Merry Christmas.

 

Some of us are glad this day is finally here; we’re almost exhausted by all of the activity that leads up to Christmas.

 

For some of us, this is the first day of Christmas, great with tradition, stretching to Epiphany and the celebration of the gifts of the wise men—Advent has been much more of a reflective time—now comes the activity.

 

I like the Christmas vigil with communion best and a reflective Christmas morning—that is how I keep a faith perspective in the middle of what I think has become a secular and commercial free-for-all.  And, I expect that many of you are here this morning for similar reasons.

 

In fact, the ecumenical lectionary readings for this morning encourage us to remember that Christmas is not the most important faith construct that we believe, or, at least, it is not the only important issue of our faith.  The word for the day surely is Word.  And within that word are three words: Creation, Resurrection, and Incarnation.  Christmas is third on this particular list—and certainly not the first word. 

 

Listen again to the words of John 1: 

“In the beginning was the Word;”

“…all things came into being through [the Word];”

“in him [the Word] was life…the light of all people.”

 

And of Hebrews 1: 

“and in these last days God has spoken to us by a son…through whom he created the worlds…He is the reflection of God’s glory..the exact imprint of God’s very being…”

 

Creation.  Easter.  And then Christmas.

 

Let me show you what I mean.  Take a look at the picture on the bulletin (“God the Sovereign.” Charles de Bouelles. Sixteenth century).  This is one of my all time favorite pictures—but I doubt that it will be on any other Christmas bulletin.  Look at the main parts of this drawing:

 

            The figure of God—this is one of the good reasons we shouldn’t try to draw pictures of God; even Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel figure is less parochial and stereotypically cast in our own image… a 16^th century European, male, imperial King… but, here is God, the sovereign.

 

            Holding the spheres, the darkness, indeed holding time itself, in his hands.

 

            And within that time, is the creation, the original “light into the darkness and void,” including all things and beings; including the human figure, all created by God.

 

            Finally, the voice trumpet, out of which seems to be flowing tongues of flame; the Spirit of God, the active agent in this picture; the actor in producing the creation.

 

Well, clearly this is the first Word—that of “Creation”.  God has an idea and speaks the creation into being—God breathes it into being, if you see the flames as the Spirit—that’s what brooded over the waters; that’s what God “breathed into the dust that became human”. 

 

One of the most important parts of this creation is that it includes time, itself.  God is outside, above time; what that means is that from God’s eternal perspective everything—idea, Word, time, the process of creation and, for that matter, Easter and Christmas and this service, today, too—all take place “Now”.  It’s only we who are limited to understanding things in a consecutive, linear way, through time.  Faith is about God’s perspective—and God’s perspective is one from eternity. 

 

But, the readings also give us a second word:  “Resurrection.”  Even the Isaiah passage:  “[God] has redeemed Jerusalem…the whole earth will see the salvation of our God.”  Easter is about new life and re-creation and God completing all things, bringing all things together back into the circle.  This is the light, as John 1 says: “[which is] the life for all people.”  Resurrection is a faith statement about realizing that God not only makes us, but redeems us from the fragmentation that our selfishness caused and then sustains us and the creation and brings it all into final fulfillment of God’s original idea—the creation that God spoke into being, in the first place.

 

And, then, really, “Christmas” is the third word that helps us understand it.  Some of you will argue that Christmas should be the second word and Easter the third, in logical progression.  OK…don’t focus on that—remember from God’s eternal perspective this is all at once, anyway.  What we have here is God saying:  “OK here’s my thought; Creation.”  And then, “What I mean to say is that it’s all about new life, transformation and bringing the whole cosmos into fulfillment: Easter.”  And then, with a bit of frustration at our not quite understanding, God says, “Oh, just let me show you what I mean: Christmas.”

 

Christmas is God saying, “OK, if this is all too theoretical, then let me make sure you ‘get it’, in your human terms.”  God says: “I’ll put myself inside of the circle.”  So the idea, the thought, the word, “the exact imprint of God’s very being” is pushed by the spirit through the voice trumpet and “becomes flesh and lives among us.”  God’s idea is birthed into our lives. God restricts God’s self to the limits of time.  A human life that is divine.  A 33 year human existence that begins through what we understand as a miracle.  But it’s much more stupendous than simply a miracle:  This is God, creating time and then constraining God’s self to the restrictions of human time so we will see it and begin to understand…so we will “get it”. 

 

What incredible desire.  And what does God want; what is God saying through these words?  What’s behind this awesome display of sovereignty?

 

Well, love, surely.  God’s great desire is to show us how much we are loved; how much the whole creation is loved—and how much God wants us to love.  No matter what selfishness we have gotten into, God’s desire is clear in the Christmas example.  As my friend Bob Bedingfield used to say every Sunday:  “God loves you more than anything else.”

 

But, justice, as well.  Rightness. Balance. Equity—those are God’s ideas, according to the scriptures.  And it is justice that Christmas demonstrates, all the way across the spectrum from our understanding of atonement to the practical examples of how we treat each other.  In the coming of Christ, through his teaching and presence, justice is demonstrated  through and in reconciliation—that’s what we understand most clearly on our very personal level.  God is seeking to reconcile the whole cosmos to God’s self, and invites us to be part of that reconciling.  Christmas shows us how that works.

 

And peace—or unity may be the better word, for the Christmas kind of peace is much more than the absence of conflict.  It’s not good enough to no longer fight with each other—as brothers and sisters under the Christmas tree or among our churches or between nations.  The answer to anger or violence or terrorism is not war—it is peace. 

 

Christmas peace is the positive presence of intimate relationship.  God’s idea—the ideas behind the language of John 1 and Hebrews 1—is buried in the mystery of the trinity—God in relationship with God’s self—the relationship among the three persons of the Trinity.  And the only way our time limited minds can begin to understand that is through the demonstration that is Christmas. Creator. Christ. Spirit.  The “exact imprint of God’s very being.”  If we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t need more words in order to know what that means for our behavior and our lives.  Love.  Reconciliation.  Peace.  You can’t argue with what that means for our lives when the definitive example is right there in front of you.

 

The word is “Christmas”.  And it is right there in the middle of the picture, in the middle of our complicated, sometimes messy and mixed up lives, not just once, and not just long ago, but every day, all the time.  Now.  Is that a gift we can get our minds around, or what?

 

 So, Merry Christmas!

 

In the name of God.  Creator, Christ, and Holy Spirit.  Amen.