Creekside Church Sermon of December 7, 2003 "Too Much, Too Little, Just Right" Luke 3:1-6	Rev. David Bibbee
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In the December Visitor, I said I had an idea for an amnesia pill that would erase our memories of Christmas. Not all memories-- just those that prevent us from being grasped by the meaning and mystery. The pharmacologists at Eli Lily in Indianapolis were intrigued by my idea, but said that research and development dollars would never be allocated. They said it wouldn't be marketable. The Christmas Retail Lobby is VERY powerful, and would do everything possible to keep the drug I've called CAP, the (Christmas Amnesia Pill), off the shelves. It would cause an economic crisis. Christmas purchases account for over 40 % of retail sector's annual revenue, you know.

What I am about to ask is hard, but I want you to "will" yourselves to forget that Advent has anything to do with Christmas. Set aside everything associated with Christmas preparations.... the holiday sales, gift lists, parties and pageants, the Christmas television specials with singing celebrities and fake snow. Will yourselves to forget the warm and wonderful memories of Christmases past, warm and wonderful though they are. I want you to will yourselves from thinking that Christmas is an event that happened once upon a time.

Let's clear the deck of the trappings so we may touch what we are waiting for-- not the remembrance of a familiar story, but a present reality and a future hope. Last Sunday I preached from one of Luke's apocalyptic passages. I said that apocalyptic writings deal with events surrounding the end of the world, but forgot to share a three-word meaning of apocalyptic literature: "GOD IS COMING." From Mary's womb God came to us. This is Advent's message: God will reclaim the world in a time and manner of God's choosing.

Today, we are going to talk about "longing." You may substitute other words if you want-- yearning, pining, hungering, searching. The words are descriptive of our deep desire to be connected, and the longing is especially intense at Christmas. The band, U2 wrote a hit song that describes our desire:

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one....

You broke the bonds and you loosened the chains
Carried the cross of my shame, of my shame
You know I believed it.

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.

This is the voice of someone who believes that Jesus' life was decisive; someone who believes the life Jesus lived and died made all the difference, but there is something beyond his belief. The yearning remains. He is still after something he has not found…not completely.

We don't find what we are looking for in this life... not in its fullness. If all our longings could be satisfied in our lifetime, there would be no need to search. But our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. You might say that God has put "ants in our pants" to get us up and get us moving toward the fulfillment of our longing. Jesus' first coming was not his final coming. There is more. Much more.

One of the great things about college and seminary was the opportunity to learn from people of other cultures. I particularly appreciated meeting pastors and church leaders from Nigeria who were serving the church that was founded by Church of the Brethren missionaries in the 1920's.

One stand out was a young pastor named Musa Mambula. He enjoyed eating at McDonald's so much we called him, "McMusa." "Counting the costs" of discipleship meant something to him that it didn't mean to us. In Nigeria, being a Christian can get you killed. Musa told terrifying stories of hiding his family and barely escaping from machete-wielding Muslim gangs.

We talked about how hard it must be leading the church that must deal with persecution. Then Musa stopped us cold in our tracks. "We appreciate your concern for our churches, but we will be fine. God is faithful and will protect us. We are encouraged when the government jails our people. We grow the most when we are under persecution." Here's something for us to ponder-- the membership of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria is now greater than church membership in the United States. We've traded places. The student church now has a great deal to teach the teacher.

Musa said, "We are more concerned for you. It must be very hard to be a Christian in America." "Beg your pardon? We aren't thrown in the slammer for our beliefs. We have the freedom of speech and religion. We don't have the rampant poverty of your county. The authorities don't come after us unless we make nuisances of ourselves."

"This is why we must pray for you," Musa said. "Here, you have so much. Everywhere I look I see so much wealth. You havr so much pressure to fill your lives with things. In my county people starve because they don't have enough to eat. In your country people diet because they have too much to eat. There is so much of everything.... how do you get your people to listen to the gospel? How can they have room for Jesus?"

In New York an artist just opened an exposition of his latest work. For two years he saved the packaging of everything he bought. Bags, glass and plastic bottles, twist ties, plastic wrap, Chinese food carry-out cartons, hamburger wrappers, French fry cartons, toilet paper tubes. He accumulated so much stuff it must be displayed on grocery shelving with aisles that fills a room. I can't remember his justification for calling it art... you know artists. Maybe he should call it, "The Art of Consumption." In case you're interested, his creation costs $102,000!

Musa Mambula was right. "We have so much of everything. We are so full. What is there for the gospel to say?" So many THINGS and so many CHOICES! When I was in college, a book by Alvin Toffler was creating a stir. It was called Future Shock. Some of you probably read it. Toffler looked into the future and saw our society suffering from a glut of choices and unbridled freedom. He predicted we would be overwhelmed by unlimited choices and deluged with information without a clue of how to apply it. The Internet made Toffler a prophet.

At Advent we have a puzzle to solve. "How can something be full and empty at the same time?" Look around and look within and you'll have your answer. Our lives are so filled they are unfulfilled. "Be sure to keep Christ in Christmas," the church sign on Mishawaka Road says. Keeping Christ in implies we can close Christ out. But though the story can be pushed aside, the longing cannot. Since Lily won't manufacture my Christmas Amnesia Pill, I'm going to call the radio stations that play Christmas music and ask the DJ's to follow each Christmas cut with the refrain from U2-- "But I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

It's a wonder you still show up at Advent. All those voices asking why we're holding out for something better when everything we need is right here. Be grateful for what you've got, and keep on accumulating. In Advent we pull hard on the reigns to keep from rushing into the Christmas trappings without taking time to be honest about condition and our longings.

"In the fifteenth year of the rule of Caesar Tiberius, while Pontius Pilate governed Judea, Herod ruled Galilee, Phillip ruled Iturea and Trachonitis, Lysanias ruled Abillene, and the high-priesthood was held by Annas and Caiaphas...." Luke tells us who was in charge, who called the shots, which administration was in DC, Beijing, and Bhagdad. Luke says, "This is life-- pay your taxes, take the Social Security check, and don't cause a stir."

Then came Zechariah's boy, John. He looked like he came from the sticks. His voice rattled windows. The prophet Isaiah said John would come... a voice thundering in the desert. "Get ready. God is coming. "Prepare the way of the Lord. Make his paths straight and the rough ways smooth."

Returning from our October north woods trip, we stopped in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, to visit the father of Samantha's college roommate. He has a doctorate in civil engineering, and gave us a tour the lab where he works, testing concrete and asphalt and designing new mixes used in highway construction. We learned that Interstate highways cost a million dollars a mile. Asked how long he could make a road last, he said he could make one that would last a hundred plus years. How much? Just twenty-six million dollars a mile! We asked about the cheapest projects. He said they have a name for them: Election Specials. Legislators up for re-election, approve road repair projects to keep their constituents happy. "Those jobs are easy," he said. "You have just enough money to make the road black."

".... and the crooked roads shall be made straight, and the rough roads shall be made smooth." The road that John told people to travel to the "one who is coming," was not an Election Special. The road God paved will not lead to the mall, to the special gift, to reach and grab and push and shove of December. It doesn't lead to weariness. It doesn't lead to the warmth of our Christmas traditions, as wonderful and important as they are. It doesn't take us to the "after Christmas let down" that many feel. It leads us further... to the source of our longing.

There is more anticipation leading up to Christmas than at any time of the year, even among those who claim not to have a drop of belief in their system. Why? People know in their depths that Christmas is about something they do not have. They may not have words to describe it, but it is still strong enough to flock folks into church pews that are vacant the rest of the year. Why?

The answer is found in one of the nostalgic songs we hear during December-- "I'll Be Home For Christmas." Much of our lives are spent wandering in the wilderness looking for a home or dreaming of one.

John Killinger says that, "At Christmas, the veil between this life and the other seems thinnest, as if we could simply step from one side to the other. Bethlehem is the doorway, and we sometimes fancy we can hear the angel choirs a little beyond." I like this image. Advent tells us we aren't home yet. In the wilderness of our world it is dark and disorienting and easy to make bad decisions and lose our bearings. But Advent shows us the way home.

Beverly Elliot had not seen her son Russell Love for four years. There had been no contact for two years. All she knew was that he was homeless and living somewhere around Los Angeles. Law enforcement had not helped, so she ran a personal ad in the Los Angeles Times for several days in October: "Russell L. Love from Houston or anyone knowing where he lives, please call his mother collect at.... Your mother will never forget you. She loves you!" She hoped someone would see the ad, and someone did.

A man named Ralph who had lived for twenty-five years on the street gave some extra sandwiches to a friend. The friend in turn gave one to guy he called Russ. Ralph called the newspaper. A reporter came and found some bedrolls in shipping boxes in a city parking lot. Early the next morning he went back and found a ragged looking young man sitting in a box smoking a cigarette. "Are you Russell Love?" He said he was. The reporter gave him the ad and said, "Your mother wants you to call her." Russell rolled the ad up in his bed roll and walked off. Several days later he called. Beverly said how much she had missed him. When she got paid at the end of the month she would send him money for plane fair home for Christmas.

She got all the ID necessary for him to get a job. She said, "I'm going to try to make it possible for him to rethink his decisions and come back into the world he came from and to make a better decision." Russell made it home. The Times carried a picture of him and his mother. The article said they had a lot of catching up to do with the family and how, when they first saw eat other, they hugged with what seemed and eternal embrace. Russell said, "It feels great to be home. Its so nice to be a family again after being a traveler."

Christmas is God's note from home. God's visitation in Bethlehem is an ad to the world that says, "I love you. Whoever you are, wherever you are, however you are, there is a way home." "Every mountain shall be brought low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways will be made smooth, and if we follow our longing of our souls desire, we shall see the salvation of God."

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