Christmas Day
It is perhaps difficult to understand the beginning if we do not understand that we are forever in the midst of that beginning just as we forever recall the end.
Because, to understand it as we are supposed to, to squint through foggy lenses to at least capture the shape of the thing John is trying to describe in this morning’s gospel, we must understand timelessness.
We must understand that time is a measure of certain things but not necessarily helpful when we think about things bigger than time, eternal things, unending things.
So, when John talks about the beginning, he is talking about something without a beginning.
He is talking about the thing that was and existed before the earth was formed, the planets began to coalesce from shapeless plumes of dust, before the sun drew in that dust and spun it around until the planets formed.
He is talking about things before gravity and light, things that ‘were’ even before the Big Bang.
Because, before time, before our measurable existence, God was.
Jesus was.
Just as God and Jesus are and will be, God and Jesus are without beginning.
Without end.
And in that expanse of time, in the 14 billion years or so since the universe formed, we are a part of that eternal.
We are somewhere in a timeline that is eternal.
And still, we are not blips or afterthoughts; meaningless because we do not take up more of a chunk of that timeline.
We matter, because we exist, we matter.
And we exist in the context of the eternal.
We exist because God chose us to be.
It is in the space of that existence where we can understand our place in God’s formation of our very selves.
Now, Einstein imagined time to be river (I know it’s Christmas and I am talking about Albert Einstein but stay with me here.)
Einstein imagined time to be like a river.
He said that time is not a constant, it does not measure itself in terms of seconds, minutes, and hours rather time, like a river, can meander.
It can slow as if flowing through an oxbow, speed up as if a charging rapid.
There is a distinction here, though: a river will flow as it flows, regardless of how it is perceived.
Yet unlike a river, time bends and speeds up and slows down based on the one who observes it.
So, when we look at previous Christmases and with some shaking of our heads, say, “Wow, time sure flies!” it flies because we perceive it differently.
It flies because our perception tells us that in analogous terms, it was only yesterday when the kids were tearing open boxes wrapped in paper or we were young coconspirators at the Christmas table with our cousins.
Or as children, we wait so seemingly long for this day to arrive, people watching us back then might have said, “don’t wish your life away, you’ll be my age in but an instant.”
Time flies and here we are.
Another Christmas.
Another year gone by.
And do we wonder, where the time went?
And how did we get here?
This is where the river analogy is important.
Because we, in our own mortal ways, are a part of this river.
Imagine yourself standing in a bubbling brook, calm waters flow around your calves and ankles, seemingly you are static but, in reality, you are moving if only for a bit.
But the important part here is that you know.
In the deepest parts of your logical brain, and in the softest parts of your wondering hearts, you know.
You know that there is water behind you.
You know that that is water that has been flowing for miles behind you.
You cannot see where it derives from.
You cannot see its headwaters, but you know the water in which you stand flows from somewhere and as it flows past you, it goes to some inevitable place that you cannot see.
You only know that before and behind you are the waters, the timeless waters of which you are a part.
That, to me, is the eternal.
That we are all part of this flowing timeline, that we are all connected through the waters that flow without regard for time or even able to be measured, is evidence that God has brought us together.
The water flows in the darkness, it flows in the light.
It flows beneath the forming ice of winter; it flows to keep us cool in the summer and we are all of the same river.
We share the same timeline; we share each other, each other’s experiences, each other’s joy.
Our biases and open hearts.
Our heartaches and our faith.
In the beginning there was everything, for there was God.
In the beginning there were the waters, and I am drawn to water.
On this morning, we celebrate our savior’s birth, born to us a child and for a time that child walked with us.
That child too, was eternal.
Not only did he share with us the waters, he was the water, just as God is the water.
And just as that water might flow through and around us, know we are all part of the eternal.
There is no disconnect between those we loved once and those who we will eventually love.
We share this glory together.
We share God’s glory together.
Yes, on this morning we celebrate the birth of the Christ child and we are also celebrating the eternal essence of his being.
We are celebrating God breaking through that liminal veil; from the metaphysical to physical, God has sent us God’s son.
And God continues to break through.
God continues to flow in and through us, in vast currents of gushing love and in slow trickles of loving confirmation that makes us realize on our hardest days, we are indeed... loved.
Though my struggles are real on this earth, I know the waters flow behind me from time immemorial, no, from utter timelessness, until forever.
And we are part of that forever.
One of my favorite quotes is by Norman McClean from one of my favorite books, ‘A River Runs through It’.
It goes,
Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs.
And, I would add, in all those words and in the Word born to us this morning, is God.
Friends, on this morning we celebrate the birth of Christ and by doing so we are celebrating the fact that Christ is, has always been, and will always be with us.
Nothing that was will ever not be.
We are a part of everything.
We are blessed by waters.
Amen.
Merry Christmas!
