A Special Christmas Message from Pastor Emily
Jesus is the reason for the season... Or something like that
As I drove home from work the day before Thanksgiving listening to the Christian radio station, the host came on rejoicing that the next day they would be playing Christmas music. I smiled, already feeling my body wanting to proclaim “Joy to the World!” Yet then that radio host continued, proudly asserted that they would be playing CHRISTMAS music, not **holiday music** (insert enough pejorative and snarky attitude to sink the Titanic). My heart sank. What is it about the birth of Jesus that some people feel is under enough threat to mock those who believe different things about God?
I pondered what it meant to be inclusive, and YET affirm the good news of Jesus in a world so badly in need of the light that Jesus brings. Can we not be comfortable enough in our faith to celebrate the particularities while ALSO being respectful of others? In the words of John Wesley, “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?” If I lived in Bethlehem today, I might walk out into the street this evening and hear the Adhan, the Muslim call to prayer, floating down the bustling streets from the local mosque. I’ve stood on the streets of Bethlehem and heard that music inviting and drawing me in. My faith wasn’t threatened as I received this gift of another’s faith. Nor did feel the need to obnoxiously break into Jingle Bells.
While I want to live in a world where each can share their faith openly and honestly, I do realize that Christians have a preferred place in the mainstream of society. And I think this place in the mainstream imparts on us a certain responsibility to our neighbors of other faiths, particularly as we share the good news of Jesus’ birth. It’s “cool” to be Christian. It means you can drive around town with a little Jesus fish (also called an Ichthus) on the back of your truck as a statement of pride. In reality, the place of Christianity in society today is vastly different than its place in society when Jesus lived and when Paul and others wrote. In moving Christianity from the fringe of society to the center, our relationship to the sacred text, and I think to God, changed. It’s this shift that “justified” the Crusades and the Inquisitions, and even played a role in the Holocaust. No longer are we on the outside looking in and wondering how to belong to God. We are now on the inside, the center, the mainstream. And looking out, we didn’t always invite others in to belong.
Belonging continues to ring true for me this Christmas season. In Jesus’ birth, God invites us to belong. That baby in a manger, no room for him in the inn, came as a King not with power and dominion, but with mercy and grace. How quick are we to forget that? That Jesus would go out on to the streets and invite the tax collectors and the sinners and the Jewish elite to all gather at a table together, to all belong to one another just as they belong to God. This Christmas, I think about those to whom I belong. To my parents, who we’ve had the joy of living near and visiting often year. To Aidan’s parents, who so frequently send us their love from afar. To Aunt Karen and Rachel and countless others, all of whom would drive hours to come see us at the drop of a hat. To Noah, Andrija, Nadia, and Zach, who bring so much joy and adventure to our lives. To St. John, the church that has welcomed us in and supported us in ministry. To the families I’ve met who seek rest and warmth at the cold weather shelters around Anchorage. Even to my neighbors who don’t celebrate Christmas, who have their own “holiday” music, or who don’t have any music at all. Yes, I belong to each of them too.
And friend, I belong to you. Whether you are with me in proclaiming Joy to the World! Or you are having a really hard time this Christmas remembering loss and grief, remember that you too, belong. To me, to God, to one another. We rejoice together and we weep together. We are who we are because of one another. We are who we are because of a God who casts the net wide and invites us in to belong. So let Jesus be the reason for the season. Not in a way that mocks our experience of this holiday, but in a way that makes Christmas real, that centers us in that Holy Night, that tenderly embraces a world where all belong, in the goodness and grace of Jesus. May it be so. Amen.
Merry Christmas from all of us at St. John! We are so blessed to belong to you!