Christmas Presence
God is always needing to be born. Meister Eckhart
My dear children, I feel the pains of birth upon me again, and I will continue in labor for you until the Anointed One is formed completely in you. Galatians 4:19
Here we are: Christmas.
For most of us, it will feel like an end. Weeks of frenetic holiday preparation has led us to this one moment. By evening, the gifts will all be unwrapped, the cookies eaten, plans made for taking down the tree, packing away the ornaments and turning off the lights for another year. We may feel content, happy, sated; or exhausted, overstuffed and undernourished; or a combination of all those things—maybe even something else entirely.
Yet Christmas is not an end but a beginning.
Today we celebrate the arrival, two thousand years ago, of Jesus as the revelation of God’s love. While this birthday party is wonderful and significant and, for many, the best time of year, the ongoing meaning of Christmas lies not in how we do the day but in how we do life—how we embody the timeless, boundless light and love of Christ, not just by reading the Christmas story and singing carols once a year, but by entering into Christmas each and every day. By becoming the story.
Meister Eckhart said:
We are all meant to be mothers of God, for God is always seeking to be born. What good is it to me if this eternal birth of the divine Son takes place unceasingly but does not take place within myself? What good is it to me for the Creator to give birth to his Son if I also do not give birth to him in my time and my culture? This, then, is the fullness of time: when the Son of God is begotten in us.
What this means is that we must become Mary. We must consent, like Mary, to enter Mystery, to find that virgin part of ourselves that is open to wonder, presence and radical grace. We must become Joseph, with courage to move into the unknown and take on whatever unfolds. We must become the shepherds, approaching the manger with curious beginners’ minds. We must become the Magi, crossing deserts, mountains and valleys, following a dimly-lit path toward awakening.
We birth Christ whenever we perform acts of loving-kindness; in being truly present to the sorrow and joy of another; in each action we take to preserve our precious Earth; in every act of mercy.
Christ is born when we do the ongoing work of transforming ourselves through self-knowledge, grace and generosity.
Christ is born when, like Brother Lawrence, Caryll Houselander and Black Elk, we awaken to the divine Oneness we share with other people and all of creation.
Christ flowers along the barbed wire of our weary souls when, like Etty Hillesum, Edith Stein and Bill Wilson, we bear witness to the fullness of life, the beauty and the pain.
When we cry out in hunger for liberation, like Sojourner Truth and Josephine Bakhita, it is Christ crying out in hunger from the manger.
And when we are true to our awakened hearts, like Margery Kempe, Macarius of Egypt, Moses the Black, Florence Li Tim-Oi and Nicodemus, no matter how much we are misunderstood (or confused, ourselves), we are Christ walking into the world, unguarded, risking all for the sake of Love.
Like this, our lives become the holy womb in which Love is conceived, carried and birthed, day by day, in a Christmas without end.
Practice
Christmastide lasts 12 days. Spend this next week-and-a-half focusing your devotions, prayers and meditations on the birth narrative of Jesus found in Luke 1-20. This story, like all the gospel stories, is a finely-cut jewel. Hold it up, give it a turn and the light will hit it in a way you haven’t seen before.
Holiday Happenings at Life In The City
Dec 31, 11:15 am: Join us for a fun, informal service to welcome 2024. We will have coffees, cookies, readings and reflections as we set our spiritual resolutions.
Feedback
This is a first draft of a book that will go to publishers in 2023. If you spot typos or have suggestions, leave them in the comments below or email Greg Durham at greg@lifeinthecityaustin.org.
Catch Up On Recent Posts
Read the Introduction to the 2023 edition of The Heart Moves Toward Light: Advent With The Mystics, Saints and Prophets.
Recent posts can be found in our Archive.
Note: This concludes our 2023 Advent series. Thanks to everyone who provided helpful feedback and encouragement. I hope these incredible mystics, saints and prophets will be trusted companions as you move through 2024. See you next year!
This was the Christmas message I needed this morning: become the story!