Christmas Eve 2015

Christmas Eve 2015

The words “Peace on Earth, and good will towards all people” may seem a little hard to accept given the way the world appears to be year after year. I suppose we might even join Charlie Brown in his cynicism when we consider how commercialized gift-giving seems to have become. And yet, even in the midst of all of the apparent chaos and dysfunction in the world, there is still this promise of peace and hope to guide us. And, if we’re willing to accept it, there are even places and moments where light pierces even the thickest dark.

Of course, I don’t mean to sound sentimental, or even naïve when I talk about hope. After all, inequity, and violence are ever-present in our media, and even in our streets. Advertisements for seasonal gift-giving over the past few years have tempted us to not only find the “perfect gift,” but to treat ourselves to something, as well… So, it’s easy to have our clarity obscured by so much sadness and self-absorption.

I’m also afraid to say that, for me at least, I take no real comfort in seeing signs all over telling us to “Keep Christ in Christmas;” often these words coming from churches who don’t offer services on Christmas day, ironically. And I sadly find little encouragement in being reminded to remember the “Reason for the Season…” Unfortunately, I find myself instead thinking about how Christmas was never really considered a major feast day in the Church—not to mention that Jesus was not likely born in December, but that festivals in this season were long celebrated by Pre-Christian cultures for centuries.

So, it’s more likely that the season was about ancient people trying to hold on to hope and light through the dark of winter rather than the birth of the Savior.

I know, I positively slop-over with hope and Christmas joy once I get started. But, the truth is, I believe we still find immense hope in this season—and not only hope, but when we’re paying attention, we’re even able to see the promise and evidence of Light in the world. And, the story of Jesus birth is more than sufficient to help us to discern that light and hope.

The thing is, it’s only the Gospel of Luke that seems to have any real interest in Jesus’ birth. While Matthew’s Gospel mentions some of it—the truth is that the details we know of the story all come from Luke. As we see from our reading tonight, (the familiar Nativity story) the Gospel writer is concerned about setting the historical stage for the birth of Jesus. We’re told that this amazing thing happened when Augustus was Emperor of Rome. Quinirius was the governor of Syria; Herod was king of Judea—and rather than being contextual information, this would have been the appropriate way of recording history. So, in a real way, the Living God was coming into time and place through the birth and Incarnation of Jesus.

But that’s to say that the time and place that Jesus was born was not peaceful. In fact, we get the impression from the Gospels, and even from history that hope was in pretty short supply for God’s People. Even more than today there was famine, and infant mortality was commonplace—maybe this was the reason that they didn’t name their children until they had survived more than 8 days…

Of course there were wars happening—maybe not close at hand since Rome kept everything under control. However, there were groups who had turned to violent ends as a way of rebelling against Roman occupation. So terrorism and violence were well-known.

Into all of this, God chose to take the unimaginable risk to send Jesus, to live among us, teach us to love God and one another, and inevitably be the way of salvation for all of Creation. What’s more, it’s a wonder that anyone would have noticed that it happened at all. But such is the way of hope…quiet and easily over-looked.

Maybe this is why the Church took so long to celebrate the birth of Jesus. After all, the other three Gospels seem to ignore the birth story—and really for a long time throughout history, the only people who celebrated birthdays were pagan emperors…

But, then again, it seems to me that we do celebrate Jesus’ birth because there is something about it that we really need. In fact, in the same way that pre-Christian cultures found ways in this season to remind them of hope in the darkest and coldest of seasons—perhaps we need the hope that comes with Jesus’ birth, not just in the cold of winter—but in the apparent darkness of this world.

In this quiet unexpected way, Jesus who is very God of very God, and is made man by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary becomes an icon of hope and salvation. And because he becomes one of us in his humanity, we ourselves become a kind of icon of hope—and a reminder of salvation that Jesus’ birth portends. This only confirms that we bear the Image of God.

If you’re familiar with icons, you’ll know that like icons on a computer, these are images that represent far more than what is in front of us. In just one way Jesus is the icon of the hope of humanity, and even the hope God has in humanity. But, even in each of us—in every other birth whether it is exactly like that of Jesus or not—we’re given a reminder (even another kind of icon) that hope endures, just as life will endure. And with each new life, there is light, added to the world and potential for hope and peace. And with every life made new through Jesus, we see the light in the world become even that much greater.

The point is, it may only be in Luke’s Gospel that we hear the story of Jesus’ birth—Luke whose name means “Light.” But it’s through the Gospel of John that we recognize that Jesus is the True Light that was coming into the world, and that he is the Light and Life of all Creation. But all four Gospels, every bit, speak to and resonate with the real world that we live in—a world that is still wondering where that promise of “Peace and Good will toward all people” is for us.

And yet, here in the cold and the dark, we continue to celebrate the birth of the Light—not only because we need it, but because in this celebration we join in claiming what our pre-Christian ancestors were claiming with their midwinter celebrations (whether they realized it or not). We join in claiming what our ancestors in the faith were claiming when they chose to celebrate Christmas in the midwinter season. We even join in what God was claiming with the birth of Jesus—and that is the promise that no matter how dark it may get, there will always be a Light of hope (hope for humanity, and even hope in humanity).

That Light of hope, of course, is Jesus Christ who not only joined us in this world as one of us, but even takes what it is to be human back to God.

What this means for us then, is that when we need to be reminded of the Light and hope that is in Christ Jesus—even when our sight of him is somehow obscured… We only have to look as far as those people around us—these living icons of God’s Image, and the promise of light and life. Perhaps, then, when we can see more clearly the Image of God in one another, illuminated by the hope that is in Jesus—perhaps then we’ll truly see “peace on Earth and goodwill toward all people…” That, after all is the hope in this season.