CHRISTMAS CELEBRATES THE MYSTERY OF LIFE

There’s no doubt about it, Christmas would appear to be the most important holy day of the Christian Church. The build-up t Christmas far exceeds that of any other Christian holyday, including Easter.

We started hearing Christmas music right after Halloween,. Shoppers stampeded stores at 5 a.m. for Christmas bargains the day after Thanksgiving. One lady has had her tree up so long she has to dust the ornaments!

Retailers and merchandiser know a high percentage of their business is connected with the Christmas season. I often have quipped that if the Christian Church decided to do away with the festival of Christmas, calling it a pagan festival, as did our Puritan ancestors, business people would keep it alive without the endorsement of the Church.

As the old joke has it., at Christmas time even non-Christian business people heartily sing that old hymn, “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.”

But, of course, the appeal of Christmas goes far deeper than beautiful decorations and glittering lights, far deeper than elegant food and vintage wines, and far deeper even than the traditions of generous gift giving. Christmas goes far deeper than pageants and concerts and glorious music, far deeper than “Dreaming of a White Christmas” or “Home for the Holidays.”

Christmas touches us deeply because it goes right to the heart of the mystery of life. It focuses on the mystery of conception and birth.

And unlike Easter, the central event of the Christian faith, which focuses on the resurrection of the dead, which few have seen (except possibly in offices at 5 p.m.) Christmas focuses on the birth of a baby, which most everyone has witnessed.

I remember when my wife brought forth our first born. I held her in my arms – the tiny little miracle – so beautiful, so perfect, so unbelievable. She was, all by herself, a latent universe waiting to develop and blossom with the nearly limitless potential she had been given.

And so, Mary and Joseph in a stable that night long ago, brought forth her first born. Wrapping him in swaddling cloths, she was cradling in her arms the beginning of a new era in history.

Did she know that the ”fruit of her womb” was a latent universe? Did they know they were cradling in their arms the one who would come to be called the Son of God? Did they know the latent universe they had running around in that little boy? Whatever they knew or didn’t know, we can be thankful for the way in which they raised their child so that he became exemplary to millions.

Jesus eventually came to be seen as an agent of grace, even as God’s vice-regent upon the earth, subsequently, he was called the Messiah, or Christ, meaning King. He was the Divine Royalty in human vesture, and what a contrast he was to human royalty.

Royalty at that time generally believeD in the “divine right of kings”. Indeed, many of the Kings, Pharaohs and Caesars regarded themselves as an embodiment of image of the divine.

But Jesus was a different matter. Most kings and potentates came to power on the backs of the hard-working poor. Peasants were expendable pawns in their war games. It was the nature of royalty to lord it over everyone to expand their empires.

But Mary and Joseph were cradling a radically different royalty in their arms. The future “empires” that suckled at Mary’s breast was not one of attack, rape, pillage, domination and exploitation. Instead the latent universe in her arms grew up to say, “I have come not to be ministered onto, but to minister, and to give my life for the world.” It was a latent universe of grace.

But it was also a latent universe of truth. I long have admired the writings of the late Loren Eiseley, award-winning author, archeologist, paleontologist, anthropologist and humanist. He taught many years at the University of Pennsylvania and was regarded as an expert in a number of areas, including evolution.

And contrary to the dogmatic evolutionism of today, Eiseley said, “I had come to feel at last that the human version of evolutionary events was perhaps too simplistic for belief.” (“All the Strange Hours”). In other words, Eiseley longed for the truth that would set people free from inadequate assumptions about their development and potential.

He discusses his pessimism about human nature when he notes we seem often to be more barbaric and bestial than the beasts from which we supposedly descended. Eiseley admits that as humans, “We exchange halos in one era for fangs in another.” (“The Unexpected Universe”)

He observes in our history, “Bronze replaced flint, iron replaced bronze, while the killing never ceased.” (“The Unexpected Universe”). But then he adds these beautiful words. “I am resigned to wait out man’s lingering barbarity.”

Why? Because the world we now know is open-ended and unpredictable. Said Eiseley, “I had learned never to underestimate the potential in the favor of the actual.” (“All The Strange Hours”).

Because lingering in the mind and heart and soul of all these latent universes of babies and young people are unwritten symphonies, pictures unpainted, songs unsung, political and economic ideals unrealized and love’s longing to find its true home.

Strangely, it was Eiseley, the scientist, who said, “Ironically, I who profess no religion find the whole of my life a religious pilgrimage.” Why? Because he kept discovering the latent universe in all life forms, and most of all, despite its propensity for barbarity, in the human life form.

Humans possess the future in their heads, a latent universe to be actualized. That is the truth brought by Jesus. God loves the world and intends to bring it to wholeness.

Mary and Joseph cradled that “latent universe’ nurtured and loved it, to introduce a new era of grace and truth into human history. And on Christmas Day, we again are filled with hope for the latent universe to be actualized in our children and grandchildren – a universe of grace and truth.