And it's still Christmas

Who can measure the energy unleased by children tearing through wrapping paper on Christmas morn?  After that it gets harder, navigating a special meal and sometimes too difficult relatives. It either goes by quickly or not quickly enough.

And yet it is still Christmas.

In Syria, folks are very busy killing one another.  In war zones, children suffer the most because they have the least power to improve their situation or protect themselves.  They cannot persuade government officials to open borders for them so they can seek refuge.  Their young bodies cannot withstand the physical abuse that comes with war.  One 3 year old Syrian boy was reported to have said, just before he died,  'When I see God I'm going to tell him about this.'

And yet it is still Christmas.

Terrorism has come to Russia as a train station and a trolley car are targeted and lives are lost.  In our major cities young men are targeting each other for purposes unknown.  The long term unemployed are about to lose their benefits and food stamp recipients receive less food.

And yet it is still Christmas.

In the gospel of Matthew, just verses after the birth of the Christ child, King Herod is so terrified of the coming king (Jesus), so jealous and protective of his own power, so frightened of a world where he was not the Top Dog, that he ordered all the boys under the age of 2 in the town of Bethlehem killed.  The church calls this event The Slaughter (or Martyrdom) of the Innocents.   It probably didn't actually happen that way (although Herod was ruthless enough to have ordered it)....it probably isn't fact....but we all know that it is true.

And yet it is still Christmas.

Jesus did not come to toss some glitter on a broken and wounded world.  Jesus came to stand in the midst of the war and hunger and pain and dysfunctional families to shine a light on a better way of being with and for one another.  Jesus came to heal, to bind up, and to make whole.  He makes possible the impossible: that we would lives of grace and mercy. and he did that through forgiveness.  Jesus is the gift of Christmas, the one who rules with mercy and grace.

It is not easy to tackle the conundrum of a world torn apart with violence and crushed with poverty and the soft glow of our Christmas remembrances, but that is exactly what Jesus calls us to do.  The gift of the Christ child only has meaning when it has meaning in the harsh light of the world in which we live.

And it's still Christmas

Christmas is now 50% off.  Everywhere.  At least everywhere from which Christmas hasn't already completely disappeared to be replaced by Valentine's Day.

Used wrapping paper is crumbled and waiting the pick up of recyclables and grand feasts have been reduced to often unwanted leftovers.  "Deck the Halls" has been replaced with 'it that all there is.'

At the same time, it is good to remember that Jesus, the actual gift of Christmas who will carry us not just for the rest of the year, but for a lifetime, an eternity.  And, I, for one, am thankful that Jesus doesn't run a half price Christmas sale on forgiveness and love the moment we have moved on to other exciting yet ephemeral events.

No warranty to run out the day before you need it.  No complicated instruction book.  Just turn your face towards the Son and take a first step in His direction....a first step towards mercy, forgiveness, grace and generosity, and life.

Are earth is hopeful..........the Savior's come at last

"All earth is hopeful, the Savior comes at last

Furrows lie open for God's creative task...."

What has the Christ Child wrought in you today? 

                      

What child is this?

What child is this, who laid to rest, on Mary's lap is sleeping,

Who angels greet with anthems sweet while shepherds watch are keeping?

This, this is Christ the King

whom shepherds guard and angels sing.

Haste Haste to bring him laud

the babe, the son of Mary.  ELW 296

Isn't that the big question?  What child is this?

Everyone has questions.  Everyone.

Not everyone is absolutely sure about any of this:

 not about the angels, or the baby, or a Savior, or even God.

So don't fool yourself into believing that there are those who understand

 and those who do not.

Everyone has questions.  

God offers to us this story, full of mystery and grace

and invites us to find ourselves....and lose ourselves in it.

A blessed Christmas to all.

Making room for a Savior

I suspect for many who make their way into a sanctuary, Christmas Eve will be celebrated as a family tradition, an occasion to sing some old favorites, and at least a story that everyone can understand: a woman, a man, a baby.

Understanding this baby story as one of a million stories of like kind is not wrong; but it begs the question of whether God is at work in our world; if God is at work in this child; if God even is.  Churches decorated to the nines and renaissance inspired Christmas cards can lead us down a sentimental lane, confusing this story with another Christmas movie on the Hallmark channel.....which risks us rejecting it all because it is unrealistic (and annoying).  Services which look and sound like every other Christmas Eve service risk complacency and a false belief that Christ is old news and completely disconnected from the 21st century.

Has the familiarity of the nativity scene led to our deafness to the angels' message, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ, the Lord."?  Have we forgotten that this story and this baby have cosmic significance?

There are years when I wish we would simply turn down the lights, play the music softly, listen to the story and in quiet awe consider the gift God has given. (with lots of candles....because a good friend insists that women are crazy about candles).  Sometimes there is just too much noise for me to embrace the enormity of grace in our midst and God's call through Jesus to live my life filled with the wholeness that God brings forth in me.

Every year the celebration of Christmas (in the traditional American way) in my home gets pared down.  My adult children believe that this is because I am getting older and can't be bothered with all that fuss, but I know that I want to eliminate the foo-foo and concentrate on the essential.  I want to be sure that there is room for this Savior in my house, in my life, in my family.  I pray you find room as well.