Benediction

I'm not sure if you're paying attention by the end of the service.

Yes, I know that the services can get awfully long, I am aware that they can drag a little in the middle, especially around sermon time, I'm fully aware that things don't always move along with pep and vitality, so I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if you had tuned out by the end.  And if you did, that would be a shame, because the end of the service contains the benediction, which is a favourite part of the service for a great number of people.

No, not just because it means that church is over.

It's because this is where, in the service, God blesses you.  And he blesses you in the same way that he has blessed countless people before you.  It's nice that this moment comes up around Christmas, because for families, Christmas is a time of great ritual.  There are certain things that just sort of have to be there, or have to be done.  You have to have brussels sprouts, there have to be cabbage rolls.  It's not Christmas without Christmas crackers, or without a glass of sherry.  There are certain aromas that we have heavily connected with Christmas, like pine needles, or like stuffing (dressing), that kind of thing.  And having mentioned all that, a connection with Christmas crackers needs to be made, which is the legacy of the cracker joke.

No, this isn't a joke about pepperidge farms, but rather these are the jokes that are wrapped up with the crowns, that you will find in your Christmas cracker after you have pulled it and popped the crown on your head.  And as you do so, you read out the cracker joke to the delight of almost nobody.  The reason for that is that cracker jokes don't change over the years.  They're sort of dad jokes run wild, where the content of the jokes is the same year after year, and by the time you get to be an adult, you know all the answers to all the questions.

What is the best Christmas present in the world?
A broken drum, you just can't beat it!

Hilarity ensues.  Or does it?  I have been listening to these jokes for as long as I can remember, and they never change.  It's really hard to be overly enthused about jokes that remain exactly the same for generations.  It's tough to get fired up for a laugh about material that just stays the same all the time no matter what.  It doesn't elicit the same laughs that it does over at the kids table.

Now, we have a way of thinking about all things like that.  We have a way of thinking about all aspects of our lives like that, in a quest for the novel, for the new, for the different.  We have in mind to continue, perpetually, looking for what is new, what is different, what has not yet been done.  We want to make sure that our lives are always looking forward, and anything that has been said or done or enjoyed already is no longer worth our time or consideration.  Usually. But at Christmas time, things have to be different, because if things don't mean something, then we're in real trouble. 

Have you ever considered what would happen if you engaged in a massive orgy of buying and selling goods and services, if you bought gifts for everyone you know on August the first, which here is Saskatchewan, is "Civic day."  What would happen if for Civic day, you made a huge meal, got the whole family together, sat everyone down, put up a civic tree, exchanged civic presents, and had a jolly old civic time.  Imagine if all the stores, all the companies, realized this, and made the entire civic day season all about buying and selling and gifts, and all that noise.  Imagine if that was the case.  This upcoming August the first, are you planning on buying gifts for everyone on your list, or are you just planning on sleeping in? 

You Civic grinch.

In order for the mechanism of Christmas to work, we have to have it be about something else, not just buying and selling.  It has to be about the birth of Christ, or family, or togetherness, or something more than just 'commerce day.'  That's not enough.  It's never been enough.  That has never been sufficient.  There are commercials on TV all the time (TV, remember that?), or on the radio, ads playing before YouTube videos, billboards on every conceivable surface, none of the stores have any real interest in stopping this orgy of consumption, so any day could be an excuse to buy and sell.  But we, average Joe consumer, we need a better reason than that.  So it has to be tied to mother love, or to passion, or to the birth of a Baby, or to family, or to any one of a number of things, but never just because.

There are a lot of things that happen around Christmas, and honestly, some of the most repetetive bits are the best bits. It's the novelty that plagues you, that's what makes you miserable. The novelty, the buying and selling, the getting and the giving, the Christmas lists that change year after year, that develp to the point where you have no idea on earth what to get a neice or nephew because their wants and desires change every year. 

But it's the repetition, the grounding, the framework that makes things mean something.  The repetition, the ritual, is the bedrock that props the rest of it up, and if that framework isn't there, then then the whole thing doesn't function, it falls apart because it's built on nothing.  There absolutely has to be some routine, some framework to hang the season on, otherwise you just end up earning time and a half at the movie theatre.

For us in our family, there are three things that always must be read.  Firstly, the nativity account in the Gospel of Luke.  Secondly, we read 'A visit from Saint Nicholas' (AKA 'twas the night before Christmas, if you're a plebe), and the story of Jabez Dawes.  And to this date, none of us have gotten tired of any of them, and in fact would have a hard time getting in the mood of the season without them.  Though we've heard those stories dozens of times, we still want to hear them again. 

It's the same with the Benediction.  The Benediction at the end of the service, the Aaronic Benediction which Aaron, the initial, the original High Priest, was told to bless the people of Israel in God's name, with this Benediction.  And we continue to say this Benediction here at this church, and at all sorts of other churches as well.  We repeat that every week, week in and week out, and it keeps on being something that we need to hear.  That part doesn't change, that part never gets any different.  The moment in time that we hear the blessing of God, where after we have been through the service, we have heard about our sin, we have received absolution, and then we are being equipped for the week ahead, with the blessing of God.  We are blessed every week with God's word, as it was in the Old Testament, the words that have girded human beings for thousands of years, the words that have comforted and strengthened people for the world outside the walls of the congregation.  The words that we hear are a ritual, yes, but they're a vitally important part of the ritual of worship in the church.  No matter what the theme of the service was, no matter who the pastor is and how dreadful his preaching was, no matter if we entered with a heavy heart or a light spirit, no matter if our faith was strengthened or worn down, whatever happened in any of those moments, we have assurance, guarantee of the blessing of God richly poured out on all of us.  His blessing applies to each and every single person in that congregation, so no matter what else you may have gotten out of the service, get this. 

May the Lord Bless you and Keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.
May the Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you his peace.

Be strengthened and comforted through these words.  Be vitalized, be refreshed, and be blessed through the blessing of God, given as he had commanded.  And if you are flagging, weak in your faith, tired, worn down, be strengthened by the blessing that comes from God, the blessing that is the same yesterday, today and forever.  Grounded, fashioned and built up by our God, who is also the same yesterday, today and forever.

Sometimes, routine is nice.