Is Christmas Over?

Christmas 1a, December 29, 2013 (Matthew 2:13-23)

For me this Christmas has been amazing. From the experience of worshipping with all of you and the many others on Christmas Eve – with incredible music, the mystery of candlelight and the powerful proclamation of Luke and John to having our 3 daughters and their significant others celebrating with us, opening gifts, even playing games, to hearing that my god son has received his first posting as a member of the Canadian Air force – this Christmas has been one of grand celebration The food we have shared with others and the gifts we have received from and given to others have indeed been gifts to cherish. The cards and letters have all brought joy to my heart. Truly we are not alone – as God comes to us in the Christ.  Again I have been lifted up towards a deeper, more profound reality that surpasses my own thoughts and feelings. God is with us. God is for us and for all creation!

But now Christmas Eve and Christmas Day have passed. Many people are either back to work or soon will be. Our daughters and their loved ones have scattered to their places. The more than 200 people who gathered in this place on Christmas Eve are no longer here either. I wonder if we are still praising God, are open to God entering "our" space again and again?

To all of our living come the texts from Hebrews and Matthew. On the very heels of Christmas Day they speak of horrific suffering and death. Hebrews reminds us that Jesus as a human will be tested. He will suffer and die! Matthew's Gospel tells us that HEROD HATES JESUS! Herod is so paranoid about maintaining power that he is willing to do almost anything.

Once again, God intervenes for Jesus. Through Joseph and Joseph's dream the baby is spared.  But … others are not so fortunate! Once again children, tiny children, two and under pay the price of another's lust for power. If we dare to listen, even this morning, we can hear so many mothers wailing, mothers who have lost and are losing their children to other Herod's. A suicide bomber kills herself and others at a Russian train station. More mothers weep. Christians and Muslims war in the Central African Republic. South Sudan once again appears to be a powder keg. Pastor Hergy's own two sons just recently escaped from the violence of that country. Contemporary Herod's abound, still struggling  to maintain their power, whatever the cost. 

So I ask you, IS CHRISTMAS OVER? 

If Christmas is dreaming of a fantasized "whiteness" or humming catchy commercial jingles reminding us of times past, of continually getting oodles of stuff from others, if Christmas is only some warm "fuzzy" feeling, then Christmas can never last very long. Indeed, then Christmas MAY WELL NEVER COME for many.

However if we are to mature as we are encountered by the reality of God, if both God's law and gospel, God's hunger for justice among God's people, and God's continued willingness to extend mercy to all are fleshed out through Christ's living and dying in our lives, then we will begin to know that Christmas is SO MUCH MORE than any "warm fuzzy feeling".

To be sure, life involves pain and struggle, suffering and death as well as release and delight, deliverance and new birth. God continues to reach out to love us and all people whatever our circumstances. GOD'S REACHING OUT TOWARD US AND EVEN THROUGH US IS ABSOLUTELY MIRACULOUS!

At its heart then, Christmas is God coming to earth, to humanity, to creation, for humanity and for creation. God dares to become human. God makes God's self vulnerable as the baby Jesus is conceived and born. God comes to be with us and for us, for all humanity, for all creation. There and here, in the muck and the snow, in the smell and messiness of humanity and the rest of creation, God comes. There and here, amidst pain and suffering, God comes. Then and now God is for and with those who are being displaced. Then and now God is with and for those who are being born and those who are dying, those being killed, those being terrorized. Then and now, to and for all: This dear people is Christmas!

Matthew won't let us escape from the broad scope of this amazingly good news especially as it intersects, collides with harsh realities. Jesus' parents have to scoop him up in order to run for their lives. Herod seeks them BUT NOT FOR GOOD. We do great disservice to Jesus when we seek to trivialize him as if his birth and life would have nothing to do with changing the status quo, nothing to do with economics or politics, that effects the lives of all people and creation. Indeed since Jesus loves all people and all are to be blessed, things must change. As such change is unfolding the powers that be will not go quietly into the night without a fight! See what Herod does to the innocent children under 2? It is so AWFUL!

Is Christmas over then?

Christmas is done only if we would relegate Jesus to commercial ditties, to warm "fuzzies", to the exchange of gifts, to the putting up and taking down of a tree. Christmas is over only if we refuse to see the power of God especially working in and among human vulnerability. Jesus is Lord of all! In becoming human, being born in the seemingly insignificant town of Bethlehem, suffering and dying on a cross where the powers that be sought to publicly shame him, This Jesus has the power to transform our hearts and minds. Jesus can and has turned the powers that be upside down by becoming One of us and giving His all!

By the power of God's grace we too can serve God, seeking to love as Jesus loves, extending the forgiveness He gives us, working for a world where all, everyone and everything is valued, contrary to the way so much is now. Do we dare to believe in Christmas, the birth of our Saviour, by so living His way?

Christmas time often can and does bring some warm fuzzies. That can be beautiful. But if the transforming warmth and love of the Christ's child's birth is to be real and lasting, it will always be born amidst great struggle. Christmas means being opened to the vulnerable way of Christ, as one who seeks to be obey God and who, in all of such struggle, continues to be God with us. From the moment of his conception and certainly from the instant of his birth Jesus swims against the tide of popular opinion, the powers that be. Jesus seeks first and foremost to do God's will.

Regardless that the first returns of his obedience often look like they will have few if any lasting positive results, he continues on, trusting that God will somehow use his obedience to bring about God's good and gracious will then and in the future.

Don't we see? Christmas is never over as we seek to follow Jesus. Instead, Christmas is just beginning.         Amen.