Peculiar Preacher

            We spend December planning and preparing.  We drive into the parking lot that used to be a highway in hopes of making it to the zoo that used to be the mall.  We listen to Manheim Steamroller on the radio and look at plastic figures kneeling on floodlit lawns.  We set out the familiar crèche and hang sentimental ornaments on the tree.  A few brave souls try to recreate the smell we remember coming from mother’s kitchen. 

If we are not paying attention, Christmas starts to feel like something with which to deal:  “We’ll get everything done and then we can enjoy the holidays.”

            We do not talk about our secret hope that we will feel like children again with all the innocence and excitement that comes with it.  We want to hear bells.  We want it to snow.  We want everything to be wonderful.  We try to make Christmas happen. 

            Our earnest, misguided attempts to force Christmas to come do not work.  Some of you will be ready for your children to go back to school about December 23.  Some have visitors on the way you secretly wish were not coming.  We have moments when we are tempted to skip the whole thing.  Who needs the extra work?  Why are we the ones doing all the work?  Why is Scrooge so misunderstood?  Where can we get one of those buttons that says, “Humbug”?

             The obvious truth is that Christmas is a gift that we do not give, but can only be given.  By the time Christmas Day gets here it seems like a racecar that has run out of gas.  Christmas begins to feel like just another day.  It is twenty-four hours.  Phones ring.  Sick people are still sick.  Lonely people are still lonely.  We end up sitting on the hillside tending our sheep, as though it was an ordinary day.   

            Our mistake is thinking we are in charge.  If we let go of the idea that we are in control, then we can be surprised again.  God will astonish us with moments of grace. 

A moment when you open a peculiar gift.  You feel like you should pretend it is what you want, but you cannot imagine how the giver could ever picture you wearing antlers that light up.

A moment when a child gives you a handmade Christmas card with a big gold star on the front and, for reasons you cannot explain, your eyes mist up.

            A moment when you think of someone who was with you last year, but is not this year.  But along with the sadness you have gotten used to feeling at their absence, you are surprised to also feel gratitude for the time that you had with them.

            A moment when we can almost hear the songs of angels, and cannot figure out why it would happen to us.  How did God decide to love us? 

            We cannot make Christmas meaningful, because we are not in charge.  The best we can do is take the spotlight off the extras and look for the star.  We are to hope it is so, to be open to the possibility that God is present.  It sounds contradictory to wait for a surprise, but that’s how Christmas happens.  We give up our expectations of what we think should happen and open our hearts to God’s surprising joy.  We push aside our cynicism and let God help us believe again.  We listen to the songs God is always singing. 

We join the chorus singing the carols, not because everyone else is singing, but because something stirs within us.  We give and receive gifts, not because it is expected, but for the joy of it.  We look carefully at the manger and feel what the shepherds felt seeing earth lifted to heaven and heaven stooping to earth.  We remember that God still comes in babies who are easily ignored, hungry people we seldom feed, and lonely people we hardly hear.

            Christmas happens when we least expect it, when we receive the gift of Christ as a spirit and a hope, born in our hearts.

“Getting to Christmas”

The Lighter Side

Brett Younger

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 8:12 pm and is filed under Hopefully Humorous Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.