So this is Christmas.
Does it still matter?
We’ve been bombarded by the sites and the sounds of the holiday season long before Thanksgiving.
That great day of thanks was highlighted by the official start of the shopping season marked by “Black Friday.”
As the day approaches, we’re running around still searching for the right gift, decorating the house with twinkling lights, putting up the tree, and creating the holiday menu.
But is there any more meaning to the day?
On Christmas, the churches will be filled with worshippers who attend faithfully each week and those who attend once or twice a year.
Why do those who never go to church the rest of the year faithfully attend on Christmas? Is it just tradition, or is there something more meaningful at work.
If we look closely at the story of the first Christmas, we see there is something there for everyone, something that touches us in a most basic and human way.
Start with Mary, the virgin who learns she is with child. An unwed, single mother with no future.
Then there is Joseph, a man older than Mary, betrothed to her. A nice guy, he decides to quietly divorce Mary.
So there you have it, before we even get started we have a teenage mother, much pain, dishonor, disgrace and a broken family. Basically, the human condition in a nutshell.
In their dreams, what they perceive to be God tells them what to do next. Against what most of us would consider good judgment, they go forward and marry.
But then comes the next turn. They have to travel to Joseph’s hometown to be counted. Basically, they have no place to stay, no job, no money and no family to help. They’re homeless.
Mary gives birth in the barn. Then come the travelers from afar. They are searching for something, too. They bring gifts, place them before the child, and leave.
Isn’t all of this just like us — struggling to mend broken relationships, hoping to make right what was wronged in our lives even when it makes no sense, never feeling quite at home or at ease, even in our home town, and traveling the world over looking for an answer?
Christians consider this story to be the greatest event in human history, when God became one of us.
If it is so, God had to become like us to the core. Weak, fearful, unsure, unwelcome, alone, but willing to trust something we don’t even understand.
And if that is so, then we must look at our fellow travelers in this life, even those considered the lowest of the low, the down and out, the poor, the jobless, the homeless, the refugees, the unwed teenage mothers, and see in their faces the light of God?
And if we do see that, shouldn’t we look into their eyes and give them the sacred gifts of love and peace?
So this is Christmas.