Christmas Eve
WORDS OF REFLECTION Pastor Andy Kennaly
Christmas Eve 2020
What is Christmas to you? What does this season and this day mean in your life? What do you tend to focus on? Is Christmas a tradition, where things need to be just so; a decorated tree, ornaments, special songs, and candles? Do these external trimmings give you an internal sense of hope? Is Christmas a holiday, the one time you’d actually consider stepping inside a church, because it wouldn’t be the same without that glow of soft lights through stained glass windows? Add some lightly falling snow outside and…mmmmnn, so nice! In that sense, maybe Christmas means community, coming together during the darkest days of winter, the longest nights of the year; sharing candle light together, helping us get through to the warmer, brighter days ahead of us, and they are ahead of us, aren’t they? Maybe Christmas is about gifts, both the giving and receiving, and if you’ve spent money this season on presents, or if you have a tree with packages underneath it, some with your name on them, then this is likely true, whether you want to acknowledge it or not: Christmas is about gifts. We like to equate gift giving with God sending Jesus as a gift, this is how we symbolically rationalize it. Of course, we tend to forget the history that for centuries Christians didn’t celebrate Christmas. It was the Roman Empire that shaped Christianity’s winter observance of Christmas.
Pope Julius the First, in the fourth century placed the date of Jesus’ birth on December 25th. This helped with merging gift giving from the already widely practiced pagan observance of the god, Saturn. In this way, the Empire became Christianized in ways that were more easily accepted in the broader culture’s celebration of Saturnalia.
There’s lots of things about Christmas that we take for granted, or assume are true, or simply accept as reality even though their original function would surprise us. Christmas is many things, involving tradition, holiday, community, and gifts. This is what we’ve inherited. This is why we’re here right now, in a special worship service. Christmas is a big deal! The Christmas story of a baby, along with a bunch of presents, good feelings of sentimentality, idyllic memories stirring, cultural expectations or pressures, wanting to feel good in challenging circumstances: all of these somehow have mingled in such as way as to bring us here right now.
But are you really interested in Jesus? Jesus, the one who says, “Follow me.” Do you desire to follow Jesus on that “Way,” which is anything but static or sentimental?
One of the things about preaching online is that I’m staring at a phone, a camera, digitally sending out a signal. In many ways, it feels like a monologue because I can’t see you. The questions I’m asking, the reflections I’m inviting, seem to just hang out in the air. Like, “Who is Jesus for you, right now?”
Traditional Christianity tends to keep that conversation simple anyway; maybe you don’t need to answer. We’ll just assume God is “up there” or “out there,” distant, but thankfully sending Jesus “down here” from those heavenly realms which are out of sight and away from our touch. The angels show up long enough to declare the birth, then they go back to heaven as Jesus puts God in bod. The simple message of Christmas, the basics of a baby born in Bethlehem some 2,000 years ago, placed in a manger, no room in the inn; this is so nice to receive, and it’s for everyone, good news of great joy! For most people, if you believe it’s true, that’s enough. That’s the Christmas spirit. That’s faith for many people, trusting that you are successful in having the right ideas.
Yet something happens in that mindset. The past becomes idyllic, the future is held as a heavenly vision. The present? Right now? Maybe that’s where hope comes in, to bridge us between past promises and future fulfillment. Traditional Christianity teaches the present doesn’t really matter because you’ve got your ticket to heaven; you’re on the inside track on the train bound for glory!
What is Christmas for you? Is the tradition enough? Or are you looking for something more dynamic, less domesticated? Do you desire to follow Jesus as he is on “the Way?” which invites us to participate in life just like Jesus did. In that sense, are you ready to receive your Divinity, to recognize the Living Christ born in you? Does Christmas joy that is not dependent on circumstance sound compelling? Does living in the fullness of the Present moment as a reflection of the height and depth of God’s Love offer a more reconciled experience of holiness? Does the flow of Divine Love release you from feeling stuck in the past or contingent on some future outcome? Has your suffering been transformed as a larger vision opens up, showing that there is no separation, and the Heavenly and Earthly are one, wherever that may be? Does your heart reflect the glory of the universe as you live as one made from stardust, filled with the breath of life as God’s Holy Spirit moves over the waters of creation, calling you by name? Does Christmas invite participation as co-creators in Christ’s cosmic purpose of the incarnation?
Spiritual transformation is not a virtual experience. Living a God-incarnate life doesn’t happen by clicking on a “Like” button. No form of artificial intelligence or algorithms are in charge of Christ taking shape in and through your life as the Spirit blows where it will. Christmas is a lot of things, but maybe this Christmas, the veil of clouded perception gets parted just enough to change everything.
Maybe this Christmas, Love coming down from highest heaven merges into the Love welling up from deep within, because it’s the same Source calling unto Itself. Maybe this Christmas is more about learning how to set aside our own expectations, desires, hard-clung identities, and worldly concerns to learn a deeper gratitude. Maybe the greatest gifts is awareness in Christ’s Presence this very moment.
Merry Christmas. More than words: an open-ended prayer that depends on, and deepens, how receptive we are to Christ being born, in us. Thanks be to God for Christmas Love, joyfully inviting a birth, a movement, a “Way” to follow deeper into gratitude, both NOW, and forever. Amen.