Christmas Eve 2025 Meditation

Scripture Luke 2:1-20

Because it is one of the most popular and best-known board games in the world, there is a good chance that tomorrow there will be a lot of people opening new copies of the game Monopoly.  This game has been printed with every kind of theme imaginable, and it has been causing fights between siblings for 90 years now.  The game has a reputation as taking forever, but it shouldn’t.  The game is designed to bring about a fairly quick ending, and a four-player game of Monopoly should only take an hour to an hour and a half top.  Usually, the game takes longer than that because a lot of people do not play by the rules.  For instance, in Monopoly if someone lands on an unowned property and does not and cannot buy it, then it is supposed to be immediately auctioned off.  However, a lot of people do not play with auctions.  Then people add rules like having all the money paid to the game goes in the center of the board, and when someone lands on free parking they get all the money there.  That is not actually part of the game.  Most people do not actually read the rules to the game, but they are taught by someone. . .who also did not read the rules.  For that reason, Monopoly is a game that a lot of people are playing wrong.  

               In a similar way, I think we kind of celebrate Christmas wrong as well.   We tend to treat Christmas as a destination.    These days, the so-called Christmas season starts on November 1st.  Stores start playing Christmas music, the hallmark channel starts showing movies, and the people who really lean into it get decorations up as quickly as they can.   For almost two months there are parties, traditional activities, and events all building up to one day.  We treat Christmas as the destination, the finale to all of the festivities.  Both traditionally and spiritually, this is not the way it was intended to be.  

               Christmas, as a Christian celebration, is not meant to be a build up to one day.  The tradition of celebrating Christmas traces back to a church council in the 6th century that established Christmas as a twelve-day season of the church that is set apart as a sacred and festive time to celebrate the coming of our savior.   Originally, Christmas day was the beginning of the celebration not the big ending to a holiday season.   In our devotional lives and faith walks, Christmas also should be seen less as a destination and more as a part of the journey.   We see this reflected in the familiar story from Luke we read this evening.  

               The scriptural Christmas story is not about arriving at a destination, but it is about the journey.  We see that the theme all over the story.  It begins with Joseph and Mary journeying to Bethlehem.   It continues with shepherds watching their flocks at night.  After the angels appear, the shepherds go at once, journeying to see this promised sign, but even this is not the destination.  The scripture does not end with a still life nativity scene as everyone marvels at the majesty of a baby messiah in a manger under a shining star.  No, the scripture ends with the shepherds on the move, spreading the word to all that would listen.    While the scripture does end with Mary taking a moment to treasure all these things in her heart, Bethlehem and the birth of Jesus is not the destination for Mary and Joseph either.   For Jesus Christmas celebrate not the finale, but the beginning because the baby born at Bethlehem, grew to became the man who showed us what it meant to truly love God with all our being and our neighbor as ourselves, he grew to be the messiah that would prove God’s love for us on the cross, and he is still the king of kings and lord of lords who sits at the right hand of the Father and he will come again to reign over a kingdom without end.   

               We should not treat Christmas as a final destination, but as celebration of the beginning.   Because it is on Christmas that we celebrate that the light of the world has come, and that the darkness has not overcome it.  We celebrate that our hopes our fully realized in Christ, we celebrate that reconciliation and peace with God are now possible, we celebrate that we an know the joy of new life, and we celebrate that love came down at Christmas.   Friends, this celebration, this good news, it can not be contained to one day.   It should not be contained to one day.  We should take our cues from the shepherds.   Instead of having a build up to one day and then packing it all away on December 26th we should tell everyone the good news of Jesus Christ.  We should not be shy about making it known that because of Jesus Christ we have an assurance that we are loved and forgiven.   We should testify that we have a hope that cannot be crushed a sense of peace that cannot be overcome because we know that the light of the world has come and that darkness can not and will not overcome it. 

               All of us have a different walk in faith, we all come here tonight from different places and in different states.  But for all of us, this is not the destination of our faith, Christmas is not the grand finale.  As we reflect on the love of God made known in a manger in Bethlehem, may we like Mary ponder and treasure the ways Jesus has changed our lives for the better in our hearts.   In the quiet moments of this evening may we feel and know the peace and reconciliation with our creator that we have, but may that not be the destination.   May we be willing to continue the journey and celebrate Christmas beyond Christmas as we testify to the goodness of God.  While tonight might be a silent night, may we live our lives loud as we seek to share the light of Christ with all we meet for the glory of God.