Above you'll find the audio for my homily for Christmas Eve. While in Georgetown, I don't have the services of my faithful videographer which I especially missed this weekend because I used some props in my homily. (Some may remember that I've used these props before - but the larger share of the rest of my homily is new.) I began with comparing the differences in how a woman or a man might open a Christmas gift. On the audio, you'll easily pick up the feminine approach - and her finally finding a gift of colorful socks. The masculine approach is verbal - I opened the gift card - and shook it to see if a some cash or a check might fall out - then I opened the gift box and threw the tissue paper inside all over the sanctuary floor. All this I did at a small table in the middle of the sanctuary and the pick up on the mic wasn't perfect. But the main portion of my homily was delivered at the ambo where the sound is fine. Between the audio above and the text below - I think it will come together for you! (If a video doesn't appear above - click here!)
A man. “Thank you.. Socks – they look great.”
Wrapping and unwrapping. Christmas is all about wrapping and unwrapping. Gifts under the tree? Yes. But even more… Christmas is about the Divine on wrapping itself and revealing to the human mind, to the human heart, imagination, conscience, and intuition - unwrapping for us to see - what is true, holy and wise.
This all began with Divinity wrapping itself in Mary's womb. For nine months, Divinity was hidden in the body of a young Jewish woman. After a few months, of course, everybody could see just by looking at Mary that she was carrying a gift, wrapped in her own flesh and bone.
And then Mary delivered her gift, and in unwrapping her child, she gave us Jesus - the very Word of God, the truth and peace of God - in the flesh.
And curiously, as soon as Mary unwrapped Jesus from her room, she wrapped him up again - in swaddling clothes. She wrapped him - so that he might feel like he was still in the womb - where it had been so warm and so close and intimate and safe.
And having wrapped him in swaddling clothes, you know what she did next? She put him in a box. She put Jesus in a box - a feed box - that goes by the name manger. A feed box. If you know a little bit of French, you know that the word manger comes from manger, to eat. How appropriate then that Jesus in the last hours of his life would wrap himself in food and drink in bread and wine - that we might eat and drink of his love, that he would become food for our souls, that we might take him into ourselves, into the womb of our heart, and carry him there, as did Mary, his mother.
Mary wrapped Jesus in swaddling clothes, and now Jesus wants to swaddle us, to wrap us in his mercy, his peace, in his arms.
Wrapping and unwrapping.
Well, is there anything practical in all of this? Is there some lesson here that extends beyond Christmas Eve and into our daily lives?
There is.
Jesus calls you and me, not just on December 24 or 25th, but on every day of the year, Jesus calls all of us to unwrap ourselves as gifts for each other… To unwrap myself and to offer my neighbor my mercy, my peace, my arms. The Lord calls me to embrace and keep safe those who live on the margins of my family. The margins of my neighborhood, on the edge of society. And the Lord calls you and me to feed and to nourish others with our own resources: to feed those who are hungry for food and hungry for freedom; to slake the thirst of those who are thirsty for justice and for dignity.
Jesus unwrapped his divinity by surrendering all that was rightfully his, as the Son of God. Now he calls on me and you, he calls on me to surrender what may seem to be rightfully mine - but in doing so, reveal the image of God within me, the image of God within you - the divine image in which each of us was created. Jesus calls on me to unwrap myself - to free me to wrap others in all that I have to offer.
Making this message practical means applying it to every situation we find in our families, in our nation, in the news, in the world.
So…
- whatever the question, the tension, the conflict or dilemma I face
- no matter who I perceive to be my adversary, my enemy, my opponent, my rival
- in spite of how convinced justified, confident, and certain I am of my take on things,
- regardless of how hard I've worked to have what I have, to own what I own
this night and every day, Jesus calls me to unwrap myself: first, to see what I have to offer, and then to discern how, in humility, I might thank God for all my blessings - and devise how I might begin to share them more freely with others.
The greatest gift I have to give at Christmas - is the very same gift I have to offer every day of the year.
The greatest gift I have to give at Christmas is the humbling of myself to the message of Jesus - that I love my neighbor as myself.
The greatest gift I have to unwrap at Christmas is the free offering of the bounty that's mine to those who have so much less, or nothing at all.
The greatest gift I have to give at Christmas is the surrender of myself to the love of God, who surrendered himself for me in Jesus, his son - in Jesus, my neighbor, my sister and brother at home at work, next door, anywhere around the world, anywhere where Christ is wrapped and bound: in the grip of hunger and homelessness; in the terror of war; or in the chains of injustice.
God is smart! God unwrapped himself as a newborn child because he knew we would be drawn to a baby - who isn't drawn to a baby – “Can I hold a baby?”
He revealed himself that was so that we would reach out to care for, to protect and defend one so innocent, helpless, and dependent on others for life itself and for love.
If this message tonight hasn't made each of us feel at least a little uncomfortable - then I have not been as clear as I wanted to be.
In unwrapping divinity as a child, as an infant, God delivered himself into our hands as vulnerable, defenseless, exposed, unarmed, fragile, powerless. You know: human…
As human as the person, as the people, I am least inclined to acknowledge and welcome, and accept and embrace, and love as the brothers and sisters they are.
So, perhaps we can pray tonight that first: we find that Christmas grace to unwrap ourselves for the sake of others. And second, that we do that unwrapping with the attention and the care - with which a woman unwraps a Christmas gift. And with the urgency in the drive - with which a man does the same thing.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. In Hebrew, Bethlehem means "house of bread.” So we are gathered in this house of bread, this house of the Eucharist. We go to the Lord's table, where once again, this Christmas Eve, Jesus will wrap himself - in gifts of bread and wine - to feed and swaddle us in his mercy, in his peace and in his love.
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