This is without question the strangest Christmas season of my lifetime. There will be no vacation and holiday travel for us.
There will be no joyous Advent dinner for St. Matt’s council and staff. There will be no Children’s message delivered from the chancel steps of our sanctuary. There will be no gathering around the altar on our knees at midnight to receive the Christ child in a morsel of bread and sip of wine.
And yet….., there will certainly be Christmas. There most certainly will be God made flesh who enters into our complex human experience and offers us restoration and salvation. There most certainly will be the light of Christ proclaimed as the antidote to all misery and suffering that invades our human existence.
As strange as this year is, I have to say that I am looking forward to Christmas and our Christmas Eve service in the courtyard more than I even usually do. I suppose it’s because I—perhaps like you—feel the need for God’s love and grace more than usual. I long for the peace of Silent Night, the beautiful image of candles lit and raised toward the cross and heavenward. I dream of the joy that we will sing about, the joy that God has sent to the world through Jesus Christ.
I pray that whatever else is happening for you right now that you may experience the joy of the promise of Christmas in some profound way. In a Zoom call with your loved ones, in the Christmas cookies you find time to back, in the strains of Christmas carols that filter into your surroundings, in the light of one small candle, in the hope of justice.
Know that Christ has come to earth to love and restore you and this world. Joy to the world, the Lord is come. Merry Christmas!
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