This week there are too many readings to list, but you won't go wrong reading the first few chapters of Matthew, Luke, or John!  So here's some more general thoughts on Christmas.

In the heart of winter, a time of shorter days, and – usually – lower temperatures, it’s easy to get downhearted, particularly when we are so continuously bombarded by headlines and news articles telling us how the world is doomed – whether it be by war, plastic, or climate change….  Those may be particular 21st Centurty problems, but the general malaise of winter is almost certainly why our ancestors put Christmas where it is in the calendar – offering its respite of joy, festivity, and celebration.  Rather than distracting, though, if we can scrape beneath the glitter, gifts, and feasting, we discover that really it is into the heart of this darkness that Christmas truly speaks.   

It speaks into our experience of facing seemingly impossible tasks, and the loss of all our dreams as we stand alongside a terrified teenage mother; it speaks into our experiences of uncertainty, and disruption as we draw alongside the shepherds on the hillside, carrying out their nightly tasks unaware of the change about to come; it speaks into our longing to find a better way, and the hope that something out there can finally make a difference, as we accompany the Magi, journeying across unknown lands, driven by a sense of purpose beyond their comprehension...

But mostly it speaks of a God who didn’t stand apart from the sufferings, worries, and fears of the world, but chose instead to enter into the frailty of human existence, not in power or spectacle but through the birth of a child in an almost ridiculously humble setting.  It speaks of a God who drew close to us, to show us that the hope that we all carry somewhere inside of us that this is not it is true.  A God who, having become human, lived a life that showed in so many ways that the dream we share of eternity – the dream that makes us so discontented with the way things are -the dream of the vastness of the joy and wonder of his Kingdom to come, is not a pipe-dream, is not pie-in-the-sky, but something that can be made manifest even in the here and now, even in the midst of suffering.  It was there in life-changing ways as He walked, talked, and loved amongst a people as worried, hopeful, sorrowful and joyful as any one of us – it was there in every moment of his kindness, compassion, and generosity – and it’s still here to be found, cherished, and shared.  

Because it’s as true today as it was in that stable 2,000 years ago, that in each of our acts of kindness, in every choice we make to forgive, and in every gesture of compassion, we can participate in God’s ongoing work of making himself known and present in the world.  

So as we journey through this Christmas season, let’s do so in a way that embraces that hope, that manifests that hope, that brings that hope to birth in our hearts, in our lives, and in the lives of those around us – for, where meek hearts will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in.

Wishing you a holy, blessed, and wonderful Christmas,