The Reason for the Season
The Reason for the Season
Christmas Eve Words of Reflection, First Presbyterian Church, Sandpoint, Idaho
Andy Kennaly
December 24, 2019
One of the definitions of “vacation” involves going away in order to notice that which you ignore at home. When we are at home, we are relaxed, familiar with surroundings, and comfortable because we already know the routines of what to do, how to get places, who to connect with, and we have support networks. We know the systems! On vacation, none of those are provided. In a new place, we pay attention. We need to remember what time the train leaves, or which gate the flight takes off from, or where to turn on the highway. We may even need to exchange money for another country’s cash, or figure out what to order off a menu written in a non-English language. We are unfamiliar with the systems of other places, so our senses are peaked, our attention is tuned.
In the context of a different place, the monotony of familiar patterns is interrupted. We wake up, and this helps us feel alive. This is invigorating as we enjoy leisure and new sights, and gaining perspective on the home life we are taking a break from while on vacation. We come home rested and renewed, not for lack of activity, but for living a responsive life that interacts with people and places in relational, experiential ways that we just aren’t looking for at home.
Christmas is also a time of heightened attention. While on one hand, cultural traditions and sentimental thoughts skim along as they offer happiness and nostalgia, but these can only go so far and it’s not long before we hear the same songs over and over again on the radio. On the other hand, Christmas also offers the depth of renewed purpose on the larger themes of what makes life meaningful and important; themes like peace, hope, love, joy; things that cannot be wrapped in a box and put in the mail, but must be lived and shared with intention.
Christmas reminds us that life itself is a gift and we have much to be thankful for as participants in this gift with each breath we take. Notice I said, “we take,” because even breathing is a form of receiving. Our heart also takes another beat without our conscious thought needing to focus on it; involuntary muscle activity is hardwired into our body. Just as certainly, people, as created beings, are hardwired for spiritual capacity and we are social creatures. Whether we acknowledge it or not, our life is tied to a larger, shared Conscience, an Eternal Source that gives expression through all things. This is the Living Christ, for all things are created in, through, and for Christ. This is all gift.
Christmas is a day intended to raise our awareness of this gift of the Living Christ, to break our normal routines even as Jesus was born into the ordinary. Over 2,000 years ago, in Bethlehem under the shadow of King Herod, the world received a gift as the Living Christ entered in fullness to lead us deeper into union with God, one another, and all created things. Jesus teaches us what it means to live a fully human life, which includes the wounds, the victories, and the ordinary, all embraced by a larger, encompassing love.
Like Advent, the season leading up to Christmas which helps us prepare our hearts, along with Christmas itself and the days that follow, plus Epiphany, a season which celebrates “God with us” for several weeks after Christmas, the reason for the seasons is to orientate us, to help us get grounded into a new normal as God’s gifts of eternal grace, unconditional love, and courageous Presence invite us to deeper trust as we learn to see with the eyes of our hearts.
As God incarnates in the life of Jesus, we are reminded of life’s essential goodness. As a baby is placed in a feeding trough, we are nourished by nothing less than the universal, cosmic Christ. Christmas is a season telling us a message about God, and that message is love. Even more than a loving message about God, Christmas is a call to live aware and awake in all moments, because reality itself is infused with God as love. Love is the framework of reality itself; it always has been, and it always will be.
A date for Christmas was chosen hundreds of years after Jesus was born (336 BCE). It is no surprise that date is near the winter solstice, for the northern hemisphere these are the longest nights. In the longest nights of winter, Christmas invites illumination, drawing attention to the gift of divine Presence who is already there, within and around us, all the time. It is a gift to receive again and again as we are renewed, encouraged, and called beyond our own understanding and limits of perception to a deeper faith that hopes from the core of sustaining love.
I was on KRFY radio on Wednesday last week. The Morning Show, hosted by Suzy Prez and Chris Bessler. They asked several questions, and as the conversation with a couple other local pastors ebbed and flowed, we answered them from our perspectives. One of the questions involved Santa Clause and how cultural traditions and aspects of commercialization interact with church understandings and teachings. In exploring The Reason for the Season, my answer mentioned Coca-Cola’s marketing, along with an actual historic figure in Saint Nicholas, who was a Catholic Bishop who gave gifts to the needy and people who were poor. (born in 280 in present day Turkey). Even further back, John the Baptizer wondered if Jesus was the anointed One chosen by God, or if we should expect another. My answer was fitting for the conversation. But then, later in the morning after the show was done came that other thing called “hindsight.” Oh, I wish I would have said…
What I would have said may have included the idea that Santa Claus as we know it in our culture is an invitation to explore our image of God.
Who do we understand God to be, what qualities does God have, what do we assume are God’s purposes and practices, what is the nature of God like? As Jesus is born, we make all sorts of assumptions about God, but rarely examine where those assumptions come from, how we know what we know. It seems that most people have a Santa Claus image of God: that God is a separate Being, even a Supreme Being that keeps track of us, watches over us, and makes lists, keeping track of whose naughty or nice. This Santa Claus image of God is very common. But this image only gets us so far, and the Jesus Way is an invitation to journey beyond conventional assumptions.
As we say, “Merry Christmas” we are sharing the peace and love not only of a Supreme Being, but of Being itself. God is love, God is peace, God is… God is.
As we share the light by passing candle flame from person to person, these external sticks of wax reflect an internal, indeed eternal, living Presence that radiates through our spirit as God’s beloved creatures. May we invite our image of God to grow and deepen and expand, so just as one flame is shared, we allow Being itself to shine in and through our lives as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, Christ in our midst.
May God’s goodness and humble love be lived and experienced, now, even as forever. Amen.