Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

“There is nothing so over as Christmas.” Those are the words of Dr. Leroy Biesenthal, long-time Director of Evangelism for The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod at our International Headquarters in St. Louis. “There is nothing so over as Christmas.”

Dr. Biesenthal’s words might indeed shock us a little, but when you stop to think about them, they really are true. People have been celebrating Christmas since before Halloween. They’ve had enough. They’re tired of it. They’re now ready for the red and green to come down and the pink of Valentine’s Day to go up.

“There is nothing so over as Christmas.” Christmas was on Thursday.

On Friday morning, I saw my first Christmas tree sitting curbside. Obviously someone didn’t want to miss their trash pick-up. Christmas is over.

Stores on Friday were packed to capacity as many people returned all those items that someone thought they wanted or needed. Christmas is over.

Hitting our landfills within the next week will be millions of pounds of empty cardboard boxes, spent toy batteries, ripped wrapping paper, discarded bows and ribbons and probably even a gift or two. Christmas is over.

It’s only been a few years now since we here at Historic First Lutheran received a telephone call from a neighbor a few days after Christmas, asking if we’d please stop playing Christmas music on our church bell system. Christmas is over.

“There is nothing so over as Christmas.”

The last time we saw Mary and Joseph, there were cutely cuddled up with the baby Jesus in the cold stable in Bethlehem. The angels had come and gone. The shepherds had come and gone. Maybe a few other people had come and gone, wondering what all the commotion was, what all the visitors were about. Probably even the stable animals who had witnessed the birth of their Savior [Romans 8:22] had come and gone. The last time we saw Mary and Joseph, Mary was tenderly holding the baby Jesus in her arms, “treasuring up all these things and pondering them in her heart” [Luke 2:19] as only a mother can. But there’s only so long you can sit around and do nothing.

Following God’s command as good, obedient Jews, on the Eighth Day after His birth, Jesus was circumcised and named. Thirty-three days later – forty days after His birth, again following God’s explicit command, Jesus was brought by Mary and Joseph the five miles from Bethlehem to the temple in Jerusalem to present Him as their firstborn son.

Despite her “treasuring up and pondering,” for Mary and Joseph Christmas was over. While they knew that there was something different and something special about their baby, they had largely left behind the angels and the shepherds and the visitors and the animals. Or, so they thought. After 40 days, life was starting to get back to “normal,” whatever normalcy is for a newly married couple with a newborn baby. While they obviously couldn’t forget what had been told them by the angels and by the shepherds, they probably were no longer thinking about it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They knew what the law commanded and they were about keeping the law.

Imagine their surprise when two old people that they didn’t know grabbed their baby out of their arms as they entered the temple. Both Anna and Simeon had lived good long lives, but, let’s be honest, they were on their way out. They both knew it was just a matter of time before the gentle waves of Jordan would sweep over them and carry them home. Yet each had been promised something before that happened. They had been promised Christmas. They maybe even didn’t know each other before that day but that day was Christmas Day all over again for each of them. Anna was looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. She found that redemption in Jesus, “He-Who-Saves.” Simeon was looking forward to the consolation of Israel. He found that consolation in that baby about whom the angels sang, “Peace on earth, goodwill to all.”

Just when Mary and Joseph thought that Christmas was over, they heard those two strangers break forth into song and prayer and praise. Just when Mary and Joseph thought that Christmas was over, they learned a lesson. They learned that, with Jesus, Christmas would never be over. There would be one instance after another, day in and day out for the next 33 years, as people would come to have their eyes opened, that they would see the Savior as did Anna and Simeon. There would be one instance after another when Jesus would be taken out of their arms by someone else, culminating 33 years later in His crucifixion, as Mary stood there watching Simeon’s prophecy come true [Luke 2:35], feeling that sword piercing her own soul as Christmas would come again to the entire world as her Savior-Son Jesus would die and rise again to redeem Jerusalem, to console Israel, to redeem you, to console me, to redeem me, to console you.

“There is nothing so over as Christmas.” Those words are sadly true for many people. Now that it is the 28th of December, Christmas is being packed up and put away till next Halloween. Along with all the paper and ribbons and cards and boxes, most people are also packing away Jesus. They won’t be back in church until maybe Easter – for sure next Christmas because, you know, the church is always so beautiful and the music is always so wonderful.

But for us people of God, Christmas is never over. Just when you think it’s over, an Anna or a Simeon is brought into your life, someone who has been waiting to see Jesus in your arms, someone who’s on their way out, someone who may not have another chance to see Jesus carried to them by someone else. Just when you think it’s over, God will gift you with the joy of Christmas coming alive once again in someone else.

Join me in prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, as we end this year, help us not to pack You away into the safe confines of our hearts. Help us to carry You in our arms. Help us to look forward to 2009 as “A Time to Shine,” to allow others to see your glory, to allow others to receive their consolation and their redemption through us. Move us even today where you would have us to be so that we will know that Christmas is never over. In Your precious Name we pray, Amen.”

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Pastor Christopher Schaar
Historic First Lutheran Church of Pasadena