Christmas in July!

I chose this for my Christmas Eve blog because I believe this message delivered six months ago still stands. In another six months, if we can still hear hope we will have, each and everyone of us, stood the test of time in a changing world. Hence, the true message of Christmas will live on. It is up to each and everyone of us.

The sermon begins at 51:00 into the video without editing, but the bell ringers at the beginning are lovely too! Thank you, Rev. Dr. Lea Slaton, for permission to repost your sermon.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&v=3584975128315889

Merry Christmas to all!

A Smear Campaign against Christ-mas

"With the right amount of coordination, perhaps Christians – and in particular, Christian women – could garner support for a movement of their own, making demands around issues such as abortion and transgender rights, which Donnelly opposes.

. . . “Maybe it’s the school board, maybe it’s city council. Maybe you’re going to go to the library and start booking some story reading hours,” said Donnelly. “We’ve got to get on offense and have our voices carried all over America.”*

I see no other way to interpret the above quote as anything other than an agenda, or a mission. The strategy couldn't be any clearer: Infiltrate public places that are meant to serve the public and deliver a message contrary to loving one's neighbor in these arenas. Said another way, during this season of "good will towards all" one could easily interpret the message as a smear campaign against the true Christmas Spirit. Is this a stretch? Perhaps, but no more so than the "holy war" being waged across the country, in this case by women. These women who call themselves "Mama Bears" are organized. They are smart. They are educated. They are well-to-do. What they hope to do, and have successfully begun to do, is use their collective voice to convince as many people as possible that supporting anyone unlike oneself is contrary to Christianity, as they define it. Let's pause here and remember where this whole story began.

The Christian story begins in the humblest way with a tiny baby born in a stable surrounded by beasts. Today's sanitized nativity scene does not show how desperate this homeless couple was on the night a young woman goes into labor with her first-born child. I wonder how her new husband handled the birth with only lowing cows looking on? Everyone survived the messiness of the moment as the story recounts each and every Christmas Eve around the world.

The little family of three then journeyed onward on the backs of camels. Like everyone, they had to deal with issues of the day under an oppressive government. Like any next door neighbor, they faced all the struggles of raising a family. The Temple played a big role in their lives where the education of the young son began. He became a scholar before his time, so to speak. The message this young Jesus brings to the elders and into the public square is non-judgemental and full of expecations.

He openly holds up the oppressed as equally deserving of love. He befriends women of all "reputations", as defined by others. He won't abide those who call them by derogatory names. He reminds his friends, called followers, that they ought to do the same. He wants them to; He expects them to carry this message of love to everyone, but especially to the lamest of the lame, the sickest of the sick, the poorest of the poor, the lowly of the low. No matter what. There is no room in this message for condemnation of any other person. No matter who. In the meantime, what was happening with his own Mama Bear?

Mary, as the story goes, understood that the message her son delivered in the public square was unpopular with the powerful rulers. She did not stop him. She watched her son being challenged by the authorities and arrested for his words of good will towards all, not some, but one and all. She knew what was ahead for her son, Jesus. She knew better than anyone about the threats against him by those who disagreed with the concepts and precepts of loving one another.

Since the first, there was no place in this story, this Christmas story, the story where Christianity itself originates that accepts or advocates for treating anyone as less than; No place where the story deviates from the truth that love of neighbor, all neighbors, was THE agenda two millenia ago. To try today to change that story to fulfill a very different agenda is a smear against the story itself, i.e., a smear against the 2,000 year-old Christmas story!

Any agenda or mission to alter, and re-write it cannot be based in the truth that love was and continues to be the only message contained in the Christ-mas story.

Like Jesus himself, some scholars today say:

Ultimately, the intent of these celebrations is to emphasize the importance of Jesus’ birth and how Christians are expected to follow the example of Jesus as one who proclaimed love, peace and justice in line with the great prophets of the Jewish faith.**

This Christmas like all that have come, and will come, is not intended for any other agenda than the one that began in a stable one night long, long ago.

*https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/dec/16/her-voice-movement-jenny-donnelly-ziklag-trump?CMP=share_btn_url

**https://www.brandeis.edu/spiritual-life/resources/guide-to-observances/christmas.html#:~:text=Christmas%20celebrates%20the%20anniversary%20of,(John%201%3A%2014)

"I'm Paying."

Said the dark-eyed, dark-skinned woman. I had stopped into the bakery on the fly to see if perchance a savoury pie or two might be available for supper. There were three in the case which was very unusual so late in the day. I asked for two, when ordinarily I might have taken all three, but that seemed greedy under the circumstances. In a flashback I remembered telling kids, "Take only what you need". Standing shoulder to shoulder with me, the stranger said:"I do this all the time". You'll do it for the next person". She said this with full confidence.

I hoped to remember the next time the queue was long and somebody like me was waiting as I had for this woman to get finished. When she first turned toward me she asked, "Do you know what you want"? I thought she had sensed my growing impatience. "Take your time", I said shrugging off the moment. I was not in any particular hurry, but when it comes to waiting in lines, I often walk away instead. But, having spied the pies, I was willing to stand there while she asked about the various ingredients in different pastries. I secretly hoped she would not order those three pies having already claimed them mentally as my next meal. She broke into my thoughts when she said, "Go ahead and order. I'm paying for yours". "Are you sure?" I asked a little incredulously. I recalled my daughter telling me that she and her friend had had a similar experience at a drive through cafe. She waved thank you to the man in the car behind hers and drove away smiling. It happens!

The woman handed me two fresh-baked pies and said: Merry Christmas!

As much as I dislike hearing that overused and overworn: "I appreciate you", that's what genuinely came out of my mouth as I walked off with something warm in my hands and in my heart. That feeling lasted all the way home until I shared the encounter and the pies with my husband. We thanked her together in our grace for our "free" meal. It mattered! Not because I was hungry, but because she offered a stranger, another person walking through this world with her, something from the kindness of her heart. I wish I had been the one to do so. Next time!

Do you have an experience you want to share? Please write in the comment box.

The more the merrier!