But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God.
(Galatians 4:4-7)
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About a week ago I was in Orillia, and as I entered town I noticed a sign saying that Orillia is celebrating "Christimas in June" - and I thought "Wow! So am I!" I do have to confess, though, that Orillia beat me to it. Their "Christmas in June" was yesterday, and my "Christmas in June" is today. It did cause to me start doing some reflecting on the whole idea of "Christmas in June." I know why I wanted to do "Christmas in June." I decided to have a "Christmas in June" service when I realized that June 25 was a Sunday this year and that today is exactly since months after Christmas and six months before Christmas - as far away from Christmas as you can possibly be - and that would perhaps give us the opportunity to reflect on the incarnation of God in Jesus without all the various distractions of the secular Christmas season - not even Dollarama has its Christmas trinkets out yet! And I wondered why Orillia wanted to have "Christmas in June"? And I wondered what the difference was between such an event organized by a city, and one held as a time of worship in a Christian church? So, what does Christmas in June in Orillia look like? Why does Orillia celebrate "Christmas in June"? Well, obviously having "Christmas in June" in Orillia isn't to avoid the secular distractions - it's to celebrate them! Obviously having "Christmas in June" is Orillia is basically to have fun! Let's face it - Christmas is fun! It's a lot of fun! I didn't go to Orillia yesterday - but I'm sure they had a lot of fun! But although I think we can have some fun today - it's fun to sing Christmas carols! - my goal today isn't to have fun. It's to reflect on the meaning of God coming to earth in human form in Jesus. It's to reflect on the incarnation without the distractions of the season.
I'm not the first person who's ever realized that the secular Christmas has a lot of distractions that can make us forget what Christmas is really about. Over 50 years ago - in 1965 - Charles Schulz made the first (and I'd say the best) of the Peanuts TV specials - "A Charlie Brown Christmas." You surely remember the story. Charlie Brown is asked to be the director of his school's Christmas play, and he accepts happily - only to discover that the "Christmas play" has nothing whatsoever to do with Christmas, and he's devastated when he finds that even his beloved dog Snoopy has succumbed to commercialism by decorating his dog house in the hopes of winning a contest. After he angrily puts an end to the play's rehearsal he finally cries out in despair “can’t anyone tell me the true meaning of Christmas!” And Linus walks to centre stage, and a spotlight shines on him, and he shares in the majestic language of the King James Bible this story:
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
(Luke 2:8-14)
God bless Linus! It was better than the Christmas play. But as I think about it six months removed either way from Christmas I wonder if it's really that text that sums up Christmas best? Even in the Bible, it isn't described as the meaning of Christmas. It describes an event that spurs the shepherds on to find answers, as Linus would have noted had he continued on to the very next verse: "Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us." Because, you see, peace on earth and good will to all are laudable goals, but perhaps they're just a bit too tied up with the hype and sentimentality of the secular season. If I were going to choose a Scripture passage that "explained" Christmas I'd probably choose Matthew’s Gospel – which explains to us that Jesus came as Emmanuel (God With Us), or I might choose the passage from John's Gospel that tells us that the word - Jesus - became flesh and dwelt among us. Because as much as the secular Christmas is about lights and decorations and Frosty and reindeer and trees and all sorts of other things (and even peace and goodwill and generosity) Christmas is really about one thing: the birth of Jesus; the incarnation of God in human flesh.
Even in the church I think it's possible to forget that. To some extent, the church has lost sight of the importance of the incarnation because we restrict its proclamation and the singing of the carols (which are teaching tools) to about six weeks a year at maximum at a time when our attention is already distracted by the glitter of the secular celebrations. And even some Christians just don't think that the birth of Jesus is all that important. They'll point out that Mark - the earliest Gospel - doesn't mention it. And people say that Paul - who probably wrote most of his letters even before Mark's Gospel was written - didn’t care about Jesus’ birth. But if that's true then he didn't care only in the sense that he took for granted that Jesus had been born! His concern was more the practical application of Jesus’ teaching than it was on Jesus’ birth – but at the very least he knew (as he wrote in Galatians) that Jesus had been “born of a woman,” and that in another letter he acknowledged that Jesus was a descendant of David. Here's what Paul, in today's reading, describes as the meaning of Christmas: it was "... to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children." He even described the effect of Christmas: "And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!' So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God." For those who say he doesn’t have one - this is Paul’s Christmas story, right here in Galatians 4: Jesus was born, and this is why!
It's impossible to improve upon what Paul wrote. It's the coming of God to earth in human flesh that made it possible for each of us to become a child of God. What could be more wonderful than that? But if I could add just a few thoughts, it might be these.
If God chose to live a human life through Jesus, then Jesus’ life is the perfect human life. If any of us think of Jesus as an example of how to live, then we think that only because this was human life as God wanted it to be lived. What we see in the life of Jesus was what God intended human life to be and how God expected human life to be lived from the very beginning of creation. There would be no point to God in heaven saying to us "look at me and be like me." That would be beyond our reach and even beyond our understanding. As Hebrews 2:17 says, Jesus "... had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect ..." Had that not happened, Jesus couldn't be an example. Instead, Hebrews tells us that he was tempted like us in every way, but that he did not sin. We perhaps can't be that perfect - but because Jesus was like us, it's certainly a goal to shoot for.
And if God chose to live a human life through Jesus, then incarnation is also a sign of God’s love for the creation – God became a part of what God had created, rather than remaining forever separate from it. Surely God didn't have to do that. (Surely God doesn't have to do anything.) God could have created the world and the entire universe and set it up as a sort of lab experiment, watching with interest perhaps but with no real care or concern for the outcome. Some believe that to be what God did. It's a school of thought called "deism." But God didn't do that. God is neither uncaring nor disinterested about that which God has created. In fact, God cares so much about what was created that God chose to become a part of creation. The Creator doesn't have to do that. But the Creator chose to do that. That is a sign of the depth of God's love for all that exists.
Finally, if God chose to live a human life through Jesus, then incarnation tells us that God understands our lives – that God has experienced the range of human experiences and human emotions through Jesus. We speak often of God being present with us in times of suffering - but of what use would God's presence be if God had no understanding of our suffering. But through Jesus - God understands pain; God understands grief; God understands sickness; God understands hunger and thirst; God understands abandonment and betrayal; and - yes - God even understands death. All these are things that God didn't have to experience - but God chose to. And so we can turn to God in our times of despair, and know that God really does care, because God has been through it.
I'm willing to bet that Christmas in June was fun in Orillia yesterday. My point here today wasn't to have fun with Christmas - it was explore a little more deeply the whole idea of divine incarnation - why it happened, what it accomplished, and how it impacts us - without the seasonal distractions that will be back soon enough. My prayer is that we've been able to do that - at least a little bit.
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