Christmas Eve 2013
American culture is difficult to
sort out. Because we each come from such diverse backgrounds, it’s hard to
claim any sort of shared history or heritage or even identity as a single
people. And so, I suppose this is the reason why it’s almost impossible for us
to share in the celebration of any but civic holidays.
However, Jewish culture has always
understood the importance of commemorating and celebrating things. Whether it’s
Chanukah, and commemorating the restoration and re-consecration of the Temple
after it had been sacked and desecrated; or the Feast of Tabernacles which
commemorates the 40 years of wandering in the desert—Jewish culture has held on
to a number of holidays which rehearse and remember the stories and histories
of their people. After all, such stories recall God’s breaking into history and
the lives of the Jewish people—and so, the celebration of such events is an act
of devotion as much as it is a reminder of how they came to be who they are,
and have been throughout history as the People of God.
So, of course, the stories
associated with these events are very important because they are inextricably
woven into the fabric of Jewish identity.
While we’re not bad about building
traditions, we’re less able to commemorate certain events that have shaped us
as a people. Of course, part of this is because we live in a country that is
relatively young in the grand scheme of things, and so it’s difficult really to
say what would merit our national attention and remembrance. I won’t go into
how we’ve traditionally celebrated things like the 4th of July…
However, beyond cultural and
national identity, we also have a spiritual identity and heritage. And tonight,
we not only commemorate the most powerful in-breaking of God into our history;
but we also rehearse part of the story that reminds us of who we truly are as
children of God. What’s more, it’s a story which reaches back, not only beyond
national heritage, but as far back as human heritage. Because, this is a story
that begins with our First Parents, whose rebellion set the whole Creation into
disarray, and broke the heart of God.
What, I think speaks most
powerfully, however, is that rather than God playing the hero in the
story—instead, God is the Beloved who never stopped throughout the whole of history
trying to help us to be reconciled.
God intervened and delivered Israel
from Egypt and a life of slavery. In the wilderness, God called Israel to be
God’s People that they might become the way in which all humanity and Creation
might be made whole.
God gave Israel a home, and chose
to give them a sign of God’s Presence with them in the Ark of the Covenant and
the Temple. And for all of the promises which God made, and for all of the
promises humanity continued to break, God continued to pursue Israel, and
through them, all of humanity.
However, the messengers of God, the
Prophets—even as they attempted to call the people back to faithfulness—always pointed
to a bright future when God would come among us in a completely unexpected way…not
through more prophetic messages, not by freeing Israel from Rome, but through
the birth of a child, who would also be very God of very God.
We’re told that the whole of human
history has always tended toward this birth. In fact, the Early Fathers
regularly point out that the birth of Jesus is the beginning of our redemption,
and the completion of humanity.
In him we find the center and
praxis of all that was and is and is to come. In the Revelation to John, we’re
told that only through him can the whole of history be interpreted.
He is the heart of every story of every person
on Earth, because every story of humanity has pointed to him. And so tonight,
we do our feeble best to celebrate his breaking into the world, and his story
beginning; the true story of all of us—the story of who we are as children of
God. The story of our redemption, and our hope yet to come. Happy Christmas.
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