Be forewarned, for what I am about to say is not only offensive to anyone who would call them self a Christian, but it is also a sacrilegious heresy. Christmas. There, I said it. Merry Christmas.

What? You mean to tell me that none of you are offended by this? That there’s no one here who considers this to be a problem? No one who believes this to be out of line? No one willing to stand up in a righteous rage and accuse me of making light of and undermining one of the most holy and treasured rituals of the church since ancient times, because—in the mere utterance of these very words, "Merry Christmas"—I am, for all practical intents and purposes, celebrating Christmas early? Merry Christmas indeed, and it isn’t even Thanksgiving! Isn’t nothing sacred?

Merry Christmas come early, and no one seems all that concerned. So, what’s the problem? "Pastor"—I hear this often—"Pastor, don’t you think you’re overreacting? It seems you’re making a bigger deal out of this than it really is." Well, maybe. But if that’s the case, well—then it’s got to apply to other similar situations. If the issue of celebrating Christmas early doesn’t offend you, then surely this won’t either, if we substitute the word "Christmas" with the word "sex". How about that? So, instead of saying "Christmas," what if I said that it’s OK to celebrate sex early? "Heck, why wait? Come on, kids, let’s start celebrating sex now!" How about that?

Of course, I don’t advocate such a thing, not in the least. But what if I were to go around talking like that? I’ll bet there’d be some folks standing up in a righteous rage then, don’t you?! But if anyone comes up to me and complains, I’ll just say, "Don’t you think you’re overreacting? Aren’t you making a bigger deal out of this than it really is?" Even so, even though most of you may think we pastors don’t really know all that much about such conjugal matters, still, I think it’s important to set the record straight. Kids, listen up. Sex is a special gift God gives us! So do not open until Christmas!

It’s all of a piece, though. And the fact is, when we seek to celebrate Christmas early, so much so that we end up overlapping it even as far back as Halloween, it’s like Nancy Gibbs says in Time Magazine, that all the holidays "lose their fizz and juice, the useful little monthly boosts turned into a pileup of duties and lists." "When every day is a holiday," Gibbs says, then "none really are." The word holiday. It literally means "holy day." And if everyday is a holiday, then nothing is holy. If everyday is Christmas, then none of them are.

Delayed gratification—there’s no denying that it’s a lost art. Gotta have it, and gotta have it now! The thinking that we deserve to have things right now, whenever we want them, whether we need them or not, deserve them or not. Who can deny, in these days of entitlement, all the residuals and harmful side effects that come with not having to wait? As Tom Brokaw says it, what made the Greatest Generation the greatest generation was having to go through the Great Depression and World War II, which were about nothing less than sacrifice and learning how to do without.

The whole point of sacrifice and learning how to do without is that there are times when it may be good to have something and times when it may not be good to have something. The bottom line. Some times are better than others, and sometimes not at all. Who can deny that happiness, self-fulfillment, self-confidence, contentment and joy in life have something to do with this learning to wait?

Now, I don’t want anyone to think that I’m out to short circuit their Christmas lights, rain on their holiday wrapping paper, or derail their Polar Express—but I do invite you to at least think about some of these things, what these upcoming holy days are really meant to be for us. Like a harbinger for just such times as these, a talisman who speaks to this very situation, Jesus has arrived here at the end of the church year, and what he has to say runs so counter to everyone’s popular expectations. Forget Christmas, Jesus says. It’s beginning to look a lot like Advent!

It’s a basic pattern that Jesus likes to stick with, something simple God has woven into the very fabric of creation, a common little thread that we so often and so willingly overlook. Even here, in these waning days of this church year, which grinds up and against our regular Roman calendars, Jesus is looking to lead us into Christ the King Sunday where we will revisit for the first time once again the truth as to this one we’re called to claim as our one and only king—the one enthroned on a cross. The One who’s throne is the cross. And there, in that one who reigns from this cross, the simple word can be clearly heard, that before there can be a resurrection, there needs to be a death. And so it really isn’t all that much about lights, decorations, and holiday shopping. The question is are you, or are you not, dying to get to Christmas?

So how relevant can you get, when we find Jesus inside Jerusalem’s walls, he foretelling the coming siege of the city and the total destruction of the temple. And his disciples excitedly asking him, "Is this it, huh? Is this it, then? Tell us! Tell us! When exactly is this going to happen, and what will be the signs leading up to it?" And these disciples, these ardent followers of Jesus, they’re not thinking about the coming rebellion of Jewish zealots and their attempts to overthrow the Roman occupation of Judea, the results of which will be just the way Jesus describes it. Death and destruction, as is the usual way of the world, with those who survive left to pick up the pieces. This isn’t at all what Jesus’ disciples have in mind. Surely the signs of the times could mean only one thing—the end is near and the Messiah is here! Surely this is it, that God’s Messiah, God’s Christ is coming soon to save us, to redeem us, to establish his righteous rule over all the world, where never again will God’s people have to suffer tyranny and injustice, where true peace will forever reign, where mourning, crying and pain will be no more. Surely this is it!

But in light of what Jesus says, you might just as well accuse him of saying, "Bah humbug!" Jesus, he can be such a Grinch! Here we are trying to get into the holiday spirit of things and here’s Jesus, telling us to beware of celebrating Christmas too early. "Beware that you are not led astray!" he warns, "for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them." You better watch out, Jesus says, for false Jesuses. For false Messiahs. For false prophets. For false Christ's. For false Christmases! Take a look around you, and just see if this isn’t true! In the advertisements. Up and down every aisle. Just because someone calls it Christmas doesn’t make it so. In fact, what you think you are celebrating may not even be Christmas at all, regardless of whether it’s early or late.

There’s a whole lot of things that have to happen first, Jesus says, before the real Christmas can get here, and a lot of it ain’t good. Wars, insurrections, natural disasters, persecutions, imprisonments, betrayals—sounds like the Christmas shopping season, doesn’t it! The story of Christmas, the same one being told now in these days leading up to Christ the King. And what is the manger but just another manifestation of the cross as a throne? You see? The story that not even a new born baby can hide—before there can be a resurrection, there must be a death. And so what kind of holiday is this Christ the King Christmas, demanding that we remember the birth of our baptism, where we are called to daily die to our sinful, selfish selves, so that, by being joined in our baptism to the One who dies with us, we can be raised with him to newness of life, here and now, and forever after? The story Luke’s Gospel proclaimed from the very beginning, Bethlehem’s manger and Jerusalem’s cross, they’re all connected. They’re all of a piece. You see, it doesn’t matter how and when you decorate. Christmas ain’t really Christmas unless you’re just dying to celebrate it!

Wal-Mart or Target? They’re not dying to celebrate Christmas. They’re dying to sell it! And as for City Hall and the State and Federal Government, they can put up their Community Trees, and call it Happy Holidays or whatever they want for all I care, because Christmas doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to the church. It belongs to us, and so it’s our holy day as the church’s to celebrate. That’s why I think it’s so silly, how worked up folks get about the need "to put Christ back into Christmas." The truth, for we who claim to be Christian, is the need to put the Mass back into Christ.

Christ Mass—now that’s the official holiday, the holy day that we are called to celebrate. Christ Mass! And what this word mass means is simple. It means mass. A mass of people coming together. A whole mess of folks coming publicly together, coming together as a community, coming together as a communion of saints for all to see. This mass of folks who make up the church, who through our celebration of God’s holy Word and God’s holy Sacraments together, we remember how God was born into this world as flesh and blood, to live and die as Christ among us, and how it was through the cross that our Christ worked to be raised up for us and our sake, so that together with him we might daily die to ourselves, and thus rise up with him to live in his image for the sake of others. No matter what joys and sorrows this life may bring, no matter what trials and triumphs may come our way, to live in the image of this Christ by reaching out as the mass of people known as God’s church, to love, support, and care for others in all we say and do.

Now, if that’s what you mean by Christmas—if you mean Christ Mass—then by all means, start celebrating early. In fact, if you haven’t started already, then why not start celebrating today? Amen.

Tim Leaf, Pastor

soli deo gloria