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December 25, 2011 by James McCrea Hebrews 1:1-4, John 1:1-5, 9-14 My father was an artillery captain in the South Pacific during World War II. He received several medals for distinguished service, but he would have preferred to not receive one of those decorations. That was a Purple Heart for being wounded in action. His position came under fire and an artillery shell exploded near him, showering his back with shrapnel. As a result he the next full year in New Zealand hospitals recuperating and undergoing therapy. I don’t know all of the experiences he had during his service, so I can only speculate. But I have to think that his wounds and that lengthy recovery period must have had at least something to do with what would come next. You see, years later, after he became a Presbyterian minister, one of his most commonly-repeated prayers was for a total and permanent end for war. He always phrased that request in a relatively quirky way, asking for the day when someone would look up the word “war” in the dictionary and find the definition “Obsolete, unknown.” And there an indefinable something in his tone as he prayed that part of the prayer which made it clear that those words were coming straight from the very core of his heart. Sadly, his prayer has not been answered positively yet. That said, I believe that if you’re able to look past all the traditions and pageantry of Christmas — beyond all those beautiful carols and all the dreary weeks of shopping and the quiet beauty of the candlelight service and the excitement of family members gathering together once again — you’ll see that the very heart of Christmas is hope. Christmas teaches us that God is never distant and removed from our problems. Instead, God chose to enter into this life and embrace all of its deepest and most intransigent problems in order to show that nothing — and no one — is outside the power and concern of God. The beginning of the gospel of John makes it fairly clear that the very same power of God that crafted all of creation is what became human in that baby laying in the manger on a brisk Bethlehem night. It’s the same power that Jesus breathed on the disciples during one of his resurrection appearances at the end of John’s gospel. The point is that God’s creative power is now available to us to transform ourselves and our world. When I think of that, I always worry that perhaps the real reason my father’s oft-repeated prayer hasn’t yet been positively answered is because, deep down, we Christians simply don’t have enough faith. We have God’s own power to create and redeem and transform at our fingertips and yet we’ve somehow come to believe that we’re too insignificant to make any real changes in the world. But how can that be? Did we misunderstand Mary when she sang about her pregnancy with these words: “[God] has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” According to Mary, the Christmas story isn’t just a retelling of the birth of another baby. Instead it is the beginning of the remaking of the world into a new form of justice and peace. And just as Mary said that God “looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” through the incarnation — that is, the birth of God in human form — so God has empowered us to help in that transformation of the world. Bron Yocum writes, “The heart of Christmas is the promise that God is with us today just as God came in Jesus Christ 2000 years ago to be with human beings then. God is present in unexpected places and surprising ways to offer us love and to invite our response. The question for us as we move through this holiday is whether or not we have the eyes to see God’s presence. “[…] In a crowded subway station, or in a stable in the back street of a little out of the way city in an occupied nation, perfection appears among us in the guise of the ordinary. And we are confronted with the question, how will we respond? Will we recognize it when we see it? Will we stop to […] gaze upon the baby, to listen to the teaching, to respond with reverence, awe and wonder? Or will we walk on by, […] ignoring the baby, consigning the trouble maker to the authorities for trial, so that we can get on with our lives? “And if we do see something of what is there, will we appreciate what is truly is? Or will we judge based on what we think God should do […]? “In Jesus Christ, God began an act of self-sacrificing love that would take him from cradle to cross. Jesus gave up all that it meant to be divine in order to become human. […] God became fully human in the birth of the baby in Bethlehem. […] The one whose word gave life became subject to the words of those who would command his death. “All that because God loved us, and loves us still. “We celebrate Christmas each year […] because the love that came down that first Christmas seeks us out even today. God still loves us, still wants to rebuild relationship with us, and is looking for a way to draw us back to the love and purpose for which we were created. God’s love is as strong and powerful for us as it was for the people of Jesus’ day. […] Will you accept God’s love this Christmas, and live as people who love their creator in turn, or will you walk on by? The choice is yours.” As you celebrate this Christmas season, may you reach the place where you choose to truly believe in the power given you at Bethlehem and may you choose to actively search for the signs of God’s activities in the world, keeping ready to join him on the next stage of your journey of discipleship, wherever it may lead. Amen. |