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Keeping Christ in Christmas Sermon for Christmas Day As Christians living in a secular world, we
worry about keeping Christ in Christmas.
Christmas is celebrated amid tinsel, flashy decorations and mountains
of wrapping paper. It seems to have
lost all religious significance. But
there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that this is a time for joyous
celebration. Nobody really discusses the matter. There are many homes in Canada where no
prayers are offered at Christmas, no carols are sung, no nativity stories are
told. But there can be few homes
where Christmas is not seen as a time for celebration. People like the feelings of joy and
happiness surrounding Christmas. They
greet each other in a different way.
They see it as a time to give and to receive gifts. It is a time of outreach to the poor and
to those in need. Our world becomes
transformed. The celebration is
everywhere. One cannot miss it. As Christians that leaves us feeling at a
loss somehow. Our holy day is eroded,
taken over, somehow demeaned. I was reading recently a short story by
Eugene Peterson. He is the Christian
author of more than a dozen books, but it is his short stories that I have
found really touching. He tells of
the Christmas his family had no tree, and of its devastating effect on
him. He came from a Norwegian
background where the celebration of Christmas, including decorating a tree,
was of great importance. But one
year, shortly before Christmas, his mother read a passage of Scripture from
the prophet Jeremiah which altered their celebration, at least for that one
year. "Thus says the Lord: Learn not the way
of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the
nations are dismayed at them, For the customs of the peoples are false. A tree from the forest is cut down, and
worked with an ax by the hands of a craftsman. They deck it with silver and gold; they fasten it with
hammer and nails so that it cannot move." There was no doubt in her mind that Jeremiah
was speaking about the custom of trimming the Christmas tree. Every detail fit. Shortly before Christmas, the whole family
would bundle up and head out into the country. With a great deal of care, they would choose a beautiful tree
and cut it down. Father would trim
the bottom of the tree and then take nails and hammer four slats to the
bottom of it to hold it in place.
They would bring out the decorations and carefully string lights and
tinsel on the tree. It always had a
place in the window where all of the passers by could see it. But this year Mother insisted that there
should be no tree. Eugene found it
embarrassing. He did not want his
friends to come over to the house as the usually did. But there was no hiding that they did not
have a tree. Everyone expected to see
it in its usual prominent place in the window. He made excuses. But he
was terrified that they would find out the real reason. A religious reason! God had commanded it. Otherwise Christmas was as wonderful as
usual. They went to Church. They heard the Christmas story. They sang the carols. They came home and opened gifts. They had a sumptuous Christmas feast. They reminisced over their childhood
Christmases. Only one person, a rather feisty uncle,
questioned mother over the absence of the tree. “How can you celebrate a Norwegian Christmas without a
tree?” He said to her. “We’re not celebrating a Norwegian Christmas
this year,” she retorted. “We’re
celebrating a Christian Christmas.”
And she read him the passage. The writer goes on to describe his feelings
that Christmas. “They may have been
the most authentically Christmas feelings that I have ever had, or will have:
the experience of humiliation, of being misunderstood, of being an
outsider.” Those are the authentic
feelings of Christmas. For the
Christmas story is a poignant one.
Mary was pregnant out of wedlock.
Joseph was an apparent cuckold.
Jesus was born in poverty.
There was no room for them in the inn. All the joy and celebration and gift receiving in the Gospel
nativity took place in a context of incomprehension and absurdity. Great love was given and received and
celebrated. But behind the story of
the manger is a far greater event, that of the cross. And that event casts a constant shadow on
the celebration. We are called to a sense of joy at
Christmas, a joy that comes from the depth of our being, a joy that rises
from our personal trust in God and from the sense that Emmanuel has
come. God is with us. We often celebrate Christmas as if it were a
dream world of tinsel, and sugar, and twinkling lights. We forget that for those involved it meant
long journeys, homelessness, poverty and sorrow. It also meant God-with-us, presents, songs and joy. May all the wonder of the season be born in
us this day. May we celebrate and
know that God is present with us. May
it be a season of great joy and peace on earth. Amen. |