The Happy Hour
Sermon
THE HAPPY HOUR
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY (SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
There is nothing lonelier than standing on the railroad track in a small town waiting for a train to come from somewhere in the distance. Even in flat country, you can always hear the train before you can see it. There is something about the conduit of the tracks carrying the sound. On a dark, cloudy, dreary day, I stood at a barren crossroads with a middle-aged man, waiting for a train to bring the coffin containing the body of his oldest son who had been killed in Vietnam. We didn't say much. We were the only people there. I knew what kind of hopes he had had for that boy. We didn't talk, but just stood there and looked down the tracks. The mother, sisters and wife of the young man sat silently in the car. The widow of the young man was three months pregnant. We wondered whether or not she would lose the child. Her life seemed to have come to an end. The family had almost lost hope.
Only the hope of that conception and what it could materialize into gave the widow a little strength to continue. She did give birth. That hope had been enough to keep her going. Suddenly, not only to her, but to the rest of that family came anticipation. Once they held that child in their arms, once they looked into his face, they saw that that for which they had hoped would be realized. They saw the future for her in her son. They saw a remnant. They saw hope. But more than that, they began once again to anticipate.
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. His messages give evidence that he was familiar with Isaiah and expresses the same concerns, philosophy, and hope. The children of Israel had been through twenty bad kings of Judah since David. With each, they had hoped idealistically for a good king, only to be disappointed. They had just been completely ravaged by the Assyrian Army. Their homes had been burned, city walls torn down, and the temple destroyed. Their Sons had been killed, leaving no one to carry on the family name and removing any hope or chance for continuation. There was no tomorrow! Sitting on the ash heaps, covered with soot and smoke from the smouldering homes and burned dreams, one of their hometown boys named Micah came sharing hope. He said, "From Bethlehem shall come forth a King whose origin is from of old, from ancient of days." (Micah 5:2) Now they had seen many kings crowned and anointed, and all of them had become corrupt and failed. But Micah is saying of this one:
And he shall stand and feed his flock,
in the strength of the Lord,
And they shall dwell secure, for now
he shall be great to ends of the earth.
I. Hope - Micah 5
"The exiles, remnants of Israel, will rejoin their brethren in their own land." Micah says "conception" has taken place, and "it is only a matter of time." He is saying there is hope. Micah is saying, I don't care how bad your situation is or how sad it might be. I don't care what are the blows of life that might have been dealt you - how many times your home is burned and pillaged, how you are beaten, your teeth kicked out, your pride and your hope gone. Although you have been brutalized and life has trampled you and you are sitting in the smouldering ashes of all your dreams and ideals, you still do not give up hope. Hope is the conception, and that conception has taken place. Though there are the nine long months of waiting and the pain of birth awaits, conception keeps you with hope. Micah is saying that conception already has taken place in the mind, the providence, and the plan of God. You are pregnant, swelling with possibilities.
I saw this young mother whose husband was killed in war, and as she went through the sorrow and grief, I saw out of that grief come hope. Suddenly she became large enough to put on a maternity smock and that life began to move within her and hope once again sprang forth. You and I read Micah as if it was a description of praise where it says, "Unto us a Child is given." We think, "Praise God, He gave Jesus." But you must remember and understand they were hearing it before the fact. It was not a description of praise to them; it was the promise or the possibility of something yet to come ... hope.
One of my favorite stories comes from late 18th century in Poland, when the Kaiser's forces were burning all the Jewish villages. They had burned one particular village to the ground and exploited everyone within the reach of their swords. The town smelled of hot blood and the fumes of smouldering ashes. As the sun came up the next morning one old Jew went down to the marketplace and got in his stall and opened it for business. One of the young men said, "Old Jew, what are you selling?" Standing there in the smouldering remains he said, "I am selling hope." You can sell water on a dry desert, so the place to sell hope is on the ash heap of destruction. Hope - "Unto us a child is given."
Every time a rescue takes place, when someone has been out in the ocean or in a well or cave or stranded in the jungle for a long time, when they are interviewed by the press they are inevitably asked, "Well, what was it that kept you alive?" And what do they say? "I never gave up." Sometimes I would like to call all those that died and did not make it back from death and ask, "Why was it you did not make it?" I am sure you know what they would have to say.
"Unto us a child is born." Conception has taken place. You can look in the face of a pregnant mother and see a glow, a beauty, and excitement that is not there normally. There is the promise of what conception can bring. There is the expectancy of it all. "Unto us a child is given."
II. Anticipation - Micah 5:4
But then after the birth there comes the anticipation. It didn't just end with hope, but once you hold a child you begin to anticipate what the child will become. "And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth." Mothers begin to dream what their sons and daughters will become and then follows anticipation. I do not like to be around people who do not anticipate. I have to confess I am prejudiced. I guess that is why I enjoy being around children more than most adults because they anticipate. Christmas to them seems like a million years away, like it will never get here. They anticipate bicycles, ice cream cones and "cotton patch dolls." They live with a sense of anticipation. That is why Advent is my favorite time of the year, because most of us older people can at this season even anticipate a little bit. We look forward to the possibilities of certain things. I like people who anticipate miracles, fulfillment of dreams and hopes.
The Old Testament says that everyone before the coming of Jesus was supposed to face life that way. This is what 50% of the Old Testament is about. It is saying that you are supposed to face life standing on your tiptoes with the rapture of a forward look - with expectancy. The worse the situation, the more you ought to expect. Sometimes I think maybe the anticipation is as valuable as the thing we anticipate.
Some of the most emotional moments for me are when I go every year to the baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies and see some of the fathers and mothers of those children graduating. The son brings his dad up to meet the college president or you the speaker. He introduces you and the dad uses grammar like "You was" instead of "You were", and the son is a little embarrassed. And you want to say to him when you see the tears in the father's eyes, "Son, there are things you will learn that are more important than saying, 'You were.' " And you look out there and see those tearstained faces of mothers and fathers who are so excited that their son or daughter is walking across the stage. It is the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams. They have anticipated what he or she will become, and they are seeing it realized.
A man stood on the George Washington Bridge preparing to jump off. Thousands of people gathered, including the firemen and police. A priest tried to talk him down without success. Finally a fellow by the name of Homer Wright went up and got out on the ledge with the man and said, "Listen, I know what trouble is. I have plenty of it. I have a seven-year-old boy who has a heart defect, and has never been able to walk or play like other children. I pass this bridge every day and I have thought many times of jumping off. Next year my son is supposed to have an operation. Maybe it will work. Maybe it will not. But things can get better. You have to have hope." A few minutes later they climbed down the bridge together and, as the man was taken to the hospital, they interviewed Homer and asked him what he said to the man. Homer said, "Well, I felt for the guy. He's got trouble. I've got trouble, too, but a man's got to stay with it." That is what hope is about.
I used to not be able to understand why the people in the Third Vorld countries had so many children until I talked with some of them. The average man in India figures he wants to have at least ifteen children, because he figures that, if he has fifteen, maybe seven or eight of them will survive. Of those eight, maybe four of them will be male. And of those four, maybe two of them will outlive him. And of those two, maybe one of them will be prosperous enough to take care of him in his old age. He doesn't have Social Security; he doesn't have old age pensions; he doesn't have Medicare and Medicaid. The only thing he's got is fifteen children ... the only hope he has of any kind of dignity or anyone caring for him in his old age. The only hope for a man like Abraham who is past childbearing age is for a son. And you and I know how important that is. When we anticipate, the Father tries to answer our anticipation. You earthly fathers, if your child anticipates an ice cream cone, you end up buying an ice cream cone, don't you? Or if the child anticipates one day being big enough to have a bicycle, you try your best to get him a bicycle.
When I was in seminary I had three small children, and they were anticipating Christmas and a tree. We didn't even have any lights. We found some old lights up at the church but didn't have a tree. When I was a boy we went out in the woods and cut a tree. We didn't go pay $50 for one at the store because we didn't have $50. As I drove back and forth to Divinity School everyday with three other guys, I spotted a lot of big cedar trees on Highway 70 between Raleigh and Durham. They were thirty or forty feet high, and the top of those trees looked like they would make beautiful Christmas trees. I figured that cutting the top wouldn't do any harm, because the wood would still be there.
So I took a saw with me to school one day, and, on the way home, stopped on the side of the road. I told the fellows I was going to get myself a Christmas tree and to wait in the car and watch for me. I climbed up to the top of this great big cedar with coat and tie still on and was sawing the top out. I was about ready to holler "Timber" when a state patrolman pulled up right down below me. I was hanging over him. All I could do was try to hold the tree in hopes that it would not fall on him. My friends in the car, wanting to tease me, held that patrolman there an extra ten minutes asking him all kinds of ridiculous questions, questions like, "Who is the Governor
of North Carolina?" He finally drove away and I got that tree home. A father will do anything to fulfill the anticipation of a child. Why should you think that your Heavenly Father would not want to fulfill all your anticipation as His child? It says that they began to anticipate again that they would have a King and that "He shall be great to the ends of the earth."
One of the most beautiful stories in literature is the French classic, The Little Prince. There are two lines that have an Advent and Christmas message in them. The fox says to the Little Prince at one point, "If you come at four o'clock, I shall begin to be happy at three o'clock." This is the story of Advent. That is also where the expression, "The Happy Hour" came from, not from sixty minutes in which to get intoxicated before dinner. It is the happy hour of waiting. "If you come at four o'clock, I shall begin to be happy at three o'clock." That is what Advent is about, when you know that Christ is coming and you can go on and start getting happy with dreams of what he can be and do and become.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the
strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the
name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now
He shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
That is the message to everyone who is depressed, beaten, old, set in his ways, given up, senile, everyone of us who has failed, whose dreams have been burned up. That is the message. Conception has taken place. It is just a matter of time. That makes it "the Happy Hour."
Only the hope of that conception and what it could materialize into gave the widow a little strength to continue. She did give birth. That hope had been enough to keep her going. Suddenly, not only to her, but to the rest of that family came anticipation. Once they held that child in their arms, once they looked into his face, they saw that that for which they had hoped would be realized. They saw the future for her in her son. They saw a remnant. They saw hope. But more than that, they began once again to anticipate.
Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah. His messages give evidence that he was familiar with Isaiah and expresses the same concerns, philosophy, and hope. The children of Israel had been through twenty bad kings of Judah since David. With each, they had hoped idealistically for a good king, only to be disappointed. They had just been completely ravaged by the Assyrian Army. Their homes had been burned, city walls torn down, and the temple destroyed. Their Sons had been killed, leaving no one to carry on the family name and removing any hope or chance for continuation. There was no tomorrow! Sitting on the ash heaps, covered with soot and smoke from the smouldering homes and burned dreams, one of their hometown boys named Micah came sharing hope. He said, "From Bethlehem shall come forth a King whose origin is from of old, from ancient of days." (Micah 5:2) Now they had seen many kings crowned and anointed, and all of them had become corrupt and failed. But Micah is saying of this one:
And he shall stand and feed his flock,
in the strength of the Lord,
And they shall dwell secure, for now
he shall be great to ends of the earth.
I. Hope - Micah 5
"The exiles, remnants of Israel, will rejoin their brethren in their own land." Micah says "conception" has taken place, and "it is only a matter of time." He is saying there is hope. Micah is saying, I don't care how bad your situation is or how sad it might be. I don't care what are the blows of life that might have been dealt you - how many times your home is burned and pillaged, how you are beaten, your teeth kicked out, your pride and your hope gone. Although you have been brutalized and life has trampled you and you are sitting in the smouldering ashes of all your dreams and ideals, you still do not give up hope. Hope is the conception, and that conception has taken place. Though there are the nine long months of waiting and the pain of birth awaits, conception keeps you with hope. Micah is saying that conception already has taken place in the mind, the providence, and the plan of God. You are pregnant, swelling with possibilities.
I saw this young mother whose husband was killed in war, and as she went through the sorrow and grief, I saw out of that grief come hope. Suddenly she became large enough to put on a maternity smock and that life began to move within her and hope once again sprang forth. You and I read Micah as if it was a description of praise where it says, "Unto us a Child is given." We think, "Praise God, He gave Jesus." But you must remember and understand they were hearing it before the fact. It was not a description of praise to them; it was the promise or the possibility of something yet to come ... hope.
One of my favorite stories comes from late 18th century in Poland, when the Kaiser's forces were burning all the Jewish villages. They had burned one particular village to the ground and exploited everyone within the reach of their swords. The town smelled of hot blood and the fumes of smouldering ashes. As the sun came up the next morning one old Jew went down to the marketplace and got in his stall and opened it for business. One of the young men said, "Old Jew, what are you selling?" Standing there in the smouldering remains he said, "I am selling hope." You can sell water on a dry desert, so the place to sell hope is on the ash heap of destruction. Hope - "Unto us a child is given."
Every time a rescue takes place, when someone has been out in the ocean or in a well or cave or stranded in the jungle for a long time, when they are interviewed by the press they are inevitably asked, "Well, what was it that kept you alive?" And what do they say? "I never gave up." Sometimes I would like to call all those that died and did not make it back from death and ask, "Why was it you did not make it?" I am sure you know what they would have to say.
"Unto us a child is born." Conception has taken place. You can look in the face of a pregnant mother and see a glow, a beauty, and excitement that is not there normally. There is the promise of what conception can bring. There is the expectancy of it all. "Unto us a child is given."
II. Anticipation - Micah 5:4
But then after the birth there comes the anticipation. It didn't just end with hope, but once you hold a child you begin to anticipate what the child will become. "And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth." Mothers begin to dream what their sons and daughters will become and then follows anticipation. I do not like to be around people who do not anticipate. I have to confess I am prejudiced. I guess that is why I enjoy being around children more than most adults because they anticipate. Christmas to them seems like a million years away, like it will never get here. They anticipate bicycles, ice cream cones and "cotton patch dolls." They live with a sense of anticipation. That is why Advent is my favorite time of the year, because most of us older people can at this season even anticipate a little bit. We look forward to the possibilities of certain things. I like people who anticipate miracles, fulfillment of dreams and hopes.
The Old Testament says that everyone before the coming of Jesus was supposed to face life that way. This is what 50% of the Old Testament is about. It is saying that you are supposed to face life standing on your tiptoes with the rapture of a forward look - with expectancy. The worse the situation, the more you ought to expect. Sometimes I think maybe the anticipation is as valuable as the thing we anticipate.
Some of the most emotional moments for me are when I go every year to the baccalaureate and graduation ceremonies and see some of the fathers and mothers of those children graduating. The son brings his dad up to meet the college president or you the speaker. He introduces you and the dad uses grammar like "You was" instead of "You were", and the son is a little embarrassed. And you want to say to him when you see the tears in the father's eyes, "Son, there are things you will learn that are more important than saying, 'You were.' " And you look out there and see those tearstained faces of mothers and fathers who are so excited that their son or daughter is walking across the stage. It is the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams. They have anticipated what he or she will become, and they are seeing it realized.
A man stood on the George Washington Bridge preparing to jump off. Thousands of people gathered, including the firemen and police. A priest tried to talk him down without success. Finally a fellow by the name of Homer Wright went up and got out on the ledge with the man and said, "Listen, I know what trouble is. I have plenty of it. I have a seven-year-old boy who has a heart defect, and has never been able to walk or play like other children. I pass this bridge every day and I have thought many times of jumping off. Next year my son is supposed to have an operation. Maybe it will work. Maybe it will not. But things can get better. You have to have hope." A few minutes later they climbed down the bridge together and, as the man was taken to the hospital, they interviewed Homer and asked him what he said to the man. Homer said, "Well, I felt for the guy. He's got trouble. I've got trouble, too, but a man's got to stay with it." That is what hope is about.
I used to not be able to understand why the people in the Third Vorld countries had so many children until I talked with some of them. The average man in India figures he wants to have at least ifteen children, because he figures that, if he has fifteen, maybe seven or eight of them will survive. Of those eight, maybe four of them will be male. And of those four, maybe two of them will outlive him. And of those two, maybe one of them will be prosperous enough to take care of him in his old age. He doesn't have Social Security; he doesn't have old age pensions; he doesn't have Medicare and Medicaid. The only thing he's got is fifteen children ... the only hope he has of any kind of dignity or anyone caring for him in his old age. The only hope for a man like Abraham who is past childbearing age is for a son. And you and I know how important that is. When we anticipate, the Father tries to answer our anticipation. You earthly fathers, if your child anticipates an ice cream cone, you end up buying an ice cream cone, don't you? Or if the child anticipates one day being big enough to have a bicycle, you try your best to get him a bicycle.
When I was in seminary I had three small children, and they were anticipating Christmas and a tree. We didn't even have any lights. We found some old lights up at the church but didn't have a tree. When I was a boy we went out in the woods and cut a tree. We didn't go pay $50 for one at the store because we didn't have $50. As I drove back and forth to Divinity School everyday with three other guys, I spotted a lot of big cedar trees on Highway 70 between Raleigh and Durham. They were thirty or forty feet high, and the top of those trees looked like they would make beautiful Christmas trees. I figured that cutting the top wouldn't do any harm, because the wood would still be there.
So I took a saw with me to school one day, and, on the way home, stopped on the side of the road. I told the fellows I was going to get myself a Christmas tree and to wait in the car and watch for me. I climbed up to the top of this great big cedar with coat and tie still on and was sawing the top out. I was about ready to holler "Timber" when a state patrolman pulled up right down below me. I was hanging over him. All I could do was try to hold the tree in hopes that it would not fall on him. My friends in the car, wanting to tease me, held that patrolman there an extra ten minutes asking him all kinds of ridiculous questions, questions like, "Who is the Governor
of North Carolina?" He finally drove away and I got that tree home. A father will do anything to fulfill the anticipation of a child. Why should you think that your Heavenly Father would not want to fulfill all your anticipation as His child? It says that they began to anticipate again that they would have a King and that "He shall be great to the ends of the earth."
One of the most beautiful stories in literature is the French classic, The Little Prince. There are two lines that have an Advent and Christmas message in them. The fox says to the Little Prince at one point, "If you come at four o'clock, I shall begin to be happy at three o'clock." This is the story of Advent. That is also where the expression, "The Happy Hour" came from, not from sixty minutes in which to get intoxicated before dinner. It is the happy hour of waiting. "If you come at four o'clock, I shall begin to be happy at three o'clock." That is what Advent is about, when you know that Christ is coming and you can go on and start getting happy with dreams of what he can be and do and become.
And he shall stand and feed his flock in the
strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the
name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now
He shall be great
to the ends of the earth.
That is the message to everyone who is depressed, beaten, old, set in his ways, given up, senile, everyone of us who has failed, whose dreams have been burned up. That is the message. Conception has taken place. It is just a matter of time. That makes it "the Happy Hour."
