CHRISTMAS IS NEVER OVER [Sat, 12-27-25]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—CHRISTMAS IS NEVER OVER [Sat, 12-27-25]

 

There is nothing as NOT over as Christmas.

That, of course, contradicts what the world’s best mother-in-law, Georgia Karr, always said, about 2 pm on Dec. 25^th. Georgia would slump into an easy chair and say, “There’s nothing as over as Christmas.”

Any mother or wife, and some fathers, too, understand what she meant. There is such a long leadup to Christmas. Buying and decorating and cooking and wrapping. Then, suddenly, in a flurry of bright colored paper, it’s all over.

But Christmas has a way of coming back. It’s never over. I know people who even start on the afternoon of Dec. 25, making notes about next year, what to cook, how to decorate, what to give as gifts, whether to wrap or not wrap. [1]

Georgia was right, about this Christmas, about Christmas afternoon. But Christmas is never over. It keeps coming back, not because we always forget vow to celebrate less hectically next year, but because it is the genesis of the Christian story. The Christ story starts with Christmas, the advent of the Presence of God in human form, and it never ends.

I used to say that I went into the ministry because I wanted to preach a Christmas sermon. I knew that Christmas contained all the meaning of the universe. I wanted to share that meaning. I spent a career trying to figure out how to do it.

Paul Mallory, our friend and pastor when we lived in Iron Mountain, MI, said, “I know that nothing about our celebration of Christmas is historically or theologically accurate, but I love it all.” Accuracy is not the point. Accuracy and reality are not always the same thing.

Christmas is the central celebration of Christian faith—yes, more than Good Friday or Easter—because it is the recognition and celebration of the Presence of God in the world, that we are not ultimately alone, alone in the universe, alone without meaning, alone without love.

Being alone is the ultimate despair. That is why breaking a relationship is a sin, which needs forgiveness. The ultimate sin, the unforgivable one, Jesus said, is the sin against the Holy Spirit, because breaking the relationship with God leaves us utterly alone, completely in despair.

Loneliness is not necessarily reason for despair. But aloneness is. I don’t mean alone without human relationship. Every human relationship will eventually be broken. Also, humans can be a real nuisance, get in the way of the Presence of God. Breaking the relationship with God leaves us devoid of love.

Once more, I’ll repeat what our granddaughter said when she was four: “Santa and Grandpa are a lot alike. Santa has a bald head, and Grandpa has a bald head. Santa has a white beard, and Grandpa has a white beard. Santa brings toys, and Grandpa brings toys. But Grandpa is better, because he stays and plays.”

God is not some universal Santa, skimming over the top of the world, stopping long enough to throw some goodies down the chimneys. In Jesus, the Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the Presence, God stays and plays.

Christmas is about the Presence of God, not the presents of God. It is the Presence that makes us at home in the universe. It is the Presence that we need. It is the Presence that makes us real.

John Robert McFarland

1] The issue of rapping or not rapping usually does not occur at Christmas, but what to wrap or not wrap is important. [See, that’s why we should read columns instead of listening to podcasts.] {I loved that kind of word play when I was a young preacher… apparently now that I am an old non-preacher, I still do.}