The Hopes and Fears of All the Years

Rev. Jeffrey Symynkywicz, Christmas Eve, December 24, 2009

        swaddling clothes of our caring and compassion, and hold it close in the manger of our hearts. Then, God finds a way. Love finds a way.

        If, like Joseph, we meet our responsibilities, and do our duty, and answer our calling with courage, and listen to that greater voice of truth—not the little voices of shifting public opinion or gossip or popular fads and passing fancies. Then, God finds a way. Love finds a way.

        If, like the shepherds, we cast out our fears, and kneel down before life’s glorious possibilities. If, like the magi, we turn our backs on the forces of earthly power and control and oppression, and seek to serve that which is true and just and liberating. Then, God finds a way. Love finds a way.

        If, at last, we see that star shining, and finally come out of the rooms  at those seemingly well-appointed and comfortable (but crowded and often cluttered and sometimes superficial and sterile) Holiday Inns of self-sufficiency and self-importance and self-indulgence and sheer stubbornness that we have reserved for ourselves—and enter, at last, in our brokenness, in our poverty, in our illness, in our despair, in our doubt, that holy stable of God’s love—then we, too, can be transformed by the miracle of Christmas. And our life’s story can be written anew. And we can share in the holy birth of Emmanuel— God with us. God within us. God radiating through us. The Love of God pulsating through our beings, transcending all that divides us, and restoring beauty and dignity, at last, to the face of our world.

        The stable at Bethlehem is not a place in the physical geography of the world. It is, rather, a place in the spiritual geography of our hearts.

        May your Christmas be filled with joy, and may your lives be transformed through the transforming and healing power of love.

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