Shatter Our Expectations

There are 364 days in the year that are not Christmas--unless you count the 12 days of the Christmas season and let's be real: nobody counts the 12 days of Christmas. The 25th of December is the one day we're interested in, the one that captures our imaginations. In part it's the presents--gifts and cards--boxes wrapped and tucked under a tree. In part it's family--meals and traditions, shared experience and relaxation. In part it's a beginning--new opportunities, a new year, new memories and stories. In part, it's Jesus.

Well, in theory it's all Jesus. "Jesus is the reason for the season," ya know? And still it sounds cheesy--a tad too ambitious and unrealistic. As much as we might even understand and enjoy the Christmas story, there seems to be so little on the line. At Easter, there's death and resurrection. Now that is something! There are trumpets. There's reason to be excited. Easter is the festival of festivals; it's the thing worth talking about. Christmas is cute; it's like Easter's little cousin that is all dressed up with frills. It's nice. It's fun. You'll take pictures of it and talk about all the sweet things it did, but you aren't taking seriously anything that it says. Someone will tell you that when Christmas grows up it's going to be Easter and you'll nod and agree, but you won't quite buy it. You'll want to enjoy Christmas while it lasts. You'll hang on those frills for all their worth.

Jesus is the reason for the season like the 4th of July is the cause of summer. It's incidental. Early Christians co-opted pagan holidays celebrating the winter solstice and here we are. Christmas Day could be any day. That is no reason not to celebrate but it's important to realize this nonetheless. While God came into the world in the Christ-child, God also comes every day in new and unexpected ways. But that's just it, isn't it? Our expectations--they're too low.

We know the story.
We've read the Gospel.
We sing the songs.

Is that what we expect? Is that all we expect? What will it take to make this day more than quaint? What will it take to make Christ real, as the child was in Mary's arms?

It's time to shatter our expectations. It's time to be blown away by the incarnation. It's time to listen to that frilly little Christmas day speak it's message and come to the slow and earth-bending realization that everything you have seen, everything you have experienced is no longer as it seemed. For when that frilly Christmas child was playing you took it for childishness when it was really joy, you took it for ignorance when instead it was wisdom, you took it for being meaningless when instead it was the crux of the story of our lives.

Christmas is here. May your expectations be shattered.