I’m so glad you are here! Through whatever difficulties it took to get here tonight, you made it! Through whatever trials you’ve been through this year, you’ve made it to this night. We have come together. We have made it through another year to come together and celebrate the journey of two peasants who traveled across territories and borders in order to protect the most valuable gift ever given – the child who would grow to become the one we call Jesus. This was God in God’s most vulnerable state.
It seems funny to say that they protected God in God’s most vulnerable state, but in a way that is exactly what they did. It seems odd to think that we might be given that same opportunity – right here, right now – but in a way we are.
That may not be what you came for – the opportunity to care for God in God’s most vulnerable state – but it is the reason you are here. The gift of Christmas – the reason for the season – is that we are confronted with the fact that God loves us. Then we have to decide what to do with that love.
Like a child, love must be nurtured, protected, and fed, and yet this love is also like a fire. Maybe you don’t think of fire as vulnerable, especially if you have loved ones in Northern California, but a fire of any size requires three things – fuel, heat, and oxygen – or else it will wither and die out.
I think that’s why I love a house with a fireplace in it. We don’t really need them anymore to stay warm, but it’s a place for making fire. It reminds us that there is always the potential for fire, and so the fire is kept alive – at least in the ideal sense.
Maybe that’s why we’re here tonight. Maybe you came hoping to light candles and sing “Silent Night”, but maybe God brought us here to be reminded of the fires that need to be lit, or maybe even re-lit. Our scriptures remind us that this fire consumes the garments of war and every tool used to enslave, and so, tonight, we are confronted by this question as we light candles and sing Silent Night:
What is it that we need to throw on the pile to burn? What resentments enslave us? What fears hold us back from loving? What is burning us up inside that would be better placed as an offering for God?
These are important questions for us to ask ourselves, but they are also the kind of questions that we need to ask together. In fact, they are the kind of questions that lead us out of isolation and into conversations.
Conversations – real conversations about resentments and fears – are hard. Just like fire requires fuel, heat, and oxygen, they require people and conflict and love. Just like fire, they can cause damage and harm, but a good conversation can also create beauty and warmth.
My Christmas wish for you and for me this year is that we can start with something small, like a candle, then maybe we can start piling up broken yokes and garments with the stains of conflict that become a bonfire of warmth and love and celebration.
The beautiful thing is that we aren’t alone in this project. The One who came as a child is also the One who sends stars and angels, wise men and women, shepherds and even innkeepers to guide us, deny us, and embrace us as love grows within us and we grow within it. May it be so with me. May it be so with you, and to God be the glory – even here, even now. Amen!
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