The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Christmas – the most wonderful time of the year.  It is.  And it isn’t, not for many who are alone, those living in poverty, prisoners.  The children who see the expensive toys on TV, but know they are not going to receive anything.  It has always seemed odd to me that we celebrate the birth of Christ by going into great debt.  Yet, I still love Christmas time, the generosity of  many, the good cheer, the anticipation of Christmas day.  As Christians, however, I think we should be celebrating the birth of Christ everyday, we need to have the spirit of Christmas with us always.  We should always be generous, always visit the sick and those in prison, always sharing the good news.  What is the good news?  I think this poem by John Shelby Spong says it most beautifully.  May all be blessed this Christmas time and every day.

Christpower by Bishop John Shelby Spong

Far back beyond the beginning,

stretching out into the unknowable,

incomprehensible,

unfathomable depths, dark and void,

of infinite eternity behind all history,

the Christpower was alive.

This was the

Living

bursting, pulsing

generating, creating

smoldering, exploding

fusing, multiplying

emerging, erupting

pollenizing, inseminating

heating, cooling

power of life itself: Christpower.

And it was good!

Here

all things that we know

began their journey into being.

Here

light separated from darkness.

Here

Christpower began to take form.

Here

life became real,

and that life spread into

emerging new creatures

evolving

into ever higher intelligence.

There was a sacrifice here

and

a mutation there.

There was grace and resurrection appearing

in their natural order,

occurring, recurring,

and always driven by the restless,

creating,

energizing

life force of God, called the Christpower,

which flowed in the veins of every living thing

for ever

and ever

and ever

and ever.

And it was good!

In time, in this universe,

there emerged creatures who were called human,

and the uniqueness of these creatures

lay in that they could

perceive

this life-giving power.

They could name it

and embrace it

and grow with it

and yearn for it.

Thus human life was born,

but individual expressions of that human life

were marked with a sense of

incompleteness,

inadequacy,

and a hunger

that drove them ever beyond the self

to search for life’s secret

and

to seek the source of life’s power.

This was a humanity that could not be content with

anything less.

And once again

in that process

there was

sacrifice and mutation,

grace and resurrection

now in the human order,

occurring, recurring

And it was good!

Finally, in the fullness of time,

within that human family,

one

unique and special human life appeared:

whole

complete

free

loving

living

being

at one

at peace

at rest.

In that life was seen with new intensity

that primal power of the universe,

Christpower.

And it was good!

Of that life people said: Jesus,

you are the Christ,

for in you we see

and feel

and experience

the living force of life

and love

and being

of God.

He was hated,

rejected,

betrayed,

killed,

but

he was never distorted.

For here was a life in which

the goal, the dream, the hope

of all life

is achieved.

A single life among many lives.

Here

among us, out from us,

and yet this power, this essence,

was not from us at all,

for the Christpower that was seen in Jesus

is finally of God.

And even when the darkness of death

overwhelmed him,

the power of life resurrected him;

for Christpower is life

eternal,

without beginning,

without ending.

It is the secret of creation.

It is the goal of humanity.

Here in this life we glimpse

that immortal

invisible

most blessed

most glorious

almighty life-giving force

of this universe

in startling completeness

in a single person.

Men and women tasted the power that was in him

and they were made whole by it.

They entered a new freedom,

a new being.

They knew resurrection and what it means to live

in the Eternal Now.

So they became agents of that power,

sharing those gifts from generation to generation,

creating and re-creating,

transforming, redeeming,

making all things new.

And as this power moved among human beings,

light

once more separated from darkness.

And it was good!

They searched for the words to describe

the moment that recognized the fullness of this power

living in history,

living in the life of this person.

But words failed them.

So they lapsed into poetry:

When this life was born,

they said,

a great light split the dark sky.

Angelic choruses peopled the heavens

to sing of peace on earth.

They told of a virgin mother,

of shepherds compelled to worship,

of a rejecting world that had no room in the inn.

They told of stars and oriental kings,

of gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

For when this life was born

that power that was

and is

with God,

inseparable,

the endless beginning,

was seen

even in a baby

in swaddling clothes

lying in a manger.

Christpower.

Jesus, you are the Christ.

To know you is to live,

to love,

to be.

O come, then, let us adore him!