The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) – December 25, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

[Video coming soon]

Christmas Vibes and Nostalgia

According to every statistic and pollster around, Christmas consistently ranks as the #1 holiday, the #1 national celebration of the year. In movies, in TV shows, songs, and books—Christmas is the holiday that tops all others. And if Christmas isn’t your thing, if you’re kind of “down” on Christmas, it’s also the only holiday that has its own word to cut you down for your unpopular opinion: you’re a Scrooge.

Christmas has its own vibe, as the kids say. The atmosphere, the feeling, the everything of Christmas—it’s the most popular vibe around. “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” The music, the lights, the smells—this is the holiday that has its own smells: pine, cinnamon, peppermint and ginger!—the cookies, the movies, the company, the gifts, the sweaters! The Christmas vibe—it’s a vibe! And it’s the best! And look, I’m not a Scrooge, I love Christmas! It is my favorite holiday! I love the “vibe,” ever since I was a kid! In my family, we would always go to Christmas Eve Mass together, then come home and have a party, open the gifts that we got for each other for Advent Angels (Secret Santa). Then we would watch a Christmas movie, usually It’s a Wonderful Life, go to bed, wake up to all of the presents under the tree, open presents in the morning, have family over during the day, food, more presents. It was the best! I’m sure each one of you has certain traditions you loved and certain traditions you started with your family when you grew up.

But something I’ve noticed—and I’ve noticed it in myself—I’ve noticed how oftentimes I have felt that my “best” Christmases are behind me. And it’s not because I’m a pessimist, and it’s not because I don’t love my Christmases here and with all of you as a priest, no. It’s just that—well, there’s no beating the pure joy of Christmas as a kid. As a kid, the “vibe” of Christmas is intoxicating; it’s literally a sugar rush, but it’s also just a pure rush.

The question to ask is: do you remember that first Christmas where Christmas lost its glow, that it wasn’t quite the same? The “vibe,” the “Christmas cheer”—it just wasn’t the same. Do you remember when that happened? I was in college, and it was a tough semester, and I was really looking forward to coming home and just letting the Christmas “vibe” cheer me up. And for the first time, it didn’t. I had this nostalgia for Christmases gone by, and for the first time I couldn’t recapture it.

And I know for a fact that I’m not alone in that. And I know because look around: the Christmas “vibe,” the ambiance of Christmas starts months before Christmas even gets here. We try to recreate that feeling, that vibe with our children, trying to give them the most amazing Christmas ever—hoping that that is how we can recapture the feeling ourselves. For many of us here tonight, “Mass, church as a family” is just another important part of the Christmas “vibe.”

The Mystery of Christmas

But my question for us tonight—my question for us on this incredible night—the one question is this: Is Christmas more than a vibe? Is it more than the atmosphere, the feeling, the music, the lights, the smells, the gifts? Is what we’re doing here just one more part of the vibe? Is Jesus’ birth more than just the “origin story” of our favorite holiday? And I know what you’re thinking: “That was more than one question, Father.” But you get my point: Is Christmas just our favorite holiday among many, our favorite vibe, a nostalgia for our childhood—OR, is Christmas so much more? Is Christmas (as I want to propose to all of us tonight)—is Christmas the source of our Hope, does it give us Hope, leave us full of Hope? That’s what I want to answer tonight.

And so I want you to take a look at this creche. Very familiar to us. The angel, Mary and Joseph, shepherds and sheep—and baby Jesus, lying there. Part of the Christmas vibe, that song, “Away In a Manger.” We heard those words in our Gospel, “So [the shepherds] went in haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the infant lying in the manger” (Luke 2:16). Again, we come to Christmas with a nostalgia; this image here is a very nostalgic image! Cute baby, Mary and Joseph—baby in a manger. But just think—like, for example, what is a manger? Mangers are not things people usually write songs about, they’re not romantic or nostalgic, not a place any mom is going to put their newborn. Have you ever seen a manger? Outside of this creche or yours at home? A manger is a food trough, something animals eat out of. And not your cat! Livestock: cattle, horses, sheep, pigs. Mangers are gross! The half eaten food, the drool, slobber, the muck. Mangers are gross.

And yet here is the eternal Son of God, the one through whom and for whom everything in the universe was made, the one before whom angels bow in adoration—he is lying is a trough cattle eat out of. Not something ornate, not one of those car seat-stroller combos that you get for thousands of dollars. Nope. There, the eternal Son of God, God-made-Man, God-with-us—Jesus Christ lies there, in the muck, in the slobber of livestock.

Why? Well—to make a long story short—to give us Hope. Hope. That baby lying there in the manger—in a manger—that gives us hope. And Hope, true Hope—that’s a “vibe” we can never lose. When the Christmas “vibe” fades, when we become nostalgic for Christmases gone by, when Christmas loses its glow—that child there in a manger…He can leave us full of hope.

Savior, not Santa

This past week, some members of the parish were helping Karla and Linda to deliver the Christmas gifts to the families from the Advent giving tree. And one of them was dressed as Santa. And when they took the gifts to one of the houses, this little girl burst out into just insane happiness, like the jumping up and down, couldn’t believe it—“Santa is here!!” And for that family, for her, I’m really happy that we could play a part in bringing her that happiness. And I don’t even know what we brought her: probably some clothes and a few toys. But she was so happy, overjoyed to see Santa bringing her gifts.

But—so a different way to ask the question I’ve been asking is this: Are we more excited to see Santa, OR to see this child lying in a manger?

Because who is this child? Is Jesus just a cute baby? Is Jesus’s birthday just the “origin story” of our Christmas vibes? Is coming to Mass today, hearing the “Christmas Story”—is this just a another part of our Christmas vibe, our nostalgic attempt to recover the vibe of Christmases gone by? Or—or are we as excited, more excited to see this child arrive in the manger than that little girl was to see Santa on her front porch?

Because the gift that child brings is Hope. Why? Because who that child is, what he has come to do—the Scriptures for Christmas, over and over and over proclaim—he is savior. “A savior has been born for you” (Luke 2:11). A savior. At Easter, the angel’s announcement is, “He has been raised.” At Christmas, the angels’ announcement is this, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people [that’s us!]. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger” (Luke 2:10-12).

This child is not Santa. But he is savior. But put simply, I think the reason that many of us look forward more to Santa’s arrival than this child’s arrival—it’s because existentially, unconsciously or consciously, we think that it’s “Santa” that can bring what we’re looking for, what we need: we need the vibe, the Christmas vibes. That’s what we so often think. “Savior? No, I’m fine. I’m a good person. I’m ok.” Existentially, unconsciously or consciously, that is what we think: “I’m fine. I don’t need a savior.”

But let me tell you: you do. You know why? Because God’s not an idiot, and God would’t come if we didn’t need saved, and God wouldn’t come in a manger if we were fine. Even what God names this child: “Jesus,” Yeshua—it means, “God saves.” That is why this child comes. Not to teach us to be nice, not to give us a “reason for the vibey Christmas season,” not to prove that God exists, no. He comes to save. To save you. To save me.

To save us from what? Well, a whole bunch of things, some of which are a ways off in the future: Sin, Death, Satan, Hell—even though, for some of us, those may be a lot closer than we think. But perhaps, more hopefully for where many of us find ourselves tonight, Jesus has come to save us from ourselves, from our pasts, from the choices that we’ve made that have left us feeling stuck, fearful, and perhaps just downright full of self-loathing—and with an oh-so-painful-longing for how things used to be, when life was simpler, and we hadn’t yet “blown it.” Jesus has come to remake us, to renew us, to make us whole, to wash us clean, to heal us, to restore us, and to enable you and me to begin all over again—to save us. The extraordinary grace of God’s mercy is that we don’t have to long for the past; God not only can but he wants to make us new, now, tonight. He wants to renew us, now. He wants to restore us, now. He wants to give us our lives back, now.

And just as he was placed in the muck of that filthy, stinking manger so many years ago, so here tonight he wants to be placed into the filth and the muck that is my life and yours, with whatever it is that you find yourselves walking into this church here tonight. And if you and I will invite him in, he will work, and he will heal, and he will restore, and he will transform, and he will recreate, he will save—because that’s what he does, and it’s who he is. He not only saves, he is the only savior that we have in life. And there isn’t a one of us (at least past a certain age) that doesn’t long for that. And there isn’t a one of us for whom we have gone too far that he can come and get us.

Now, a little word of caution: this life—as we say in one of the prayers that’s common in the church—is a long valley of tears. This is not heaven. Heaven is real and Jesus has opened up the way for you and me to get there. But we’re not there yet. But even though we’re not there yet, and even though this is a long valley of tears, God’s grace and his power and His mercy are able to transform whatever it is that’s on your heart or mine here tonight. 

That, friends—that is something that will leave us full of Hope when the vibe of Christmas fades away. That is something that gives Hope when all we have left for Christmas is a nostalgia. That—that baby there in the manger is the source of Hope, gives us Hope, leaves us full of Hope.

Mangers Have Food

And this isn’t a bunch of poetry, people. This is the real deal. Jesus arrives in a manger to show us that he is ready to enter into the muck, the mess that is your heart and mine. And as a way of demonstrating that, he comes to us as the thing you find in mangers: as food. Here in this Eucharist, in and through this Bread of Life, he enters into our life, physically, tangibly. Why? To save us. And that—that is good news that will leave us full of Hope.