Earth Meets Heaven

Homily for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, Year B
On Christmas Eve in 1943, a young German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer found himself imprisoned in a Nazi concentration camp. About a week before Christmas, Bonhoeffer wrote a letter to his parents. This is what he wrote: “Of course, you can’t help thinking of my being in prison over Christmas, and it is bound to throw a shadow over the few hours of happiness which still await you in these times. All I can do to help is to assure you that I know you will keep it in the same spirit as I do, for we are agreed on how Christmas ought to be kept. … For a Christian there is nothing peculiarly difficult about Christmas in a prison cell. I daresay it will have more meaning and will be observed with greater sincerity here in this prison than in places where all that survives of the feast is its name. … That God should come down to the very place which men usually abhor, that Christ was born in a stable because there was no room for him in the inn – these are things which a prisoner can understand better than anyone else. For the prisoner, the Christmas story is glad tidings in a very real sense. … It will certainly be a quiet Christmas for everybody, and the children will look back on it for long afterwards. But for the first time, perhaps, many will learn the true meaning of Christmas.”

The true meaning of Christmas. Certainly, that is what we are all here to celebrate. It is a story we need to hear over and over again, because it never gets old, and it never loses its meaning. The story of Christmas tells of a child born this day who is much more than a child – he is God himself.

What child is this, who, laid to rest, on Mary’s lap is sleeping?
Whom angels greet with anthems sweet, while shepherds watch are keeping?
This, this is Christ the King, whom shepherds guard and angels sing;
Haste, haste to bring him laud, the babe, the son of Mary.
(William Dix, What Child Is This, verse 1)

What we celebrate this day is truly life-changing and world-changing. The birth of Christ marked the turning point in human history – it was the beginning of an earthly life that would end in an empty tomb that had once held the body of a crucified man. But this birth was meant for the whole human race, too. The birth of this child marked the beginning of the end of death – for us; the beginning of the end of sin – for us; the beginning of the end of selfishness, pride, and anxiety –for all of us. The promise of this day is nothing less than the promise of heaven – God became man not to live as a child, but to show us how to get to heaven, to teach us how to love God and neighbor here in this life with one eye always fixed on the life to come.

And our eyes at last shall see him, though his own redeeming love;
For that child so dear and gentle is our Lord in heav’n above:
And he leads his children on to the place where he has gone.
(Cecil Frances Alexander, Once in Royal David's City, verse 5)

And so what is the true meaning of Christmas? It’s the story of a child born in humble circumstances, born right in the midst of our poverty and suffering, born to live and die and rise from the dead in order to open for us the gates of heaven. On that holy night, earth and heaven were joined together – not just for a brief moment, but forever. And now, today, in whatever circumstance we find ourselves, we can still glimpse heaven; we can reflect the eternal in the love we show to God and in the love we show to those around us. Today, we can still glimpse heaven in the gifts we give, not to one another, but to the one who came to save us.

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb:
If I were a wise man, I would do my part,
yet what can I give him – give my heart.
(Christina Rossetti, In the Bleak Midwinter, verse 4)