Love and a Hijacked Christmas

This Sunday I was to do a mash-up of Advent IV, whose focus is Love, and Christmas. I’m still editing content. The first half of the service is about the amazing love Joseph showed in going through with marrying Mary and being Jesus’ earthly dad despite the consequences, and the second half has the traditional Luke 2 readings. However, my Christmas has been hijacked by Covid.

I’m pretty sure I’ve had Covid before, way back in the beginning when we didn’t yet know what it was and what was happening. I may have had a mild case along the way. This time, that double line showed up on the test strip in just a few seconds. I’ve been stick-handling arrangements for Sunday for either scenario - whether I was well enough to be there or not. On the biggest night of the Christian calendar, and this after we had to cancel last year due to a snowstorm, I’ve been frustrated and disappointed and asking why.

Several things have occurred to me, lying on my couch. One is a recognition that Christmas eve isn’t about me. This will be the first time in my life I haven’t been to a service in person on this most holy night. But my not being there doesn’t stop the Christ child from coming, worship from happening, or fellowship from taking place. It’s something I am normally privileged to witness and make attempts to communicate to others (words others will read in my place this year), but not something I create. Me being removed from it doesn’t impact God’s reach and story and purposes. Some humility is good.

It also occurred to me that not only did Joseph show great love in not divorcing Mary and taking Jesus as his own son, but Mary, who may have barely known him, shows love in accompanying him to Bethlehem. Talk about hijacked plans! No doubt they were just trying to learn to be a couple, a couple already expecting a child, in a fishbowl community judging them. Joseph having to go and register in Bethlehem for the census meant a treacherous trip over three or so days. Perhaps Mary didn’t relish being left behind with opinionated neighbours. She went along and this time would have cemented their relationship. This was no easy start for them and it dramatically changed the trajectory of all their lives.

You have probably seen the image of an infant in a manger in Bethlehem in Israeli-occupied Palestine, placed precariously on top of a pile of rubble. Christmas festivities in the Holy land have been canceled because of the ongoing bombings and the sense it was inappropriate given the death and destruction. You could argue that Christmas has been hijacked by this conflict, a war that breaks international law and in which thousands of children have been slaughtered. Are we reliving Matthew 2 with different players? Anyone, tourist or otherwise, with plans to celebrate Christ’s birth where it happened is out of luck. There is apparently no room for the Prince of Peace.

What do we do with all this? How do you find Christmas when it’s not where you normally go? Mary and Joseph’s engagement plan was highjacked but it resulted in the birth of Jesus exactly where it was prophesied to happen. Their lives were turned upside down and yet so much good came from it.

I know that I am learning things I need to learn in this time of forced slowdown and rest. What are we learning about Israel/Palestine and how is God calling us to respond? Are we recognizing just how much we need God in the face of human power struggles and structures and harmful ideas of who are actually God’s people and worthy? Are we remembering that the shepherds, the lowest of the low, received the wonderful news first and that Jesus came into brokenness, imperfectness and darkness to bring light to all people?

If you feel that your Christmas has been hijacked for any reason, I pray that you can still pause and find Jesus wherever you are. I pray that you will know that He comes to us in any situation and not just the stylized or expected celebration. I pray that you can still worship Him and be deeply grateful that He came for you to be Emmanuel, God with us, and that He is still God within us.

Merry Christmas and much love in these last days of preparation and celebration.