Today I preached again at St. Philips. This is the last day of so-called "ordinary time" (7 months with no signicant religious holidays) ; next week we begin Advent, my favorite time of year leading to Christmas, my favorite day of the year.
I used this pre-advent sermon as an opportunity to share with the congregation some Anglican theology about Christmas and the centralilty of the Incarnation in our spiritual tradition. I had two purposes in my sermon: to introduce people to more Anglican theology than we usually talk about, and to help them understand why Christmas is so important to us, talking literally about the meaning of Christmas.
Here is a pdf file of full sermon: Download The Church Of Christmas Day2 - An Anglican Theology of Christmas
I was happy that so many people spoke to me afterwards about how much the sermon helped them understand why they are Episcopalians. One person said he now knows why he isn't good at spontaneous prayer. Another person said he knows now why he has always liked Christmas more than Easter. Another said she understood the distinction between theology and doctrine and knows now why the Episcopal church means a so much to her because we don't have a lot of institutionally mandated beliefs (doctrines). I was happy that so many people felt invited to explore theology as learned, but not mandated beliefs and as a practice guide to our life with God.
I was also happy that people really liked my 2006 letter about Advent and Christmas, written to Zachary my grandson who was five at the time. Many people said they want to use it as a model to write to their own families. I put it here on the blog four years ago; I'm putting it here again below. Regardless of your demonination may find it meaningful as we begin the Christmas season. I encourage you all want to write your loved ones about your own spirituality and understanding of whatever God you have in your life.
November, 2006
Dear Zachary,
Here are ADVENT CALENDARS for you and Lucas (his brother who was one year then). You will need to explain this to Luc as he gets old enough to understand the story.
As you know a calendar helps you to know what day of the year it is. An Advent Calendar helps you to know the days that lead up to Christmas. This calendar helps you celebrate each of these days with a delicious piece chocolate that you can eat yourself, or share with Mommy, Daddy, or one of your friends. You may be curious about why we would have a whole chocolate calendar to mark the days before Christmas.
You know that Christmas is an important day all over the world. People decorate their houses even bringing in big trees just for this day.
You know that Christmas is a birthday... the birthday of Jesus. And that Jesus was born over 2000 years ago, that’s lots of years of celebrating a birthday. But you may wonder, why is the birthday of Jesus so important?
Jesus is God. Out of love for us, God chose to become human like us, for a while. Jesus’ birth as a human baby brought the best possible gift to us, the assurance of God’s love. When Jesus became an adult, he assured all of us that we each have God inside of us. When we celebrate Jesus birthday, we are celebrating that we, like him, are made from God and that God lives in us.
God is a love that is so big, we can’t really understand it, but feel that love; we know that we have it. Because God lives in us, we have wonderful gifts to celebrate at Christmas. Let me tell you about four gifts from God that we celebrate at Christmas.
First, is the gift of loving God. You love Mommy and Daddy because they are in you. With God’s help, they made you, and so you love them. God made you too. And because of that you can love God. And because you love God, you ask yourself what God wants you to do.
When you really want to tease your brother in a way that might hurt him, the God in you is there helping you decide what to do. You know that God does not want you to hurt your bother, (though God might think it is OK to do some harmless teasing once in a while). God helps you to know one from the other. As long as you put God first, doing what you know God wants you to do, you will be a fine person, a person everyone loves and admires. That is the first gift of Christmas.
The second gift is that, because God lives in you, you can love other people like God loves us. You love your friends and they love you because you all have God living in you. Sometimes you have to choose between doing what a friend needs and doing something that would just help yourself. God helps you decide when you ask yourself, am I loving this person as I love myself. At Christmas, we celebrate our love for others by giving presents to each other as God has given us so much.
A third gift from God at Christmas is the responsibility to be God’s hands in our world. We take care of grasses, trees, flowers, birds, big animals like whales, and animal pets like Sam in God’s name. In building your bird perch, you were assuring the birds that you are helping to take care of them. When Sam got hurt, you, Mommy, and Daddy all took care of him. We have a special responsibility to take care of our planet earth and all that is in it because it is such a special present from God.
Finally, because we have God in us, we will live forever. We don’t live forever in our earthly bodies, but the God in us lives on. Our bodies will die, but life here goes on with more and more babies. The God inside us goes back to live with God forever. Now that is a very special present that we celebrate on Christmas.
All of this is our Christmas mystery, our Christmas miracle. None of us knows how this happens. But at Christmas, we know it does happen. That baby born at Christmas 2000 years ago became a man -- both God and man through mystery we can’t understand. When he grew up, Jesus told us: we have God living in us, we are his children by faith and by our participation with God. We will live with God forever.
And so it is, Zac and Lucas, that at Christmas we celebrate that each one of us lives in love, with God in us.
Much love to you and all your family, GrandBe
WISHING YOU ALL AN ADVENT FILLED WITH WONDEROUS ANTICIPATION.
Bonnie for BanD
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