Christmas came early last year as hope was made manifest on November 4. In the darkness of what American politics has become shone a light emitted by the least likely person to be elected President. That’s what Christmas is really about.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (John 1:1-5, NRSV)
Those who have had the opportunity to study the New Testament are probably familiar with the fact that the Gospel According to John almost didn’t make the canonical cut because of its mystically esoteric theologizing. Lacking the Bethlehem narratives of Matthew and Luke, John’s “Christmas” story is not about an event but of a dynamic let loose in the world.
I think it’s high time that we let go of the pageants and reenactments so long associated with Christmas. It has been observed that text without context becomes pretext, and while there is something especially beautiful about the Nativity, that’s not what the gospel is really all about. The Gospel of Mark is considered by most scholars to have been the first of the New Testament accounts written, and the reader will quickly notice that there is no Nativity and no Resurrection (at least in the original).
Perhaps this Christmas can be about the rebirth of hope into our world.
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