Christmas for a Real World (December 22, 2017)

Rev. Yme Woensdregt

Last week, I suggested that most of the traditions of Christmas which we celebrate at this time come from pagan origins. Most of what we do—from trimming the tree to decorating our houses to giving gifts to feasting—have nothing to do with the Christian festival of Christmas.

That doesn’t mean I’m a grump. It’s not a judgment. It’s merely a statement of fact. I love the lights, the feasting, the gifts. I love the activity and thinking about special people in my life as I buy gifts for them. I love smiling at people in the stores and on the streets, and getting a smile back from them. We’re busy and tired … but there is an undercurrent of good will underneath it all.

But the Christmas which Christians celebrate is about something different than all that. It’s not about family values or people getting together or even about celebrating a festival of joy.

For us, Christmas is about God crashing into our world and shining with the light of love and compassion. It’s about inspiring us with hope that this world, dark as it may be, is not what God intended. It’s about firing us with joy so that we might commit ourselves to being beacons of light in the world, and living with the same love and compassion.

Let me tell you a story.

A grungy–looking young couple are hitch–hiking on a lonely road. She looks to be about grade 11, and he is unshaven and disheveled. They may be gypsies or street people or refugees. The young woman is very pregnant and in obvious distress; the young man holds her protectively as they trudge along the side of the road.

A long–haul trucker stops to pick them up. He’s overweight, has a 4–day shadow on his face, and chomps on nuts and snacks as he drives. The young woman moans occasionally as the young man cradles her. The trucker, named Cioban, looks at the young couple with some concern. (An interesting side note is that the name Cioban also means “shepherd” in Romanian.)

They pull into a truckers’ rest stop at the side of the highway. The young man leads the girl to the washroom. Another truck pulls in, and a hooker comes out to flirt with the younger truck driver, hoping for some business. The lights outside the washroom flicker and go out with a pop. We are left in darkness.

You know something’s going on … but what? In the stillness of the night, we hear a baby’s cry. Cioban peers in through the open door of the washroom, and his face is wreathed in a miraculous smile as he sees the young woman holding her newborn baby to her chest. He takes out his phone and snaps pictures. The other truck driver and hooker come in, staring in wonder at what has happened. The hooker covers the baby and shivering young mother with her coat.

They set up a small camp outside the washroom facility around a small fire pit. A couple of cops stop to check things out; the truck driver shows them his phone with a goofy smile on his face, “It’s a boy! It’s a boy!” The lights on the washroom facility flicker on again.

That story is told in a beautiful video prepared by the Reformed Church in Hungary and available online. The video is called “Real Christmas”. I encourage you not only to watch the short video, but to check further on the same website for some of the interactive features you can find there.

The heart of the story is found in one of those interactive features, which shows the wall of the bathroom with this graffiti on it: “‘Wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.’ He shows himself in a simple place free from pathos and romance. If God is present, even a restroom can be a church.”

There’s the heart of a Christian understanding. It’s not only Christmas—it’s our whole lives. If God is present, then all of life is holy.

To be a Christian in this understanding means not so much that we are to become good people, or holy people, or moral people. To be a Christian is to learn to see God in the ordinary moments of our days. It is to see God in the homeless people. It is to see God embracing members of the LGBTQ community. It is to see God in the vacant eyes of those who are addicted. It is to see God at work in every moment and movement which seeks to promote justice and peace, reconciliation and hope. It is to see God at work all around us.

Christmas is not just a momentary stop in the history of the world to gorge ourselves. Christmas is a reminder to learn to see, to be mindful, to discern God in the lives of “the least of these, my brothers and sisters.” (Matthew 25)

This is Christmas for a real world. This is the Christmas I wish you, whether you are a follower of Jesus or not. This kind of Christmas is a reminder that we can all join hands to make life more whole, more complete, more just, more compassionate, more peaceful, and more loving.

Merry Christmas to all.