Scripture: Mark 13:24-37 Series: Advent
An Advent hanging-of-the-greens homily that uses the apparent mismatch between the stark Markan apocalypse (Mark 13:24-37) and festive Christmas decorating to recover the season’s double meaning: the first coming of the Christ child and the second coming of Jesus in glory. Pruitt debunks the myth that the Christmas tree is a baptized pagan symbol, tracing it instead to Moravian and Pietist Protestants who lit fir trees to bring light into a dark season. The tree is not historically accurate to Bethlehem but is a true reflection of our lives mapped onto Advent, holding together birth and death, judgment and Mary’s yes. He closes with T.S. Eliot’s poem ‘The Cultivation of Christmas Trees,’ urging childlike wonder and a watchfulness rooted in love rather than fear.
Illustrations: christmas-tree-not-in-bethlehem, pagan-tree-myth-debunked, third-century-against-birthdays, moravian-pietist-first-tree, ts-eliot-cultivation-poem, fig-tree-lesson
December 3
The Cultivation of Christmas Trees
“But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken. “Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory. Then he will send out the angels and gather the elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.
“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father. Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight or at cockcrow or at dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly. And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”
Introduction
There were no Christmas trees that first Christmas morning in Bethlehem. There were no decorations. It is not historically accurate to put up a Christmas tree. Fir trees do not even grow in the Bethlehem region. We have a Christmas tree here at Covenant. We are decorating it today. Many of you, most of you probably have a Christmas tree at home. Many of you, most of you probably grew up with one. And yet, if this tree is not historically accurate, why do we do with this? What are we striving for in this Season of advent, in this new Christian year? But more importantly, what was God offering to us at Christmas? Why do we have to spend a few weeks getting ready? The Gospel passage I read earlier from the Gospel of Mark is pretty stark with language of suffering and the darkening of the sun. It’s very different language from what we went through during the hanging of the greens portion of our surface today. Not many nativity scenes include Markan language of the Sun and Moon being darkened and stars falling from the sky. And yet, historically, the first Sunday of advent has been about the double meaning of advent. There are two advents: the first the coming of the Christ child, and the second, the coming again of Jesus in glory. That second coming is not as palatable. Well, of course, there are certain strains of Christianity that view the second coming as this great one-upmanship of their enemies. They see the Bible as this long list of codes that can be interpreted so that you and yours can be safe and those other fools will suffer. Yet I think the plain reading of the gospels is that we do not know the time or the hour. So we should not predict when Jesus is coming, but we should live every minute of our lives in anticipation of Christ. Advent offers us a season of preparation and anticipation to look, to get ready for the first advent, as well as to look for the second. But where do the trees come from?
Some say that the Christmas tree is a pagan symbol that the Christians baptized. This sounds good for a freshman religious studies class, but it has no basis in history. The Christmas tree is not a Pagan celebration. It’s just not the case. Christmas was a later holiday. It wasn’t the earliest holiday. Births were not important in Judaism and were not important to the early Christians. There was a 3rd century Christian writer who said that it was contrary to the faith to celebrate a birthday because as Christians we should celebrate our baptism or martyrdom.
Concerning Christmas Trees, Europe had already long been Christianized by the time the first Christmas trees came about. The tradition started with Protestants from central and Eastern Europe, especially the Moravian and Pietist traditions that heavily influenced John Wesley. It was the Moravians who first took a fir tree, which is what Tanenbaum means in German, and put candles on it and decorated it. They did so in order to bring a little light into their home during a dark season. As much as anything, that’s what a Christmas tree does. It is there to bring a light, to bring a reminder, to offer a memory, Christmas trees are not reflections of first century Roman occupied Palestine. They are reflections of our existence as mapped on to Advent and Christmas. And in this, they’re worth remembering and celebrating because in that remembering, as we point to the first Christmas, we point to the second. As we prepare our homes for Christmas, we prepare our hearts. There is birth and death, seasons of spring and winter. There is Mark’s day of judgment as well as Mary’s yes to God. As we care for our homes, as we care for the people around us, let us remember the care we have received from our first Christmas until today. Let us be alert for Jesus not in fear, but in love. Let us long for Jesus.
To close this brief homily, I want to read a short poem by TS Elliot called the The Cultivation of Christmas Trees.
It was written in 1954 and is only 36 lines long, but it cuts to the heart of what I’m saying and why we even hang the greens today.
There are several attitudes towards Christmas, Some of which we may disregard: The social, the torpid, the patently commercial, The rowdy (the pubs being open till midnight), And the childish – which is not that of the child For whom the candle is a star, and the gilded angel Spreading its wings at the summit of the tree Is not only a decoration, but an angel.
The child wonders at the Christmas Tree: Let him continue in the spirit of wonder At the Feast as an event not accepted as a pretext; So that the glittering rapture, the amazement Of the first-remembered Christmas Tree, So that the surprises, delight in new possessions (Each one with its peculiar and exciting smell), The expectation of the goose or turkey And the expected awe on its appearance,
So that the reverence and the gaiety May not be forgotten in later experience, In the bored habituation, the fatigue, the tedium, The awareness of death, the consciousness of failure, Or in the piety of the convert Which may be tainted with a self-conceit Displeasing to God and disrespectful to children (And here I remember also with gratitude St.Lucy, her carol, and her crown of fire):
So that before the end, the eightieth Christmas (By “eightieth” meaning whichever is last) The accumulated memories of annual emotion May be concentrated into a great joy Which shall be also a great fear, as on the occasion When fear came upon every soul: Because the beginning shall remind us of the end And the first coming of the second coming.
Let us pray,
Heavenly Father, we are so grateful for this season and opportunity to celebrate the birth of your son, Jesus Christ. Help us to prepare our homes and our hearts for his coming by expanding the love in both. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.