Homily - Sunday
Deacon David Lewis
Saint Charles Catholic Church, Imperial Beach / San Diego, CA
So this morning I woke up on the
sunny side of the ground… thank you God … breathing … thank you God … and I
went into the shower and it had hot water… thank you God … as I began shaving I
cut my lip … thank you God … you see we have to thank God for all things in our
lives, because even out of what appears negative, good things can happen.
That said, one of the things I saw
as a negative earlier this week was that the internet was all abuzz about a
decision by Starbucks to make their winter cups plain red, no icons of
snowflakes, no snowmen, nothing just a plain red cup with their logo. It upset
some people, as they saw it as another way to take what is an already diluted Christmas
message and de-emphasize it even more.
While some took this
as a sign that they were pulling away from Christmas, and found it offensive, others
online pointed out how ironic it is that some Christians were complaining about
the absence of snowflakes on our coffee cup while many places in the world
still struggled to have clean water.
As I browsed through the posts, many accusing
Christians of lacking focus on Christ’s message, I came across what at first
seemed to be an unrelated music video for Darius Rucker’s song “What Gods Wants
for Christmas” (View video here) Having never seen the video or even hearing the song before I
played it. It talked about “more sister, more brother, more loving one another,
dusting of our bibles, and filling the seats at church”… and it hit me… our
advent preparation starts in two weeks. We will be preparing ourselves for the
celebration of the FIRST coming of Jesus, the celebration of Christmas, when we
remember God’s word, coming to life in human form at the nativity of Jesus,
when God became flesh from the virgin womb of Mary, in the manager, at the inn.
A day most of us celebrate by exchanging gifts. Our Christmas gift from God was
that he gave us Jesus, and through what appeared to be a great negative, the
death of Jesus, we are given the opportunity to be with God for eternity in
heaven.
But the song isn’t “What God gave US
for Christmas” it is “What does God want for Christmas?” I don’t think God
wants us talking about red cups, the absence of Christmas on a five-dollar
coffee. And I am certain, I think it goes without saying, that he doesn’t want
us shooting up restaurants and concert halls, and bombing sports arenas. Maybe, what
God wants from us, is for us to be thankful for his gift, thankful for Jesus
CHRIST, after all we are Christians or CHRISTians celebrating CHRISTmas.
So what does it mean to celebrate Christmas? And more importantly,
what does it mean to be a FOLLOWER of CHRIST? WELL… FIRST and FOREMOST, we have
to FOLLOW Christ and lead others towards him. Certainly it will mean living
through the end times when Jesus comes the second time and we face our
judgement. And those that died, in a state of choosing to be apart from God,
will go to be with the devil in the fiery pits of hell for all eternity, and
those that chose to reconcile with God for their sins, reunited with God, will
follow Jesus to be in heaven forever. You see, God doesn’t send anyone to Hell,
it is the free will choice of each of us, to choose to be united with God, or to
be apart from him.
So if we could give God something
for Christmas, that would truly please him, it would be to love him, to choose
him, to choose to be united with him. Which is really the vision I have of
heaven, not clouds, angels, and harps, but to be united in God’s pure undiluted
love for all eternity. But as we wait to go through Jesus’ second coming, the
end times, WE can thank God by showing God our love for him by following the
example of HIS gift, his only son, the example of Jesus Christ: the example of
loving our neighbor, the example of being kind, having empathy and love for
others, and doing what we can to help others, and ultimately inviting others to
know God, to love him and to love others as well.
If we were to sit down and set aside
our wish list of things we want for Christmas, and put aside all the anxiety of
how we are going to get the things that other people are asking of us for
Christmas. If we just take a moment to be thankful for what we have and that we
have any excess at all to give to others, in that moment we may realize that
God not only gave us Jesus, but as we heard last week, he gave us all we have:
our life, our health, our wisdom, our talents, and our treasures.
So as the Church calendar comes to
an end next week, the end times if you will for the 2015 church year, and as we
begin a new year in the church, let our preparations for Christ’s coming, the Advent
season, be about thanking God for the good, and the bad. The ability to breath,
and the cuts on our lip, and yes even plain red cups. Let it be a time of
reconnection with God, reconciling ourselves with God so that we may be counted
among those in heaven after he comes again. Let it be a time of love, a time of
helping others, and a time of prayerful relationship with God giving him the
gift of our love… full of thanks and praise.
