November 24, 2002
A sermon by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma
I’m sure a number of you saw the Titanic exhibit that was in Cleveland a few months ago. It was very impressive. I never realized how many people on that ship had Ohio as their ultimate destination. And I’m sure that almost every person on that ship was confident that they were going to arrive safely home.
Why wouldn’t they? It was the largest and most luxurious cruise liner ever built. It cost $7.5 million dollars. We are talking about 1912 dollars. It carried approximately 3,000 passengers and crew. It had every luxury that you could imagine. It was said that the Titanic was unsinkable, and passengers, captain and crew believed it. Because the captain and crew believed it, it led to sloppy navigation. On April 14, prior to the crash, another ship warned them that they had spotted icebergs in the area. But they didn’t heed the warnings. Instead of slowing down to a speed that would allow them to easily maneuver in those waters, the captain actually gave the order to speed up.
When the collision came, the crew was instructed to lower the lifeboats and warn the passengers to put on their lifejackets and assemble on the deck. Because the sea was calm and the night was clear, and because they believed the assertion that the ship was unsinkable, many dismissed the warning as an emergency drill and continued on with their evening. Disregard of the warning and continuing to pursue the “good life” was an important reason for nearly half of the passengers drowning. They didn’t watch out for the icebergs!
At this time of the year we embark on a voyage called the Advent/Christmas Season. There are a lot of icebergs, a lot of obstacles that can sink our hope of a sane, Christ-centered Christmas. Often we get caught up in the frenzy of the season and we don’t watch out for the icebergs. You know the kinds of thing that I’m talking about. One is our bulging schedules. We want to do everything. Someone has said that our schedules get so stuffed with activities that they resemble a German sausage. Another obstacle is unrealistic expectations. We are led to believe that we can create the perfect Christmas and we can make absolutely everybody happy and we attempt to do so. Still another obstacle is the memories we bring into the season. Not all our memories are pleasant ones. Fractured relationships continue to be fractured even though we would like it to be different. The people who make our lives difficult usually don’t become less difficult during Christmas.
And I suppose the greatest obstacle of all is the gross materialism of the season. Can you believe the number of catalogs and advertisements that show up in the newspaper and in our mailboxes at this time of year? And the basic message of all this advertising to us and to our children is that unless we buy a huge pile of stuff we can’t possibly have a happy and fulfilling Christmas. You really have to hand it to the moguls of Madison Avenue. They truly understand the human heart. They appeal to our self-centeredness and our desire for personal pleasure. We easily buy the argument that if we just have more, we will feel better about ourselves. Though the argument is false, we are somehow lured into believing it. And the results are always the same. Every year at least half of us go into debt to buy things that we really don’t need and one quarter of us will still be paying off Christmas debts when the next Christmas rolls around. The image of Christmas is renewal and joy. The reality is that on December 26th most Americans wind up in exhaustion, debt and disillusionment.
So, here’s the key question: How can we steer clear of these obstacles? How can we keep our ship from going down? First, we need to turn to the captain, Jesus Christ, who knows how to navigate in these dangerous waters. He can help us steer clear of the icebergs and make our way to a true Christmas. Second, we can use the compass that Jesus gives us that will guide us through this season. It is the compass of compassion. Compassion means empathy for those in need. It means reaching out and seeking to build a world in which there are right relationships.
If that’s not clear enough, Jesus makes it even clearer. It means: giving food to the hungry, water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, visiting those who are in prison. And if that’s not clear enough, Jesus repeats that list to us four times in just fifteen verses so that we might understand what lies at the heart of celebrating a true Christmas. Now sometimes when we read these words in Matthew 25 they seem rather harsh, but all Jesus is asking for is accountability. He has been compassionate to us; he calls us to be compassionate to others. When you think about it, it is really a tremendous statement of grace. It is like a teacher warning us at the beginning of a class: “I want everyone in here to do well. Because I want everyone to do well, I am going to give you ahead of time the questions that will be on the final exam. Please prepare so that you will have done the things you need to do.”
What we are talking about here is stewardship -- using the resources Jesus gives us to serve in the way we are called to serve. That’s what the church is supposed to be all about -- it’s a training ground for compassion. It’s using the resources Jesus has given us to be compassionate. Stewardship simply means supporting the church in its attempt to be a training ground for compassion. And that’s why we are filling out our commitment forms today. And that is why we are encouraging everyone to participate in the “Making Christmas Meaningful” series. It is a four week series in which we ask Jesus how it is he wants us to honor his birth. I hope that everyone will make the effort to participate because not participating will increase the chance that your Christmas may be a shipwreck.
Here is what we are asking you to do. First, faithfully attend worship where we will talk about what Christmas means and what Christ wants us to do. Second, buy one of the Advent/Christmas devotional guides. The cost is minimal. Third, use the calendar. It is a very serviceable guide to a sane and fulfilling Christmas. You will find in it a brief devotional for each day. You will find a brief one-day a week Advent candle ceremony. You will find brief meaningful questions for table discussion, e.g. what kinds of things trivialize the true meaning of Christmas for you and keeping it as meaningful as it should be? And there is a host of simple and fun things that you can do to heighten the meaning of the season, e.g. every time you see an advertisement exalting the name of some human being use it as a moment to remember that the true star of Christmas is Jesus.
No doubt about it, there are icebergs looming out there. Our lives may well be shipwrecked if we don’t pay attention to Jesus. And certainly our Christmas may be shipwrecked if we don’t pay attention to Jesus, the captain of the ship. Make certain that Jesus is at the center of your life. Make sure that you are a passenger on the “Make Christmas Meaningful” cruise ship. You will be glad you did.
copyright 2001 by Rev. Dr. John K. Luoma