Christmas Eve Meditation Vance L. Toivonen
Tomorrow the streets of Sturgeon Bay, and, in fact, the streets of most cities across the country, will be quiet. We took a trip to Minneapolis on Christmas Day one year, arriving in the city in the late afternoon, checked into our motel, and then proceeded to look for somewhere to eat. Long story short, we ended up buying some food at the convenience store/(slash)gas station. I was in the Twin Cities recently and had forgotten how much traffic and hurry and sheer volume of humanity there was to be found there, which makes my memory of that Christmas Day years ago even more stark by contrast.
The first verse of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” ends with, “The world in solemn stillness lay to hear the angels sing.” The First verse of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” begins, “O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie.” Christmas brings to a halt the wheels of commerce that grind away year ‘round, even if only for a few brief hours. Christmas has historically stopped armed conflicts. Christmas interrupts the regularly scheduled programming of television networks. It is almost as if the birth of the Christ-child somehow interrupts the entire planet, diminishing the importance of so many seemingly important activities and plans.
The human race notices at Christmas, and again even if only briefly, that the way of life we seem so married to is not the only option for us. The Christ-child is born to show us other possibilities, other ways of being in the world. The Christ-child will grow to invite us to rest in God’s love, even as we envision the resting of this child in the arms of his mother, or in the straw and hay of the manger.
Is this birth a true Incarnation, an unadulterated materialization of God? We sometimes struggle with this question, and rightly so. How can we comprehend such a thing? It is just a story, after all, albeit a very familiar story, wonderfully told tonight, I might add, by PD Cole. But if the carols we sing are any indication of what we might do with this birth, then the order of this night, and of the ensuing days, is to let this birth get inside of us in such a way that we can no longer observe it objectively. There is tonight the pregnant opportunity for a marvelous convergence. We not only hear the story, but swallow it whole, as if it were Christmas dinner itself. We are invited this night to become the manger, the cradle for the Christ-child. We are invited this night to offer our very lives to this newborn energy, to be captured by it in an inescapable manner.
In a recent visit a man looked me in the eyes, his eyes watering, and said, “God loves me. Wow!” I said “Wow!” too, and my eyes also began to water. If we can leave here tonight somehow able to share that wow, and to rest in the arms of God’s love, we will experience the stillness of this point in time and space as an ever-present peace and calm. We will feel this divine love so profoundly that the comfort and joy promised by the tidings of the angels will burst forth from our lives in ways that will amaze us. This is the genesis of true peace. It starts with lives that find the love of God absolutely unavoidable. This is my Christmas wish for you, and for all of us. A Merry and Blessed Christmas, and a Happy and Joyful New Year to you all. Amen.