Friends,

Big churchy days are interesting, because the mood of the service is typically dictated. Ash Wednesday is humble and a bit sad. I always feel a sense of longing on All Saints Day. Advent is meant to be filled with anticipation, while Christmas and Easter feel like joy incarnate. Going to Church can be tricky when your mood doesn’t match tone of the day. What if you show up to Church during lent and it’s all drab and contemplative and you just received the best news of your life? The dissonance between the joy in your heart and the somber tone of the service could leave you squirming in your seat. Likewise, going to Christmas services while mourning or fearful could feel impossibly difficult.

I think this is just me, but I find the joyful tones between Christmas and Easter to be very distinct. Easter has sort of a triumphant feel. Christ is risen. Death is defeated. God’s love is victorious. Christmas is a bit different. With God being made incarnate in Jesus Christ in a particularly tumultuous and broken time in the life of Israel, the day is filled with the potential energy of our salvation. It hasn’t happened yet, but it clearly will, and we are going to find the coldest, darkest day to celebrate the potential of God’s love for the world. You’d think tradition would have forced this feast during harvest time where food and drink was plentiful, but instead we choose this miserable night to belt out, “Glory to God in the Highest!”

We celebrate Christmas not because things are ok. Instead, we feast, gather, worship, and rejoice because things are very much not ok. Our worship is in defiance of the cold, our broken bodies and the sin that still manifests in the world, and with all of our hope manifested in the birth of the Christ child we can give thanks and see what happens next.

If your soul isn’t in the mood to sing Christmas hymns, I invite you to come and join us in our defiance, because I promise you that you are not alone.

Blessings,

Nick