ISAIAH 9:2-4,6-7

PSALM 96

TITUS 2:11-14

LUKE 2:1-20

Sermon – Christmas Eve 12/24/02

Christmas Day 12/25/02

“O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie! Above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by, yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting Light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”

Christmas cannot possibly live up to the expectations so many people have for it. More than any other day of the year, Christmas is emotionally loaded – loaded with memories, loaded with anxieties, loaded with hopes, many of which are unrealistic.

Many people, I think, may have an idealized “snow globe” image of a wonderful Christmas that may be hard to realize, a composite of the best experiences (perhaps polished by a kind memory) and deepest wishes of a lifetime.

My “snow globe” of Christmas-time memories of years ago includes Christmas carols in a dark, candlelit church, the Christmas Eve ride out to the old family homestead in the country while snuggled between my siblings and under a blanket in the backseat of the family car as decorative snow flurries drifted down from the sky followed by a feast (with cousins!) at the longest table I’d ever seen in front of the largest Christmas tree I’d ever seen in a room that seemed vast to six-year-old eyes, the evening completed by the reading aloud of the birth of Christ from the King James version of the Bible. Then home to sleep, to awake to breakfast with Christmas stockings and presents around the fireplace, followed by Christmas dinner and more presents at grandmother’s house. In my “snow globe” image, at least, everyone is truly glad to see each other, joyous, generous and kind, homes are secure in every sense, roads safe, people healthy. I’m not sure I want to know how close the “reality” was to this.

Peoples’ “snow globe” Christmas images may, in fact, be more like their visions of heaven than of experienced reality, past or present – but sometimes people try to create “a perfect Christmas” themselves, usually setting themselves up for disappointment, sometimes crushing disappointment. It’s like trying to create heaven ourselves, a job best left to the Expert.

So much is loaded on one holiday. Some people pin their hopes on getting a certain something for Christmas – or on being able to give those closest to them certain presents, or any presents at all. Some people hope that this Christmas they will look the way they always wanted to look: “lose 30 lbs. by Christmas” the supermarket magazines have shouted all fall. I wonder how many people have in a healthy way, and how others feel.

And it’s “Christmas bonus” time and the envelope holds – hmm, maybe less than expected, and maybe nothing. And maybe our mailboxes are less full with best wishes from far-flung family and friends than we hoped. It’s time for Christmas visits, with visions of “the perfect family gathering” (looking nothing like the Griswold’s “Christmas Vacation”) dancing in our heads. It’s time for quality, classic Christmas entertainment...but how to find something that everyone in a family is interested in going to enthusiastically – and which is affordable, and not sold out?

So in the last days before Christmas a certain air of desperation afflicts some people – especially those who are convinced that Christmas is something that can (and has to be!) bought. Yesterday, the Paramus Mall shut its entrance because no more cars could fit in it; how many of those turned away felt that "their Christmas had been ruined"?

Some who think in this way ultimately become “Christmas drop-outs.” I recently had a man tell me that for him “Christmas was just another day” because he “couldn’t afford Christmas.” How utterly sad that he thought that’s all there is to Christmas.

For some people, though, malls don’t figure in their Christmas plans but other dreams do. Some may say “I just want to make it home for Christmas”, or “I just want so-and-so with me for Christmas.” The bottom line for others may be “I just want to get through Christmas without anybody in the family getting drunk”, or “I just want to be able to put a meal on the table and call it ‘Christmas dinner’”. Or perhaps “I just want to be able to not lose the house until after Christmas.”

The sadness for some goes deeper still, because of empty places at the table: those they love who are no longer alive. That’s part of many peoples’ Christmases – but for some the absences are overwhelming.

These are some of many reasons Christmas can be the most difficult time of the year, so that even the many people who have good or even wonderful Christmases would do well to be diplomatic and understanding with others.

But in the midst of al these joys and sorrows, where’s Jesus? Isn’t this, wasn’t this, originally all about him?

In scanning the American culture in December, “Where’s Jesus” can be like the “Where’s Waldo” game – if you try hard, you can find him. Is he locked in a “snow globe” image of idyllic, serene perfection, remote from our world, a picture we can only look at, from the outside, with longing?

“Where’s Jesus?” He’s right here with us in this, our real world.

According to both the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus’ conception was miraculous, without sexual activity, a sign of the divine becoming incarnate as a human being for the first and only time in history. All of which didn’t make it easy for Mary to understand – or to talk about. Have trouble talking to your mother – or daughter – lately? Mary’s been there.

This miracle also was impossible for Joseph to believe until he had heard directly from an angel himself, so, according to Matthew, Joseph had resolved “to divorce Mary quietly.” He changed his mind after God put him in the loop, of course, but this doesn’t sound much like a “snow globe” image of no stress tranquility.

This turn of events also meant that Joseph, raised in a very traditional, chauvinistic culture in which men were in charge had to come to understand that God had chosen Mary to bear the Messiah without consulting Joseph first –

and that being an adoptive (not biological) father and a Dad was a very, very important position. Struggling with cultural change? Joseph understands.

According to Luke, the Imperial Roman government mandated a census based on people’s ancestral home towns, not current residence, so that Mary (8 ¾ months pregnant) had to travel, by donkey, from Nazareth to Bethlehem simply because her fiancées family used to live there! Feel hassled by traveling at the holidays? Mary and Joseph understand.

According to Luke, when Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem the only place they could stay was a barn, where she gave birth. Upset about the quality and convenience of health care? That was Jesus’ first experience. And the only visitors they had at Christmas were some smelly shepherds working the third shift, strangers they had never met before. Would you like them knocking on your door in the middle of the night, asking to see your newborn?

According to Matthew the only visitors the Holy Family had were the wise men, mysterious strangers from the East, who may not have even spoken Mary and Joseph’s language – no conversation is recorded. And then, Matthew tells us, the Holy family had to flee to another country as refugees because the local ruler, a homicidal maniac named Saddam – sorry, named King Herod – was going to massacre all the boys under two years old in Bethlehem in an effort to kill the Savior.

Worried about terrorism? Jesus has been there – and ultimately he experienced the terrors of violence to the fullest extent.

And finally, after Herod’s death, the Holy Family still feared to go back to Bethlehem but relocated to a safer place. Ever wonder where is home? Jesus, Mary and Joseph understand the question well.

This is a “snow globe”? Sounds an awful lot like our world. And that’s exactly the point.

Whatever your Christmas is like, Jesus understands it and can fill it with his presence. There is no joy so great that Christ cannot raise it to greater heights, there is not disappointment so bitter or sorrow so profound that he cannot come into it with his love right now and the true hope he offers of eternal life and joy beyond all description. This is Christmas, the celebration of the birth of hope and joy in the Savior who is come and no one and nothing can stop. Merry or not at Christmas we always get a present: Christ’s presence where we really are, and our hope of being where he is.

(The Rev.) Francis A. Hubbard

St. Barnabas Episcopal Church