Come adore Him, Christ the Lord...

To the Church in Danvers called Holy Trinity United Methodist, 

greetings beloved.
“So now it is Christmas.” Do you know this song by John Lennon?

The song wishes everyone a happy Christmas with the emphasis on everyone and it concludes with these words: ‘War is over (if you want it).’ It was not long after this hopeful and strangely sad song was recorded that John Lennon was shot down on the street of New York, felled by the violence he spent some time trying to overcome with music. Another of his titles, you may remember, is ‘Give Peace a Chance’ another simple plea for the improbable if not impossible given the world as we have known it so far. I mention this because it recalls for me what Christmas does. Christmas is about the improbable hope that there might be peace on earth (Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. .); that the human condition is not a lost cause; that human hearts are free to love more and even to overcome a world bent on war and seemingly unlimited hatred and division. Christmas brings hope to the human heart again. We cannot really live without it. Even the hope for peace is precious where there is no peace. If there is hope there is the courage to live and work for peace, to be peacemakers, to do the little things that make peace where we are. Someone once said that the struggle for peace and justice in this world is the winning that is never won and the losing that is never lost. In other words we may never experience peace on earth but we never stop seeking peace anyway. There are victories and losses along the way but the way continues. Perhaps we have forgotten what peace is. It is not the enforced status quo of fear, it is the presence of love, vulnerable and open to the suffering of the world, all the world, every child, every man and woman. People laugh when I tell them my favorite carol is ‘In the Bleak Mid-Winter’ but my favorite verse from the Bible is the one where soon after the birth of Jesus Mary ponders in her heart, among other things, what Simeon has told her (that a sword will pierce her soul too). In so many words telling almost immediately at the arrival of this glorious hope that suffering will also be involved here. Why is this important? Because the hope that is Christmas is not just the false hope of a fairy tale fantasy but the true hope of life; that is borne out of suffering and overcoming suffering. It is not a cheerful optimism based on nothing more than wishful thinking. It is the radical trust in love to overcome all things that gives us the courage to love the broken world and to seek peace where peace is nowhere to be found. Christmas even filled John Lennon’s heart and music with hope. Even my heart is full of hope this Christmas. Every year I wonder if it will work again and every year the story overcomes the despair and love is coming again to us.
Bless your hearts,
Larry