Beauty is everywhere in God’s creation. Beauty is the physical manifestation of the love that is God, that is the breath of God, that is the power and glory of God. Beauty is the love that made us and is within us and that propels us into loving synchrony with each other and with all of creation. Beauty is the power of love spinning the wheels and meshing the gears that move all of us constantly forward toward God’s dimension of love.
And Christmas is the annual celebration of this beauty, the ritual feast when we not only prepare for beauty but we express beauty in every way we can, from weird sweaters to fruit cakes to special cookies to the love expressed in every gift.
Thus, the message of Christmas is that God is inviting us to palpable real joy, the kind that comes with the reality of babies and immigrant journeys and meals and wonder and the joy of feeling warm and feeling loved. God is inviting us to feel loved.
God is inviting us to invite each other to feel loved. God is inviting us to love, to give love, to “build up the highway, clear it of stones” to make the way of love the way of joy and gladness.
God is inviting us to rejoice that we, too, are loved. God is inviting us to listen to the earth give thanks to God, God is inviting us to rejoice in the snow and the ice and the bitter cold and the relief that comes after in the gentle rain and the cool crisp air and in the beautiful colorful lights in the night.
God is reminding us that we are already, by our creation in God’s own image, heirs of God’s eternity.
Yes, all of us– gay men, trans folks, lesbian women, bisexual and queer and nonbinary and questioning people and all who wish they did not have the curse of being who they are in a society that is often oppressive in its homogeneity—yes, all of us: God is inviting us to rejoice in our creation in God’s own image. God is inviting us to rejoice in the persons we now are and always are becoming. We all, always, are becoming. That is the grace of the life God has given us.
“Do not be afraid.” To fear is to give yourself over to the absence of love with which God created you. When you can set aside fear you too will see the multitude of the heavenly host and you too will sing “Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace.” And then, like the shepherds of yore, you must “go” to “see.” Because life is to be lived on a forward trajectory.
The message of Christmas again, is that God is inviting us to palpable real joy.
Merry Christmas.
Christmas 2 All Years RCL 2022 (Isaiah 62:6-12; Titus 3:4-7; Luke 2:(1-7)8-20; Psalm 97)
©2022 The Rev. Dr. Richard P. Smiraglia. All rights reserved.
Dimensions of Reality: glbt Christian spirituality 