon in and of itself. My sermon at both services was only a few minutes. I personally was left with the feeling that the sermon was the candles.

I wonder if that isn't part of the intent in the history of this All-Soul's Day remembrance for the church: to light our lives with the power of their memory?

We are going to do something very similar next week for Veteran's Day .. living as well as those who have passed away ....

Selah.

Our Creation Story

In Hebrews 11: 1 and 2 we are told that “faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.”

That story is our own story here at Stratmoor Hills.

It is faith in addressing the spiritual need of a new neighborhood and a vision of answering that need by those founding saints that is a core value of the Stratmoor Hills United Methodist story.

It is faith that caused some members and clergy of First Methodist Church in Colorado Springs to approach the developer of the new neighborhood of Stratmoor Hills near Fort Carson with the idea of starting a new church.

It is faith that has been the foundation on the vision and the mortar which held the congregation together in hard and yes, occasionally desperate times.

It is by such an act of faith that less than ten adults gathered at Gorman Middle School to call into existence out of the creation raw materials the Stratmoor Hills Methodist Church.

It is by such an act of faith that Gladys and Fred Abrahamson donated the land and the building we use today.

It is by such an act of faith that the Reverend Paul Murphy went to Mississippi in 1964 facing death and jail in order to seek justice for the least of our brothers and sisters, a prophetic act for which, in the opinion of some then, too much truth was spoken too clearly to power, which saw a congregational rejection of that faith story which set the congregation on its own wilderness journey.

It was by faith the congregation was sustained in that wilderness journey by the blessings of leadership quail, manna and water.

It was by such an act of faith in that wilderness journey that the congregation was tested and refined to be resurrected in a new Century as an Easter Congregation.

It was by such an act of faith that Kenny and Wilma Carpenter sustained the building and the property and it was by such an act of faith that Bonna Campbell and Jerry Zoebisch as well as other saints that the congregation held together the congregation during parts of the wilderness journey by their labor of true love.

We could go on but we don’t have the time to hear the entire story of all of the saints who have faithfully done so much for our little church! Their faithful story is our faith story, and their faith in the future, a faith in each of us.

A new story of old faith is being created by the new Saints who have joined us in our journey in the past five years and are walking to Jerusalem with us now.

Do we really understand what this means? Those saints who went before us were pioneers who blazed the way. Many of these pioneers have finished their race, but stand in that heavenly grandstand cheering us on. Our faith story calls upon us to understand that the race is one of relays, the baton being handed off over and over again: a handoff of faith in faith. These Saints call upon us to take the baton from them and to run our own good faithful race with strength and endurance in order to hand it off again to those who come behind us, having run our own good and faithful race. Look at that word faithful – faith full!

This means we have their faith to inspire us and we are asked to run our own faithful race. Their example is before us. The next verse in Hebrews tells us that we are to: “Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it.” (Peterson, Hebrews 12: 3) We have the biblical faith story; we have the story of those who have gone before us here, and the story of all the Saints who have run this race in all of the Churches of all of the world. When we find ourselves growing tired in our faith and losing our energy or our focus, we should go over our own creation story again, name by name. That will surely give us that dose of Starbucks’ coffee we need for our tired souls!

We are certain of what we do not yet see, and we know that by our faith in what is as yet unseen, we will surely call that unseen into our world. Our eyes are truly fixed with the Saints, on Jesus! Amen.

Metrics

At our "lock-in" with the Bishop this week, one of the things she asked us was: what metrics were we willing to be in covenant with the Methodist leadership to achieve?

I think it was a way of asking us: What does fruitful look like to you?

We have in the last year had a major jump in attendance. We started a second service, our target was young adults with children, and it is working. Many of them seem to have some connection with Fort Carson. It took right at fourteen months for that jump to occur, it didn't happen over night.

I would also like to see us more involved in caring for a recently released prisoner from jail. They have a tough life and I wonder if a community of faith couldn't work in some kind of way to make their lives get restarted a little easier.

But I also think a metric I would like to see us get measured on is our own growth as disciples. Clearly, we need to be more intentional in how we go about furthering our knowledge of the bible and the theological discourse surrounding it.

Is her question also a way of asking us: where are you willing to be held accountable? Why do we resist accountability so vigorously? I don't mean all of us, but many. Is there some theological issue we are wrestling with that says "I don't want to be held accountable for very much".

I am going to ponder that ...