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Our theme for 2022 is “Begin Again”
This Sunday is the second in our 2022 Advent Series.
Advent literally means “the coming.”
It is a time of building anticipation for Christmas, which is the celebration of Christ’s coming.
We recently completed a series on the Gospel of John, so someone suggested to me, “Why not do an Advent series from the Gospel of John?”
I thought it sounded like a good idea.
It’s especially interesting because John is the only Gospel writer who does not include any details about the birth of Jesus.
John is more that just a historian, he’s an artist.
He doesn’t want to just convey facts, he wants you to feel the impact of these events.
It is not enough to know that God sent Jesus into the world.
John wants us to know that this is the essence of life and to receive that life.
Do you feel the impact of Christ coming into the world.
It’s like life coming into a lifeless body made from clay.
It’s like light shining into darkness.
The darkness doesn’t stand a chance.
Light is greater than darkness and life is greater than death.
Life is greater than mere physical existence.
Along with John’s imagery, I have been weaving some of our traditional Christmas imagery into these messages.
We talked about believing being like the imagery of the bell, which only children can hear.
Last week we talked about Santa, who was an actual person and a Christ-follower who was known for generosity and gift-giving.
So much of our Idea of Christmas spirit is in that tradition, but it all goes back to Jesus, the real reason for the season.
What about life?
What is the symbol of life?
The Christmas tree has been a symbol of life and its roots go back to pre-Christian times.
According to History.com
The history of Christmas trees goes back to the symbolic use of evergreens in ancient Egypt and Rome and continues with the German tradition of candlelit Christmas trees first brought to America in the 1800s.
Long before the advent of Christianity, plants and trees that remained green all year had a special meaning for people in the winter.
Just as people today decorate their homes during the festive season with pine, spruce, and fir trees, ancient peoples hung evergreen boughs over their doors and windows.
In many countries it was believed that evergreens would keep away witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illness.
Some Christians are quick to point out that the Christmas tree was a pagan symbol before it became a Christmas symbol.
But the truth is that many of our Christian symbols began as pagan symbols, then Christians saw within them a meaning that they could relate to the gospel message, so they reinterpreted them with a gospel meaning.
The Christmas tree is no exception.
Evergreen trees were believed to be magical because they remained alive-looking when all or the other trees, grass and flowers were dying.
At the winter solstice when the days are shortest and the nights are longest, bringing a bough or a small tree inside the house was a reminder that life would win over death.
Just as light conquers darkness, life wins over death and evil will one day be conquered by good.
It may be just a superstition for many, but there is a real, truthful message in it, if you know where to find it.
Let’s take a closer look at what John says about Jesus coming into the world and bringing life.
All things were made through Jesus.
In missions, we look for things in the culture that point to God’s truth, because the Bible talks about general revelation - that God can be know just from nature.
Nature tells us about God.
Even pagans can know something about God from nature - just by observing the essence of life.
That’s why the ancient Egyptians brought branches into their houses to celebrate the triumph of life over death as each year nature (symbolized by their God Ra) would arise from the dead.
Romans had a similar tradition in their feast of Saturnalia which was to remind them that life would return in the Spring and abundance would come again.
Some believe that the Emperor Constantine chose December 25 to celebrate Christ’s birth because it coincided with this feast and also with the winter solstice.
The Celts and the Vikings are said to have worshipped the evergreen tree, but they were also a sign to them of the everlasting nature of life.
These people and these cultures did not know about Jesus when they started these traditions, but they contain some truth about life which ultimately points to God the Creator.
God created the world with seasons, a perpetual cycle of dying and rising again.
At the same time, the world lives as if death is final and there is nothing worse than death.
It was written into creation that life always wins over death.
But Jesus showed us that this is really the truth about God and about the divine nature when he dies and rose again.
He showed us that there is life beyond death.
Yes, pagans worshipped trees because they believed that they contained a living spirit or spirits that could drive away evil.
General revelation could teach them that life is greater than death and evil.
But only the Bible tells us how God intervened to give us life and to rescue us from death and evil.
In Jesus is life.
So from general revelation one can know that life is greater than death, but what is the source of that life?
Where does it come from?
One would think that it stands to reason that life comes from a Creator.
But if life comes from a Creator, then that would make us indebted to our Creator for our very life?
That is the conclusion that mankind has tended to avoid.
It is much easier to celebrate the idea of life than to realize our debt to the giver of life.
It’s easier to look at a tree and celebrate that not everything dies, but what dies comes back to life - than to ask ourselves, and why is that?
Maybe you think having a live tree is so much better than having a fake tree, because - after all- it’s alive!
Never mind, that you just killed it by cutting it down!
It brings us comfort and consolation to bring the outdoors in, but to we ever ask ourselves, what is so special about what is out there that I would want it in here?
We love living symbols, but we avoid the meaning of life that they point to.
If my life comes from God, then am I not accountable to God for what I do with that life?
Jesus is God who is come into the world to the people that he created.
I said last week that a lot of people have this idea that Jesus is constantly judging them.
We probably think that because other people that represented God to us, parents, teachers or pastors were critical and judgmental.
Yes, Jesus is going to judge the world, but the whole point of his coming was to save us so that we don’t need to fear judgement.
Remember this verse?
So why don’t we immediately associate Jesus with life?
Why can’t we see that the Christmas tree points upward to Jesus?
And the cross is a tree, a symbol of death which became the symbol of life.
Jesus died on a tree so that we could have life.
Jesus is life!
He’s the Creator and sustainer of life.
God breathed life into man and he became alive.
It is God in us that gives us life.
Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit - the wind or breath of God to live inside us.
I think it is interesting that not only do we celebrate trees as a symbol of life, but we bring them indoors.
Early celebrations of German-American immigrants would have a community tree that they would decorate.
But over time it became more prevalent to have a Christmas tree in your home - for your own family to enjoy.
I think it speaks to the life of Christ (the Holy Spirit) as being both personal and corporate.
We have a personal relationship with Jesus, but we also have a corporate life in Christ.
What should we do with Jesus who is the embodiment of life.
Place Him at the center of our community life and experience.
Bring Jesus into our homes, our families and into our daily life.
Bring all your gifts and put them at the feet of Jesus.
Jesus lights up our life.
Christmas trees aren’t just ordinary trees, we decorate them with color and shiny ornaments and especially lights.
It seems that John isn’t the only one who likes mixing the metaphors of life and light.
Germany is credited with starting the Christmas tree tradition as we now know it in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes.
It is a widely held belief that Martin Luther, the 16th-century Protestant reformer, first added lighted candles to a tree.
Walking toward his home one winter evening, composing a sermon, he was awed by the brilliance of stars twinkling amidst evergreens.
To recapture the scene for his family, he erected a tree in the main room and wired its branches with lighted candles.
So Martin Luther added lights to the tree reminiscent of the stars in the sky - a mixture of life and light.
It reminds us that life is happening against the backdrop of eternity.
Life isn’t just about our lifetime, but about God’s plan for all of history and beyond.
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