[Propertalk] Christmas Day

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

This is the first draft. Of course, there's even more than 24 hours 
before this one hits the pews! 8 - )

Happy festivities to our Southern Hemispherical friends who're already 
well into Christmas Eve and are basking in what I hope is summer warmth!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY       	           	     THE 
FEAST OF THE NATIVITY
ISAIAH 62:6-12	 	           		          	               	 
25th DECEMBER, 2011
TITUS 3:4-7						           	                 PSALM 97
LUKE 2:1-20

	It’s wonderful to know that one is loved. It’s even more wonderful to 
feel that love when it’s made so personal.

	THIS is what we celebrate through the entire season of Christmas. As 
the hymn we’ll sing after making our Communion with God and with one 
another puts it,

		“Love came down at Christmas,
		love all lovely, love divine:
		love was born at Christmas,
		star and angel gave the sign.” 1

	This is an intensely practical festival. God came into the world at a 
specific point in time to draw us all together, to effect reconciliation 
between God and us, and to effect reconciliation between parent and 
child, brother and sister, any one person and any other, between nation 
and nation – dare I say it, between Republican and Democrat.

	For some, this latter may be a stretch. But not in God’s eyes. In God’s 
eyes everything is not only desirable, it’s possible – AND it’s 
absolutely necessary, not just in order for legislation to pass – as 
necessary as this is – but in order for us to experience and live in 
reconciliation with God. It’s all tied together.

	A couple of weeks or so ago, my younger grandson, Joshua, was 
hospitalised in Philadelphia. While stressful to me, you can imagine his 
parents’ anxiety. It’s not that this is his first hospitalisation. My 
daughter thinks that either Joshua will develop a somewhat jaundiced 
view of medical care or else he’ll become a physician.

	He’s only a bit over two years old, but already he flirts madly with 
the nurses and has most of them eating out of his hand, apparently, so 
it sounds as if he’s headed for a medical career.

That notwithstanding, a comment from a very good friend in Virginia made 
me smile. She’s a paediatrician and we know each other well enough for 
me to ask her general questions about the latest viral attacks, and so 
on. In response to my sending a photo of Joshua waiting for his 
physician to tell him he could go home, she replied, “I suspect (that 
sermons) cannot speak of the Love of God born into the world as 
eloquently as Joshua's picture does.”

That’s what what we do this morning boils down to – discovering how 
eloquently God tells us that we’re loved – loved without question; loved 
without reserve; loved in a way our minds simply can’t take it in.

	 The full celebration of Christmas, you see, actually brings a sting 
with it, a sting we often pass over in the imagery of the hymns and 
carols we sing. It’s hard work – not just the thought of endlessly 
changing diapers; of getting up in the middle of the night to bring 
comfort to someone crying; not just the thought that we and our children 
will face struggles. Christmas is hard work because when the angel 
appeared to the shepherds they were told to go to Jesus to see for 
themselves. Nothing beyond some awe-inspiring news broadcasting happened 
in that field. They had to go to see Jesus before they were filled with 
joy, before the work of God’s love could begin in them. And so it is for 
us. It’s not enough to listen, to sing some pretty familiar hymns, then 
to be blessed by seeing our family members and friends around a table a 
little later today and possibly for the next week.

Of course, each of these is where it can start. God’s love begins in 
such small, such simple, such unexpected ways – and can take us far 
beyond where our somewhat limited imaginations can take us. That’s the 
whole point of love, though. It’s a gift given us to raise us to new 
heights of ecstasy and understanding so that we can live in peace and 
hope.

If you can, think back to the time when you were thrilled to receive the 
perfect present. More than likely you and I had no idea that what we 
were given was exactly what we needed to fill a void, to offer 
encouragement, to bring peace to our lives. If we’re really lucky, this 
has happened more than once, because we have short memories. We need to 
celebrate Christmas again and again so that we can learn to live with 
those periods when we’re not sure what’s happening in our lives. When 
the fancy wrapping paper and the miles of ribbons are put away; when the 
hyperactivity of children dies down, finally! when things resume their 
normal pace, THAT’S when we need to remember that Love is still here, 
albeit a love that invites our participation in making it come alive for 
others.

A rabbi from West Hills, California, who belongs to a group called 
“Rabbis without Borders”, wrote a challenging essay the other day.

	He began, “Even if the messiah tarries, nonetheless, I believe and wait 
for him, but peace with Iran? Impossible. When I asked a group of twenty 
well educated religious Jewish adults the question, ‘Can you imagine 
Iran and Israel making peace,’ their unanimous answer was, ‘No.’ Can you 
imagine peace in the Middle East in your lifetime? Call me crazy, but I 
can. What can I say, I’m a rabbi, I’m all about faith. I asked the group 
about Iran because they are largely seen as the most power negative 
actor in the region (by no means the only one, just the most 
troublesome). What to do about Iran? Like our congress, I have no idea, 
still, I believe we will eventually find peace.” 2

	Rabbi Tsafi Lev used a very interesting example. He said that, per 
capita, Israelis are the world’s greatest consumers of pistachios. Guess 
where the primary source of pistachios is! Right – Iran!

	He went on, “Do I really think that Middle Eastern Peace can be settled 
over nuts? Not really. But here is what I take from the lesson: Be it 
oil, or pistachios, or major arms deals, or even the even more potent 
concept so desperately sought by Iran’s majority of young people, 
freedom – no amount of Government intervention can shut down the back 
doors to what people really want.”

	Listen to the end of that again – “no amount of Government intervention 
can shut down the back doors to what people really want.”

	So it really boils down to what we really want. When we think of that 
baby born two thousand years ago; when I think of Joshua, born a bit 
more than two years ago; when we all think of any number of hopes, and 
dreams, and wishes, no matter how old they may be – we have to want 
them, we really need to want them in a serious way. Otherwise all the 
angels in the world can shout themselves hoarse, but if we have decided 
already not to pay attention; not to talk to the person on the other 
side of the aisle; or to engage the person who’s hungry, or fearful, or 
alone, then we miss the point of the miracle of God present on earth.

	Let me put it positively, if we really want peace; if we want 
reconciliation with anyone, especially with God, then we have to look 
at, and listen to, and think about what happened in a rural community in 
what we call The Holy Land.

We disagree on whether or not God’s Messiah has come, but I find Rabbi 
Tsafi Lek’s comments very prophetic. He wrote, “It can take time, it can 
be difficult, but if it’s not impossible, well, that makes it possible. 
My concern is that we suffer from a lack of hope. Hope in a human future 
which is greater than today is perhaps the greatest by-product of a 
religious outlook on life.
	
	“The inability for religiously minded people to believe that there can 
be peace in the Middle East is to fly in the face of the great Prophets 
of Israel, and even for the non-religious, it is a stance so defeatist 
that it is no wonder there is such apathy around the cause of peace. 
Religious or not, faithful or pragmatic, there can be no progress 
without the idea of hope. That idea does not reside only with the 
Iranians, or the Israelis, or the Senate, or any single person. Hope is 
of the mind and of the soul. I am not so foolish as to imagine that just 
believing will make peace come (I’ve clicked the heels of my ruby 
slippers and nothing, so, It’s not like that route hasn’t been tried). I 
understand it takes work. My contention is with a mindset that says “we 
have to accept things the way they are.” A lack of hope is a poison.

	“To my mind, it helps accounts for the epidemic of depression and 
loneliness that we have become accustomed to in the fast paced age of 
the 21st century. Regardless of one’s religion, regardless or one’s 
religious observance of his or her religion, regardless if one even has 
a religion or not, I believe that hope, a move from darkness to light, 
is always possible. Ultimately speaking, faith and hope are the enduring 
purposes of (– the rabbi said) Hanukkah, (I would say Christmas – faith 
and hope are the enduring purposes of this celebration and) without a 
little bit of light … that we can only just imagine, we will sink into 
darkness.” 3

	So we’re left with the Good News that what we have right now is a 
Festival of Hope – hope that, just like God breaking in to our history 
with a tremendous desire to reconcile us and save us, we’re left also 
with the Good news that we’re participants in this Festival, not 
spectators. God is here to help us and everyone else face loneliness, 
and suspicion of one another, and isolation from one another. Today, 
once again, we’ve been given the perfect present, and all is asked of us 
is that use it wisely, and that we look to see from who it has come.

	Love DID come down at Christmas. Jesus is here – look for Him.

NOTES:

1 	Christina Rossetti. Hymnal 1982, number 84

2	“The Nuts and Bolts of Peace with Iran” by Tsafi Lev 23rd December, 
2011
 
https://secure.myjewishlearning.com/jml/administrator/components/com_civicrm/civicrm/extern/url.php?u=81298&qid=21495220

3	Rabbi Tsafi Lev, is a CLAL Rabbis Without Borders Fellow, as well as a 
proud 2011 NaNoWriMo participant. He is the Director of Jewish Studies 
at New Community Jewish High School in West Hills, CA, and a Lecturer 
for the Fingerhut School of Education Master of Arts in Education 
program at the American Jewish University.


Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)