You
may remember back a month or so South Plainfield held it’s 3rd
annual “Christmas in July.” Paintings of Olaf the Snowman from Frozen adorned
shop windows, good old St. Nick made a surprise appearance… in general we as a
town came together to celebrate some parts of Christmas in July instead of December.
Well,
today we have a similar opportunity. Today’s readings all point us to the
basic, blood and guts point of Christmas,
that God has been born to us,
Emmanuel, God with us…
Christmas is about the scandal of particularity!
God made flesh, in a particular man, in a particular time, in a particular place.
Yes, today we read about the scandal
of particularity—and in so doing we are celebrating Christmas again. Just as
there was Christmas in July, today there is Christmas in August.
Let us pray.
In
order to frame the scandalous particularity we proclaim this day, let’s think
briefly back to Christmas…
The stories we tell—Joseph and Mary and Angels and all the rest… and for that matter the
stories about Rudolf and Red Rider BB Guns, and the time Uncle Hank embarrassed
the whole family but made it up to everyone with a soulful ballad from the old
country.
The songs we sing—the Christmas carols, the Choir gathered at the Old Danish home around
Tom’s homemade wine, the hymn sing the Sunday after.
The Decorations—Advent
Candles, Wreaths, Poinsettias, Trees with Tinsel, maybe torn down by little
terroristic cats.
The meals—Turkey
and stuffing, yams and pie and Figgie Pudding, Seven fishes the night before…
Yes,
the particularity of Christmas: Stories, Songs, Decorations, and Meals… So too
the particularity we find before us today.
The
specific story of Joshua,
remembering how God has acted, brought God’s people out of Egypt, protected
them along their sojourn to freedom, defended them and brought them to a land
that became there own.
This
is not some universal story of a god doing good things in general, but Our God
acting against oppression and bondage, a special story for a special people—a
particular people chosen by a particular God.
The
specific song of Psalm 34—a weird
one, about God’s body parts—a God with eyes and ears, a face and an astonishing
closeness. A God embodied in the world—yes Metaphorically, but a face that
points to God’s closeness with us, eyes and ears that can hear our cries and
see our lives!
Not
some God that steps away or does not care, but a God intimately involved and
concerned with God’s people. God for us and with us!
The
odd decorations we wear upon ourselves—the
very actions and attributes of God, putting on God’s truth and righteousness,
his peace and faith, his salvation and spirit, holding tight to the very Word
of God!
Not
some far away and far out deity acting in theory but not in fact… When God
acts, those actions become so real that we can wrap them around us, the
character of God so solid that it is our sure defense.
That
meal Jesus tells us about! The
bodily-ness of it all, the icky intimacy of eating Christ’s flesh and drinking
his blood. A call to abide with him, to reside with him, to follow him all the
way to the end.
Not
some Gnostic escape from the flesh, from the world in which we live, not a pie
in the sky savior—but one you can sink your teeth into—literally… one who isn’t
about escape, but instead about staying put where you are and finding life
there with Him!
So
yes, in stories of specificity, songs sung about the face of God, decorations
made from God’s actions, and a holy Meal of the flesh and blood of Christ, we
are confronted with Christmas in August.
And
this means so much. God is with us in one particular human being, Jesus—and
since then He’s been entering into our personal
peculiar particularities every since.
God’s
story sanctifying our story.
God’s
song the tempo our life.
God’s
reality wrapping us tighter than swaddling clothe.
God’s banquet in Christ Jesus’ flesh making us
Holy and his blood making us drunk on his divinity!
God
in the newborn baby’s cry, the mother’s joy and the father’s worry.
God
with a toddler clinging to her uncle’s neck as they wonder at the meteor
shower.
God
lazing in the sun, back to an old sad poplar, just taking in the goodness of
the day.
God
with us hungry by a restaurant dumpster, waiting for the day-old-bread and
bagels to be deposited.
God
in the hospital with a man quarantined and questioning the meaning of life.
God
joyfully smiling at the wedding banquet and clapping at the family reunion.
God
a solemn sentinel in the nursing home and a mourner when things fall apart.
God
entering into the thin places between heaven and earth, making holy the
particulars of our lives.
God,
on this particular day, celebrating
Christmas in August. A+A
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