Christmas homily

Image by Simon Dewey

Homily for December 25, 2007
Isaiah 9:1-6
Titus 2 11-14
Luke 2:1-14

A mom in the parish was telling me about watching the movie,
The Nativity Story, with her children
and how one of her youngsters asked her
about half-way through the movie,
with surprise and astonishment:
“Mom, is this a true story? Did this really happen?”

I wish I could recapture for myself – and for all of you -
a child’s-eye view of the birth of Jesus.
I count myself fortunate that one of my earliest memories
is my mother letting me help arrange our family’s nativity scene
on top of the television in our living room:
a beautiful memory of something children experience
in a unique way.

We might be tempted to tell our children,
“Don’t play with the figures in the manger scene!”
But that probably just means we spent too much money on the crèche.

Children should be welcomed to "enter" the stable of the nativity,
to play with baby Jesus,
to pet the animals - and roll around in the hay!

Was there a reason for Christ’s birth other than this?
Did the eternal Word become flesh, was Christ born as a child
for a reason other than God’s desire to be with us
and to play with us?

The big clue here is - the BABY!

God visits us in a shape and form
that we naturally want to hold… embrace… cherish…
caress… be near… and, yes, play with…

As a baby’s birth changes and rearranges the lives in the household
into which it is born,
so, too, the birth of Christ changes and rearranges the lives of those
who live in the household of faith.

God’s Word took flesh among us
not to judge us, but to join us;
not to condemn us, but to console us;
not to frighten but to free us.

Jesus was born among us to bring one message
and the message is good news: you are loved by God!
And God asks but one thing of us,
that we would let him tell us of his love,
directly and simply.

That Christ comes to us as a newborn child tells us
that "God wants to be treated as someone real,
not as someone who does not really exist:" *
not as someone who exists but a few days each year;
not as someone who exists only on Sunday mornings;
not as someone who exists only when we need help;
but as someone who lives among us and within us,
24 hours a day, seven days a week,
like a newborn child
whose draw, on us and our time and our love
knows no clock, knows no calendar.

God wants to be treated as someone real:
in our homes and families;
in how we raise our children;
in the neighborhoods we live in;
in the places where we work and go to school;
in the most public and in the most intimate relationships of our lives;
in our deepest sorrows and in our greatest joys…

Too often, we treat God like the infant Jesus figure in our nativity scenes:
we drag him out for Christmas
and then a few weeks later
we roll him in tissue paper, put him in a box,
and put the box on a shelf in a closet until next year.

Our God wants to be with us always:
our God wants to go to work with us;
raise a family with us;
grow a parish with us;
sit with us in the cafeteria at school;
be in our circle of friends;
and help us make peace in our homes, our families,
and among the nations of our world.

In every moment of our lives, waking or sleeping,
our God wants to be treated as someone real
and not as someone who does not really exist.

Christmas then, always raises the question
asked by the youngster watching The Nativity Story:
“Mom, is this a true story? Did this really happen?”

It really did happen and it’s a true story.
And perhaps more important: it’s still happening and it’s still true.

One of the good things about Christmas
is that it always presents us with a whole new year
to ponder the questions Christ's birth might raise for us.

How’s this for a New Year’s resolution:
“In 2008, I resolve to treat God as someone real in my life,
not as someone who does not really exist.”

Maybe we could “try that on” in the New Year.

The real God, the One born as a child in Bethlehem
is born again among us today at this table of Eucharist.
Bethlehem means, “House of Bread.”
This altar, then, is our Bethlehem,
where God tells us again that we are loved.
This table is our manger
where God feeds us with the bread and cup
of Jesus, born to us a Savior,
Christ and Lord.

*Caryll Houselander in The Comforting of Christ p. 21, quoted in A Child in Winter, edited by Thomas Hoffman.

-ConcordPastor