Why can't every day be like Christmas?

Sermon delivered Saturday, Dec. 24, 2016 and Sunday, Dec. 25, 2016 (The Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ: Christmas Eve, Christmas Day) at St. Cuthbert's Episcopal Church, Oakland, CA.

Sermon Text(s): Luke 2:1-20, Titus 2:11-14, Isaiah 9:2-7

"Do not be afraid; for see -- I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” (Luke 2:10)

“The grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all.” (Titus 2:11)

“For a child has been born for us,
a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
and he is named
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
His authority shall grow continually,
and there shall be endless peace
for the throne of David and his kingdom.” (Isaiah 9:6-7)

Good news. Joy. Salvation for all. Justice. Righteousness. Endless peace.

These are the promises of Christmas, the promises that make this “the most wonderful time of the year,” the promises that lead us all to be a little more thoughtful, a little more giving, a little more caring this time of year. As we remember the story of our Savior’s birth, of how God was willing to take human form to be with us, to fully experience our suffering and offer us a way to transform it, our gratitude for this amazing gift flows out to others around us.

People are willing to do extraordinary things at Christmas – even stop a war to sing Christmas carols across enemy lines, as the British and Germans did in 1914, during World War I. Something about this day, this magical moment, this miracle, brings out the best in us, and for a few short hours or days, we can truly see the possibility of “peace on earth.”

But it doesn’t last, of course. The soldiers went back to killing each other during World War I, some of the same organizations who offer gifts for poor children during Christmas then undermine programs that serve the poor during other parts of the year, and whatever “Christmas truce” we might have had with our own families for five minutes dissolves back into the same conflicts that were there before Christmas.

The stark contrast between the best behavior that can come out of us at Christmastime and the way we behave most of the rest of the year prompted Elvis Presley to ask in his 1966 song,

“Oh, why can’t every day be like Christmas?
Why can’t that feeling go on endlessly?
For if every day could be just like Christmas,
what a wonderful world this would be.”

Because even if we can see joy, salvation, justice, righteousness and peace for a few moments at Christmas, overall when we look at the course of human history, it can feel like the overwhelming message is bad news, very little joy, salvation only for a limited few, injustice, wickedness, and endless war.

This year has felt like that to many people. Consider all the things that 2016 has brought to us:

• More terrorist attacks across the globe,
• the Zika virus outbreak,
• the Syrian refugee crisis,
• Britain’s vote to leave the European Union,
• And, of course, our wonderful Presidential election here in the United States,
• Hurricane Matthew killing over 800 people in Haiti,
• wildfires ravaging the Appalachian mountains in North Carolina and Tennessee,
• continued police shootings of unarmed black men and subsequent riots and attacks on police officers,
• the massacre at the gay nightclub in Orlando,
• and closest to home for us, the Ghost Ship fire here in Oakland a few weeks ago that killed 36 people who were struggling to make our community a better place through their artistic expression.

Social media has exploded with complaints that 2016 is the “worst year ever,” saying the best thing about celebrating New Year’s this year will be that 2016 is finally over.

But an astute author at Slate magazine published an article earlier this year in which she, somewhat depressingly, catalogues all the horrific tragedies that have befallen the world across human history, suggesting that perhaps this year is no worse than others. 2016, the worst year ever? she asks. Worse than 1348, the year of the Black Plague in Europe? Worse than 1492, the year Europeans “discovered” America and devastated the Native American population through war, genocide and disease? Worse than 1837, a year of economic depression and racial violence throughout the United States? Worse than 1966, the year President Kennedy and Martin Luther King were assassinated, all while the war in Vietnam continued to rage?

The article is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but it reminds us of that all-important thing: perspective. Awful things may be happening, yes, but awful things have always happened. Every generation seems to think they are living in the worst of times, but if we look back on history, we can always find other terrible eras that rival the present day.

And then there’s “perspective” from another angle: lots of positive things are still happening as well. Last month, a list of all the good things that happened in 2016 was circulating on social media to counter the message that this has been “the worst year ever.” The author of that post pointed out that in 2016,

• new chemotherapy breakthroughs have increased life expectancy for pancreatic cancer,
• a new genetic contributor to ALS has been identified thanks to the funds raised from the Ice Bucket Challenge in 2014,
• Michael Jordan donated 2 million dollars to organizations working to bridge the divide between the African-American community and the police,
• Pakistan passed a new law to strengthen punishment for “honor killings” of women and rape,

and the list goes on and on. (Read the whole list here...)

So, both of these things are true. A lot of horrible things are happening in the world and a lot of wonderful things are happening in the world. Neither cancels out the existence of the other. One reality affirms that Christmas promise of good news, joy, salvation for all, righteousness, justice, and endless peace, and one of them stands in direct contrast to it.

The challenge of faith is acknowledging those two things simultaneously, avoiding the extreme of emphasizing the joy and comfort of our faith so much that we deny the reality of suffering in this world, while also avoiding the other extreme of focusing so much on the suffering that we deny the reality of God’s blessing and God’s saving power.

As Christians, we see and acknowledge the suffering of the world with eyes wide open, but we do so with the knowledge that death and suffering do not have the last word. We can bear witness to the world’s suffering without losing hope because we know it is not the only story. For that child who was born to us this night in Bethlehem went on to defeat death itself. Through his Resurrection, he has “liberated us from sin, …brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life,” in the words of our Eucharistic prayer. That is the truth that grounds us through all the ups and downs of history, the truth that the church continues to proclaim throughout the centuries, regardless of outward circumstances.

The “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace” has come! And he didn’t come to give us just one brief moment of peace once a year at Christmas. He came to transform our entire lives.

“Why can’t every day be like Christmas?
Why can’t that feeling go on endlessly?”

If we let Christ guide our minds and our hearts, there’s no reason why it can’t.