Christmas Day
Suggested Readings:
“Upon your walls, O Jerusalem, I have posted sentinels.” (Isaiah 62:6)
Every other Christmas, my mother’s extended family gathers at a large cabin in a state park. We used to reserve our spot six months before Christmas; then, a year in advance. Recently we found that even this is insufficient. At Christmas, the park’s cabins are booked two, three or even four years ahead of time. For many, whether religious or not, Christmas is the long-awaited day; the date circled on the calendar, planned for, counted-down-toward. When we are children, Christmas, as much as any other occasion, teaches us what it is to watch and wait.
As we grow –– sadly! –– we learn other sorts of watching and waiting: for the results of a biopsy, for the letter or email relaying the news of our acceptance or rejection, for a family member to pull up in the driveway after being out in bad weather, for an estranged friend to finally accept our apology. Sometimes we watch and wait because we are hopeful. Sometimes we watch and wait because things seem hopeless. The sentinels of Isaiah 62 watch in both ways. In a time of great challenge and uncertainty the sentinel nevertheless gazes out intently; eyes fixed not only on the present difficulties, but on God’s improbable promise of deliverance and flourishing. In fact, the passage says, the sentinel’s job will be to “remind the LORD, [to] take no rest, and give [the LORD] no rest until he establishes Jerusalem and makes it renowned throughout the earth.”
It is interesting to read this passage from Isaiah and then turn to the well-known gospel reading from Luke, which speaks of the shepherds “keeping watch.” (There is a particular resonance between the two passages for those of us who have the King James Version of Isaiah 62 rattling around in our heads: “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem.”) All those many years of watching, and now, finally, this band of stunned shepherds can say “let us go and see!” (Luke 2: 5)
What were the shepherds watching for, that evening? For the deliverance promised in Isaiah? Maybe at some level. But this probably was not foremost in their thoughts. The passage says they were “watching over their flocks.” They were, like us, mostly taken up with the ordinary business of the day.
There is a wonderful message in these two passages, taken together. On the one hand, it is good to watch and wait; Jesus tells his followers to do just that! It is good to yearn and lean toward the new creation God is bringing about. On the other hand, it’s good to be reminded that God does not deliver us because of how vigilantly we have kept watch. In the midst of our ordinary lives, God arrives –– often unexpected; often unbidden! As a child I counted down the days to Christmas. But even if I had forgotten, my parents still would have decorated the house, still would have bought and wrapped presents. God is like that faithful parent. God does not work toward the world’s salvation because we continue to pester, but because God so loves the world.
We can watch, we have said, out of hopelessness. We also can watch out of hopefulness. Titus 3 suggests a third way of watching. We can watch with joy, delight, and adoration. “The goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,” Paul writes to Titus. Christmas is a day of celebration because on this day we not only look forward to gifts but enjoy them. We no longer watch for the day to come, but instead, we look with delight at all that the day has brought with it. On Christmas we watch –– amid hopelessness and in an attitude of hopefulness. But above all we turn our eyes to gaze on the face of Jesus, the hope of all creation, God with us.
Steve Guthrie
Assistant Professor of Theology & Religion and the Arts
