Reflections on "Thanks for Black Friday" Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Luke 21: 25-26

 A pretty good start to the Advent series.  It felt like a good sermon, particularly at the Sanctuary service.  In that service, we had the baptism, which was the "real-time" sermon illustration that gave power to that point in the sermon.  The visuals on the screens in the sermon were also particularly effective this week.  Black Friday, of course, is a phenomenon to which almost everyone can relate. 

I confess that my knowledge of Black Friday is mostly from stories told to me by others or articles I have read. Years ago when I lived in KY, I went to JC Penneys at 6:00 am on a Black Friday to receive the free ornament given out to the first "I can't remember how many" customers.  A 6:00 arrival at a store on Black Friday this year would have made me one of the latecomers! 

I didn't really utilize the Luke passage appropriately, but the focus on Jeremiah was effective.

“Thanks for Black Friday” 1^st Advent; 11/29/15; Jeremiah 33: 14-16; Luke 21: 25-36

Introduction: In the Luke passage, Jesus tells the people to look for signs. We begin Advent with that reminder that we are looking for signs of Christ coming again.

The preaching series this Advent is about the signs that tell us Christmas is coming. Admittedly, that has less theological punch than the signs of Christ coming again, but I want to begin each sermon during Advent with a sign that indicates that Christmas is approaching.

The moments I pick will be of my choosing, but it is an invitation each week for you to reflect on those moments that signify to you that Christmas is on its way.

                 Maybe a gathering with friends that includes a white elephant exchange;

                 Maybe some family ritual related to the putting up of the Christmas tree.

                  Perhaps that mid-December gathering with the extended family where everyone draws someone else's name to give a gift.

                 Or the Advent church dinner and program.

Reflect on those signs and how they help us prepare for Christmas. Maybe even re-imagine those events and give them more meaning..

We begin with the Thanksgiving week-end.

Move 1: Thanksgiving, of course, reminds us of gratitude.

a. Gratitude

1. Thanksgiving week-end marked by family get togethers and shared food.
2. A good way to begin our journey to Christmas, being reminded about the things in life for which we are grateful.
3. Perhaps as you prepared to eat with family gathered around the table, everyone shared something for which they were grateful.
4. Or maybe you had a moment Thursday afternoon when you had a chance to reflect on all the good things in your life for which you are grateful.
5. Those moments of gratitude take us back to God, the one who gives us life itself and the many things for which we are grateful.
6. The God to whom we gratefully look as we head toward Christmas and the celebration of God coming in Christ.
7. Gratitude.

b. But soon Thanksgiving becomes Black Friday.

       1. Tinsel, by Hank Stuever, comments on Thanksgiving: "If not for Independence Day, it [Thanksgiving] would be the last of the pure holidays, replete with the remaining vestiges of Norman Rockwell advertising and mad-rushes of grocery spending. Slathered in upbeat, revisionist history (cheerful natives, robust colonists), Thanksgiving happily sidesteps the hyperactive retail machine and instead stakes its claim on reverence, retaining its aura of handmade construction-paper Pilgrim hats. it conveys a sense of national togetherness, gluttonous helping of iconic food items, and the moments we take to consider our blessings. Then all hell breaks loose" (78)

         2.  Black Friday arrives.

        3. Shift from gratitude to shopping.

        4.  shift gets earlier each year.

        5.  No more waiting for sunrise on Friday. Black Friday has morphed into Thanksgiving day.

         6.  people heading out after a turkey dinner. Not very far from the Thanksgiving dinner table to the shopping mall.

    c.  Note the conflicting tugs

1.  The Thanksgiving pull to stop and give thanks and the Black Friday pull of shop till you drop.

2. those conflicting tugs will follow us all through our journey to Christmas.

3.  Moments of peace and clarity about the meaning of Christmas intertwined with the rush to decorate, or cook, or buy gifts, or prepare for that next celebration.

4. As you weave your way through the pulls and pushes over the next few weeks, remember that it all began with gratitude.

Move 2: Black Friday

a. 2006 begins to break the protocol of Black Friday by opening at midnight. People begin getting in line on Thursday afternoon.

1. Stuever notes that Americans end of spending half a trillion dollars in 2006 (Tinsel, 3).

2. Figures I can find indicate 600 million in 2013 - 700 million in 2014, including Kwanza and Hanukkah (https://nrf.com/news/the-long-and-short-of-americas-consumer-holidays; and http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/guess-how-much-americans-plan-to-spend-on-christmas-and-halloween-this-year).

b. Easy to find fault with Black Friday.

1. consumerism.

2. Materialism (at this point in the Sanctuary service I noted that the image on the screen was one of crazed shoppers racing to a store on Black Friday).

3. True. But it also reminds us of gift-giving.

               4.  In Tinsel, one of the persons Stuever follows is Carroll – single mother; three kids; white-collar job; house paid off; doing OK.

              5.  she saves money all year for Christmas gift buying. She has money allotted for each child, her oldest daughter’s boyfriend; office workers, and friends. She will spend in 2006 a bit more than the average family, but it does not seem extravagant when spread out over all the group.

             6.  She is one of those people who is out at midnight on Black Friday. Her son had arrived at Best Buy earlier and waited in the long line so that he can go in and grab what they want, and then she will come in with her younger daughter and buy the items.

           7.  She describes her Black Friday not as crazy shopping, but as a way for her to make her dollars go farther as she buys gifts; and the gifts are her way of remembering others; she wants everyone to know that they are remembered.

           8.  chance for everyone to be remembered. Carroll believeds that everyone should know that they matter and that someone remembers them. When she gives the gifts she bought on Black Friday, it is to make the person know they are remembered.

           9.  At the end of spending Black Friday with Carroll and her kids, Stuever has a different perspective. Black Friday offers places of true bonding; a chance to be seen and see others; an opportunity to connect (Stuever, 90).

          10. Black Friday reminds us of gift-giving.

Move 3: Gift giving.

a. what gift do we have to give?

1. Infant baptism.
2. As I was reflecting on Black Friday and the crazy thirst for buying gift to give, I thought about what gift would mean the most to an infant.

3. I was reminded of the way we parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, always give Christmas gifts to infants.

The “first Chirstmas” tree decoration we give to the infant that cannot even lift a hand to put the decoration on the tree.

Or the stuffed Santa bear that drawfs the young child, who cannot even focus her eyes well enough to notice the bear.

And when they get a bit older, they still don't care about the gift as long as they can play with the wrapping paper or the box.

But we still insist on giving infants and little kids gifts.

3. What gift could we give that would help this child as she grows up in a world today. A world where terrorism is seemingly a daily event; where war rages; where we feel helpless to often over what it happening.
4. Is there were any gift we could give a child that would matter more to them than being united with Christ in both Christ's death and resurrection and the commitment of a church community to help raise the child in the faith.
5. That gift costs us nothing in real dollars, but it impacts the child forever.

b. That's the gift that Jeremiah prophesies about in his words we heard this morning.

1. the promises are spoken to address a dire situation. The armies of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, are advancing on Jerusalem. The streets of Jerusalem will soon be filled with the corpses of her people (33:4-5), and the prophet Jeremiah himself is imprisoned by King Zedekiah (33:1).

2. The worst has not yet happened, but it is inevitable. The daily news is no doubt terrifying. Any reasonable person can see that the city is doomed. Jeremiah's many prophecies of judgment--prophecies that have landed him in prison--are coming true.
3. Yet now, in the midst of catastrophe, the prophet finally speaks words of promise! “the day is surely coming says the Lord...” In the previous chapter, he has purchased a piece of land, a foolish thing to do in a country soon to be conquered by invading armies. Nevertheless, he has purchased the land as a pledge, as earnest of God's redemption. (The italicized words are quotes from Kathryn M. Schifferdecker, Associate Professor of Old Testament, Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minn. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=448)

4. And now he gives voice to that hope: The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah.... a righteous branch will spring up...”
5. The Israelites know the fear and helplessness that we feel when we look at our world and wonder what the future holds.

5. Jeremiah tells them that God is coming.

100. this is the gift God gives to us that we have to share with the world.

1. The hope and promise of the God who is not done with the world.

2. the hope and promise of the God who is coming to rescue the world.

3. The birth of Christ is God's God's unequivocal statement that God has chosen to be with us and to save us.

500. As we move toward Christmas, that is the story we are sent into the world to tell.

Conclusion: In this week that begins with gratitude, we are grateful to to God for the gift of life and God's love for us;

In a week that moves from gratitude to gift-giving, we remember the gift God's promise that the God who has come in Christ, is not done.

"Surely the days are coming," says the Lord.