It’s so wonderful to look out and see so many of you out here, late on this Christmas Eve. For many of you, gathering together for this evening worship service is a family tradition. Maybe some of you are starting a new tradition by coming here to worship on Christmas Eve. Either way, it is so good to see you.
We love our Christmas traditions, don’t we? I wonder what kind of traditions you have in your family. Perhaps you have cherished recipes that are always served at your gatherings, handed down from generation to generation. Maybe there’s a certain Christmas movie you watch each year. A certain Christmas carol that you just have to hear and sing on Christmas Eve. A special order or ceremony for opening gifts. Yes, Christmas is a time for tradition, a time for familiarity. Families often develop these little rituals that become a dear part of the celebration. Tradition connects us to our past and makes us feel more secure, that we’re not alone, that our lives have meaning, that the generations who have gone on before us have passed along something sacred and special to us. We love our Christmas traditions. And we don't want anything to change!
We don’t want anything to change, and yet each Christmas often brings a new change for us. Some of these changes are joyful and beautiful, of course. There’s nothing like celebrating Baby’s first Christmas, or welcoming a new in-law into the family. New ornaments can be added to the tree, different recipes can be tried and may become new favorites. It’s all right to add a few new traditions to the old, make room for new people, new events, new memories that just might become time honored traditions themselves. Something about this Christmas should be unique and special, so a little change can be good.
And yet, many of us are dealing with difficult changes at Christmas time. If a loved one died over the past year, that first Christmas without them is so heartbreaking. The traditions of the season seem to highlight their absence. Other changes like divorce, illness, unemployment, or broken relationships can interfere with our celebration of Christmas. Even if these things happened long ago, these losses can make every Christmas celebration seem bittersweet. Perhaps the older generations understand this the most. Yes, we are grateful for the changes that the younger generations represent – but we can’t help but reminisce of loved ones and years gone by, and the sense of loss is very real.
It is distressing when difficult change strikes us, and this time of year, when we struggle to keep tradition and yet live in the present, we find change to be especially hard on our souls. And yet, if you think about it, when we celebrate Christmas, we are actually celebrating the greatest change in history. When we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate that EVERYTHING changed when God sent his Son to earth.
Don’t let your familiarity with the Christmas story fool you – it is a story of radical change. God’s one and only Son entered into our human existence. His humble birth is the beginning of a much larger story, one that altered the course of history. This babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger grew into a remarkable teacher who taught us about God’s justice and gave us God’s love, forgiveness, and grace.
Jesus showed us the heart of God the Father. He was rejected, suffered a cruel and brutal death, and yet his death was used by God to bring about the forgiveness of sin and redemption of the whole world. After he died on the cross, the Father raised him, and the power of his resurrection was another great change that rocked every realm of creation. Because he lives, you too shall live, and on the last day he will raise you and all the faithful and give us everlasting life.
As St. Paul writes to Titus, “The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” At Christmas we celebrate the appearing of God’s grace, and we celebrate the greatest change that God’s son brought about to this world – which is victory over sin, grief, meaninglessness, isolation, and death. And we realize how this change, God’s change in Jesus Christ, is an end to all those changes, losses, and disappointments in life that we fear the most. God ends our struggle to hold onto the past and gives us Christ to hold onto instead. Will you hold onto him today? Will you believe and testify that this Son of God is your Lord and Savior? His love is unchanging and that love changes who you are and how you meet the joys and challenges of each day.
And, wonderfully, surprisingly, God’s great change in Jesus Christ can become your true comfort and joy, your only real hope in uncertain and ever-changing times. It is he who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. He is our greatest gift, our greatest hope, the agent of everlasting change whom we worship and adore as our Savior. Amen.
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