The Power to Become the Sons of God

Certainly we love the music of Advent and Christmas and welcome it every year with eager anticipation, but the texts resonate so deeply with us as well.

They are words that don’t just affect us with their beauty, but stir our souls with the magnitude of their meaning:

One example is the Collect for the first Sunday of Advent that we get to repeat every day:

“ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.”

Or the King’s College “Bidding Prayer” (written Dean Eric Milner-White) that has almost entered into the vernacular:

“Beloved in Christ, be it this Christmas Eve our care and delight to prepare ourselves to hear again the message of the angels; in heart and mind to go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come to pass, and the Babe lying in a manger. […]”

But these words can also speak change into our lives. Most years, I revisit Phillips Brooks’ Christmas Sermon about the Wise Men.

I want this year to be different. On this St. John the Evangelist’s Day, I really want to claim the promise and grow:

“[…] the very moment that the birth in Bethlehem was a fact it became a power. […] This is the day, dear friends, to bind two sayings of St. John together, and hold them in our hands and see them shine together with the Christmas glory: first, this verse: " As many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God "; and then this other verse:" Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know . . . we shall be like him."

It is to such souls I most wish that I could speak this morning. Christ is real to them. They have indeed come from the East to Jerusalem. But who is this that he should save them? It is a mere child, this Christ of theirs. How weak he is, this Christ within them. But oh, my friends, if he be only there! If only, led by whatever star he has sent, by trouble or by happiness, you have indeed come from the vague open land of sacred aspiration and given yourself to him, then there is infinite growth before you, infinite entrance of his life into your life, infinite changing of your life into his. Remember that childhood means not weakness alone. It means likewise promise and growth.

“Before the Marvel of this Night,” led by the star, I give my life to Him and ask and look for the infinite growth before me, infinite entrance of His life into mine, infinite changing of my life into His.

Dangerous and Disgusting Habits

I used to have little patience for all the self-righteous naysayers who lamented too much Christmas too soon, and while I still subscribe to the idea of to each his own, I’m noticing my own affinities are shifting. Too much of a good thing, too soon, can often bring disappointment or even emptiness.

Even I was a little dismayed, then, to read today’s WSJ’s article, "It Must Be October in Britain Because the Beans Taste Like Christmas." The lead picture shows stars hanging like snowflakes as Christmas decorations were being installed on Oxford Street in London earlier this month. Discussing the “Christmas Creep,” the authors note: “When Liberty announced it was kicking off Christmas in August, things got a bit spicy on its Instagram account. ‘It’s August?! This is how retail has utterly wrecked the magic of the Holiday Season. How can it be special when it drags on for months?’ wrote one commenter. She was quickly accused by another commenter of being a grinch.”

In a comment left on the WSJ article, Francis Reich writes: “Just as bad as starting Christmas in October is seeing everything disappear by January 1. Let the season linger a little, at least through the traditional 12th day of Christmas.” Hear, hear!

Of course G.K. Chesterton has something to add to our discussion. Here’s his whole paragraph since I’d hate to shorten his hyperbolic fun:

There is no more dangerous or disgusting habit than that of celebrating Christmas before it comes, as I am doing in this article. It is the very essence of a festival that it breaks upon one brilliantly and abruptly, that at one moment the great day is not and the next moment the great day is. Up to a certain specific instant you are feeling ordinary and sad; for it is only Wednesday. At the next moment your heart leaps up and your soul and body dance together like lovers; for in one burst and blaze it has become Thursday. I am assuming (of course) that you are a worshipper of Thor, and that you celebrate his day once a week, possibly with human sacrifice. If, on the other hand, you are a modern Christian Englishman, you hail (of course) with the same explosion of gaiety the appearance of the English Sunday. But I say that whatever the day is that is to you festive or symbolic, it is essential that there should be a quite clear black line between it and the time going before. And all the old wholesome customs in connection with Christmas were to the effect that one should not touch or see or know or speak of something before the actual coming of Christmas Day. Thus, for instance, children were never given their presents until the actual coming of the appointed hour. The presents were kept tied up in brown-paper parcels, out of which an arm of a doll or the leg of a donkey sometimes accidentally stuck. I wish this principle were adopted in respect of modern Christmas ceremonies and publications.

I find myself wanting to help delineate that clear black line more and more. I want to be in the present; I want to celebrate the days and the seasons: St. Simon and St. Jude, St. Andrew the Apostle, All Saints’ and All Souls’, Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and the 12 Days of Christmastide… Savoring the moment. How many times have we heard that, said that? Maybe this year will be different.