Advent & Christmas at ST. JOHN’S, LAFAYETTE

Dear friends in Christ,

Too often, I think we do a disservice to the Christmas story. The fact is the real story just doesn’t match our pageants or favorite Christmas movies or carols. When we tell these stories, we take out all the starch, we take the edge off of what was surely a very gritty reality.

The true story—the story that the Gospel writers are trying to tell us—involves a stiff dose of reality and a fair amount of danger. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus is born in a barn surrounded by animals and shepherds who show up in the middle of the night. In Matthew’s Gospel, just after his birth, Jesus and his family have to flee to Egypt. Herod wanted Jesus killed because he saw this newborn baby as a political rival. In John’s Gospel with its exalted description of the Word of God made flesh in Jesus, we read that the world did not recognize Jesus for who he was and for what he had come to do. All of this foreshadows the way Jesus will be rejected and killed later on. In all that tenderness and mildness, there is more than enough reality and danger and cynicism to go around—a surprise pregnancy, a long journey, packed inns, political intrigue, and a harrowing escape, all in the service of ancient prophecies and God’s dream for humanity and all of creation.

But the Christmas story tells us something powerful, something beautiful. As Luke tells it, Christmas is about God coming to be with the least and the lost, filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty. As Matthew tells it, it’s about the way Jesus upsets the political and social order, putting “the ruler of this world” on notice that God is really in charge and that God blesses the poor in spirit, the meek, the peacemakers, the abused and neglected. As John puts it, even though the world rejects God’s dream, God still comes to save the world. Whatever else it is, the Christmas story is about God becoming flesh and dwelling with human beings. Whatever else it is, the Christmas story is about God making his home in the midst of the joy and pain of human life. Whatever else it is, Christmas shows us God’s absolute, unshakeable love.

Dear friends, may you receive grace upon grace throughout the coming Christmas season. Even in the midst of troubling and difficult times, may you experience the presence of God in your lives. Even if your reality doesn’t look like the Christmas card or doesn’t come full circle like the happy-ever-after Christmas movie or isn’t quite as tender and mild as the Christmas hymn supposes, may you experience the absolute, unshakeable love of God.

I invite you and your family to join me at St. John’s for the quiet beauty of the Advent season and for the joyous celebration of Christmas. May God bless you and your families. May God keep you and those you love. And just as God comes to be with us in our joy and our sorrows, may God strengthen you and use you to be his hands and heart in the world.

In hope and joy, I remain

Faithfully yours,

The Rev. Dr. Bradley Pace
Rector