Christmas has a protest side, as expressed in these words to a song, written as the Gulf War was gearing up.
Well the banks and the schools and the post office are closed
You can park where you please and you won't get towed
And the streets are empty and the stores are finally closed.
In the Rockefeller Center the big tree is shining bright
Skater skate beneath it in the winter light
Like a picture on a Xmas card, everything looks right
And the Prince of Peace was born on a Xmas day
In the little town of Bethlehem not so far away
From where a multitude is gathered in a warlike way
So we watch the buildup, here we go again,
There is sand, there are camels, but where are the wise men?
Are they in Baghdad, are they in Washington?
There are those who go to church, they kneel down to pray
For loved ones who have left to fight so far away
And for middle eastern babies born on that very day
A week from today we begin a brand new year
Let us all be hopeful, men and women of good cheer
And resolve to fight stupidity and fear.
And as awful as the world can be, we are still alive
If we're careful, we can do more than survive.
We can carry on, we can struggle, we can strive!
IT'S CHRISTMAS MORNING -- AND WE CAN WIN!
Christmas is for children I have heard it said
This is why King Herod hated the babe in the manger bed
They have all come to worship and adore the child instead.
Well the banks and the schools and the post office are closed
You can park where you please and you won't get towed
And the streets are empty and the stores are finally closed.
CHRISTMAS MORNING
But most of all, we cherish & yearn for Christmas in a serene mode -- "the peace that passeth understanding." Such a mysterious peace is embodied in the words to the carol, "O Little Town of Bethlehem."
O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie;
above thy deep and dreamless sleep the silent stars go by.
Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light;
the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
The last verse is just as lovely:
O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels a great, glad tidings tell:
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
"Emmanuel" is one of the many names given to Jesus, and it's a wonderful name because it means "God is with us," a message we need desperately to hear -- that the Creator God whose nature is Unconditional Eternal Love abides here: in our city, in our home, in our heart!
The carol implores God: "Abide with us. Abide with us."
A mother rocks a crying baby in her arms, but somewhere inside that baby there is fear, and fear makes it cry, but the fear doesn't know yet that mother is rocking the baby and the baby is entirely safe and entirely comforted, entirely connected to the mother who will let no harm come. Gradually the baby is comforted and a sabbath rest settles over the baby, but for a moment fear had the upper hand. And the baby cries.
We are the same. We scramble frantically through subways and streets. We worry about money and romance. We try to control our world, at the center of which is our ego. We're scared as hell, but in the meantime God is rocking the world in everlasting arms, but we don't know it. We're like crying babies in the arms of the Creator. We're frightened.
WE ABIDE IN GOD'S CREATION. THE CREATION OF THE LOVING GOD IS OUR FIRST ABODE, OUR PRIMAL HOME. There is no such thing as eviction from this home.
Jesus said, "ABIDE IN ME AND I IN YOU. THE BRANCH CANNOT BEAR FRUIT OF ITSELF, EXCEPT IT ABIDE IN THE VINE." (John 15:4)
Our spiritual life is analogous to the relationship between the vine and its branches. We perish if we neglect the Source of our spiritual life, but if we cultivate it, we bear fruit. We grow together: ourself the branch, Christ the Vine. The relationship is organic, not mechanical. (This is the imagery of the coming ecological age, not the imagery of the fading industrial age.)
Despite our anxiety the earth whirls us around the sky every day, and whirls us around the sun every year, and whirls us around the center of the galaxy every who- knows-how-long? Whatever we're doing, the earth never stops whirling us around, something like a yo-yo -- so we might as well stop worrying -- for a time at least -- and simply experience the sensation of being in the hands of God's Cosmos! If a yo- yo was in despair, that would be laughable, wouldn't it? It should be content just to be in the hands of a master twirler!
Behold the firmament. It is our home, our abode!
I was part of a panel discussion and one of the panelists was an American Indian woman. We were asked did we believe in re-incarnation. I was struck by her response: "Of course," she said. "I feel the presence of my mother and my grandmother all the time. When I wash the dishes, I remember my mother washing the dishes, and I feel her presence."
The questioner was concerned about herself -- when I die, will I live again? It is a typically egocentric concern. But the Indian woman had retained after centuries of oppression her native mode of thought when she said, "Our ancestors live in us."
Probably Indian people feel the presence of their ancestors because their ancestors thought about them and respected them before even they were born. The philosophy of one Indian tribe is this: "Before we act, we consider how our action will affect the next 7 generations." They projected themselves into their offspring. So naturally their offspring feel their presence generations later.
Our ancestors abide in us.
One of the lines the minister reads in a wedding ceremony is as follows: "If you keep these solemn vows, the home you are establishing will ABIDE in peace."
The lines of the ceremony could read: "If you keep these solemn vows, the home you are establishing will be peaceful," but to say "Your home ABIDES in peace" says something far more sublime. It is like saying: "The home sinks into peace like a cat sleeping on a huge soft pillow."
If your heart is restless, your soul troubled, remember Emmanuel -- God is with us - - and abide in that reality. Peace will surely come to you.
This Christmas season, let us rejoice in one thing: Like Mary held close her baby boy, the eternal Creator God holds us tight.
O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray;
cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels a great, glad tidings tell:
O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel!
Christmas Eve morning service: "The Defiant Side of Christmas: Alleluia to Our King!"
