The wife of a poor merchant died, leaving him with five children, ranging from age six to fifteen. The older children assumed many of the household chores — cooking, cleaning, and helping the younger children. When the merchant came home at night, he always brought a bag of groceries, food for the next day. After he set the bag on the table, he hugged each child. Before they ate, the father read from the scriptures and the family prayed. Many nights, before bed, the children begged their father to sing with them. He frequently played his guitar and sang quiet folk tunes.
The first Christmas after his wife died, the merchant said to his children, "This year there is insufficient money to buy presents in the store. Instead, we will all draw names, and you will make a present for one of your brothers or sisters. My gift to you will be a fine Christmas meal and a special song that I am writing. We will learn it in the weeks before Christmas and sing it in church on Christmas Eve." True to his word, the father wrote a beautiful song of joy for the children, and began to teach it to them three weeks before the Nativity. The children loved the song so much they sang it with great gusto and volume.
It so happened that a rich man who hated Christmas and hated music even more, lived above the family. Night after night he listened to the children singing the new Christmas song. It irritated him so much that he developed a plan to silence the singing. Several days before Christmas, he knocked on the door: "I have come to make you an offer," he said to the father who listened carefully with his children standing behind him. "I'll give you 100 gold coins if you promise not to sing for three months." The father looked at his children. He said, "That is more money than I can make in two years. We will be able to buy presents for everyone in the entire family." The children cheered as the father accepted the bag of money and the rich man's terms.
That night they began to plan silently how they would spend the money. Over the next few evenings, they ate, then sat quietly, reading and thinking. On the fourth night, however, one of the children said, "I would rather have music than any stupid present. This silence isn't worth it." One by one the children agreed. So the father walked into the bedroom, retrieved the sack of money, and climbed the flight of stairs to return the bag to its owner. He told the man, "We have discovered that there is something more important than money. I am sorry that our singing irritates you, but it fills us with joy. Our family cannot imagine Christmas, or life itself, without music. When singing, we celebrate the best news that is ever been given poor people, that God so loved the world that he became one of us, living as a human being."
When the merchant rejoined his children, he said, "We will learn to sing with greater feeling and less volume. In our joy, we don't want to irritate our neighbor. What do you say to that?" The oldest child spoke for all, saying, "We say, ‘Let the music begin.' "
The merchant and his children did not have much in a material sense, but they had music, which was all they needed. In essence, they had hope. Today, our Advent journey has reached its goal; we celebrate the incarnation, God becoming human in Jesus Christ. It is a day of great festival joy for Jesus' arrival in our world provides a sense of hope that something greater and more permanent is possible. Jesus, the light of the world, has come to dispel the darkness, in our personal lives and that of our world.
The hopefulness of the merchant and Jesus is expressed clearly in the prophecy of Isaiah as we heard proclaimed in our first lesson today. Isaiah was sent to the people of God in the southern kingdom of Judah because God was displeased with them. The Hebrew rulers had chosen the world over God; they opted for darkness over light. This situation had led to many problems. Many felt oppressed by rulers and even circumstance. The prophet clearly states that the days of oppression and war are over. The light has dispelled the darkness. As Isaiah states, a people who live in darkness have now seen a great light. The darkness of sin and ignorance, which had pervaded the lives of the Hebrews, was now to be transformed by God. Thus, it is time for the people to rejoice as at the harvest.
Isaiah then proclaims an important prophecy. God will send a person who will be rich in authority. This authority will grow continually, and will lead to lasting peace. His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. This special manifestation of God's faithfulness to Israel will bring about the establishment of a new kingdom where justice and righteousness will reign. God will protect and provide for his people; he will never abandon them.
Jesus is, of course, the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Christ the light is the one of whom Isaiah wrote, the one to dispel the darkness of the world. People avoid the darkness for it is foreboding, cold, and unwelcoming. People seek the light because it provides safety, warmth, and bids us welcome. As the winter solstice passes here in the northern hemisphere and with it the dark night ends, so the light gradually returns. In a similar way Jesus, the light of the world, comes to bring the light of faith. He comes to bring hope. The Christmas message of peace is a missive of hope as well. Jesus' birth in Bethlehem brings hope to all who in any way feel the darkness, those who feel removed from the light.
In this story, the widower and his children preferred the music; they opted for hope over the promise of riches. They came to understand that wealth was fleeting and provided only a temporary sense of satisfaction; it could never sustain them. Riches were as empty as the silence created when the music stopped. Thus, the family members made their choice for hope and were happy to profess their joy through a chorus of music on Christmas morning. Is this the same hope that Jesus brings to the world through his incarnation? The reality that God would choose to become human and share our lot completely, save sin, demonstrates not only God's love for us, but the hope that comes from such unconditional love.
Yes, our Advent journey has ended. After four weeks in which we have patiently waited for the Lord, it is now time for us to rejoice. As Isaiah tells the Hebrews in today's lesson that they must cast off darkness and walk anew in the light, so must we cast off the darkness that pervades our life. All of us are victims of the darkness of ignorance. Ignorance in this sense is not so much lack of knowledge, but rather an unwillingness to be informed or to see other possibilities in our life. Too often we form attitudes and opinions and possess the conviction that these are the only possibilities that exist. Sometimes these attitudes say that certain people are acceptable and others are not. We shut out others and thereby miss the opportunity that many people bring. Ignorance is also found in accepting one way of doing things without the possibility of other solutions. Again, we miss the opportunities that come our way with such an attitude. Lastly, ignorance is found in being exclusive. Jesus was ever present to all people, but most especially to those who lived on the margins of Jewish society. He reached out to lepers, sinners, and foreigners. Jesus never asked anyone to pass a litmus test to be his follower; on the contrary, all that was necessary was openness to his message. Ignorance will not allow us to grow; it causes us to stagnate in our own little world. But Jesus came to open the eyes of the blind and the ears of the deaf, not only physically but, more importantly, spiritually. Spiritual blindness is our own ignorance, but Jesus came to bring light to those who live in darkness.
Jesus also came to dispel the darkness of sin. While we are made in the image and likeness of God, still we are broken and incomplete people. We need the healing power of the light in our lives. Habitual actions and words, which are destructive to others and ourselves, cause us to sin, to estrange ourselves from God. We need the grace and hopefulness brought by the light, the newborn King of the Jews, to transform us and mold us more into the image of Christ.
Christmas Day celebrates the birth of Christ in human history. In our society, people who celebrate birthdays are feted with parties and presents. The widower and his children were happy to be able to present their music as a special present to Christ and to each other. We need to ask what will we give to the newborn king of the Jews; what will be our birthday present to Jesus? The one and only thing that Jesus wants and asks of us is possibly the most difficult thing to give — the best possible person we can be. We owe Jesus at least this much. We can move toward the light of hope because God can be trusted. God came to fulfill the covenant with the Jews. He never wavered; he never gave up on his chosen people. Yes, God sent Jesus, his Son, into our world to fulfill the promise to send a Messiah. We must, therefore, respond to the God who first loved us by considering what is necessary in our lives to be the person God wants us to be. The gift we bring to the Lord will cost us nothing in a monetary sense, but it may cost us much in a spiritual sense. However, the one and only thing that Jesus desires is our hearts. Let us not disappoint him.
On Christmas Day, when we welcome the light and hope it brings, we must be bearers of hope to others in our troubled world. Let's take up the challenge, dispel the darkness, and welcome the light. May the Christmas mystery of the incarnation change us forever. Amen.