Another Christmas Movie

This is the season of Advent. I know for most of us, we just think of it as Christmas, but Advent is a season of waiting, a season of preparation, where our hearts and minds lean into the need for our coming King. We anticipate His arrival just as our ancient brothers and sisters did 2,000 years ago.

And yes, this season means all the extra things: desserts, hot cocoa, calories, Christmas gatherings, presents, debt, Mariah Carey, and more… but also the onslaught of terrible Christmas movies.

I know some of you love these things… specifically my wife… but I cannot stand them. They are so bad.

Every year, if there’s any menial task around the house that requires no thought; cooking dinner, folding clothes, sweeping the floors, there is inevitably a cheesy Christmas movie playing. Here’s the deal: I cannot stand these things… but also, once they’re on, I cannot stop watching. It is like a slow motion train wreck. They are categorically bad cinema. They’re made on shoestring budgets with simple plots, décor, and scripts. They’re so unbelievably predictable it hurts. But when she turns them on, if I fall asleep or miss the ending, I will ask what happened with the loveless woman trying to choose between two very different guys, who then goes skiing and, shockingly, runs into both men, who turn out to be brothers fighting to win her affection.
WHO DID SHE END UP WITH ON CHRISTMAS MORNING?!

I don’t want to spoil it for you…

I think the reason these things are like a weird seasonal addiction is that inevitably, the lead character has some hope or desire or longing, but that hope seems lost or waning. And then we all get to watch the “unexpected” happen in the end.
Hope triumphs!

This past Sunday, we lit the candle of Hope. Hope is an interesting concept, because at its core it means that against all odds, against expectations, I believe something can actually happen.
N.T. Wright says,
“Hope, for the Christian, is not wishful thinking or mere blind optimism. It is a mode of knowing, a mode within which new things are possible, options are not shut down, new creation can happen.”

In our faith and in our lives, we hope for lots of things. Some will happen, and some won’t. I used to have a student in college ministry who would say, “You win some, you lose most.” I think she’s right.
But as people of faith, we cling to hope…even if we will lose most. We let hope be central.

When your life, your family, or the world seems to be falling apart… when we’ve lost things or people we love… when our sins feel louder than the truth… when the noise of the world drowns out the still, small voice of God… optimism is great, wishful thinking is lovely, and a positive attitude is wonderful…but eventually, they all fall short.

Hope is what we need.
Audacious hope.
Over-the-top, reckless hope.
And not just something to cling to, hope is what we build our lives on.

As the song says:

My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
but wholly lean on Jesus’ name.
On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand:
all other ground is sinking sand,
all other ground is sinking sand.

As we begin Advent; decorating houses, listening to Christmas music, watching Christmas movies, preparing for Christmas Day, we enter a season of great expectation founded on hope. But to really understand the hope God’s people had thousands of years ago (and the hope we still have), we need to remember their story was often bleak. There were incredibly dark seasons, moments far more difficult than ours.
And yet, many still had hope and believed God would deliver what they needed.

I hope we live a bit like those terrible Christmas movies, confident that God will move, trusting that even against all evidence, the impossible is possible.

Tim Mackie once said, “The claim of the Gospels is that [God’s Kingdom] has already begun right here. If this is true in the broad sweep of history, biblical hope is about trusting God’s promises, but also trusting in God’s creativity and freedom to fulfill these promises in surprising, unpredictable ways.”

This is where life and faith differ from those cheesy predictable movies. In Scripture, hope often means things play out in ways we never saw coming.  And if that’s what God has done before, I hope it’s what God does again.

That’s the hope I want to live out…the hope I want to embrace and embody…the hopeful perspective I want to have, and the one I hope you’ll carry this season and all the days of your life.

I hope you’ll join us for everything happening at The Chapel this Advent season:

• Advent Guides are available. We still have hard copies at The Chapel, or you can access it online here.
• Tuesday Noon Prayer Hour today at The Chapel: live worship, quiet prayer, space to pause in the midst of the season. Come and go as you need.
• Christmas Night of Worship this Sunday, December 7 at 6pm: Christmas songs, carols, hymns, and worship.
• Communion this Sunday, December 7 at 9am, followed by coffee and pastries. Worship at 10am as normal.

All Christmas and Advent details: thechapelatseaside.com/christmas

I hope to see you today and Sunday and throughout the Season of Advent!
Let me know if you need anything or have any questions.

Also, if you see any actually great cheesy Christmas movies…let me know.

Blessings.

Andrew