Christmas Homily

2005

Sombra Del Monte Christian Church

I Will Try One More Time

        There seems to be a lot more screaming and yelling and law suits over the word Christmas in the secular world these days than I remember.  Crazy, is it?  Reminds me of that story about An Atheist Holiday.

An atheist complained to a Christian friend, "You Christians have your special holidays, such as Christmas and Easter. Jews celebrate their national holidays, such as Passover, Hanukah,  and Yom Kippur. The Muslims have Ramadan.  But we atheists have no recognized national holidays. It's unfair discrimination."

His friend replied, "Well, why don't you celebrate April first?"

        At this time of year, I want more than any other time, to come to the pulpit and say something so profound and compelling that people will come to know  and to experience the depth of God’s presence in the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.

        But, I am convinced that most of the great and compelling words have been spoken, written, and dramatized by far greater minds than mine. 

        Yet, I feel an inescapable need and a desire to try one more time for one more year to say something that will make the Christ presence real in people’s lives.   So, here goes.

        When a person first hears the Gospel of Jesus Christ with its message that God so loved humanity that God took the initiative to reach out to us and push beyond all our human limitations, our religious, and philosophical distractions in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, this story resonates with an inner need in us that sits waiting for the occasion of such a story.

        From the dawn of human existence, the human mind, whether as a projection of our own egos or from some innate--hardwired--knowledge, has sensed an ultimate and powerful personal presence in and at work in the universe.

        We have tried to capture, define, and relate to this sense of an ultimate presence in metaphors, poems, stories, scriptures, songs, rituals, and acts or worship.   We’ve developed complex and extensive theologies and mythologies to give form and substance to our sense of an ultimate Being and presence.  Yet, each explanation, each theology, mythology, scripture, and metaphor contains the seeds of their own contradictions and limitations.

        What we are left with, I believe, is the same feeling-knowledge that prompted our earliest human ancestors to look heavenward and to acknowledge the universal Thou of existence.  This knowledge compels us to participate in the frustrating processes of talking about, explaining, and failing to adequately grasp what only our inner being knows so clearly.

        Thus, the story of the birth of the Christ child once again becomes the means of affirming in ourselves and in one another what we’ve known from the dawn of human consciousness—God is there, God cares, and God wants to be in loving relationship with us. 

        Let the story of the Christ child  resonate with your  soul’s deepest needs. Strip away for just a few moments all you think you know about this world, the universe, yourself, and so called reality.   Let the story of this night come to you as a child.  Let it bring again that child like wonder into your life.  Remember, Jesus said it is our child like faith that is the key to our entering the Kingdom of God. 

I beg of you let the story of Christmas strum your heart strings and sing to you a song as old as creation, as old as life, as old as human hope, now and forevermore.

        Blessed Christmas and a Spirit lead New Year.