People of Hope,
I must confess. I love the trappings of Christmas. True story: All the hours I am not in the church office/visiting someone/talking on the phone, about 90%, of the time I am listening to Christmas music. Bing Crosby, Miles Davis, the London symphony, even Mariah Carey. I bought a Christmas tree, a real one, this year for the first time in 12 years. Of course, I have no ornaments since I haven’t had a tree in 12 years, but it’s strung with lights and will soon sport festive construction paper chains from my niece and nephew. My cupboard is stocked with holiday tea, and I eagerly look for the special holiday coffee drinks at every coffee shop. An ascetic by nature, that’s the extent of my Christmas splurge, but even these minimal trappings of Christmas can drag me into a faux-Christmas spirit. What is Christmas, really, about?
Christianity makes a very strange claim: that God enters time and space to be with us in Jesus, in a baby. That a transcendent God is also an imminent God. That the creator of heaven and earth is vulnerable. And at Christmas, we celebrate that the vulnerability of God in Jesus is central to who God is. The ancient people well knew the transcendent, almighty, righteous God who could and did wreak vengeance on those who practiced injustice and idolatry. But in Jesus, God sets aside might and power and control and embraces all that it means to be human. Or as St. John of Chrysostom, a 4th century preacher, wrote in his Christmas sermon: The Ancient of days has become an infant. He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched, Who is simple, without complexity, and incorporeal, now lies subject to the hands of men. He Who has broken the bonds of sinners, is now bound by an infant’s bands. But He has decreed that ignominy shall become honor, infamy be clothed with glory, and total humiliation the measure of His Goodness (full sermon: http://ww1.antiochian.org/node/21955).
On Christmas, God becomes human and in doing, enters life with us. That is truly something to celebrate!
Merry Christmas!
Pastor Sarah