It seems as if Christmas comes earlier each year and for many of us that means more stress and anxiety. The glory of Christmas can fill our hearts and minds with thoughts of hope and love, but all too often it reminds us of our fear and painful memories that can depress even the healthiest person. It is easy for us in this day and age to be enveloped into the anxiety that permeates our culture. There is a war, the economy is sporadic at best and we are reminded daily about issues that seem much too large and way beyond our control. Despite all of this, the trees are up, the lights have been strung and the carols are already being piped into the air. Christmas is coming again into the world; the celebration of hope, joy, reconciliation, forgiveness and love is upon us again, ready or not.

The biblical nativity stories from Matthew and Luke focus on the struggle for life by people of conscience in the midst of overbearing imperial strategies of death. These stories can serve as an alternative compass from which we can set new bearings for our holiday celebrations. They invite us to re-imagine Advent/Christmas as a time to resist not only the delusions of our consumer society, but also the rule of domination in the world. The popular and completely sentimentalized version of the Christmas story that is sung in carols and portrayed in manger scenes is a highly selective interpretation of the two gospel accounts. In fact, the narratives of Matthew 1-2 and Luke 1-2 have few details in common. Yet they agree on one basic theme: God slips quietly into a world of brutal rulers and hard-pressed refugees, and a few unheralded people manage to recognize God's presence and act accordingly.

Unlike our culture, where the media focuses almost exclusively upon the rich and famous personalities as the proper subjects of story and history, the gospels portray ordinary people as the characters in the Christmas narrative. Joseph and Mary are unlikely heroes. Their low social status is indicated by their inability to even procure lodging when in desperate straits. They are distinguished by their courage to endure harsh conditions. Mary gives birth in a barn and has to make hard choices like fleeing the country in order to save her newborn son's life. Surrounding this Holy Family are the dubious and obscure cast of characters: obscure seers, oblivious innkeepers, foreign emissaries, drunken shepherds and angels everywhere. This is the story of a Father's (God's) love begotten into a world hard pressed to find a sense of hope, joy and reconciliation.

The story line has not really changed very much over the years. Therefore, I would like to suggest that this year we have a choice. We can choose to ignore the secular culture that would have us over-draw our bank accounts and over indulge in the consumption of too much … food, drink, shopping or instead we can choose a simpler Advent/Christmas and make an effort to ignore those things that trigger anxiety and stress in our lives and focus our attention on our relationships and our spiritual and emotional well-being. Give with thoughtfulness and caring, receive with the same gratitude, make the effort but don't guilt or shame yourself. Use some of the anxious energy to relax, to pamper yourself, to slow down. Create a new tradition that honors the true meaning of Christmas. Welcome love and hope into your life and into your heart. This Christmas, anticipate the coming of Christ into the world, this troubled world where - "Everything we do changes tomorrow and nothing we can do will ever change the past" Joan Chisister.

This Christmas I invite you to embrace the Holy Family and their ordinary family and friends. I invite you to embrace this world in which God is within us and into which God has come and will come again. God, who is the Alpha and the Omega, will always be inviting you into a relationship of forgiveness and hope. God who makes each day new. God the source of all that is good in this world, the ending of all that is evil, of the things that are, that have been, and that future years shall see, evermore and evermore. Have a Merry Christmas!

I invite you home this Christmas to St. Augustine's. Please join us by attending any and all of our programs and worship services:

December 5, 12, 19
6:00 p.m. Advent Program - supper and labyrinth walk

December 2, 9, 16, 23, 30
Sunday worship services at 8:00 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.