When does Christmas start?

Written as the spoken homily for the Advent/Hanging of the Greens service at Redmond United Methodist Church on December 2, 2006

When does Christmas start?

I understand from leading authorities that Christmas doesn't officially begin until you hear "Stop the Cavalry" by the Cory Band on the radio … am I right, Catlyn?

If you're like my sister and me, Christmas starts after mom and dad get home from work on Christmas eve and we're each allowed to select one … just one … carefully considered … present and open it.

Or maybe, you're like me, little Michael, creeping ever so silently into the living room at … oh … 4 AM … to gaze in awe of all the things that Santa delivered just hours earlier.

Are you Canadian, or from anywhere in the British Commonwealth? For you, presents don't appear on Christmas … you receive them in boxes the following day … aptly named Boxing Day.

Perhaps you're like millions of Europeans … eagerly ticking off each of the 12 days of Christmas … until you finally reach Epiphany, the glorious Day of the Kings, on January 6 … and the Festival of the Kings can begin.

Maybe you're like thousands of retailers … hurrying out your Christmas goods for the day after Thanksgiving …
… or the day after Halloween …
… or the day after Columbus Day…
… or Labor Day …
… or even the day after the fourth of July.

If playthings are your livelihood, perhaps Christmas actually started the previous fall, at the annual toy convention … when retailers and the press impatiently previewed items they hope will be ever-so-hot in the next 15 months.

Of course … everyone knows Christmas started at midnight on December 25th, Year Zero … when a host of angels suddenly serenaded frightened shepherds watching their flocks.

At least, we know that. But the ancient Christians didn't. In fact, those founders of our faith didn't celebrate now at all … they knew Christ was born in March …
… or May …
… or July.

And the protestant Pilgrims who celebrated our first Thanksgiving … hated Christmas … they perceived Christmas as a travesty dreamed up by Catholics to seduce the pagans of northern Europe into worshipping our God instead of a pantheon of mid-winter deities.

All right … so when DOES Christmas start?

Scholars … including a 16th century Vatican librarian named Aloysius … pinned the start of Christmas at the first Sunday after the winter equinox. Aloysius also convinced Pope Gregory XIII to try a novel catching up concept called … leap year.

Astrologers believe it was in the dead of winter when the sun shines pale on the shortest day of the year. Depending on your distance from the equator, it's December 21 … or 23 … or 25. At the Arctic circle, the sun doesn't even set … blend them all into one day that's three months long.

Astronomers believe it wasn't even year zero … after all … there WAS a supernova in four BC … the only one in 300 years.

So… the really question is … when does Christmas start for you?

Does it start as you hurry around buying perfectly matched presents for your family … and co-workers?

Does it start when you pick out an artistically symmetrical tree … and your family decorates it?

Does it start when you finally get through airport security and the engines begin to rev under the wings?

Does it start … after you get that last televised pass report … before the DOT makes you chain up at Snoqualmie Pass?

Does it start when you put pajamas on your little ones … and drive down here for our annual Christmas Eve Candlelight service?

Does it start when Jerry Weltner rings the biggest bell … at midnight? (Jerry is a member of the bell choir at Redmond UMC.)

When does Christmas start?

If you want to know when Christmas starts, look around. Look at what we're doing … here … now … in Redmond … in this sanctuary.

For me, this is when Christmas starts … at Advent … at the beginning of the church's season of anticipation for the coming of Christ.

This is when we recite Isaiah's prophecies about the coming king … the heir to David's throne.

This is when we learn … as we do every year … of Zechariah's wife Elizabeth finding herself pregnant with son John.

This is when we read of God's selecting a young virgin … a teenage girl hardly older than our own daughters … to bear His son to free mankind from the shackles of sin and death.

And Elizabeth's baby leaps in the womb when cousin Mary, the chosen virgin, enters the room.

And that same John … grown to manhood … reluctantly baptizes Jesus.

And Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly … yet facing trial, and beating, and death.

And Mary, the mother of Jesus, with several other women, discover the Lord is no longer in the tomb … but has risen.

And weary disciples gather in upper rooms all over Asia Minor … to secretly break bread together in celebration of Christ's life and resurrection.

No, Christmas doesn't start at Christmas … it starts at the beginning … at the Advent.

And Christmas … praise God … Christmas never ends.