As preached by Brother Luke
Holy Wisdom Temple
Christmas is the gift-giving season. The Christian pedigree of this gift-giving activity goes back at least to the three wise men who came bearing gifts when they visited Jesus and his family. Jesus at the time was maybe 2 years old if we use Herod's reckoning. In this setting we can see that gift-giving is a recognized part of the tradition.
How this tradition is lived out varies greatly from family to family and I would guess from age to age and culture to culture. In some cultures, the gift giving is on St Nicholas Day, in others St Barbara and in many European countries it is New Year’s Day. We no longer think of the 12 days of Christmas as being the 12 days following Christmas, rather it is the month preceding Christmas. At some time long past the feast was celebrated from Christmas through the New Year right up to Theophany, or as in our tradition, to the Encounter February 2nd. Now that is lost. Christmas Day comes and goes and quickly the season shifts to New Year’s Day and beyond. The Western church has created Advent to focus attention on the anticipation of this feast. Nevertheless, the culture governs much of how this feast is celebrated.
I remember asking my father what Christmas was like when he was a youngster. And that was long ago since he was born in 1906. He said the tree and all the trimmings and presents were brought into the house Christmas Eve and the celebration was Christmas Day, not before. And in those days the lights on the tree were candles and not electric lights. That would make any modern-day OSHA official’s hair stand on end! I knew some families who would open their presents on Christmas Eve. In my family, Susie and I felt we were at a disadvantage with other kids in the neighborhood. We were allowed to open our Christmas stocking but nothing else until after Christmas breakfast, and that only happened after my father drove to my grandparents’ house and brought them over to our house for breakfast followed by the gathering around the tree. By that time the neighborhood kids were already riding their new bikes or testing out their skate boards. Notice I didn’t mention going to church on Christmas Day. Church remembrance of Christmas would be on the closest Sunday to Christmas plus a Christmas concert during that period.
So, was Christ missing from these Christmas celebrations? Not at all. We had the usual nativity creche on the mantle or near the tree. Christmas carols were sung carrying the message of Christ’s birth. And how can we not notice the way children live out the anticipation of this feast? So, excitement around this event is there. We need to channel that excitement to the deeper meaning of the event.
And if we take this morning’s readings to heart we may see a dimension of the Christmas celebration that can be easily overlooked. This celebration is about a very special birth. Jeremiah prophesies that God would raise up a righteous shoot to David. Hence last Sunday we remembered the ancestors of Christ; a lineage that includes King David. The birth of this child, depicted in many popular hymns and carols, make that point.
This feast is about a child and draws in the perspective of children; but that does not leave adults out. The nativity of Christ is about new life and how that new life connects all of us to God’s larger purpose. St Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, gives us a related insight on this very special birth when he writes that God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts to make us all children of God and thereby God’s heirs. I like to look at that as also as an invitation to us to become children at heart. After all, Jesus said: Allow the little children to come to me. We too are to meet Jesus with the open heart of a child.
God gives himself to us through the incarnation. And what a gift this is! A connection to the divine, becoming heirs of God. It all begins with the birth of a child. Notice how all the other actors in this scene are depicted: the shepherds, angels and even the Wise Men approach this event with joy and celebration. Children and their anticipation, enthusiasm and joyful spirit, are integral to the Christmas celebration so let us join them! Let us open our hearts to the reality that God, through his son, has entered our hearts. Now we are called to take that reality to heart and to live it to the full every day that God gives us to live.
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
