12-24-19 - O Holy Night

(You can listen to this reflection here. Tonight's gospel reading is here.)

Tonight’s the night, the big show, what it’s all been leading up to. In my youth, it was all leading up to Christmas morning, but our culture has shifted toward Christmas Eve as the main event.

It is not always a silent night. Many a parent may wish for a little more silence, while people for whom it is too silent long for more noise, more company. And often it is not such a holy night either, if stress or sadness or tempers take over.

Are we supposed to experience it as holy? In my curmudgeonly twenties I once wrote in my diary on Christmas Day, “I can’t get more excited about Jesus being born just because the calendar says it’s December 25th. Shouldn’t we be excited all year long?” Ah, youth.

"But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people."

What I pray for you tonight, and for me, is that we feel a little anticipation, a little expectation, that SOMETHING is going to happen. Yes, we are celebrating a Something that we believe happened long ago, yet we are here each year, showing up at the manger, joining in the angels’ “glorias” because we believe it that Something is unfolding still, becoming ever clearer. SOMEONE is drawing nearer.

I pray for you, and for me, that we have moments of wonder tonight – maybe something we see in children, or feel during a much-loved carol, or in a moment of connection with loved one or stranger. I want us to experience Christmas Eve, not just move through it. I want us to experience the Holy Spirit within and around us. I want us to “get” God-With-Us in our bones.

I can’t make that happen, for you or for me. I only know that we may not have that experience looking nostalgically at where we “felt” Christmas in the past. God is always doing a new thing, leading us forward, like those magi from the East following their star.

And sometimes God just shows up even when we’re not looking, when we’re wrapping one more gift or washing up after Christmas Eve dinner, or piling a little one into bed. Those shepherds weren’t watching for God – they were watching their flocks by night. And lo and behold, God showed up.
Man, did God ever show up! A blessed Christmas Eve to you.

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