December 25, 2008
(The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ: Christmas Day)
O Come Ye to Bethlehem
by The Rev. Carol Sanford,
Priest Associate
Isaiah 52:7-10 • Psalm 98 • Hebrews 1:1-4,
(5-12) • John 1:1-14
(From
The Lectionary Page)
Merry Christmas! I love everything about Christmas, the Holy and the not-so-sacred. I grew up in a house where on Christmas day stockings and ribbons eventually covered up the manger scene under the tree and I suspect that somewhere around 6:00 a.m. even the adults forgot that our celebration was about greeting Jesus. We were all busy checking to see if Santa had come and what presents would be waiting on the hearth and under the tree and oh, delight of all delights, might we have a white Christmas after all? I will confess that, when looking out the window to check for snow, I usually also checked for the pony. I never truly thought that a pony would arrive in my urban back yard, but you never know, so I checked anyway.
We had a number of family traditions, unintentionally including the squabble with my sister about who had to set the table before the relatives came for Christmas dinner, and the deflating moment when the new toy or book had to be set down in favor of chatting politely with elderly visitors, who were no doubt about the age that I am now. There was usually time in the afternoon to check in with the neighborhood kids with the all- important question of the day, “Whadjya get?”
I was a lucky child in many ways, and I still love the sweet treats and the lights and the goofily incorrect nativity scenes with Mary and Joseph and the angels and shepherds and wise men and camels and chickens and golden retrievers and the Grinch in a Santa hat and dinosaurs all showing up to be with the baby Jesus under strange geographic conglomerates of palm trees and evergreens and snow. I love all of this because, even though it can get distorted and frantic and disastrously misshapen, Christmas Day still manages to show forth in some measure the final answer to that childhood question.
So: what did we get for Christmas? I would like to read to you just a few of the familiar phrases with which we greet this day:
God from God
Light from Light Eternal
King of Angels
Alpha and Omega
Life and Light
Grace and Truth
Savior
Emmanuel
True Man
Babe in a manger
Sun of Righteousness
Prince of Peace
Christ the Everlasting Lord
Can we really appreciate the incredible vastness of what we celebrate today? From eternal light to newborn child to Everlasting Lord. How can we possibly comprehend just what it is that we receive on Christmas?
Much of John’s gospel is so beautiful that we may best hear it as we would a poem or a piece of lovely music. Listen again to just this little bit: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…
Don’t worry if you do not fully understand this. I doubt that we can fully understand it as a function of our intellect. But, as with poetry and music, we do and we can understand in our hearts. On this day, especially, we may understand that there is love pouring forth in the world beyond all reason and normal comprehension.
I know that we understand something of this because we are here together today and because people show up here week after week to come to the altar with their families and their friends and also with some people they are mad at or don’t much care for and with total strangers as well. We understand on some level that God’s love is with us and for us because we have come here, not just to Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral in Kansas City, but to Bethlehem.
How is this possible? We sing, O come all ye faithful O come ye O come ye to Bethlehem. We are saying, Come to Bethlehem now! The gospel tells us, The light shines in the darkness. The light is shining now! During Holy Eucharist we hear, Take, eat, this is my body. This is Christ’s body now! The true Word of God is always in the present tense and is being spoken and breathed in our midst.
We don’t just repeat our great story of love and salvation, we enter into it. We can do this because time doesn’t really count in this place. Here we enter into the life of God in Christ, the Alpha and Omega. We are gathered up into all that was and is and ever shall be.
With the love of God opening our minds and hearts we truly do hear choirs of angels singing beyond and through our earthly song, and we do comprehend the amazing love depicted in a plaster infant and the radiance of the light of the world really is with us in the glow of the candles at the altar.
We understand that something in us is brought to life when we give a gift of love or friendship or service in God’s name; that something in us is born this day when we comprehend the difference that a warm meal or pair of mittens or a friendly smile may mean to another person. We understand that there is something in genuine laughter and tears that partakes of the nature of God.
Some of us today may be feeling sad or lonely or ill or frightened or financially distressed and yet, and this is important, we come to Bethlehem anyway. We come to the source and outpouring of all the love that is or ever will be and we are somehow gathered into that life and goodness, whether we fully grasp or realize it or not. We come to Bethlehem and find Jesus, infant king, light from light eternal, tiny, fragile baby, triumphant Lord, God with us, our Emmanuel. And we find ourselves and each other.
So: Whadjya get for Christmas? I never did get the pony that I thought I wanted as a child, but I did and do get what we all really want for Christmas and every other day. What we get for Christmas is the spark of Divine Life and Light forever with us and within us. What we get for Christmas is the hope and promise that the world can be a better place for our having been here, because the light of Christ born this day in the city of David is born in us as well.
God’s Word is made flesh that all flesh may live out God’s Word. What we get for Christmas is God with us and for us always. What we get for Christmas is love and peace and ourselves and each other and all that was or is or ever will be. I’d say that beats a pony! Have a very Merry Christmas!
