The threat of Christmas

 

The threat of Christmas looms in the Gospel I reflected on today [Matthew 2:13-18].  The threat of Christmas...  The words sound awkward.  To be sure, the sentiment they express is wholly unpleasant.  And yet this threat represents the good news of today.

We’re just days away from the Christmas miracle.  We gathered as Christian believers to celebrate the great event of Christ present in our lives.  Our Advent-hearts rejoiced in response to a bold reality; God those many years ago came crashing into our world and our lives in a way entirely new.  We call that day the incarnation: God present in flesh and blood as Jesus the Christ.  It’s a promise made good; an Old Testament promise of God’s to His people.  Those prophets were right!  God sent us that savior, a Messiah, our King.  We didn’t quite expect the circumstances as they unfolded –a weary, dejected couple and their tiny baby—but God came through on that promise of old.

That promise and its manifestation demonstrates God’s love for us . . . a love which provides an only son sacrificed to redeem our lives and offer a gift of salvation eternal.  It’s a love that is radical and reckless.  Its abundance engulfed our world that first Christmas morning and continues to do so today.  This love, this care for humankind, this gesture which comes without condition is precisely the Christmas threat of today’s Gospel.  It’s a threat to affairs corrupt and profane.  It’s a threat to relationships immoral and indignant.  God’s love incarnate as Jesus the Christ and the subsequent power of such an influence represents the Christmas threat to injustice at every twist and turn.  It’s this threat which spooked Herod and his reign of domination.

Matthew asks us to remember Herod today and his sad command.  The Church asks us to remember those Holy Innocents and martyrs who died in and of the name of Christ.  God asks us to remember His love for each and every one and to share with Him in such an enterprise.  To do so threatens injustice in its ways both blatant and subtle.

Saint John gives us hope for a world that seems surrounded by darkness [1 John 1:5--2:2].  Hope because there’s light in the world that brightens the darkness.  For all the evil acts that blacken the world around us there is God’s light shining through people who stand for justice, truth and love.  These are regular people like you and me, coming from all faiths and cultures who brighten the dark places of the world.  We brighten the world because we stand-up against injustices, pursue God’s truth, and reflect the love that God has for each one of us.  We’re not saints, but we are people who care, we’ve been touched by God’s love and want to share the gift.  By sharing God’s love we’re lighting up the world.  As we celebrate the Christmas season and the birth of God among us, we can be confident that the light we bring to the world is making a difference.  Even those small daily acts of love, truth, and justice shared with family, friends, and strangers are sending sparks of light into the world.  We can’t undo the horrors of yesterday, but we can bring light in the world today.  The world needs us to bring God’s love, hope and light into every situation we encounter.