“Halloween
is Over, Thanksgiving is Here, Christmas is Coming” (Colossians
4:2-6)
With
thanks to Rev. David Wagner for suggesting this theme
INI
“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with
thanksgiving.” Those are St. Paul’s words from today’s Epistle
reading. We also heard from Isaiah, where he sees the Lord in all his
holiness with those strange creatures, the seraphim, around the
throne, singing of God’s holiness. One takes a hot coal from the
altar, touches Isaiah’s lips, and sears away his sin. This
prepares Isaiah to open his lips and answer God’s call. “Here I
am! Send me,” he says.
Here
we are today, gathered to give thanks to the Lord for all that he has
done for us. Thanksgiving should not be a once a year event. It
should be a lifestyle. Nevertheless, we have a national holiday on
which we get a day off to celebrate. Our ears have been touched with
the word of absolution. Our lips will be touched this morning by the
body and blood of Christ. Therefore we open our mouths and say,
“Here I am! Send me. Send me to tell others why we give thanks and
to whom we give thanks … to our Creator and Redeemer – Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit – the true God and source of all that we are
and all that we have.”
This
time of year is a busy time of holiday preparations. It seems as if
we go right from Halloween to Thanksgiving to Christmas … or, if
you judge the importance of holidays on the basis of store displays,
we go right from Halloween to Christmas. But Halloween is over.
Thanksgiving is here. And Christmas is still coming.
Halloween
is over. It has been for almost a month. The spooky decorations are
stashed away for another year except on clearance racks. You can get
some good deals on candy, too, by the way. In spite of all the cute
little princesses and Power Rangers that show up at your door or at
your harvest festival, Halloween also brings out the ghouls and the
ghosts and the skeletons and the tombstones … and unfortunately,
much blood and gore as if a horror movie has moved into town. It’s
a reminder of our mortality. A reminder of death. A reminder that
death is not pretty. In our hemisphere, the way nature reacts at
this time of year does this for us, too … the increasing darkness,
gloomy days, leaves falling to reveal the skeletal structure of the
trees around us.
But
now, Thanksgiving is here, and Christmas is Coming. We move beyond
Halloween and the stores seem to skip right over Thanksgiving and
begin to decorate for Christmas. Several radio stations began
playing Christmas music a couple of weeks ago. But don’t worry …
I’m not going to rant and rave about it this year like I have done
in the past. That’s a battle that I think has been lost. It’s a
battle that some of you never wanted to fight because you love
Christmas music so much.
No
doubt, there is a certain warmth to the holiday season. The
delicious smell of pumpkin spice and stuffed turkeys. The scent of
evergreen boughs in the house and hot chocolate. Yet although
Halloween has been stashed away, it still lingers through the
holidays at the end of the year. The smells of the season cannot
erase the stench of death that invades our hearts and lives. It’s
hard to escape it. It follows us everywhere. And there are
skeletons in our closets … unpleasant, hidden secrets that, sadly,
are sometimes revealed this time of year, even in front of our loved
ones. Family gatherings are not always happy ones for some. Your
own sins and the sins of others get in the way of having a happy
holiday.
But
Christmas is coming. All the hoopla surrounding these holidays
remind us that something important happened. Something big.
Something huge. Something that changed the world forever. Something
that can bring us joy in spite of sin.
“It’s
the most wonderful time of the year … It’s the hap-happiest
season of all.” Why? If you only sing along with the songs on the
radio, it’s because “There’ll be parties for hosting,
Marshmallows toasting, And caroling out in the snow … There’ll be
much mistletoeing, And hearts will be glowing … The kids will be
jingle belling, And everyone telling you be of good cheer.”
But
why? Why? What reason do we have to be of good cheer when our world
and our lives often don’t give us much to cheer about? You know
the answer … because we have a Savior whose birth we celebrate at
Christmas. A Savior whose sweet smelling sacrifice at the cross
covers over the stench of death. A Savior who was placed in a tomb
and who rose to life again not as a scary zombie or bony skeleton,
but as a living Lord with a very real body, risen in victory over
sin, over death, and over all the powers of hell. We can mock those
powers at Halloween, dressing up in our silly costumes, and giving
the devil a big Bronx cheer. On Thanksgiving Day we can give thanks
not only for our temporal blessings, but also for our spiritual
blessings, that Jesus conquered the powers of darkness for us and has
brought us into his marvelous light. And our thanksgiving does not
end when we clean up our tables and head to the stores for Black
Friday deals. It continues through Advent and Christmas as we give
thanks that the Son of God took on flesh in the womb of the Virgin
Mary. That’s why as a Christian, you can say that this is truly
“the most wonderful time of the year.” Personally, I think Lent
and Easter is the most wonderful time of the year, but that’s
another story for another season.
Thanksgiving
is not a church year holiday, but consider for a moment where it
falls for us at the end of the church year. At this time of the
year, we reflect on the End Times, the glorious return of Jesus, the
resurrection to eternal life for all who believe in Christ Jesus (or
the transformation of our bodies for those of us who are alive when
Jesus returns), and the Final Judgment.
Paul
in Colossians 4 says, “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being
watchful in it with thanksgiving.” Be watchful. Be ready for the
return of Jesus, ready for the Last Day … in prayer, in faith,
remembering your baptism, remembering your identity in Christ,
abiding in the Word of God and the Lord’s Supper.
Be
watchful … with thanksgiving. We do have much to be thankful for:
freedom, friendship, family, full plates and full stomachs. With St.
Paul’s words in mind today, we can also give thanks for the
opportunity to come together in worship and prayer, specifically
prayer that the Gospel message would continue to go forth. Paul asks
the Colossian Christians to “Pray also for us, that God may open a
door for the word.” As we give thanks for the harvest today, we
can also pray for a harvest of souls … the task that Jesus gave to
his disciples … “from now on you will be catching men.” So,
pray that God would send out laborers into his harvest, those that
answer the call as Isaiah did, “Here I am, send me.” Send them
out “to declare the mystery of Christ,” that he is true God and
true Man, crucified and risen, that our sins are forgiven, that he
has reconciled us to the Father, both Jews and Gentiles, and made one
people out of the two.
St.
Paul concludes: “Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best
use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with
salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”
Make
the best use of the time. That’s not always easy this time of
year. There’s lots of running around that must be done. The word
used here for “time,” however, suggests “the right time” or
“the right opportunity.” And there is never a better time than
now to begin to give thanks. This is the right time to remember the
reason for the season, to let your mouths be full of gracious speech,
seasoned with salt … that is to say, speech that is always
uplifting and edifying, like salt that preserves and enhances flavor.
There are plenty of people running around these days grumping about
something, especially the way Christmas is treated in our culture,
worried that people might get upset if you say, “Merry Christmas.”
Why not, instead be prepared to give an answer to each person you
meet … to make clear the reasons you are thankful today, to make
clear what you are celebrating this time of year? Because even
saying “Merry Christmas” still may not say enough in our world
today. Maybe we ought to start saying something like, “Jesus
Christ was born to be Savior and Lord. The Savior of the world. Your
Savior.” That may be a mouthful at the check out stand, I realize
that. But we can be on the lookout for ways to unpack what having a
“Merry Christmas” really means for us.
Halloween
is over. Christ has conquered death and the dark forces of hell for
us.
Thanksgiving
is here. We have so many reasons to give thanks today and always.
And
Christmas is coming. So, go ahead and listen to your Christmas
music, if you want to. Put up your trees, if you want to. I’m not
going to stop you or criticize you or grump about it any longer.
Because, yes, Christmas is a big deal. God entered our world in the
flesh of Jesus of Nazareth to forgive our sins and give us eternal
life. And don’t forget about Advent, which reminds us to be
watchful for our Lord’s glorious return while we prepare to
celebrate his humble birth. “Continue steadfastly in prayer, being
watchful in it with thanksgiving.”
INI
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