| "The Word became flesh and lived among us..."
The frenetic activity of the days before Christmas makes me nervous. People! People everywhere! There are those who seem joyful, some anxious, some even angry, but cannot avoid people. Purists lament the loss of Advent - we move from Halloween, with a nod to Thanksgiving into the overwhelming shopping spree of pre-Christmas. There is in my mind a finger wagging, warning that this is not right. Christmas should be Holy.
But, you know, holy is as holy does. Granted that there can be, indeed are, excesses of commercialization. At least at the explicit level recognition of Christ can seem elusive. Yet, if we are patient and insightful, beyond, beneath, within all the excesses of our seemingly secular "Christmas" is found that extraordinary a wonderful excess of Divine Love, Jesus Christ.
If we lament the frenzy of gift-giving, we might also note that we who have gratefully received the gift of the Son of God might rightly celebrate of giving gifts and sharing blessings - among family and friends, yes, but also to extend that sharing beyond our own circle to those whose need for the good things of earth of respect, recognition and love goes unnoticed. So, yes, indeed, we honor Christ the Gift by giving gifts - let’s just make the circle of inclusion larger. Giving and sharing and receiving gratefully are Holy.
Christmas is a time of homecoming, of travel across the country or across town to be home. This is a time to be with family, with friends, with people. If we can’t physically move our bodies to be with those we love, we will send cards, make phone calls, Skype, email, fill the social media with greetings and quotes - to make some kind of human contact. We gather in churches - not only to worship God (Yes, Amen to worshiping God), but to be together and recognize the presence of Him who told us that where two or three gather in His name, He will be in their midst. We remember Christ the Word who became flesh made His home among us by coming home and making home and rejoicing in being at home.
J. R. R. Tolkien is said to have written that the Gospel; both begins and ends in joy - the joy of Jesus’ birth, the joy of the Resurrection - but this good news embraces all else that is human within these two poles. Joy is the hallmark of Christianity; joy is what we expect of Christmas. But that joy embraces all that is human. Many of us may feel a certain absence of joy at this time of year: those who have lost loved ones, those whose circumstances leave them alone or isolated or hurting, in hospitals, healthcare facilities, shelters, prisons, refugee camps. There are military folks on duty, often in perilous conditions. But, yes, even for these for whom the world has no room, the joy of Christmas is possible for the One whose birth we remember knew these conditions firsthand. The Word Made Flesh embraces all human reality. And where He is, there is Joy. The responsibility of Christians is to include as much as possible all persons in the gifting and homecoming, making the implicit joy open and palpable.
"We have seen His glory, the glory that He has as the only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth."
The wild crazy, activities of holiday keeping, the shopping, the stressing, the feasting, the giving and sharing and homecoming sometimes mask, but truly have the potential to reveal the Glory of God among us. The fun things are good things, even holy things - especially if we who have received all that is good, received Goodness embodied in Christ will share that goodness beyond the circles of our own friends and family to include, however we can, the larger human community, so that on this Feast and beyond, there will be no outsiders. |
