The other day I was having lunch with a member of our community and I was approached by a woman with a big grin on her face. “I just have to tell you how much I enjoyed the Greek Festival,” she said. Oh boy, here we go again I thought to myself. “Yeah I know; the food is really good, blah blah blah.” But then she finished her sentence. “I wanted to thank you for allowing us to go in the Church. It was just beautiful. I thought afterward how much more work we Protestants have to do building our Churches. When I was in your Church, I really felt like God was there. Thank you!” WOW! Thank God our minds don’t always say what we’re thinking! For the first time ever the conversation was about God and the Church and NOT about food. Praise God! It really put me in the mood for Christmas.
What a great gift this woman gave me, and I know she has no idea how much it meant to hear her words. But you know; she’s right. You really can feel God in the Church and not just during Divine Liturgy. And it’s all because of tonight. It’s all because the Word of God became flesh. It’s all because of Christmas.
Now compare that to something else I heard the other day. Again I was with a member of our Community (this time a different member) and a question came up about Christmas. “Were Mary and Joseph homeless?” Believe it or not this is a very popular question, because as we just heard, Mary “brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2.7) I’m not really surprised by this question because politicians have been pulling at our emotional heart strings for many years comparing Jesus’ birth in a stable (although we Orthodox know it was a cave) and the plight of the poor of our society today. It is unfortunate that people take advantage of high emotion around these seasons of joy and celebration to guilt people into giving money to the poor. This simply is NOT the Tradition of the Orthodox Church. Charity is an act of love not guilt.
To stay in the spirit of Christmas from our Holy Orthodox Tradition, then, I will NOT pander to those politicians and media mongers who so desperately seek to find fault and hypocrisy with Christians in general and Christmas more specifically. Instead I’m going to talk about what this woman felt in our Church…the presence of God.
Ever since God created the Universe He has revealed His presence to His creation. In the Garden of Eden He walked with Adam and Eve. After the fall, humanity no longer had the privilege of walking physically with God, but He never forgot us. Whether He spoke from a burning bush or manifested Himself as a pillar of cloud and fire in the desert (Exodus 13.22), God has never stopped revealing Himself to us. But, since the Garden we were never able to physically know His presence, until tonight…well 2000 years tonight to be exact.
This is the beauty of Christmas. The same God, Who created the Universe from nothing, who knows how many thousands of years ago, desired for us to be restored to the image we had lost. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1.14) This is what this woman felt when she entered our Church. The glory of God, real and true, is present right now on the Holy Altar. She could only have felt His presence because He was born, which is why we are all hear right now in this Church.
There were no politics on that first Christmas night 2000 years ago. There was just joy; joy because the Savior had been born, not just any savior, but Christ the Savior. That’s why the angels burst out in song when they were telling the shepherds the news. “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2.14) God has come to save us from this awful world full of pain and suffering and sin. God has come so that we might live a new life with Him in Heaven right now. We don’t have to wait until we die to enjoy the gift of Christmas. It’s not wrapped in a box that says, “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL JUDGMENT DAY!” We have been GIVEN eternal life. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but HAVE eternal life” (John 3.16)
Christmas isn’t about decorations and candy and turkey and eggnog. It IS about gifts, well one gift anyway, the gift of life. The gift of Christmas is nonrefundable, nontransferable and nonnegotiable and it has YOUR name on it, just for YOU. Merry Christmas and by the way….Mary and Joseph were NOT homeless on Christmas. They were traveling to Bethlehem for the Roman census.
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