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“Traditions change, right? New ones are scary, but they might be great. And if you know what Christmas means to you, the tradition’s just the wrapping.”
-Noelle, from the Movie “Noelle” on Disney Plus
One of my favorite traditions – a new one in my adulthood – between Thanksgiving and Christmas is watching Christmas movies. Well, I start out with a Thanksgiving movie on Thanksgiving night – “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” – but then move on to the Christmas themed ones. I love them!! Even the ones others don’t seem to. I love, among other movies, “The Santa Clause” 1, 2, and 3 starring Tim Allen, “Scrooged” with Bill Murray, “Miracle on 34th Street” both the original and the updated version, “A Christmas Carol” the Disney one with Mickey Mouse as well as the CGI Disney Version and the Muppets and even the live action ones, “A Christmas Story” (our Christmas Eve movie!), Die Hard (Yes, it is a Christmas movie!!! – I proclaimed it from the pulpit one year, so let it be written, so let it be done). Every now and again a new one comes along that gets added to my list, like “Noelle” starring Anna Kendrick. But my absolute favorite is “Christmas Vacation” with Chevy Chase.
I think it may be, along with the irreverent humor, the utter chaos of the Griswold family Christmas that I appreciate. It doesn’t paint the picture of the perfect Christmas. Rather, it focuses on the person trying to create the perfect Christmas and everything goes wrong! Yet, Christmas still finds its way and shows up in the middle of all the chaos.
Real Christmas for most of us is probably somewhere between “Christmas Vacation” and the happy endings of all the Hallmark movies. Probably because Christmas can’t really be manufactured. Real families made of real people celebrate Christmas. People make mistakes and relationships can get…well…complicated.
My friend Katie wrote, “On Christmas we celebrate God-made-flesh! We tend to emphasize the God part, and diminish the flesh part. But Jesus was a real person. He was born into a family that was complicated and messy, much like our own.”
Jesus did indeed have a family. Matthew records Jesus’ genealogy, his family line. We often gloss over that list of names to get to the ‘good stuff’; the stories of Jesus. However, there are a couple interesting things about this genealogy: Matthew lists five women in Jesus’ family tree, and the women in the list are not particularly virtuous. Yet, they are a part of Jesus’ family story. Our Advent series “Grandmothers of God” will focus on these women in Jesus’ family tree.
Together we will remember that Jesus was not born to perfect people. Nor was he born for perfect people. He was, as my friend Katie continues, “born to heal those who feel broken, to free those who are used or abused by the powerful, and to love those with messy families, bad reputations, and complicated stories. Jesus was born to and for people like us.”
(Don’t forget to send pictures of your grandmother(s) to pastorocayton@gmail.com to be included on ornaments on our tree in the sanctuary)
Shalom,
Pastor Owen
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