Christmas--1973
Diocesan Press Service. November 15, 1973 [73245]
The Rt. Rev. John E. Hines, Presiding Bishop
Christmas is the story of the diversity of peoples who took God seriously -- and the pathos of those who did not. It may not be as simple to distinguish between these people today as it is in reflection from the vantage-point of nineteen hundred years. But the thesis of the Christmas story is the same today as it was then: it is not only the good who take God seriously, and it is not only the wicked who ignore Him.
The inn-keeper was one who was unable to take God seriously because he could not entertain the wildly impossible notion that God might be somehow mixed up in the inn-keeper's everyday business! It simply never crossed his mind that the "ultimate concern" might be inextricably intermingled with the routine, materialistic secular concerns. If God should come to his inn seeking food and shelter, he certainly would send plenty of advance warning, and appear in a royal coach. He didn't! A conscientious but unimaginative inn-keeper missed his major moment -- and shunted the Lord of Life into the hay-barn! That took a lot of explaining when the inn-keeper met the angel at the Gate of Heaven.
The Wise Men took .God seriously -- because the talisman indicating God's advent was within the spectrum of their work-a-day world. They were astrologers -- star-men! And it was their calling to read accurately the "signs of the times." To be sure, what they saw compelled them to an arduous and perilous journey. And their inexact science provided a nest of pitfalls for the unwary. They could have, with grace, remained at home -- in their own land -- leaving the prospect of the difficult journey to the younger, physically hardier star-gazers. But they did not. They took God seriously And they took the world seriously. They recognized a priceless treasure. And they recognized the existence of violent, self-serving powers that would have destroyed the treasure, and the star-men, too. So, they returned home another way. Devotion to God and prudence are not necessarily antithetical. That is why they are known as Wise Men.
And Herod took God seriously! Herod knew that if the tiny, newly-born spark of God's liberating judgment and forgiveness were permitted to expand into a flame -- he and his kind were done for on this earth. For self-serving, naked power cannot stand before the terrible meekness of self-sacrificing love. Against the liberation that is love, tyranny is powerless. Yes, Herod took God seriously -- and he took the lives of hundreds of innocents to prove that he did. But -- in Christmas what do people remember about Herod? Nothing! And about the baby whose life he sought unsuccessfully? Everything! In taking God seriously you do not have to be grave and somber I! You can be joyful, and merry, too. For that is the way God is! And that is the way the world can be -- in Him.