Ordinary Time Week 25

Psalm: Psalm 16

Old Testament: 1 Samuel 1:4-20

or 1 Samuel 2:1-10 or Daniel 12:1-3

Gospel: Mark 13:1-8

Epistle: Hebrews 10:11-14, 15-18, 19-25

We are approaching the end of normally time (finally), which there is really no way to miss since all of the stores and commercials are screaming that the “shopping season” is upon us. The commercialization of Christian holidays doesn’t seem to be something the church is willing to address in any meaningful way right now. We give lip service to keeping Christ in Christmas and make a big deal when a secular retail store fails to say Merry Christmas on their products, but we don’t seem to challenge the consumerism inherent even in these issues. For many Christian families, there is no difference between how they celebrate the holiday and how the rest of America celebrates. Advent is ignored in the hustle of the season, attending a church service on Christmas Eve/ Christmas Day is afterthought or doesn’t happen at all, the 12 days of Christmas are skipped for many reasons not least of which is because it has no place in the secular culture, and the giving of gifts fuels the Western societies greed and desire to consume and waste.

The store Best Buy’s motto this year is “win the holidays,” and it is emblematic of what Christmas has become. No longer is it about celebrating the Incarnate God, who came vulnerably in to the world as a baby. No longer is it about family, friends, and the Church bearing witness to the birth of Jesus. Rather, it is about “winning!” My question is when did Christmas become a competition and who are we competing against? Best Buy is secular company and they can run whatever ad they want, but they have missed the point of Christmas entirely, and it seems like the church has bought into what the retail stores are selling (catch the pun there?), more than what the church actually celebrates at Christmas. 

My point in saying all of this is to get us thinking about how the way we (Christians) celebrate Christmas is different than how the culture celebrates the holidays. Is there anything unique that Christians do, or do we celebrate Christ’s birth only by buying new cars and clothes and toys? Just something to think about as we go into the Advent and Christmas season.

Well, all of that has nothing to do with today's scripture. But the point of the Church calendar is that the way we organize our time is centered around who Christ is. Every day of the week and every Sunday in the year becomes sacred when viewed through this lens.

Since I have already taken most of the space up already, I just want to draw our attention to two verses in Hebrews. The author writes, "And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another..." (vs. 24-25) The author connects stimulating each other to good deeds and encouragement with gathering as the Body of Christ. This connection cannot be ignored. It almost goes without saying that we can't encourage each other if we never gather together. But the same is true if we don't gather together regularly. It takes time, energy, and intentionality to know how and when others need encouragement or support. That doesn't happen if we only gather intermittently or people aren't consistent.

Notice also that the text says let us "consider how to..." encourage and support each other. That doesn't just happen without some thought. We may have to think about the people in our church other than just on a Sunday morning. I hate to use this cliche, but we may actually have to "do life together." It seems like the author of Hebrews dealt with the same struggles we do today where people think going to church and hanging out with other Christians is optional. His encouragement to his readers is the same for us today: Let us not forsake gathering and forget the power, encouragement, and strength there is when God's people gather together.

I may be preaching to the choir here, but I, along with the author of Hebrews, want to encourage you to take gathering together as the body of Christ seriously. And I don't just mean gathering on a Sunday morning. Today, we played football with our small group then hung out and ate pizza together. This was an important time of gathering together and getting to know each other better. So whether we are gathering for worship, prayer and song, or gathering together to play football and eat some pizza, let us not forget its importance.

Grace and Peace.