Christmas has a long history. Not as long as you’d think, mind you. The Christians latched onto Christmas rather late. Easter was always the festival of focus-right from the very beginning. But later, in the 4th century (I know – weird to call that later), Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to be converted to Christianity, then made it his mission to make it the official religion of the Empire…the beginning of the end, some might say. Anyway, he saw the extremely popular pagan rituals around this time of year and he thought, “Let’s co-opt those festivals and make them our own – a ready customer base. And so Christmas was born.
Christmas, theologically, was about the “out there” god coming “down” to us and being born as a human – to live and die as one of us. This might be an antiquated idea, but the idea that god was “embodied” in a person had great impact on the many centuries to follow.
Like some of you, I can easily say that I reject the beliefs of an ‘out there/up there’ god “choosing” to experience humanity by coming to earth in the baby Jesus.
However, I share this bit of religious history because there is wisdom to be gained through the evolution of those ideas over the millennia. I may not subscribe to Jesus being “god incarnate”, but I might find it very helpful to think there’s a wisdom, a spirituality in that first century teacher that was revolutionary and significant. And I might find it quite meaningful to understand that this deep connection with people and with earth and with spirit is not unique, but is present within each of us – each baby, each person, each member of humanity – embodied with a sense of connection, wisdom, beauty that we might choose to access.
We can all list the negatives of how the church made dogma and creeds out of these ideas to wield power and indoctrinate for generations, to twist some of the most pure and lovely values that the stories offer. It’s also on us to see some of the greatness that came out of those ideas. As a result of the belief that Jesus embodied this divinity, some amazing things happened.
As Chris Armstrong puts it in a 2018 article entitled “The Incarnation and Our Everyday Lives”:
Out of a desire to imitate Jesus’ compassion for those suffering from physical illness, our ancestors poured the work of their hearts into a new institution called the hospital, caring for the impoverished sick, and so birthed not only modern medicine but also the very notion of a non-profit sector.
Out of fidelity to Jesus’ teaching to “love with our whole minds,” our ancestors poured their intellect into an institution called the university, and so laid the foundation for the scientific revolution.
And out of aching devotion to the beauty of creation, our ancestors poured their imaginations and craft and labor into the soaring beauty of architecture, cathedrals, sculpture, paint, music… and so nurtured and fostered artists in every medium.
Healthcare. Education. Culture. What does this say to us? It says that:
Our bodies matter.
Our minds matter.
Our work matters.
Christmas is still about incarnation. It’s about beauty, compassion, kindness, courage, hard work, sacredness being present in each and every one of us. We are the message of Christmas…ever becoming more fully human and in-touch with the sacredness of the humanity within us.
As C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. . . your neighbour is the [most sacred] object presented to your senses.”
Our prayer today in the words of Diane Ackerman.
I swear I will not dishonor
my soul with hatred,
but offer myself humbly
as a guardian of nature,
as a healer of misery,
as a messenger of wonder,
as an architect of peace.
I will honor all life
—wherever and in whatever form
it may dwell—on Earth my home,
and in the mansions of the stars.
In this season where we can embody all that we wish the world could be,
May it be so in so many ways.
-Chris New
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