| "Christmas"
The Rev. Catherine Wright
Sermon at St. Mark’s Episcopal, Glen Ellyn
December 25th, 2007
And now, after weeks of waiting, the blessed day has arrived.
Merry Christmas!
Is there anyone in the Western World who doesn't feel something
different about this day from all other days? For children,
it is the delight of gift-giving and receiving; for adults,
it is seeing the pleasure of children and reliving the memories
of their own childhoods; for believers, it is the joy of observing
once again the celebration of the coming of God's Son.
I have more than a few nativity sets. My first one I purchased
in Israel many years ago. And a big question this year, in our
new house, was “where do we put them”. It is a new
space and the possibilities are open. They have ended up spread
out throughout the house - on window sills and the mantle, tables
and even on in the guest bathroom. My daughter Rachel has always
been surrounded by many of these sets and has seen the traditional
way that I set them up. But she has her own wonderful way of
setting the scene. In Rachel’s way you start with the
parents and the baby in the manger, the way most of the nativity
sets are placed. But then, instead of setting the shepherds
off the side a little with some of the animals and maybe the
magi on their way but not yet there, Rachel pulls every piece
in as close as it can possibly be to the Christ child. The lamb
and the magi are pushed together and everyone’s faces
are pointing directly at the infant in the manger. It is a wonderful
thing to see every creature in the set crowded in as close as
they can with the baby in the center of it all. There is no
question of where the focus of attention should be, on who the
leading character is or where to put the Christ Child.
There are many places that people tend to put God. They view
God as important for the future and are focused on questions
such as - Where will you go when you die? What will the end
of times bring for this world? Others put the emphasis on the
past and see God as one who put the world in motion ages ago
but is largely absent today. But we know that while it is true
that Jesus occupies both the past and the future, in the nativity
God has forcefully proclaimed the real presence of God with
us at all times. He is here, with us. At the center.
The readings for Christmas Day leave the concrete realities
of first-century life in ancient Israel completely behind. There
is nothing about the birth or the early years. Instead, they
embrace the sweep of human and divine history. They look both
further back and further forward to find the depth of mystery
and meaning before us.
The authors of Hebrews and John were part of early Christian
communities wrestling with their understanding of Jesus as the
Son of God. Their words today, which open both books, touch
on the heart of the mystery of their tradition -- one that they
left for us living thousands of years later: that, somehow,
God has come into the world through Jesus; God has entered our
human story and has forever changed us and the course of human
history.
Rather than telling us exactly how this has happened, John
and Hebrews both leave us only with broad images of what Jesus
as Son of God means: "He is the reflection of God's glory
and the exact imprint of God's very being. . "
He is "God's word. . .the true light. . .and the world
came into being through him. . Life itself. . .and the life
was the light of all people."
These are hard images for us to grapple with in our own age:
an age of scientific precision and technological innovation;
a day when we expect precise and concrete accounts of history
and the stories of our lives; a time when fact is much more
important, it seems, than meaning.
This way of life and understanding is confronted with the
rich meaning of John and Hebrews today, reminding us as Christians
that the heart of our tradition is not so much built around
hard fact, scientific rigor, or precision. Our faith, instead,
is built around the incredible and, at some level, unexplainable
mysteries of incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection -- and
of the God of love and compassion who lives in the middle of
those mysteries.
If we get lost and maybe a little bewildered today in the
poetic language of these readings, perhaps it's because we should
get lost. Losing our way in the Information Age is not necessarily
a bad thing. Many times, it breaks us out of the narrow routines
and paths we have put down for ourselves in our daily lives.
Losing our way may mean that we relinquish control over our
own destinies and risk finding something different: the road
that God has prepared for our journey instead.
The authors of John and Hebrews, and the early Christians
reinterpreting the Old Testament prophet Isaiah, seem to point
us in this direction. The powerful poetic language that greets
us and the sweeping images of mystery and hope are all about
changing our orientation and preparing us for a new and renewed
journey of faith: one that carries us deeper into the heart
of God. That's the joy of mystery in general for us, and the
joy found in the mystery of Christmas. It can only draw us in
deeper into the love of God and into the journey prepared for
us from the beginning of the world.
The challenge of Christmas Day, then, is for us to embrace
this mystery of the Christ and let its mystery break us out
of our set ways of thinking and being. It's yet another opportunity
for us to enter into the incomprehensible mind of God and, with
it, search for new meaning and direction as a people on a journey.
Some of us are about to rush home to begin preparing Christmas
dinner or host guests and family. Some of us are anxiously waiting
to open our gifts. Some of us are already back at work, or are
getting ready to go later today or first thing tomorrow. We
are tempted to return as quickly as possible back to the normality
of our daily routines; to start up the old wheels of our schedules
following the holidays; to get caught up again in the everydayness
and tangible realities of our lives. So rest for a few moments
in the mysteries of Christmas, and ponder the incarnation, the
birth of Christ before us.
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