Merry Christmas!
The packages are open, the meal is eaten and the silent night has given way to another ordinary day, full of ordinary concerns.
Yet, Christmas has just begun. It is the second day of Christmas, called Boxing Day in England. We have 10 more days to go after today. It will end on Epiphany, January 6th, the day we celebrate the arrival of the wise men in Bethlehem and their recognition of Jesus as a king among men.
I love Advent and the feeling of waiting and anticipation. I adore stealing a few moments to sit quietly and wonder about how Mary must have felt as she awaited her first child; a miraculous child whom she probably couldn’t fully contemplate or understand. I hope that she didn’t think about what was to come and simply lived in hopeful expectation of a son who would be something extraordinary.
Now, Advent is over, Christmas day in its frenzy of new birth, visitors, gifts and love is finished. Mary and Joseph are perhaps wondering what happens now. They may be looking forward to getting back on that road and traveling back home to Nazareth, to their simple life and the people who know and love them best.
Anybody who’s had or lived with an infant will know that those first few weeks are full of confusion, exhaustion and moments of joy. That more than anything new parents wonder, “What happened? Where did my predictable life go?” Mary and Joseph probably had those thoughts and even more.
Who is this child who has come to join this family? He is supposed to be the answer to so many prayers, but he is a helpless infant. Not only that, his birth has will force their family to flee to a foreign country and when they receive reports of what is happening at home, they cannot help but grieve the massacre of so many children. Mary may remember sharing her pregnancy with a friend whose child is now buried and gone before it even got a chance to live. Jesus’ birth was followed by grief for many, it is a study in contrasts.
Much like Christmas can be a study in contrasts. It is a joyful awakening for all people. Christ has come to walk among us. He will quiet our weeping and bring us salvation. He was and is the most powerful person who ever walked the earth. And yet, Jesus was a person. He began as a baby, a fragile, small infant who needed his parents and others to protect him and keep him alive to live out God’s promise. He challenged the people of his day to look at God’s scriptures again and figure out what it really means to be in right relationship with God. He made many people angry and he caused conflict in the life of most if not all of his followers. Despite that he transmitted a new understanding of God and love to a world hungry for connection with God.
Even today, as Christians, Christmas is full of contrasting emotions! We are joyful to remember that God is with us and walked among us. Yet, we are still waiting for God to come and take away the rest of our grief. Some of us here today are mourning the loss of loved ones even as we celebrate the baptism of three children who will be joining our family today. Life today is as uncertain as it was 2000 years ago when Jesus came. We still experience wars and famines. There are still dictators who rule nations and kill innocents. Humanity isn’t perfect just because God came and lived among us.
Humanity is however, saved! Christ did come and live a life with us that also experienced all those feelings we experience. Jesus wept when his friend Lazarus died, Jesus got angry when his disciples did not fully listen to the things he was trying to teach them and Jesus laughed, with children, with friends, and with a joy that understood and loved all the foibles and nobilities of simple humans trying to live in right relationship with God.
There is good news! The prophet Isaiah was right, God is all about redemption and showing us a new life beyond what we see today. Mary and Joseph are in the wilderness, but they will come out of Egypt and the baby who today cannot even hold up his head, will someday bear all the cares of a troubled world upon his shoulders.
Christmas is a time to remember when you have felt a profound sense of hope and wellness. It is that amazing moment when you look into the eyes of an infant or a child and you see forever. You realize that this life is not just about you and that you would do anything to make sure this child and all other children live lives of peace and prosperity. It is an invitation into the life of Christ.
The Christmas message of incarnation (God with us) is also one of suffering and uncertainty. But more importantly it is one of hope. It reminds us that the almighty being to whom we pray, understands us thoroughly. We live in uncertain times, but we have always lived in uncertain times. The amazing thing that Christmas reminds us of is that God has already taken care of the evil of this world. It may still be around, but ultimately it has been defeated in the life and death of Jesus Christ.
So on this day after Christmas when some are anxious to get everything cleaned up and throw out the tree. Some are already thinking about diets and bills and what comes now. Please stop for a moment instead. Don’t let this special time be lost because it feels like Christmas is over.
Advent gave us a chance to contemplate the hope that was coming. Christmas is a brief season of 12 days. Take those days to rejoice in what has come and what is coming. Celebrate even though there are things to be done and chores to accomplish. Be glad you aren’t on the road to Egypt to save your infant child, and be glad that Joseph and Mary did go back on the road to save Jesus and thereby to save us as well.
This year, maybe you can do as we have done in the last few years. Leave one of your nativities out and leave it out for the next 12 months. Let it remind you once in a while that God did come and lives among us. Let it lead you in July as it has lead you in December to contemplate just what it means to say that Christ lived and walked among us.
The first Christmas wasn’t just life altering for a family from Nazareth. It changed a world. It still changes lives today and we are still welcoming new lives into a family that grows and changes daily. May the Christmas season bring you a love and joy you cannot even now imagine and may you learn to pray like Mary that God’s will be done in your life today and always.
