St. Paul’s Church in
Bergen & Church of the Incarnation
December 25, 2017
Christmas Day
Isaiah 52:7-10
Psalm 98
Hebrews 1:1-12
John 1:1-14
Cosmic Christmas
Merry
Christmas, everyone!
Last
night this was the place to be as we gathered to re-tell, to hear, once
again the old, old story that never grows tired no matter how many times we
hear it – the story of God coming among us in a new and unexpected,
unprecedented way – born to a couple of nobodies in an out of the way place – born
into a cold and shadowy and mostly unwelcoming world – a world that,
fortunately, God loves no matter how much we mess it up, now matter how many
times we mess up.
Merry
Christmas!
As
we do every Christmas Day, this morning we heard the nativity according to the
Gospel of John.
In
John’s version there are no angels and no shepherds, no manger, no Mary and
Joseph, and not even a baby Jesus.
Instead,
John pulls way back and gives us a universal view of Christ’s birth:
A
Cosmic Christmas.
John
understood that the Word who has been from the beginning, the Word who was with
God, the Word who is God - the Word, this greatest and inextinguishable Light,
has come among us in and through Jesus Christ.
After
reading and hearing John’s take on the Natvity, saying “Merry Christmas”
doesn’t seem to quite cut it, right?
Here
in church Christmas is just getting started – twelve whole days – but meanwhile
out in the world Christmas is just about over – the “after Christmas” sales are
about to begin.
And,
the truth is that what the world calls the “Christmas Season” is pretty
exhausting, especially for parents and for those who work retail – pretty
exhausting for us church professionals, too!
But,
unless you are a complete news addict like me, one of the good things about the
so-called Christmas Season (at least, usually) is the opportunity for
distraction from current events. With any luck, the week between Christmas and
New Year’s might actually be a slow news time, though these are not normal
times.
It’s
been pretty grim out there lately, so I wouldn’t blame you if you’re no longer
following the news very closely - though, you know, occasionally there are some
stories that are a little off-beat and get you thinking.
For
example, a couple of weeks ago astronomers announced that for the first time
they have observed an object from beyond our solar system in our solar system,
an asteroid from elsewhere in the galaxy, spinning its way through our
neighborhood.
Have
you seen pictures of this?
It’s
about a quarter-mile long and looks like a rock that is shaped like a cigar.
Astronomers
in Hawaii named the mysterious asteroid “Oumuamua,” a Hawaiian word for “scout”
or “messenger.”
And,
sure enough at least few scientists raised the possibility that Oumuamua was
actually not a natural object, not a rock, but in fact a probe created by an
alien civilization, just as we have sent probes out to explore space.
Probably
not, but just to check, telescopes have been pointed at Oumuamua scanning for
any unnatural sounds or signals.
So
far, as far as I know, nothing – which is probably for the best.
Meanwhile,
it was announced that for a number of years the Pentagon has been looking into “unidentified
flying objects” and the possibility that we’ve been visited by – and even had
encounters with aliens.
Depending on your
temperament this will all strike you as either exciting or scary – will seem
like possibilities worth exploring, or just another example of our government
wasting our hard-earned money on ridiculous projects.
In any event, it
seems there are several possibilities:
First, it’s
possible that we are interesting and unusual enough that we’re being checked
out by alien civilizations.
But, it’s also
possible that any other civilization is so far away that they could never get
here, just as we can’t get there.
And it’s also
possible that maybe we’re it – that in the entire universe maybe we are the
only ones who can appreciate the cosmos, maybe we are the only ones who
can celebrate the vastness of it all, maybe we are the only ones who can
marvel at the grandeur and the complexity of creation, and maybe we are
the only ones who can know and praise the God who dreamed up all of it – the
God who sustains every molecule, every breath, every orbit, and every galaxy.
Whatever the truth
of life out there, all of these possibilities point to a great and essential
truth here, maybe the most important meaning of Christmas - something that,
unfortunately, we often forget:
We matter.
Every living thing
on this precious and perhaps one-of-a-kind earth matters.
The people camped
in cardboard boxes out on the porch of Old Bergen Church and Donald Trump –
they all matter.
The people who
received a pile of Christmas gifts this year and the people who’ve never ever
received a gift – they all matter.
We – you and I – all
those who have lived and those not yet born - we all matter.
We all matter so
much that God came and lived among us – and lives among us still.
When we remember,
when we recognize, this great and essential truth, then we can really celebrate
John’s “Cosmic Christmas” – celebrate today with our songs and prayers and,
even more important, celebrate every day by treating one another, treating
every living thing, treating this earth “our island home” as if it all matters
infinitely.
Because it does.
And, we know that
for sure because “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we
have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and
truth.”
Merry Christmas to
you all.
Amen.
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