Christmas Day

 

December 25, 2024

  

+Christmas, for most of us, brings up memories of Christmases past.

 

It’s just the thing we do.

 

And, for me, this year for some reason, I’ve really been missing my mother.

 

My mother was not real big into poetry, despite having a poet for a son.

 

I don’t know if she ever really “got” my poetry.

 

But one poet she really did love was Christina Rossetti.

 

And if you’re gonna love a poet, Rossetti is about as good of a poet to love as any.

 

Rossetti was not one of those great love poets.

 

She never married.

 

She never seemed to have any reason deep romantic love for anyone—well, maybe except for Jesus.

 

But she had deep faith.

 

She was a solid Anglo-Catholic who took her faith very seriously.

 

I’m not certain why my mother loved her so dearly.

 

But she did.

 

And when my mother died, I found myself listening to a version of “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Animal Collective over and over again.

 

It was a very appropriate song (and poem) for my mother’s death, which also occurred in the “bleak midwinter.”

 

 

In that great poems, Rossetti wrote,

 

 Love came down at Christmas,

love, all lovely, love divine;

love was born at Christmas:

star and angels gave the sign.

 

You can’ put it better than that.

 

That is what we are experiencing this day.

 

God, for us anyway, is a God of love.

 

Because we are loved by God.

 

Because we are accepted by God.

 

Because we are—each of us—important to God.

 

We are, each of us, broken and imperfect as we may be some times, very important to God.

 

Each of us.

 

And because we are, we must love others.

 

We must, each of us, become like Jesus God’s love personified.

 

We must let that love that came down in the bleak midwinter dwell within us.

 

And we must live this love out in the world.

 

We must give birth to God’s love so others can know this amazing love as well.

 

Knowing this amazing love of God changes everything.

 

When we realize that God knows us as individuals.

 

That God loves us and accepts each of us for who we are, we are joyful.

 

We are hopeful of our future with that God.

 

And we want to share this love and this God with others.

 

That is what we are celebrating this morning.

 

Our hope and joy is in a God who comes and accepts us and loves us for who we are and what we are—a God who understands what it means to live this sometimes frightening uncertain life we live.

 

This is the real reason why we are joyful and hopeful on this beautiful morning.

 

This is why we are feeling within us a strange sense of longing.

 

This is why we are rushing toward our Savior who has come to visit us in what we once thought was our barrenness.

 

Let the hope we feel tonight as God our Savior draws close to us stay with us now and always.

 

Let the joy we feel tonight as God our Friend comes to us in love be the motivating force in how we live our lives throughout this coming year.

 

God is here.

 

God is in our midst today.

 

God is so near, our very bodies and souls are rejoicing.

 

And God loves us.

 

Love truly came down.

 

Love became flesh and blood.

 

Love became human.

 

And in the face of that realization, we are rejoice today.

 

We are rejoicing in that love personified.

We are rejoicing in each other.  

 

We are rejoicing in the glorious beauty of this one holy moment in time.

 

 

So, let us rejoice.

 

And let us be glad.

 

God is with us.

 

G0d’s love has come to us.

 

And it is very good!

 

Let us pray.

 

Holy God, you are with us. You are present in our midst. And we rejoice in the Presence for which we have longed for for so long. Fill us this morning with true joy, with true hope, so that we can share this joy and hope with others. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.