Sermon prepared for Messiah Lutheran Church, Auburn WA

by Pastor Gregory S. Kaurin

8:30 & 11 AM traditional services, 1/5/03

 

Text: John 1:10-18

Sermon:

The New Dial

 

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There’s a big ugly fight that’s been brewing on the internet for at least seven years now.  You can find emails, websites, rumors, sarcasm, mud and sludge, all over that simple Christmas carol, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”

There are two main camps in this battle.  One group believes that it came from a simple memorization game that children played on January 5^th, the Twelfth Night of Christmas. 

However, more than 20 years ago, one priest was studying the oppression of Roman Catholics in England.  He was reading letters written between Jesuit priests in France and Ireland, and found some mention in the letters that he felt showed that the carol had been used to help Catholic children remember the basic tenets of their faith:  that the one partridge represented the one God, the two turtle doves represented the Old & New Testaments, the three French Hens represented the Three Persons of the Trinity, the four calling birds are the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John…etc.  He began sharing his discovery, and about seven years ago, he added it to his website.  And much to his surprise, that’s when this huge debate all started.

Some were inspired and others were offended.  One author wrote this children’s book, The Real Twelve Days, (which you can find at the Resource Center in the narthex) based on his findings.  Obviously, she was inspired.  Others began demanded proof and evidence.  Unfortunately, the priest answered that all his notes were destroyed a number of years ago when his basement flooded.

My guess is that article I read from Christianity Today’s online magazine is probably closest to the truth.  It suggested that the carol of “The Twelve Days of Christmas” may have developed from or was sung alongside of an even older Twelfth Night poem that is printed in your bulletin.  It’s at least as old as 1625, and probably older.  It was sung on the twelfth day of Christmas and was known as the “New Dial” or “In Those Twelve Days” (the “New Dial,” a new calendar, or a new way of counting days and time).*

All sides of this argument are wrong, wrong at the very least to be slinging mud and getting so caught up proving their point—logically, historically, or however.  They are muddying and obliterating Christian meaning.  Proving something doesn’t necessarily make it more “true.”  Proving that the 12 Days of Christmas was a catechetical song doesn’t necessarily make it more valuable, and disproving it doesn’t make it worthless. 

 

There is no reason that we cannot use even secular music, tunes, laughter and games in our Christian rejoicing…so long as we keep it all in perspective, and learn how to point our joy to God.

It’s like this whole clapping in church debate.  I know all the arguments about how applause can change it into a performance instead of worshipping God.  Honestly, when I have heard applause in church, I have never felt like it was a response as surface and base as though for mere entertainment. 

Applause and silence, in their right places, can be the voice and words of God.  Scripture commands in several places, “Clap your hands, all you people!”  “There is a time and place for everything.”  Everything.  Let the Spirit move you, not the dictates of re-imposed Pharisaic piety.

Secular things may speak spiritual volumes, or they may not, but we don’t have to force spiritual meaning into it.  We don’t need to force things to be more spiritual by rewriting history, or by forcing songs to say more than they do.

Holly bushes, evergreen trees, ivy, Yule logs, Christmas carols and pageants, all of these things, even Christmas Day itself, all of them have deep roots in pagan and secular traditions—long before Christianity saw and adopted them into Christianity.  The early missionaries saw, and we would do well to learn, that sometimes you redeem worldly things by learning to use them to preach and teach godly things—not by changing their history—but by understanding their meaning, and how that same thing can be used and understood through the eyes of Christian faith.

For some people, television, computers and technology are just products and messengers of a consumer-oriented, selfish, gadget-worshipping generation.  And they are not entirely wrong; all this “stuff” can be used selfishly and wickedly.  –It can also be turned around to present the love of Christ, to bring Christ, in the flesh, to people.

The scripture passage that our Video-tech Team at Messiah has chosen as their theme is from this first chapter in John: “The Word became flesh.”  They have made it their mission in this congregation to bring Christ, physically, into people’s lives through our use of technology, sound, music and video.

There are some Christians who try to insulate or barricade themselves with their Christian religiosity.  “I will listen only to Christian music, watch only Christian programming, and shop at Christian businesses.”  There is certainly nothing wrong with each of these, but that attitude creates a kind of exclusivity that I know Jesus preached and lived against. 

While all around him Pharisees were saying, “Don’t associate with those people; never eat with those people,” there was Jesus in the middle of them, associating and eating.  Our protection in the world isn’t from separation, or purity.  Martin Luther’s great hymn sings, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.”  We don’t build our fortress; God is Fortress enough.

 

Today is the twelfth day of Christmas.  Tomorrow, January 6^th, is the traditional day set aside to celebrate Epiphany, the star that led the magi from the east to Bethlehem, to the house where Joseph, Mary and Jesus were staying. 

Think about it: these were eastern star-watchers—that day’s closest equivalent of scientists.  They were not Jewish, much less Christian.  They were pagans who used stars as zodiac predictors for earthly happenings. 

It is possible that, after discovering little Jesu, a boy they believed would somehow become a king, the wise men remained eastern star-gazers for the rest of their lives.  —That doesn’t change the Biblical message one dot or tittle, because the point is that God spoke to and used (and will continue to use) incredible means to get his message out.  He will sometimes even use “wrong” paths to lead people to the Truth.  Zodiac astrology lead wise men to his house, and points us to a higher truth that this child was Lord of Stars, Lord of Science, Lord of Life, of All!

 

And so we have this song, the Twelve Days of Christmas.  On the surface it sounds like a whimsical story where someone’s “true love” celebrates each day of Christmas from December 25^th through January 5^th with extravagant gifts of birds, singers, musicians, milkers, and dancers. 

I ran across a cute story—I seriously doubt it actually happened—but a fellow claimed that he tried to win his love over by literally following the carol each day of Christmas.  On December 25^th, a partridge in a small pear tree arrived on her doorstep, and on from there.  She was very impressed with the first couple of gifts, but by the time she had swimming swans and milking maids with all their cows, and lord’s a-leaping around her lawn, she was taking legal action against him!

It’s a fun, silly song, and perhaps the deep meaning that is even more important, and spiritual, isn’t nearly so hard to dig up as we make it.  Maybe we don’t need to make it make sense in order to find its spiritual importance.  We can simply rejoice in the singing, and games, gifts and generosity, whimsy and fun.  Rejoice with imagination, childish rhymes, laughter and clapping.

Find God in your life, often right there on the surface—you don’t need to force him into it.  Be a spiritual person, not by spiritualizing your life, not by forcing and rationalizing everything you do with a spiritual definition.

In other words, you don’t need to fake it.  You don’t need to put aside your Christianity in order to enjoy many things in life.  Invite him into it, and if it’s wrong, he’ll show you and lead you back on the right track.  You don’t need to fake it in order to live a Christian life.

 

From the age of eight I have been watching music videos on my MTV, VH1 and CMT.  I played Dungeons and Dragons for hours on end when I was a kid.  I still read and enjoy Sci-fi and fantasy books, with trolls, swords, hobbits, and dragons.  I enjoy satirical sitcoms on TV.  I even watch those horrible shows like The Simpsons, or (much worse) Married with Children.  I know, it’s awful, and you may never be able to look me straight in the eye again.

In all of it, I have remained an imperfect and forgiven sinner.  The truth is, I have just as often been mislead and sinful in churchy spiritual places as I have in all these others.  And I also know that God has spoken to me and taught me values, virtues, he’s given me gifts, through all these things, from the religious and churchy to secular satire.  —This is not independent, but hand in hand with my parents, pastors, teachers, Bible and church.

 

What this Christmas season is saying, and what John in our Gospel lesson is saying, is that when Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, it was much more than that single moment in history.

Christmas is not a season.  It is not December 25^th or the twelve days following.  Christmas is a lifestyle.  And it involves your whole life, not just your Sunday spiritual best.  Christmas is accepting the real presence of God into your physical life.  He continues to come to you in the flesh everyday and every place.

Christmas is not a season; it is a lifestyle.  It is praying and trusting that God will be speaking to you and shaping you through all things, places, people and moments.

Christmas is knowing that, because God is your Fortress, you can enjoy even very secular worldly moments, songs and other things as if you were doing this all in the Kingdom of God, because you are.

Play Monopoly or Nintendo, sing a nursery rhyme, ski down a mountain, work on a project at Boeing or Microsoft, balance your checkbook or shop at Fred Meyer, as if you were doing it all in the Kingdom of God, because you are, and because he is King of all of it, and can be shut out from none of it.

You might like country music, or rock-n-roll, chocolate or lefse, and God, who is Lord of All Heaven and All Earth, is in it all.  Your spirituality doesn’t need to be forced; you do not need to put God into your life.  You only need to find him there.  God is in your life.  Listen to him.

 

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