furrbear | Hope Happens.

From yesterday's Christmas Eve evening service, All Saints, Pasadena. Rev. Susan Russell:

Hope happens. But it doesn’t just happen. Here’s another quote I found about hope … this one from one of the early church fathers-- Augustine of Hippo:

“Hope has two beautiful daughters. Their names are anger and courage; anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain the way they are.”

Ewww! Courage? Anger? That’s not very … “Christmassy!” Couldn’t we just stick to sweetness and light tonight? Of course we could.

And if we do, we give in to what is a greater Christmas temptation than all the Eggnog and Christmas Cookies in Christendom. And that is the temptation to “put Christ into Christmas” only to leave him there: to receive with joy the gift of the Word made flesh on this Christmas Eve and fail to live as the Body of Christ the other 364 days of the year.

For the shadow side of our beloved Christmas traditions is that we risk making them more important than the message they represent. We risk being like my 10 year old Jamie … so worried about where the Kings go on the sideboard that we aren’t willing to make room for everybody at the manger. The danger of the Christmas story is that it IS so familiar that we can lose the amazing impact of its glorious message in the frenzy that surrounds the Christmas event.

Its ironic – isn’t it – that the very season that offers the message of Peace on Earth, Good Will to All brings instead Stress on Earth, Bad Temper to Many. The challenge is to balance the traditions that manifest the joy of the season with the gift that is the reason for the season: and that gift is of course Love. And the work of Christmas – OUR work at Christians – is to make that love tangible … as Howard Thurman describes in what has become my annual Christmas meditation:

When the star in the sky is gone,
When the Kings and Princes are home,
When the shepherds are back with their flocks,
The work of Christmas begins:
To find the lost
To heal the broken
To feed the hungry
To release the prisoner
To teach the nations
To bring Christ to all
To make music in the heart.

That, my brothers and sisters, is not just the work but the purpose of Christmas – purpose that drives our work and our witness at All Saints Church not just this Christmas Eve but 24/7.

On this Christmas Eve 2008, let me enter into the record this important note:

I am all in favor of living a purpose driven life.

But here’s the thing: let’s make sure that the purpose that drives us is turning the whole human race into the human family – not limiting those who can “Come let us adore him” to those who look like us, think like us, vote like us or believe like us.
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Let’s make sure that if we’re going to preach family values that we practice valuing all families.
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And let’s be clear that the hope that we claim on this O Holy Night – more hope than the world thinks is reasonable -- is the hope we are called to not just celebrate but to guard.

From war and violence,
from hunger and famine,
from budgets that prioritize bombs over bread,
from policies that favor profits for corporations
over healthcare for children,
and from purpose driven agendas
whose purpose is to write discrimination into our constitution.