Christmas Eve 2018

It’s been quite the year here in Medina. This year marked our bicentennial. Our esteemed city celebrated 200 Christmases this year. 200 years of Medina. There is another bicentennial that happens tonight. The song “Silent Night” also celebrates 200 years.

If it weren’t for a broken organ, there might not have been a “Silent Night.” On Christmas Eve 1818, in a newly constructed Church of St. Nicholas near Salzburg, Austria, Father Joseph Mohr discovered that his organ was broken. In a panic, he hastily made up words and gave them to his organist Franz Gruber to compose a simple tune.

That night, it was sung as a duet on the guitar. Word got out about this song, and it began to spread throughout Austria. The Strasser family back then were a well-known singing group like the Von Trapp family would be a hundred years later. The Strasser children began singing the hymn as a quartet. They even performed before the king and queen of Austria. It was first published for congregational singing in 1839 and first printed in English in 1863.[1] It was sung during the storied Christmas Truce of 1914 during World War 1.

There is something about this season that brings out humanity’s creativity. We have responded to this season throughout the centuries with great creativity and artistry. Hymns, paintings, manger scenes all depicting the birth of Jesus. Even how we decorate our houses inside and outside. I love the ones where the lights are synced to music. There is even a weed in Toledo that people decorated as a joke, but now is a source of civic pride.[2] Yet there are some out there who like to rain on our holiday parades.

While we say, “Jesus is the reason for the season” others say, “The Winter Solstice is the reason for the season… and the rotation of the earth and distance from the sun is the reason for every season.” Thanks. Helpful. Others like to point out how pagan Christmas is. Like my one friend who said, “You know Christmas has pagan origins, right?”

And me being a religious nerd replied, “Sure… but which pagans?”

My buddy looked at me quizzically… “Uh… like… the pagan pagans..?”

Sure, Christians have borrowed many traditions from other traditions. A lot of our Christmas traditions come directly from the Celts. They worshiped at the winter solstice. They decorated a sacred tree. The tree wasn’t a pine though, it was an oak. They didn’t bring it into their house, they would go out and decorate it. They picked the oak because it can withstand lightning strikes. They saw that the day was the shortest, so the observed the time and made it holy so that the light would grow again.

When the Christians heard that story, they said, “Yeah, we know about that. We have a story that’s going to blow your mind.” And they told the story of Jesus just how the first chapter of the Gospel of John tells it.

The winter solstice is the longest night. It is when the sun is gone the longest, and it is the darkest day on the calendar. This occurs around 12/21 or 12/22. Christmas Day is separated from the solstice because they were on a different calendar than the Celts. So how do we reconcile the difference? There are reams and reams of paper written by Christian theologians about this three-day slippage. All of them asked “Do we move Christmas or do we leave it on the traditional day three days later? 21/22 or 25?” Finally one theologian comes asked, “What else in Jesus’ life do we think of when we hear three days..? When things were dark and then 3 days later something happened..?” Christmas echoes the Easter story!

Furthermore, the third day after the winter solstice the naked eye can begin to see light grow. What a perfect metaphor for Christmas! This is even better! The light is born into the world, Jesus the light of the world, and he begins to grow. Light is NOW GROWING AGAIN. Creation is announcing this. Heaven and nature are singing this! All around us in technicolor HD, we are surrounded by the story that nature is telling, and the gospels and the Christmas feast AMPLIFY what nature is already doing. Light is born into the world and grows.

Jesus is born. Born to unite the nations. Born to bring Jews and Gentiles together. Born to end division and war and to reconcile everyone to God. We live in a divided world. This is nothing new. Jesus was born to God’s Chosen People and many took Chosen to mean Superior. And the Romans… they were better than everyone and they were saving the world by converting everyone to being Roman, because the Roman way was the Superior way.

We see this in our own culture in various places. Anytime people think their way is superior and best. Jesus came to say, “Cut that out! Life is too short for that game. We’re not playing Good Guys and Bad Guys anymore. We’re playing who can serve and love the most!” And that’s what God did. God came to us and hung around with the unlovable preaching a message of love and telling parables.

As my friend, The Rev. Jon Komperda writes, “Christ reigns as the objectionable and awkward child of an unwed mother. Christ reigns as the refugee fleeing from his first home. Christ reigns as the one reviled for sharing the table with sinners. Christ reigns as the leper-toucher and the foot-washer. Christ reigns as the prisoner, slandered and accused by the fearful. Christ reigns as the traitor, executed by the Empire. Christ reigns as the Crucified One, forever exposing our sinful impulse to blame, condemn, and accuse.” And act more superior than…

What a surprise when the angels appeared and said that a savior had been born to the shepherds. The birth itself was less than perfect, there was a pregnant unwed teenager, her fiancé, no room in the inn, giving birth in a barn and laying the child in a feeding trough. All the glory, all the divine things happen away from that scene. This is how God comes into the world. Humble, with no bells or whistles. No fanfare. No waft of superiority for the one who made everything. We celebrate this birth three nights after the winter solstice, the darkest night of the year. The time when the sun is out for the least amount of time.

It can feel like we’re in some dire times socially. Divisive politics. Scary predictions about climate change. Racial unrest. White supremacists marching out in the open, many wearing crosses and claiming to be Christian. An uncertain economy. And personally it’s not much better for many of us who are grieving. Our hearts are broken by a recent death and the empty chair around the Christmas table this year. The world can seem like a scary place. People are always getting sick and dying on us. Not even our family, friends, children or pets are immune. It can feel like we just want to curl up and say “why bother?”

Yet tonight, we gather as a congregation as we have for 199 years. And we sing a song in our city that is 200 years old. We will tell the story of Christ’s birth. We will light candles and sing “Silent Night.” We use traditions from all over the world, and we amplify what heaven and nature are already signing! The light has come into the world for ALL people of every nation. The rituals remain.

A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. It doesn’t take away anything. Even when the source candle is blown out, there are all these other candles that can still give light. That is how the light came when it seemed the most dire, it spread the most among the people without light. Christ was born, and people started catching fire and spreading the message around. The shepherds, the disciples, the crowds, and all the way down through the ages to us. Yes you will suffer and mourn and one day you will die. But that will not stop all the candles you lit through your burning. Lighting candles by having kids, or mentoring or coaching. Kind words to your neighbor. Experiencing a moment with someone that bonds you to them. The light remains and is growing.

So observe your holiday rituals. Light the candles, sing out Silent Night. Remember your loved ones both alive and dead. Tell scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago. A candle loses nothing by lighting another candle. A symbol to show that the light has come into the world and is spreading. This is good news for our day. Love has come into the world for all people: Male and female. Jew and Greek. Christian and Pagan and Questioning and unaffiliated. Republican and Democrat and all the rest. There is something about this season that inspires humanity to be really creative. My hope is that you creatively shine wherever God places you. Shine in your home, in your family, in your community. Shine at work and at rest. Echo what heaven and nature are already doing! Light candles and sing that song that was written all thanks to a broken organ. Amen

Works Cited

[1] Robert J. Morgan. Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the world’s greatest hymn stories. Thomas Nelson Publishers. 2003. Page 93.

[2] “A Weed Grows in Toledo” https://n.pr/2POaEHS

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