Mark 1:1-8 - Do You Have the Christmas Spirit? - December 6, 2020

It never fails. Every single year, no matter how determined we are to be ready for Christmas, it always seems to sneak up on us. Christmas is only 19 days away. Are you ready? Are you in the mood? Do you have the Christmas spirit? That’s one of the annual seasonal requirements, isn’t it: that you have the Christmas spirit? This allusive Christmas spirit was the inspiration for three of the most famous Christmas movies: the Grinch doesn’t have it and he tries to steal it from others; Charlie Brown searches high and low for it, but he can’t find it in the midst of Christmas’ commercialization; Ebenezer Scrooge thinks he doesn’t want it, but three ghosts show him how much he’s missing out on without it. The world has an infinite number of ways to tell us that we need to have the Christmas spirit. Fine. But what is it and how do you get it?

Well, although this is a fairly complicated recipe, most would agree that the main ingredient is family, right? “I’ll be home for Christmas,” Bing Crosby croons. Being home for the holidays creates the Christmas Spirit. It’s immortalized in Norman Rockwell paintings. It’s reliving and renewing and creating family traditions. And no matter how many experts tell us that you can be just as close with your family by computer as you can in person – we all know that it’s not the same thing. Once you’ve gotten the family gatherings scheduled, then you need to add a dash of a Christmas cheer. You need to be humming “It’s the most wonderful time of the year” until your throat hurts. The spirit of Christmas is kind thoughts toward others and a warm, cozy feeling inside.

Of course, even if you have family and Christmas cheer, you’re still lacking something, something big; something important. What is it? Charity! Giving gifts to others in order to help them to find the Christmas spirit is widely considered to be the most important ingredient in achieving the Christmas spirit for yourself. Why would that be? Well, because it’s not only advertisers and celebrities and food pantries that urge and encourage charity – even the church does. Saint Nicholas, the inspiration for that fat guy in the red suit, was a real bishop in the church in the 4th century, and he’s famous because he gave money to poor people. The Salvation Army – a so-called church – reminds you (or maybe, guilts you) to be charitable every time you go grocery shopping. Heck, even Risen Savior is encouraging you to give Christmas gift to those in need. Although, if I may be cynical, I’m not sure that giving to others in order to make yourself feel good is exactly a pure motive.

How dare I mock charitable giving at Christmas time! What kind of a Grinch am I? Well, I could have said bah-humbug to the other two ingredients as well. I could have pointed out that there are many people who don’t have any family to gather with or will have an empty spot at the table or that there are many who can’t stand the family they have to get together with at Christmas. To those who believe that the Christmas spirit = Christmas cheer, I could have pointed out that suicides and depression go up this time of year.

Nonetheless, family, cheerfulness and charity are all but universally viewed as essential ingredients to summoning the Christmas spirit. Anything else? Ah, yes, Christmas music. How can you have the Christmas spirit without Christmas music? Songs that have been sung for decades and hymns that have been around for centuries are played all day in the mall, 24/7 on the radio, and every year some pop-star comes out with their own Christmas album. Even if family, cheer, and charity are out of reach – at least you know that Christmas music will always be there to summon the Christmas spirit.

Hmm, we’re still missing something. Oh yeah: shopping. What would Christmas be without shopping – with spiced latte in hand? But it’s also intrinsically linked with family and happiness, too. How can you show up at a family gathering empty handed? What could possibly illustrate the Christmas spirit more than watching a child’s eyes light up at opening the gift – the perfect gift – that you bought them? Whether you do it on Amazon or Farm and Fleet (or, let’s be honest, Walgreen’s at 8p on Christmas Eve), no shopping = no Christmas spirit. Just consider how many people put themselves in debt just for the sake of being able to give the perfect gift.

And last but not least (especially because they are forbidden this year): Christmas parties. It’s sinning against the spirits of Christmas to not go to Christmas parties. You’ll be called a Grinch or a Scrooge if you don’t. The spirits of Christmas are to be found in food, drink and friends. You’ll be guaranteed to catch the Christmas spirit (among other things) if you can mix up this Christmas cocktail in the proper proportions.

What a killjoy! So, now I’m not only against family, cheerfulness and charity – but now music, shopping and parties, too?!? Not at all. I’m just pointing out that the seasonal spirits of Christmas we’ve been indoctrinated to believe in all have to be pursued, paid for, or drummed up. It’s hard work to obtain these spirits – especially during a pandemic – and it’s all but impossible when tragedy strikes your family during the Christmas season; when your Christmas cheer is dampened by chronic pain or disease; when you don’t have much to spend on shopping and giving because you’ve been furloughed. That’s because the spirits of Christmas we’ve been led to regard as holy and necessary are all products of our own doing; that is, they are based on works. You get these spirits of Christmas by doing or not doing certain things. Woe to you if you fail to dot every I and cross every t of the sacred Christmas laws – because then the Christmas spirit won’t come. Life under the Law, even the holly, jolly laws of Christmas, is heavy, depressing and burdensome.

But I have good news; that is, I have the Gospel. There is a Spirit of Christmas – and, imagine this: he actually has something to do with the true Christmas story. In fact, his role is so essential that without this Spirit there would be no Christmas. The angel Gabriel told Zechariah that John the Baptist will be filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15). Six months later Gabriel told Mary that the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). When Mary travels to see Elizabeth, John leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41). Later, when John was born, we’re told that Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:67) and sang a song of joyful praise. The true Spirit of Christmas is none other than the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

Ok, so how do you get the Holy Spirit? Not through giving, shopping or partying, but…through Baptism. On Pentecost Peter promised: repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Paul calls Baptism a washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Jesus himself says that rebirth comes by water and the Spirit (John 3:1-18). Getting this Christmas Spirit, the real Christmas Spirit, couldn’t be easier: you receive it when you are baptized.

Preparing people to receive Jesus, by giving, not demanding, was really the point of John’s ministry, but that fact often gets lost in the details. Mark writes that John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That’s precisely what is received today when people are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:20; Acts 2:38). Some get confused – or even try to deny that John’s Baptism had this power – by pointing to the last verse of the text where John says I baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. Some argue that John is saying that his baptism is just plain water and that only Jesus can baptize with the Holy Spirit. Well, if that were true, then, one, John’s baptism could not give the forgiveness of sins – as the text clearly says. Second, as the context makes clear, John is not contrasting his baptism and Jesus’ baptism, but rather his identity and his work versus Jesus’ identity and work, just look at the previous verse: one more powerful than I is coming after me. I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the strap of his sandals!

In other words, John is using the word baptize (which simply means to apply something) in two different ways: one literal, one metaphorical. John applies with water for forgiveness – as he was commissioned to do by God. Jesus, however, has both the authority and the commission to apply the Holy Spirit to people – which he did in dramatic fashion on Pentecost (Acts 2:1-41). John was sent to apply water for the forgiveness of sins to prepare the way for Jesus’ first coming; Jesus was sent to apply the Holy Spirit through the means of grace to prepare the way for his second coming.

This is made clear in the very next verses of Mark’s Gospel where John baptizes Jesus. Then and there the Spirit descended on Jesus like a dove and God identified Jesus as his beloved Son (Mark 1:9-11). Endowed with the Spirit, Jesus immediately went to work, going to war with the devil in the wilderness (Mark 1:12-13), battling disease and death by healing and resurrecting (Mark 1:21-45), calling disciples to follow him and calling out his opponents for their hypocrisy and unbelief (Mark 2:13-17; 2:18-28), preaching the good news of free salvation throughout Israel until the time came for him to earn that salvation by suffering and dying, by rising and ascending. The results of Jesus’ work are the priceless gifts the Christmas Spirit gives during Advent: because Jesus cried out it is finished (John 19:30) on the cross, your sins have already paid for in full – you are debt free, you owe God nothing; because Jesus drained the cup of God’s wrath if there is anything that dampens your Christmas joy this year it cannot be because God is angry with you; because Jesus fulfilled the law by keeping it perfectly, no law, not even the sacred seasonal laws of Christmas, can accuse you or demand that you obey them in order to have a conscience free from guilt.

Because Jesus won the right to send the Holy Spirit through the means of grace, and because you have been baptized, you have the Holy Spirit; the true Christmas Spirit. And the true Christmas Spirit doesn’t point you to Christmas lights and gifts and parties, that is yourself and your own efforts, for hope and joy – he points you to Jesus, to his completed work on the cross; to his crushing of sin, death and the devil; to the assurance that because he lives you also will live (John 14:19) – which gives you a joy that can’t be taken away by sickness, sadness, death – or even a blue Christmas.

So go on and celebrate with your family (whether you want to or not); give, give, and give some more; turn the Christmas music all the way up; shop till you drop; party like it’s 1999 (just don’t get caught). But as you do, don’t forget this: the Spirit of Christmas is not something you need to buy up, drum up or gin up. The Christmas Spirit was given to you in your baptism. He is there to assure you of your forgiveness even when you face conflict in your family; to give you fellowship with the Triune God even when you’re isolated and alone (1 John 1:3); to provide joy even when you’re feeling blue; to give you the gifts of forgiveness, freedom from death and the devil, and eternal salvation even if there aren’t any other gifts under the tree this year.

The seasonal spirits of Christmas that this world cherishes come and go with your emotions, your health, your wealth, with governmental mandates – and by and large are gone by December 26 – because they’re not gifts. The true Christmas Spirit, the only thing that can really prepare you to receive Jesus both on Christmas and on the Last Day, is a gift. It’s a gift no one can take from you; a gift that will never break or go out of style; a gift that is yours whether this Christmas is holly and jolly or sad and lonely. Whether you feel the Christmas spirit this year is irrelevant; you have it, just as surely as water was splashed on your head in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus’ gift to you. Amen.