The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, Who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testifies concerning Him. He cries out, saying, “This was He of Whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” From the fullness of His grace we have all received one blessing after another. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, Who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. (John 1:14-18)
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For the last few days I’ve been dealing with a bit of a personal tragedy as I prepared this message. In spite of my best efforts, I’ve been unable to find my copy of my favourite Charles Dickens work: “A Christmas Carol.” I know I have it. I know it’s somewhere. But can I figure out where it is? Not right now anyway. It’s somewhere in my house. That much I’m convinced of. I really wanted to find it because I wanted to check something out - perhaps largely inconsequential, but I like precision, so this actually bothers me. It’s a quote. I remember it coming from the lips of the Ghost of Christmas Present in the great 1951 movie version of “A Christmas Carol,” but I really wanted to find out if Dickens wrote it, or if it came from Noel Langley, who adapted the story for that movie. Alas, I’ve not been able to confirm it. So, it comes either from Dickens of Langley, but whichever one of them wrote it, it’s an important statement: “the child born in Bethlehem does not live just one day of the year, but all 365 days of the year!” And so he does!
For some reason, though, that seems very easy to forget, and it's the simple, really unimportant things that you notice. A friend of mine on Facebook posted this on Boxing Day: “Kind of sad really ... We prepare for days in anticipation of Christmas Day, and now it seems like it never happened. By that, I mean that we have the same hustle and bustle as we had before Christmas. It is supposed to be a time to pause and reflect on our blessings, but people aren't standing still long enough to take notice.” He was probably right about that. The night after Christmas Day, for example, one thing that stood out for me was how few people had bothered to put their Christmas lights on. It was as if Christmas was over and we couldn't be bothered anymore. It seems that the “spirit of Christmas” is now about the lead-up to the big day, with the shopping and the parties leading up to a virtual glut of gift-opening on December 25, probably a nice dinner, and then? Well, and then it seems to be over. The 12 days of Christmas? Remember them? Today is Day 6 - 6 geese a laying as the song says. But what's the point. On most people's calendar, Christmas is over. A new year beckons; it's back to work soon. And the Christmas spirit departs - much lamented, perhaps, but why lament that the spirit of Christmas doesn't last very long after December 25? Instead of lamenting the absence of the Christmas spirit, why don't we just commit ourselves to living by the Christmas spirit of peace and giving and generosity all year long? Wouldn't that keep the Christmas spirit alive? And, really, when we lament the quick passing of the Christmas spirit we're really doing little more than falling into judgment over what we perceive to be the failings of others rather than accepting the responsibility of making a difference ourselves. And maybe we should ask why everybody loves the Christmas spirit, but no one seems to want to live by it all year round. So Christmas has come and - the twelve days of Christmas notwithstanding - for most people Christmas has gone. So what? Why does it matter anytime other than December 25?
I want to suggest that one of our problems is that we’ve come to associate December 25 too closely with the birth of Jesus. Well, what else should it be associated with, people might ask. I’m going to suggest that December 25 (Christmas) is not about the birth of Jesus as much as it’s about the human incarnation of God. When we think of it too much as being just about Jesus’ birth, we essentially turn it into little more than a birthday party. Birthdays are great and fun - but they last for a day and then they’re gone. If Christmas is all about the birth of Jesus, then it is, indeed, just about a single day, after which we can move on. But Christmas is about incarnation and not birth, and all that incarnation implies.
Understanding the incarnation of God in human flesh, or (as John puts it in his gospel) the fact that “the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us is far more important than simply celebrating the birth of a baby - even the birth of Jesus. A birth simply tells us that Jesus was here. Incarnation tells us so much more - and it’s the so much more that really matters, not the lights or the gifts or the Christmas spirit.
Incarnation tells us that God loved what He created so much that He chose to become a part of what He had created. It’s a reminder to us of the original story of creation, where that which is created is very good. Incarnation tells us that, even it may be by human sin and arrogance, creation is still good enough for God. Incarnation tells us that it is through the weak and powerless and humble of our society that God works most powerfully, just as the incarnation shone brightest to a young girl and to lowly shepherds. There is no one who goes untouched by incarnation. Incarnation, by which God lives a human life, is a reminder to us that nothing in our lives is off limits to God, nor is anything in our lives unknown to God. Our story is now God’s story. Frederick Schmidt is an Episcopal priest and teaches Christian Spirituality at the Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, Texas. In his words, “the incarnation [tells us that] God is different enough to be capable of saving us - [but] enough like us to understand our needs.” Incarnation brings us back to the word of the Ghost of Christmas Present: “the child born at Bethlehem doesn’t live just one day of the year, but all 365 days of the year.” And so He does!
The so-called Christmas spirit might vanish pretty quickly once December 25 is over, and the world (having had a gigantic birthday party for Jesus) might well go back to its normal ways for another year - ways that can be joyful and exciting but also frustrating, irritating and at times even horrifying. But if at any point over the next year you find yourself being frustrated, irritated or horrified and you think back to Christmas and you wonder “So what? What difference did it make?”- remember that a birth makes very little difference, but the incarnation of God makes all the difference you can imagine.
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