Christmastime

Christmas is almost here. The lights are beautiful, and as I write this, the ground is covered with snow. It should be a perfect Christmas. Yet, as I look around me, it seems that it is more a “blue” Christmas that a “white” one. The school shooting in Connecticut has brought forth in me sadness, anger and despair.

We’re walking in darkness. We are literally in darkness because the night is long. But the darkness of evil the school shooting casts another kind of shadow on us. We look for someone or something to blame. We can never understand the tortured thinking that drove a sick young man to murder his mother and the innocent children and teachers.

We wish for a light to shine in the darkness. Isaiah told us about light: “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined.” [Isaiah 9:2 NRSV] We see the light this way: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” [Isaiah 9:6 NRSV]. Isaiah spoke to a people who had lost everything to an invading army. There was no more normal for them, but “on them light has shined.”

We read the Christmas story from the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. Our children act out the wonderful story, and we enjoy watching them dress up as shepherds and wise men. The reality is a land under the brutal rule of the Roman Empire. After the wise men left the baby Jesus, Joseph was forced to take his wife and baby and flee to a foreign land. And then the evil King Herod did the unthinkable. He ordered the killing of all the baby boys of Bethlehem. The mothers of Bethlehem responded as we did last week: “A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.” [Matthew 2:18 NRSV]. Murder and evil are not new.

I believe that God is with us in the midst of tragedy. God was in the school that tragic day, just as God was weeping with the mothers of Jerusalem as Herod tried to kill his son, the Baby Jesus.

I believe that in God’s time we will reach a new place.  “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them as their God; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” [Revelation 21:3b-5 NRSV]

I believe that there are some things I will never understand. I don’t understand the mind of a mass murderer. There are many things in the world I don’t understand. I do know that my redeemer lives, and I know who I can trust as I walk through the darkness of this world. I trust Emmanuel, “God with us,” Jesus.

Rev. Thomas Hyde,

First United Methodist, SIDney