Advent Conspiracy - Worship Fully - Resist idols and listen for God's voice

Luke 2:8-20


After reading today’s passage some of you may be wondering if I have lost it completely. Just last week I was lamenting the fact that in our culture the “Christmas” Season has already started. At the thanksgiving service at Immaculate Conception Church I was the idea that Thanksgiving is an oasis of thankfulness in the dessert of Consumerist desire and satisfaction. I know I have mentioned that I don’t like the fact that our culture celebrates Christmas earlier and earlier each year, and here I am reading, the quintessential Christmas eve passage, and its only the last weekend of November. Since Halloween, I have walked around the stores and have asked, “What happened to thanksgiving.” Today, many of you may be asking, “What happened to advent?” Have I somehow skipped the time of expectant waiting and moved right into jubilant song and celebration? I hope that by the end of our time here together you will have an answer to that question.

The season of Advent was originally intended to be somewhat like the season of Lent, which is observed during the seven weeks prior to Easter. Both advent and lent are seasons of penance and reflection. We enter a time of spiritual preparation for the big event that is Christmas. Usually the chosen texts for the first Sunday of advent focuses on the second coming of Christ and preparing for it as a means to prepare for Christmas. In our present context, though, Advent, and the weeks preceding it, has been co-opted. Advent has become in the culture of Western capitalism a time for conspicuous consumption. Perhaps, since this is the case, perhaps it is better to remind ourselves the meaning of Christmas and relearn what it means to prepare ourselves for Christ’s first coming before we can fully understand the meaning and significance of Christ’s second coming.

For this task, I have chosen for us the Advent conspiracy Bible Study. Beginning today and then, over the next several weeks we will try to recapture the meaning of advent and Christmas that first Christmas from a culture that tries to hide it. Today we will begin by discussing what it means to worship fully. To turn back to the heart of worship and worship the one true God made flesh in Jesus Christ. I believe that if we get this right, and prepare ourselves through prayer and reflection then how we enter the Christmas story will be changed for the better forever.

For those of you reading the book, the chapter for this weeks study begins with an intriguing statement. It says, “Our hearts are formed by what we worship.” The things we get excited over, the things that motivate us, the things we turn to for comfort, and the things that we place our hope, are for all intents and purposes the things that we worship because that is where our hearts are focused. If those things are something other than God, it is idolatry. The bible is full of stories where people began to place their trust in something other than God, people began to find security and hope in something other than the God of all creation. From the time when Moses went up the mountain to receive the ten commandments and the people in frustration and fear built an idol in his absence to the warnings of Jesus that we cannot serve two masters, we are reminded how easily we fall prey to idolatry. Our hearts will change and our actions will change with them. If we find comfort, security, and hope in things like money, wealth, or any other substance then our actions will be motivated to participate in those things. Worship shapes our hearts, our hearts shape our actions.

So what is it then that we worship in our culture all year but especially at this time of year? Well, what do our actions say? Think about this: Over the next five weeks how many trips will you make to stores, malls or shopping centers? How many trips will you make to worship in that same time? Over the next five weeks how much time will you spend on online shopping as opposed to time spent in prayer or reading scripture? How much money will you give to retailers as opposed to charities that serve people who genuinely need the basic necessities of life? These are difficult questions, because we, including myself, don’t like the answers we come up with. But the statistics answer truthfully when we are hesitant to do so.

It is estimated that Americans spend about 450 billion (with a B) dollars each year at Christmas. Our culture is set up to ensure that this happens, because nearly everyone makes money on a Christmas that is shaped by consumerism. Retailers sell goods to consumers usually on credit so they make money, the average Christmas debt is paid off in May, and so credit card companies make a lot of money between Christmas and May. The state has a 6% sales tax; the state makes a lot of money on its portion of the 450 billion dollar spending. Factories and businesses around he globe focus on how well sales are going and news outlets will continuously release sales information because we define our national health and well being by our ability to spend money. We have turned into a culture that acts on its desires for more, we place our hope in that new car, and we think we are secure when we have a house full of stuff. There is a war on Christmas, but it is not waged by atheists who do not want a nativity on a public space or by Jews who want their menorah in the airport with all the other Christmas decoration, it is waged by our culture on the true meaning of Christmas. It is the store that puts their nativity in the store window surrounded by sale items and glittery decorations. Which perverts and destroys Christmas more, a statement asking you to celebrate Christmas in your home and church instead of on government land or a statement that says Christmas is about buying gifts and that Christ’s birth means its time for a sale so you can prove your love even more.

So what is the solution? I could stand up here and tell you that you need to act differently. You need to go to the store less, buy fewer things, spend time with your loved ones, but I don’t think what we have is a problem of action. Remember, our hearts are shaped by our worship, and our hearts shapes our actions. What we have is a heart problem, and ultimately that points to a worship problem. How did I define idolatry earlier? An idol is something we get excited over, like new gifts, new toys, or new gadgets. An idol is something that motivates us, We want a new car, a bigger home, newer stuff, a “nice Christmas” so people work 2-3 jobs to get it sacrificing family and friends to do so. An idol is something we turn to for comfort; yesterday I watched a comedy called “Confessions of a shopaholic” where the main character found comfort and acceptance when she bought things. I think it hits home closer than what we care to admit. Finally, an idol is something that we place our hope in. Advertising is good at playing on or weakness against idolatry. It gets us thinking that if we bought this we would be better parents, or if we had this new car we would be more successful. Our entire economic system is oriented toward creating idols out of stuff and our actions, especially this time of year, show that for the most part we have fallen for it. Our worship has turned from God to things and our hearts and actions follow. When given the choice between God and Money, we, as a Society, have clearly chosen money. So our problem isn’t that we are acting wrongly, but that our entire being is direct toward the wrong thing in worship.

Reorienting ourselves toward the right object is an impossible task. We just don’t have the power within ourselves to turn away from the idols towards God. But God gives us the strength each day to do just that. However, it is up to us to exercise that strength. We can be mindful of when we are being pulled into idolatrous worship and fight against it when it starts to happen. To do so, I think it is helpful to look for a pattern of worship. For that we turn to today’s passage. Our story begins with the shepherds in the field watching over their flock, when out of nowhere an angel appears to them and says, “I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” At this announcement the heavens rolled back and the shepherds saw a multitude of angels singing “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth, peace among those whom he favors.” At the word of God the angels joined in worship, and at the word of God the shepherds dropped what they were doing and went to see Mary and Joseph and the newborn King. You see, worship begins with the hearing of God’s word. Perhaps this is why our worship has gone awry. Perhaps it is too difficult, if not impossible, to hear that still small voice of God within our spirits when our spirits are bombarded with the noise of advertisements on TV or the messages that our culture has. In the noise that is consumerist driven holidays, we have lost that sweet and quiet song of the newborn King.

The smallness of God’s voice is not difficult to understand, I think we have all experienced it. And in 1 Kings 9:11-12, Elijah does as well. In that passage Elijah is told to stand on the mountain before God and when he did a great wind began to blow and it was breaking the mountain in pieces, but God was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake, there as a fire, but God was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a still silence, and when Elijah heard it he got up.

If we any hope that we will once again be able to experience Christmas as the world changing event that it is, we must find a way to sit in silence. We must find a way to distinguish between the voices of the world that say worship me, and remain quiet until we hear the voice of God in the silence. Our culture, especially during this time of year tries very hard to drown out the voice of God. It tries to have you constantly on the move, there is great excitement and promises of safety and these things are easy to mistake for God’s voice and are easy to chase after. The response is to take time to be silent, and reflect on what is going on around you, and to listen for the voice of God that happens in that silence.

The voice of God will speak to us and share that good news of great joy and it will enlivens our hearts, it will move our feet, and it will bow our heads to this newborn King. If we do not remain still enough to listen to this voice, and if we do not begin to recognize what is God and what isn’t will be pulled in every direction and be left exhausted at the end, kind of like how I feel every January 3rd or 4th, once the Christmas season has ended. So during this time of preparation that is Advent, take time to slow down and listen for God’s voice and respond in worship. If we fail to do that, I fear that there is little hope for us to begin to worship the one who deserves it.

We can also turn to Mary’s example when we prepare ourselves to worship fully. In verse 19, Upon hearing what the shepherds said, everyone who heard it were amazed by what they had said, but Mary, “treasured all these words, and pondered them in her heart.” Mary heard these amazing visions that the shepherds described and the songs of the angels about her son and she did not keep her focus on the shepherds as others had done. She did not linger on the fantastical nature of their stories, but instead she treasured them, she pondered them, and she let them into her heart. Can you imagine the excitement that these few men had when they came to the manger and saw that what the angels said was true? I would imagine that this excitement was infectious and all those who were there were getting caught up in it. I don’t know if this is terribly different than how we celebrate Christmas in this country. The excitement gets us, the excitement captures our attention and imagination, the excitement is infectious, and the excitement makes us forget. I think that the shepherds, once they relayed their story caught the attention of those surrounding Mary and Jesus. Their focus left Jesus and this new miracle and turned toward the shepherds and their story.

I think the same thing happens now and the thing that has us excited has less to do with the multitude of angels and more to do with the desires of this world. We get caught up in what we are told we are supposed to do and think during this time of year and we lose sight of the presence of Christ. We get so caught up in the celebration of Christmas that we forget we are in the very presence of God. Instead of recognizing that presence and reveling in it, we revel in the messenger of a different message one of excitement and wonder.

I think Mary had the right idea. She heard what the shepherds had to say, but instead of getting caught up in their excitement, she treasured what she had heard and pondered it in her heart. She let it enter into her and change her heart. She was excited I am sure, but she did not let the excitement move her attention away from her the presence of God in her midst. She did not get excited over a multitude of angels while God himself was with her. She also did not ignore the message. If we were more like Mary in this single moment, our experience of Christmas and the Christ event would permeate all our worship. If we not only took time to be still and silent to hear the word of God, and then we treasured the words and pondered them in our heart, the culture of consumerism would be hard pressed to get us to worship its idols. When we remain silent and listen for God’s words and when we treasure and ponder what we hear, we are preparing ourselves to worship God. This advent, as we work through the advent conspiracy series and as we prepare for Christ’s coming, remember this first Holy Night in which we learn to wait silently for that small voice of God and remember to not get caught up in the excitement of the messengers of our culture but instead get excited over and worship the message. Fight the temptation to be drawn into worshiping the idols of our culture, but instead remember that Jesus Christ, God himself, became flesh for all of humanity. Christ is the one we worship this day, this season, and for all of our lives. The angels brought the god news of great joy to the shepherds and to us, and it is good news indeed.

Amen