Christmas Eve

And so this is Christmas 

For weak and for strong 

For rich and the poor ones 

The world is so wrong

So sang John Lennon in his beloved Christmas song, heard continuously throughout every Christmas season since. 

The world is so wrong indeed. More wrong now than when Lennon penned the lyrics? Or just the same wrong? I don't know. Different wrongs for different times. But always wrong. Forever wrong. 

And so many of us are having a hard time feeling very merry this Christmas, as we find ourselves in the dark shadow of a government peopled by criminals, frauds, scammers, billionaires, perverts, rapists, racists, fascists. A hard time indeed are we having, and feeling the words of poor Mrs. Cratchit when asked to bless old Ebenezer Scrooge. 

"The founder of the feast indeed (said she). I wish I had him here! I'd give him a piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he'd have a good appetite for it."

But our curses, and our heartache fall impotent on December's empty air. We do not have Mr Trump before us any more than Mrs. Cratchit had Scrooge.

Christ himself came in a dark time, for the times of this world have always been dark. He came to right the wrong, and himself was wronged by the world that was wrong. And yet, as it is written, on the cross he overcame the world, and in his death and resurrection dispelled the darkness. This we believe, and must continue to believe. The wrong shall fail, the right prevail.

I recently heard a sermon by one James Talarico. I had never heard of the man before. He just popped up on my YouTube feed. But things like that happen, don't they? 

He was talking about the virgin birth and how such virgin births were a thing in the ancient world, not totally peculiar to the gospel record. Such a birth happened not only in the manger. Such births are happening all the time. Spiritual births. Something new is born, not of man but of miracle, Christ of Mary, and yet also Christ in us. We are made new creatures, free from the bonds of the world. Let the weak, therefore, say I am strong, let the poor say I am rich. And let us have hope, not in the world, for the world will disappoint, but in what is good, in what is noble, in what is kind and compassionate and generous and patient and fair and honorable. And joyous. 

In Christmas.

So this is Christmas 

And what have you done 

Another year over 

And a new one just begun ...

Where shall we start? Surely not in despair.