Christmas can never live in past tense. Advent means “the coming” and is in the future tense, which represents the set of mind of the Christian. Advent is not a return to the manger and to stay there. The manger is the place where we find our bearings to begin our pilgrimage. We are on a continual Exodus out of bondage to the Promised Land, where bondage equals broken dreams. The Promised Land is the hope of new dreams fulfilled. Jesus lived in the future tense.
The Kingdom was always coming. At Bethlehem, the world was born again. Born with new dreams and new hopes, with real possibilities for the future. These possibilities were not fulfilled in Jesus’s time but the coming of Christ was still the future.
What does Christmas in the future tense mean today? It means Christ is still coming. We are still in Advent. God is still brooding over our world with the creative possibilities and the future in mind. The 21st chapter of Revelations is still ahead. The new window and the new Holy Spirit are at work. Each of us must live in the future tense. Like the Jewish house, our house is a house of promise. No one is too old to have hope. Think of Zechariah and Elizabeth and Simeon and Anna. One is the forerunner of the forerunner. The other pronounces the benediction on the coming of the affirmer.
Reverend Arthur Schwabe Blog 
Hi Paul, and a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS to you! This short sermon is a tough one for me as I TRULY “live in the past”! I still can’t shake all the good memories of how things used to be back in the “Good Old Days”! I KNOW Christ is still coming….HOPE it’s SOON!!! THANKS for sending this and take care my Friend! Bruce
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