Christmas Epiphany - January 3, 2021

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Psalm 147:12-20

Sermon Christmas Longing Catherine Lyle

This past Christmas as I finished up my final year in seminary, I was not working for a church and this holiday season felt very much like a fleeting privilege to be just at home. It was (as you all know) a pandemic and as such, I was not invited to Christmas teas. I was not invited to dinners. I was not invited to a mom's shopping trip finished off with a nice lunch in town. I was not invited to a fun family cabin rental in Leavenworth. I was not invited to help with Christmas auctions or school fundraisers. Nope, I was not invited. No one would have me because I am a Methodist, and we called this our year of Jubilee and we did our best to give the earth a rest by staying home and slowing the spread of

COVID-19. In this year of jubilee, I was however invited to spend so much time at home that I would read with my boys every Christmas book we were ever given. Hmm-hmm, that is a lot of Christmas books because over the years retired clergy, adoptive church grandmas, and family members love to give books.

One such book was given to me by an old pastor friend. To be honest I had never read it until this year. The Christmas book is odd because on the back of the book is a woman painting with a brush in her mouth as her arms lay rested in her wheelchair. Her name is famous, but her name is one I had never heard of; Joni (Johnny) Earckson Tada. She has a famous evangelical radio show, now also on YouTube called Joni and Friends and she has published over forty books and painted many portraits. She is so famous that she even had a movie made about her in 1980 titled, Joni. Joni has a story to share and although I do not wish to drink from all her theology, I deeply respect her spiritual work and ongoing faithful process to which she has been extremely open and candid with the public.

Joni (Johnny) grew up privileged in a good family home with many opportunities and she led a very active life of riding horses, hiking, tennis, and swimming. That would all change for her in 1967 when she had a diving injury that had made her body into the body of a quadriplegic with serious depression. At that tender age of seventeen when most teens are breaking free of their parents, she had injured herself so badly she could not feel from her shoulders down. She had to learn everything over again, accept and love herself as she was now, and find meaning in her life again. She was rejected by those she thought loved her and she doubted her faith. She was as the Gospel of John depicts the physical world; she was living in darkness. She describes her journey as a battle because for her it is. It is a daily emotional battle and because life is truly unfair, after numerous achievements including her nonprofit work helping others with accessibility and get wheelchairs, she was also diagnosed with cancer in 2010 to which she still battles today as well.

Perhaps it did finally take a pandemic to exist for me to reach out into the pile of Christmas books and read her 1990 book, A Christmas Longing. Joni’s Christmas book is filled with stories, thoughts, and paintings. She asks thought-provoking questions of what it might have felt for Mary and Joseph to go on with their lives after experiencing the miraculous birth of Jesus, visiting with angels, seeing the star in the sky, the wise men giving gifts, and shepherds showing up in the night. After such a beautiful first Christmas night, the census continued, the animals in the stable needed food, and the bills still needed to be paid. She of all people would ask what it feels like to know God and still have to get back to business making your physical way through the world. What feels so remarkable to me is that Joni didn’t write this book before her accident. As a prior foster kid, many of us are not huge fans of the Christmas season. So, to learn from a Christian who had a wonderful childhood filled with happy Christmas memories and then face a life-changing accident and to come full circle to an emotional place where she not only wants to write about the first Christmas and the joyous Christmas seasons from her childhood, but she also writes about what Christmas means to her now. The joy she gets now from Christmas. What Christmas means to her after the accident. After the living nightmare is unhinged.

Our Gospel from John today is similar in many regards to Joni writing a Christmas book after her own painful journey because the book of John would have been written after the life and resurrection of Jesus. Disciples may have taken notes during the life of Jesus but the book itself would have been at least an author’s life piece of work. The book of John would have been written post the birth of Jesus and for the most part post the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. Even more so there is theological evidence that as beautiful as the prologue of John is, it is not the original. No spoiler alert there for you Methodist tuning in. The Gospel of John was probably edited, redacted, and expanded during the persecution of those early first Christians. When our new faith was beginning to grow in hearts all around and spread to different towns, our saints before us faced torture and death for believing in Jesus. They had their backs against the walls as they tried to understand the life of Jesus emotionally and mentally and what being a disciple of Jesus would mean for them and their children.

Most theologians tend to at least agree that John chapter one verses 1-5 belong to the original hymn composed. So, we can rest assured that the original disciple who wrote the book of John wanted Jesus to be understood in context to our human history and cosmos as a whole. It is absolutely beautiful so lets for pure enjoyment on this Sabbath read that again:

IN THE beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him, not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

The darkness did not overcome Jesus. In wintertime as we Christians of all theological perspectives put up lights in the darkness, it helps to remember that God is in control. Then the next verses which may have been added at a later time introduce John and distinguishes John from Jesus as the recorder but not the light of God. Falling back to the topic at hand, the Gospel of John goes back into describing Jesus as the word and his mission to baptize all of us in the Spirit as children of God.

What is most striking in these early verses is are the verses about Jesus being rejected by his own people and yet still choosing to love the world and fulfill the will of God. John pays little to no attention as perhaps Luke does in describing the birth of Jesus. John runs in an entirely different direction than say Matthew who begins his gospel with a genealogical history of Jesus. Rather, John just comes out and says Jesus will be denied by his own people. To people in villages with customs and traditions dating back thousands of years and to people dependent on their neighbors for survival, this verse hits you right in the gut, “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.” The authors who wrote this in those very first lines not only testified to the abandonment that Jesus lived through but they put it in as close to the beginning of the story as they could because this abandonment would foreshadow the life of Jesus. This abandonment, rejection, denial, and false rumors made against Jesus would be the stumbling block of humanity, but it would not be an ultimate wall stopping us from experiencing the love and acceptance we find in God.

John in that spiritual sense is honest and gets right to the point. Despite any shock Mary and Joseph encountered with the pregnancy of Jesus, Christmas is real and was planned from the beginning. The miracle that Jesus brings on Christmas and every day of the year can never be repaid by us. It was a gift to which we are all given. We are all children of God and God loves us. The lies in our ears once told before were not true. You matter whether you are rich or poor. You matter whether you get good grades or incompletes. You matter to God whether you’re an Olympian or a person living with a disability barely surviving on disability income. You matter to God whether your skin burns in the sun or turns to the envious shades of a much darker complexion. You matter to God and those you love and the many ways you share your love matters to God. You matter and you are part of God’s design. You are an end in yourself and yet you will not end up alone.
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Even rare events such as snow falling in the hot desert from our psalm reading today point to the power and divine intention of everything within and around us. God is with us and wants us to experience joy in dark times. To experience peace and rest during wars. To experience love and friendship during abandonment. To experience hope in a pandemic. Joni writes in her Christmas book, A Christmas Longing,

Bright red ribbons, scented pine branches, spices and candles, the softness of the falling snow, the twinkling lights, the joy, and laughter-these things were warm and precious, but they also were inklings, hints, and whispers of an even greater celebration. A celebration to come. I know that I was deep into a Christmas longing. It’s a longing each of us senses this time of year especially when we listen to the child inside of us. It’s a desire to be home, to belong, to find fulfillment, complete, and eternal. Christmas is an invitation to a celebration yet to happen.

Today as we reflect on the Christmas season and what it means for our lives in this ever-changing world it is okay to feel somewhat unsatisfied. It is more than natural to feel a little disappointed either because Christmas has ended or because it wasn’t to your expectations. The truth is, the good moments of Christmas and true Christian generosity, hospitality, and love is but a welcomed respite from this cold world but it is only a taste to come. We know that someday we will experience something far greater and on that day it will be the best Christmas ever. We will be with our greatest gift, Jesus.

Amen