Pastor's Weekly Word

Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways made smooth; and all flesh shall see the salvation of God. (Luke 3:5-6)

On Sunday we looked at a question Dietrich Bonhoeffer once asked, “Who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly?” I love that question. I love it because it gets at the heart of how we typically view Christmas. We often think of it as an event that we are somehow responsible for and, therefore, must get right. One of our first thoughts is to ask how we’re going to do it this year. How will we do Christmas? Will we do it correctly this time? Will we get it right? It’s as if we have this picture in our head that unless certain things happen a certain way, like the decorations or the gifts we find or the gatherings we put together, it won’t be done “right.”

Of course, that is not what Christmas is about. It is not something we have to get right or do correctly or incorrectly. Christmas instead is the gift of life in all its wonders and warts, all its miracles and mishaps. Christmas is the highness of God born in the lowness of a manger. Christmas is nothing short of the fullness of God in Jesus Christ.

So, who among us will celebrate Christmas correctly? Bonhoeffer answers that question when he says, “Whoever finally lays down all power, all honor, all reputation, all vanity, all arrogance, all individualism beside the manger. Whoever remains lowly and lets God alone be high.” My prayer this year is that we stop trying to “get Christmas right” and simply sit in those quiet moments when you find them and invite Christ to come. May the hills of our worry be made low. May the crooked paths of our thinking be made straight. May Christ come this Christmas.