Introduction: Christmas Begins Tomorrow
Finally, finally Christmas has come, and the busy world around us is hushed for the moment; the frenzied activities of the days and weeks of preparation are ended, or almost; the fears and darkness and uncertainties of the world are set aside and the great promise of the season of life opens before us as we gather together this night to worship God; open our lives anew or for the first time to the gift of Christmas. To open our lives to the gift of God’s love for you and for me, and to remember God’s love for the entire world.
I love Christmas. I love the sights and sounds and smells of Christmas. I love filling up the space between the floor and the Christmas tree with presents. Stuffing stockings so full that the hooks on the mantle won’t hold them. I love the thought that our extended families and friends are receiving little signs of our love for them though the mail; Thank God for the internet. I love the Christmas cards and the greetings of the season; I love seeing how many of you are doing; how beautiful your families are, and the creative ways we express the progress of our lives over a year. I love the food - too much; I love the special cookies and treats, the dinners and gatherings. I love the gracious fellowship and friendship that Christmas inspires.
I love, too, the way that people reach beyond themselves at Christmas time. I love how we reach beyond our families and friends to do something for someone else. How many of us do something for someone we may never meet this side of heaven? The gift to someone who may never give us something in return-food for the homeless in Norristown and Philadelphia; Christmas presents from our Christmas pageants for children who may receive no other presents this Christmas; World Gifts for the children and our partners in Guatemala and in Uganda; letters and packages to our men and women in uniform around the world.
But even more than the physical gifts that reach beyond our homes and around the world, I love the gentle kindnesses we show to one another in this season. Like the gentle consideration to the widow or widower on their first Christmas alone who receives a phone call, a visit or are invited to come for Christmas dinner with people who offer love to fill the cracks in their hearts. There’s something in the air at Christmas time. A freedom, an openness, a fearlessness to reach beyond ourselves to others to share our gifts with others and show them just how important they are to us, how much we cherish and love them, even if we don’t use the words.
Ahh, but the spirit rarely lasts. The season of unchecked generosity and unafraid love passes all too quickly like a dream or a fleeting thought. And some time Christmas night, when we’ve eaten our fill, put the presents away, and hung up on the last phone call to a family member or a friend, we’ll begin thinking about when the tree should come down. Our thoughts and our energies will begin to turn toward the next day of our regular lives and the rest of the year. Christmas will come and Christmas will go and we’ll pick up where we left off from our colder, quieter, more fear-filled lives putting Christmas and the spirit of love and generosity back in the box and allowing the spirit and love of the season to simply drift away.
But that’s not what God has in mind for us at Christmas. For God, Christmas is not a brief season of love and generosity that we pick up for a time and then set aside for our real life. For God intends that the gift of Christmas, God with us, to be our real life and this Christmas Day is only a beginning.
The Baby in the Manger
Every year at Christmas, in the midst of all of our other activities and celebrations we stop for a moment to gather together around the manger in Bethlehem, drawn in some way to the gentle poetry of Luke’s Gospel about the birth of Jesus and that first Christmas centuries ago. We are also drawn to the hope of the world, drawn to the hope of God revealed to us in the form of this baby child, born in a stable.
With no room in the inn where respectable people would stay, we enter the dusty, noisy, fragrant stable with Mary and Joseph and Jesus.We hear the pronouncement of the angels that a Savior has been born and walk with the poor, scared shepherds to Bethlehem to try to catch a glimpse of what started all of this. And it’s here, in the oddest, dirtiest of places that it all begins. Like our hearts and our lives, which are not always the cleanest, tidiest of places, God first reveals Himself in Jesus in a common stable. God comes to the lowest place to remind us that however muddy, sinful and fear-filled our lives may have become, He’s willing to come to us and to dwell in us — to be with us.
And what we don’t see fully as we linger by the manger on Christmas Eve, what we don’t know when we first make room for Jesus in our hearts, we find out soon enough. And that is that Christmas is only a beginning. For this child who is born in the lowliest of places grows up to be a Teacher, the likes of which the world has never known. A Teacher who will show us the way for living our lives today. This child born in a stable grows up to be a Healer who cures the lame who comforts those who mourn and who will bring healing and comfort to our lives today. This child grows up to show us how to live fearless lives, trusting in God moment by moment; becoming the persons God created us to be.
And this child in the manger grows up to show us the face of God, the face of the God who loves us so much that He will do whatever it takes, even suffering death on a cross to take away our sins, giving us a resurrection that promises us life beyond the door of death to draw us close, to save us, to love us. The child of Bethlehem grows up to promise to be with us always. He promises to send His Spirit of love, hope and forgiveness to dwell in our hearts so that the love He shares with us we can share with others at Christmas and every day of the year.
You see, Christmas — Christ coming into the world — is not an end in itself, not something that happened once upon a time that we remember fondly once a year. Christmas is the beginning of the promise of a life lived with God now and always for there is no place and no life and no one that is not worthy of His presence. If we are willing, He will come to us. He will come and make His home in our hearts tonight and always, so that we may keep Christmas every day of the year.
Christmas All Year Long
Keeping Christmas every day of the year may be a lot harder than it sounds. Certainly it doesn’t mean that we need to decorate our houses with trees and lights and manger scenes and Christmas stockings on the mantle day in and day out. It doesn’t mean that we need to give and receive physical presents every day, or send cards and flowers and fruitcakes to everyone we know (and you can definitely keep the fruitcakes to yourself, anyway.) Keeping Christmas throughout the year means that we make room for Christ to enter into our lives in some way, and that we remember Christmas is both Christ’s birthday in the world as well as a new birth for our lives.
Keeping Christmas throughout the year means that you and I remember this truth and make a place in our lives, however grungy or inelegant they are at the moment, that we make a place for Christ — for God — to dwell with us so that we know His love and generosity each day and can share that love and generosity with others fearlessly and hopefully all through the year.
Keeping Christmas throughout the year will look different in all of our lives, but the Spirit and love and gift of Christmas that we know this night is ours always. It is ours when we open our lives to God’s presence and the Christmas love and spirit we share will not fade from our lives, but only grow stronger as Christ comes to live in our hearts.
So this Christmas may God grant you the gift of the light of Christmas, which is faith;
The gift of the belief of Christmas, which is hope;
The gift of the warmth of Christmas, which is love;
The gift of the radiance of Christmas, which is truth;
The gift of the joy of Christmas, which is God.
May be peace in your heart and over all the earth, and good will for all in God’s love this night and every day through the year.
Merry Christmas!
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