Christmas 2011

Sermon for Christmas, 2011

Reverend Gregg Wood

One of the themes of this Christmas Festival, as we celebrate it in America, is home and family. Christmas is a time to be at home with one's family.

In many ways, Christianity is not a family-centered religion. Rather, it is a congregation-centered religion. Most of the important events in our religion take place in a church building, with a congregation participating. But at Christmas, we become more family centered. Many of the important customs connected with Christmas take place in the context of home and family.

Think of Santa Claus. While it may be possible to visit Santa at the shopping mall, the only way Santa delivers his gifts is to each home individually. And how does Santa get into our houses? Through the chimney. Traditionally, the fireplace has always been considered the central place in the house -- the source of heat, symbolizing human warmth, or love.  So Santa makes his entrance through the chimney and the fireplace, and in this way, he supports the family centeredness of Christmas.

Think of the Christmas tree. While it is true that Rockefeller Center, the White House, and other public places have Christmas trees, the custom of the tree is that every home should have one, if possible.  Christmas trees are big business because this custom is so popular. Decorating the tree is often a festive occasion for the family.

Think of giving and receiving presents. Again, it is the custom for the family to open presents together, in the home, around the Christmas tree. This is a time for all family members, young and old, to express their appreciation for one another through tangible gifts.

And finally, think about Christmas dinner. The custom is that it is a family meal, and it is taken at home. In fact, so strong is this custom that many restaurants actually close on Christmas Day, for two reasons: they don't anticipate much business and also so that their employees may spend the day at home with their families.

I grew up in a fairly large family (I had three siblings). Thanks to my father, every aspect of Christmas preparations and celebration became a major family event, from the buying of the tree, to decorating it, to going to church as a family.

But the great event was always Christmas dinner. It was a big extended family meal. Often we had grandparents from both sides of the family, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Our dining room table was not large enough to accommodate so many people so we set up a ping-pong table and sat around it so there would be enough room to seat everyone at the same table.

I have wonderful memories of the family-centered Christmases of my childhood. Now those memories are touched with sadness, as they may be for many of you, because many of the people I remember are no longer with us. As one beautiful prayer puts it, they do indeed “rejoice with us, but upon another shore, and in a greater light.”

Now if we look at the stories of Jesus’ birth and infancy, we find a story about a family, to be sure -- the holy family, Mary, Joseph and Jesus. But it has very little resemblance to the happy home celebrations that I remember from my childhood. Instead, it is a story about fear, persecution, and midnight flight.

Remember that there are two distinct stories of Jesus' birth, one from Matthew and the other from Luke's. In Matthew’s story, King Herod sees the baby Jesus as a threat to his power, so he seeks to destroy him. So Mary and Joseph have to flee into Egypt, in the middle of the night.

Then there is the story according to Luke which we just heard as the gospel.

In this story, Mary and Joseph are forced by an imperial decree to go to Bethlehem, Joseph's ancestral home, to be enrolled for a tax.  (It's bad enough to be forced to travel somewhere against your will; but to do it just so you can pay a tax adds insult to injury!)  And when they finally arrive, the inn cannot accommodate them, so the newborn child is laid in the manger, a feeding trough for animals, probably in a stable. Nearby, shepherds see a vision of angels which tell them to visit the baby.

Again, in Luke's story as in Matthews, there is forced travel and hardship.

Think of how some people will be spending this Christmas.

Think of a family of refugees in Somalia, on the road, no roof over their heads, wondering which will get them first -- the cold, their lack of food, or the soldiers who ravage like wolfpacks.

Think of holiday travelers during a storm, stranded for hours or days in airports, unable to get flights which will take them home.

Think of an elderly lady, sitting alone in her small apartment, thinking of her dead husband in the home they built and shared many, many years ago.

Think of an eight-year-old girl cutting out a paper chain for a small tree in the living room of their inner-city apartment, keeping watch over her baby brother while her mother is out on the street trying to buy drugs.

Think of soldiers in Afghanistan, keeping a lonely and dangerous watch during the year’s longest nights, thinking of their homes and families far away.

All of these people face fear, loneliness, insecurity, and actual danger, as did Mary, Joseph and their baby that first Christmas. There doesn't seem to be much joy or much to celebrate in these situations.

And yet there is one group of people who go against the grain of the stories. They too traveled far from their home. They too faced danger from the authorities. Who are they? They are the magi, who are sometimes called the "wise men". They followed a star which led them to the child who was prophesied to become King of the Jews.  They have every reason to be afraid, but that is not their attitude.

Instead we read in Matthew 2:10: when the magi saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. The KJV puts it this way: when they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

The magi had their priorities right. And that's why they rejoiced with an exceeding great joy. That's why they broke out their expensive gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh, and laid them at the feet of the child. It didn't matter that they were hundreds of miles from home; it didn't matter that they weren't surrounded by their families; it didn't matter that there wasn't any fireplace or Christmas tree; it didn't matter that they were out on the road at Christmas time and that they would soon be out on the road again.

What mattered was that they had found Jesus.  And having found him, they worshipped him.

  **For where Jesus is, there is peace, the peace that passes understanding**

**And where Jesus is, there is love**

            **And wherever Jesus is, that’s where home really is**