Christmas 2010
This is my Christmas sermon to you, my dearest T. (name changed),
It is not only you who went home frustrated and angry from the Christmas Eve preaching. I don´t think what the pastor said was so wrong but it just didn´t reach our hearts. We came to the church wishing that we go out from that door having some answers to our many questions, receiving joy and hope, but it just didn´t happen that way. We felt the gap between that perfect world inside the church walls and the hard reality and struggle in our daily life.
You asked me to tell you what Christmas means to me.
Every year in knew what to write and what to say Christmas Eve. This year I had a few ideas in my mind but I am not able to continue them or bring them together. There are thoughts here and there without a clear start, no highlights, no conclusion, without an happy end.
I will write them down for you the way they come to my mind.
When you were a child you challenged me with your extremely strong will and never ending power. (Today your strong character helped you to become what you are).
You were curious about everything, you examined everything and you wanted to know everything.
Now you want to know what is Christmas, what is believe, who is this God.
You are asking me what kind of God is this, who allows his son to be killed, what a religion is this? It is a cruel and one sided God. How can we believe in him?
I think as long as we don´t take things for granted, as long as we are curios, arguing, examine and want to know the truth we have it, we lose it when we think we know it. That is what made me so angry in the pastor´s preaching. He was so sure that he is right and he was just repeating statements. There was no longing, no curiosity, no surprises, no movement.
In the Christmas story there are people in action, Mary and Joseph were searching for their hometown, a place to sleep, the shepherds were searching for the stable, the wise men searching for the new born king.
You are on your way to meet Jesus because you are searching. I respect people in all religious who want to find God, who with an honest and humble heart admit that they have their doubts and questions but still they want to find God or they want God to find them.
I am not going to talk about Mary and the whole Christmas story you know it.
Just I like so say one word about the mother of Jesus. She allowed God to interfere in her life so deep and intimate, it could have killed her. She was not that shy and dreaming young woman we see in the icons. I would draw her with most loving eyes, a sharp and strong character, with a lot of courage and believe.
She allowed God to interfere in her life.
So Christmas is searching for God and to allow him to interfere in our life. Believing in God means that he can talk to us. Christmas means that we let do God something.
Mary agreed. God didn´t let her have that child against her will.
She was serving God. Listen how the angel respected her and greeted her.
She was not a slave, she agreed to serve God, willingly.
.......
And now we reach the next aspect our will.
Christmas means that God needs good willed people. We have to do something.
What is it?
The angels say
Glory to God in the highest and Peace on earth to the people of good will.
Luke 2:14
Christmas doesn´t mean we sit and wait for God to change our life, or our society, or our political situation. He is God and he can do it but he didn´t create us puppets in his hands. We are created into his image. He is a God of a free will, he can be jellous, he can be angry and friendly, he can talk and be quiet, he can be patient, he can revenge and he can forgive. He is God and we are created with the same will.
Good willed people are people who give God glory and make peace on earth.
We want the glory instead of giving it to God in the highest and we want God to give us peace from heaven instead of working hard for peace on this earth.
Christmas means becoming good willed people
People God is pleased with, you can´t go out from that door taking the glory just for yourself,
Give it to your wife, husband, children, workers, and you can´t say let the politicians make peace,
Let us work hard for peace in your home, your families, countries.
You will never get bored because there is always work to be done, don´t worry.
.......
Christmas means a child is given to us.
The pastor was talking to us about the child in the manger and Jesus Christ, the son of God crucified for us.
My rebellious and angry heart is saying, what shall I do with such God. I want a strong God, not a helpless and poor child, there are many of them in India in Africa, a man you is failing on the cross.
I want a God who saves me, takes away my trouble, destroys my enemies and solves my problems and the problems in this world, who is changing this crazy unfair world.
He sends all those men of God and prophets and in the end he has nothing better to left then a baby.
Who in the world will accept this?
A baby, Baby Jesus, is God´s answer to our searching, a baby as an answer to our problems
How is this possible?
God who created me and you, who created the world and the universe, who has all the power is saying, "this is my way to come to you, this is my way to show you I am not against you, I am with you" - Immmanuel, God is with us.
Christmas means God comes to me so I can carry him in my arms, it goes so far that on the cross he allows me to hit him, to shout at him, to kill him,he takes it all.
God is giving himself to this world in a helpless child, because he is so big he can become so small,
Because he is love he can judge, because he died for us he can give us eternal life.
God is not what we expect him to be and he is not having our measures and not using our power games and cheating.
Christmas means to me, let God be God in his own way and go and search for Baby Jesus through whom God is so close to us.
Amen
on Christmas 2010
Mother writing to her daughter
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