The Purple Wet Blanket

It took me by surprise last Monday as I walked through the atrium of the Shops at Liberty Place on my way to court in Philadelphia. It was a glistening, multi-storied Christmas tree – perhaps the largest I've ever seen.

Atrium Christmas Tree - The Shops at Liberty Place

Before I came upon that massive tree, I hadn't really noticed stores putting up holiday decorations or Christmas sale flyers in the newspaper or the local radio station that's been playing Christmas music around the clock. I had been hunkered down over the past couple weeks to prepare for a trial, only to be ambushed by the Christmas season on my way to court. 

So after my trial was behind me, I pulled one of my dad's Advent sermons out of his barrel for a refresher course in preparing for Christmas. What I found was a reminder that Advent -- our time of inner preparation for Christ's birth -- looks far different than the run-up to Christmas that we see on the surface as we walk through streets, shops and neighborhoods all decked out for the holiday:

“The color purple is used traditionally by the Church to mark the two great penitential seasons of the Christian year – Lent (the period of preparation for Easter) and Advent (the period of preparation for Christmas). The color purple is the color of self-examination, sorrow for one’s sin, and repentance. It evokes a somber mood, as do the hymns of these two seasons -- which are often written in a minor key. That’s the theory.

The reality is that the Church can pull off a somber and penitential season before Easter, but it’s well nigh impossible in our culture today to do so before Christmas. How do you tell Christians not to celebrate Christmas until December 24th when the rest of society has been doing so since Halloween? How do you tell Christians that in order to truly appreciate Christmas they first need a period of quiet introspection? Many a pastor has gotten into trouble with his or her flock by insisting on a traditional Advent observance – by refusing to pull out all of the Christmas stops until Christmas Eve. More than one has been branded a kill-joy, a wet blanket, if you will. And in this case, you can color that wet blanket purple.

Of course, the important thing is not whether we hang purple or white in the sanctuary before Christmas Eve, or whether we sing dirges or carols. The important thing is that we remember that we can’t really appreciate the fact that God sent his Son into the world unless we know personally why he had to come. I can’t celebrate a Savior unless I understand what he saves me from. There is some personal agony of the soul to be felt before we can really celebrate the hope that resides in the Baby of Bethlehem. Otherwise, Christmas is reduced to a warm, syrupy emotional escape that quickly fades.

The bottom line here is that Christmas is shallow unless we take our own sin seriously. Christmas is God’s first step in dealing decisively with the human condition. Advent is the time when we own up to our sin problem. Most of us modern Christians have trouble with this idea of our own sinfulness. We do not see ourselves as depraved. We readily admit that we are not perfect, but we also know that, relatively speaking, we’re not all that bad. 

Our error here is that sin, as the Bible defines it, has nothing directly to do with morality. As far as the Bible is concerned, the Apostle Paul was as big a sinner as King Herod. As far as the Bible is concerned, an ax murderer and a Girl Scout stand equally condemned before God. That’s offensive to hear, I know. It offends me. Nevertheless it is true, because sin, in the biblical sense, is not what we've done or what we haven’t done. Sin is our innate human tendency to declare our independence from God. Some of us may do this by committing heinous crimes, and others may do it by proving how good we can be, but either way we are telling God to buzz off. Either way we cut ourselves off from God.

The essence of salvation is surrendering our pride, our self-will – no matter what form it takes – and letting God be God for us. Somehow, this must take place during Advent if we are really to have Christmas. Jesus was born, died, and rose again to save us. This is not a three-act play we can enjoy and then, when the final curtain falls, go home to business as usual. It is God acting in history to confront us with who we are, and who we can be, if we surrender to God.

Advent is not a purple wet blanket. It is not really a season on the calendar. It is a season of the soul, a season you must have to prepare for your personal Savior.”

From: “The Purple Wet Blanket”

Scripture: Luke 3:1-20

Preached Nov. 29, 1987 @ Paoli UMC