Christmas is Love

Rev. Jeffrey Symynkywicz, December 19, 2010

At the heart of Christmas
is love,
pure and simple;
and the essence of this season
is the sacred life that abides in love,
whether long ago in Bethlehem,
or where we are,
right here, right now.

This is the whole reason
for the splendor and the miracle;
it is the whole reason
for our being here
on this good Earth, together.

We are here to love:
not just when it warms our hearts;
but even (perhaps especially)
when the urge not to love
is what we want to follow most of all;
when not loving would warm our hearts
quite sufficiently with those roaring fires of anger and rage.

But it is only through love
that the world is made new,
and the purpose of Creation
is brought to its completion.
Hatred and anger do not build
the holy stable where the blessed one is born:
only love does.

Even when the command to love
leaves us cold,
and we are forced to share
this manger of a world with those we’d rather not--
The miracle of Christmas reminds us
we must love even in our deepest winters

if we are ever to know the spring,
if the flowers of new life are ever to blossom
in our hearts, and in our lives, and in our world.

Amen.

jbs
1/24/05           12/19/05          12/19/10

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