A Perfectly Imperfect Christmas

St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Merry Christmas! Our Advent journey has come to its end. We have arrived in Bethlehem with Mary and Joseph to welcome the birth of their son Jesus. Like the Shepherds, we have come to the manger to see this thing that has taken place. Whatever preparations we need to get done during Advent in order to celebrate Christmas--time's up. It's here. What has been done has been done, what has not been done has not been done. It's time to let it all go and simply savor this moment. Savor the celebration of the birth of Jesus. It may not be perfect, it may not be the ideal that we had imagined, but it is what it is, and it is good because Christ is born. It is good because of God's action, not because of ours.

That is the thing about Jesus's birth. It did not happen in an ideal and perfect situation. As we heard in the Gospel reading that the Deacon read for us and as we saw the kids perform in the Nativity Play, Jesus did not come in perfection. He came into a world that was greatly disrupted by the census. He came into a world where there was no room for him, and was born in less than sanitary conditions among the animals, placed into a manger on straw. That is the environment, the situation to which he was born. It was not the ideal moment that Mary had been imagining for the birth of her son, and yet that is the moment He came. And that night, with all the difficulties and all of its challenges, was holy.

That's the thing about God. God shows up to us in those less than perfect moments. I often think that God is more likely to show up to us in those less than perfect moments, those moments when we need God more than ever.

There is no doubt that this is a less than ideal, a less than perfect Christmas, as here we are on our second Covid Christmas. Who could imagine that? I know I didn't imagine it last year. I thought we would have our one Covid Christmas, and be back this year. But that is not the world we find ourselves in. We find ourselves in a world that is still greatly disrupted by this virus. We find ourselves on the precipice of what is likely to be a dangerous surge here in Oregon with the new variant. They are estimating it will come in just a few weeks. We need to be getting ready right now. They are warning us it might be worse, perhaps even twice as bad as the Delta surge we had in the late summer and early fall. As you remember, that was the moment we ran out of ICU beds here in Lane County. And they are saying this might be twice as bad as that? This is a dangerous moment that we are on the precipice of. It is not what we had imagined, what we had hoped for, what we had as our ideal for this Christmas. Yet this is what we have, and it is good because Christ is still born.

The Christ who was born in a less than ideal situation is with is in all the difficulties that we face. Whether it is the Covid difficulties that we are currently facing, or the ones we are anticipating, or if it is other challenges that we have in our lives, whether other medical problems, or the challenges of financial insecurity, job loss, relationships falling apart, loneliness, anxiety. With all of the different challenges we might be facing at this time, into that Christ comes, just as he came over 2000 years ago. Not because we were able to make it all perfect, but because he shows up in the straw of this world.

And so, my friends, savor this moment. Celebrate this Christmas on this holy night. It doesn’t matter if it is what we wanted it to be, because it is good: Jesus is here with us.

Merry Christmas.

AMEN