THE CHRISTMAS GREETING The Rev. Rali Weaver

I must admit that it is difficult not to give the same Christmas Greeting to you each year. I mean the story is the same right?

It doesn’t even really matter which story you tell. You could tell the traditional story of the Jesus’ birth or focus on Santa or the Red Nosed Reindeer or the Grinch Who Stole Christmas or the Scrooge and the point is pretty much the same. Christmas comes each year to remind us that things can get really mucky but there is always some light some love or some beauty that if we turn our hearts and eyes to we will see more clearly.

However there are countless distractions to that message. There are decorations to put up, and presents to wrap and cards to sign. All these distractions make it hard sometimes to remember what the Spirit of Christmas is and hold it in our hearts.

Not to mention that at this time of year we are often surrounded by thwarted expectations, disappointments and heightened frustrations. The Christmas season often feels as an obstacle course with countless impediments to perfection, which make it impossible to feel the joy and see the light.

How many of you weren’t able to afford that perfect Christmas present for someone, or spent more money than you wanted to, or are missing relatives and friends who couldn’t be with you this season or missing a loved one who has died?

Christmas, as wonderful of a season as it is, is also a time when we are confronted with all the things that haven’t gone exactly as we wanted them to. A time we are confronted with our losses and grief, and a time when we recognize another year has passed with goals that have not been accomplished, and a world that is not quite as perfect as we had hoped it would be. Being surrounded by light and hope at a time you feel lost or sad can be very disconcerting and all the Santa’s and Mistletoe and Holly and lights cannot take that away.

Perhaps this is why we see so many signs and images asking us to “put the Christ back into Christmas”. But I am not certain that focusing solely on the story of Jesus’ birth would change any of our distraction or confusion at this time of year. Not only are we surrounded by the secular Christmas messages and the countless other holidays competing for this same season the gospel stories do not offer us a cohesive tale about the Christ birth. We are all accustomed to thinking of a herald of angels, shepherds abiding in the fields, the star of Bethlehem, the virgin Mary giving birth in a stable and the three wise men or kings coming to pay homage to the newborn. But in truth there are two distinctly different gospel stories that have been melded into the one image that we recreate in our nativity scenes and Christmas Pageants each year. And of the four Gospel stories only two mention Jesus’ birth story at all.

Our Puritan forbearers did not consider December 25^th the definitive date of Jesus’ birth anyway because the date which was not chosen until the mid fourth century and seemed to have more to do with the pagan festivals of Yule and the birthday of the Sun God Mithras.

In fact a decade or so after our founding the city of Boston banned Christmas because to the Puritan mind the games and feasting did not resemble the true spirit of Jesus’ life. Not to mention that Wassailing had often turned violent.

So you see this battle for what Christmas should be is centuries old (if not millennia old).

How could we in our time possibly get it right?

I believe that the answer written in the words of the new scripture we read this Christmas Eve.

In fact I believe that the opening chapter of the Book of John might have the most honest and true account of the incarnation of Jesus.

Because in the book of John we are not given a manger or angels or shepherds or magi in John we are simply confronted with the beginning.

“In the beginning there was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.”

The Gospel of John was written after the other gospels were around 100ad to a crowd in Ephesus most likely in order to better define Christianity to the Greeks.

Explaining the Christ Story to the Greeks had some specific problems.

For example, to the Jewish people genealogies were very important. As a result two of the Gospels have descriptions (albeit different) of Jesus lineage.

But to the Greeks family history was not an important qualifier. The Greeks also weren’t familiar with the term Messiah and Apocalyptic literature made little sense to them. The problem John faced in writing his Gospel was how to create a message that explained Jesus in ways that both Greeks and Jews could understand.

Now Jews were familiar with the Light (and God said let there be light).

And Greeks were familiar with the word (reason or logos).

Greeks looked at the world and saw order as evidenced by night and day, and the seasons.

The author of our Gospel text, re imagined the incarnation of Jesus within the context of the Word being made flesh and dwelling among us.

As Greeks saw the world there were two realities. The one we live in with it’s shadows and disappointments and imperfections and the real world full of the great realities of which our own existence is only a pale comparison.

Plato systematized this way of thinking in his doctrine of forms and ideas. To Plato, somewhere there was a perfect pattern to everything that we see in shadow. The problem was how to get from this world of copies to the great reality. And this is what our Author declares that Jesus is able to do for us.

“That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that came into the world”

John is talking about the Real Light which lighteth every person that comes into the world.

And it follows in Greek thought that every action of Jesus was not only and act in time but a window into this real reality. The signs that John writes of later in his gospel are not simply markers pointing in a direction but act more as windows to this greater reality.

Even in the Jewish understanding the word was considered more than just sound but something with independent existence that is alive.

So here our author melds these two communities as no other Gospel could, reminding us that the Logos, the word, the divine energy, that cannot be created nor destroyed –dwelt among us in our present existence for a while and in so doing sets us free to live in the greater truth.

And this is the real beauty of the Gospel of John. It is not caught up in the details of virgin births or messiahs but pares down to the essential truth so that we can receive it.

And here we find the real truth of this Christmas. It is not how much tinsel we put on the tree, or whether we spend our day worshiping in church or unwrapping packages or feeding the homeless or traveling to visit our loved ones.

The true Christmas is the reminder that the mistletoe and holly are but dim reminders of the true love, and joy that has been here on earth since the beginning, and is available to us right now amidst all the distractions of this world.

The real spirit of Christmas is a reminder for each of us that we were given a great gift that has nothing to do with packages or bows or Christmas cookies or shepherds these are but dim reflections of the true light which lighteth every heart and mind..

The real truth in every Christmas is that we are already dwelling in the light that has been here on earth since the beginning of time. All of your worldly woes are but distractions from that pure grace and truth and love.

It does not matter what story you tell because it is light of love that is the real and true bright and shining promise of Christmas. All that is required is that we open our hearts and minds and receive.