12.24.08 XmasEve "Not What but Who in Whoville"

• WHAT is the meaning of Christmas?
  • It's a question that's often asked, and there are all kinds of answers
    • Christmas is a time of family
    • Some even quote the Bible, and say, "Christmas is a time of peace and joy"
    • It's also a time of good cheer, and good will toward all people – it may be my imagination, but I think for just a day or two, people drive a little less aggressively at Christmas
    • But let's face it, Christmas is also a time of shopping
      • I think it's interesting, and also a bit presumptuous, that one of Kmart's television ads says that with their new, deeply discounted sale prices, that "Kmart is saving Christmas"
      • I didn't know that Christmas needed saving, as if not being able to afford everything we might want would somehow diminish or endanger Christmas. As the great philosopher Dr. Seuss once wrote: Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas… perhpas… means a little bit more. [Grinch Stole Christmas]"
    • We should note, however, that some folks are so distressed by the all so bland and generic greeting "Happy Holidays" that they just about bark out the greeting "Merry Christmas" as if raising the volume of their Christmas response will somehow shame people into once again saying "Christmas" instead of "Holidays"
  • But on a far basic level, the very question, "WHAT is the meaning of Christmas?" – that very question from the outset tends to lead us astray
  • Because after all, whenever we say "WHAT," it implies a thing
    • And is Christmas really about a thing?
    • Or is Christmas REALLY about a person?
• The gospel of Luke, even with all its familiarity, reminds us that Christmas is about a person
  • A new-born, first-born son
  • A child born into such poverty and dislocation, that he was wrapped in rags and laid down in manger for his first nap
  • And there he was! – surrounded by amazed first-time parents, and surrounded by stable animals, and surrounded by slovenly shepherds and smelly sheep, AND surrounded by the angels of God.
• The question is not "WHAT is the meaning of Christmas?" but rather "WHO is the meaning of Christmas?"
  • And the gospel of Luke declares to us and to all people who will listen, that this person was proclaimed by the hosts of heaven to be no one less than "…a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. [Luke 2:11]"
  • And lest we miss the significance of the angelic announcement that this child was no normal person like you or me, but rather this person was the God and Savior of heaven come down to earth in the flesh of a tiny child, the other Christmas gospel – the Gospel of John – makes it even clearer that God has come to earth by declaring the Christmas mystery, saying: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us… [Jn. 1:1&14]"
• We are SO BLESSED that God has come to earth, because the birth of Jesus is God's intervention for a troubled creation filled with troubled people
  • The trouble is NOT that the economy is bad, and it's NOT that we have become such frenzied consumers that a Walmart employee was trampled to death by shoppers, and it's NOT that some folks try to be inoffensive and say "holiday" instead of "Christmas" – the real trouble, the real problem from the very beginning, is that creation has been spiraling out of control, and our lives have been spiraling inward toward ourselves instead of outward toward God and our neighbors
  • And no WHAT, no THING, no SELF-HELP will fix or repair this spiraling condition that we call SIN
  • The deep truth of Christmas faith, is that not a WHAT, but only a WHO – God, the Word made flesh, and born into the world as its Savior – can forgive and heal and enliven what until now had been broken and dying
• Because Christmas truly is all about a WHO, we as the people baptized with water and word into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and thereby are marked with the cross of the Messiah, the cross of Christ, the cross of the Savior – we as baptized children of God are privileged to live not just anywhere, but to live our baptized lives in "Who-ville"
  • Although Dr. Seuss probably didn't mean it this way, we are privileged to be a part of "Who-ville," to borrow the name of the town that Dr. Seuss created in his book How the Grinch Who Stole Christmas
  • The silly rhymes of Dr. Seuss are wonderful, and "The Grinch" is a great story, but the name "Who-ville" CAN ALSO remind us that for people of faith, people baptized into the birthed, crucified, and risen God who came to graciously forgive us and raise us up, Christmas is never about a WHAT, and never about THINGS, but ALWAYS about the God WHO amazingly came to earth save us

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