The Word that leaped
Father Richard Rohr wrote something beautiful: “If the major division between Creator and creature can be overcome, then all others can be overcome too.” And he goes on to say, “It is too much to be true and too good to be true. So we can only resort to metaphors, images, poets, music, and artists of every stripe.”
Indeed, dear friends of the Lord, it is too good to be true. And that is why Christians prefer to turn Christmas into a commercial extravaganza rather than face the amazing implications of the first Christmas and of every Christmas since then. We turn Christmas into a child’s fantasy – and there is nothing wrong in that – but by doing so, we miss the true, life-shattering and life-affirming power of Christmas.
As I said last week, heaven and hell begin right here on earth, in our lives. And not just for ourselves, but for those we encounter! Someone becomes a killer because there was no one to influence him, to show him that there is a better way, someone who could overcome the division within his own soul that would grow to murderous extremes.
My friend Ryan sent me a fabulous email last night, in which he as a young parent had some thoughts about Santa. Parents, he wrote, give their children hope and a sense of wonder with visions of this character who loves children and is jolly and brings gifts. There is no actual Santa, but for a few weeks a year many people become Santa. A shame it’s not all year long! But good is good, Ryan wrote. We create a temporary peace around this time every year. Why not manifest this peace year round. We wait around too much for peace and for others to create it for us, but it’s so accessible right now. And it costs nothing, Ryan concluded.
Indeed, it costs nothing. Divisions cost everything. Healing of divisions costs nothing. Reconciliation costs nothing. Peace costs nothing. Because it cost God everything. It cost God the death of his Son on a Cross. And if it cost God the death of his Son to break down division and divisions, how can it be true that God will set up another eternal division at the end – the division between heaven and hell? I find it illogical, so I’ve always had trouble accepting the idea of hell. But that’s just my opinion, not the teaching of the Church.
The Wisdom of Solomon is a book you won’t find in most English-language Bibles. But you will find it if you have a Bible with the so-called Deuterocanonical Books. These books are included in the Catholic and Orthodox Bibles. There is a quite stunning passage in the Wisdom of Solomon, Chapter 18:14-15.
For while gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed,
Although this passage occurs in the context of God’s liberation of the Jews from Egypt, it takes on a deeper meaning when the Word of God indeed leaped from the royal throne and became incarnate in a baby, born to a poor young woman. And isn’t this an image that artists and painters and carol composers have painted for us? While gentle silence enveloped all things and night in its swift course was half gone….Beautiful imagery, captured in such carols as Silent Night. But the biblical text does not dwell on sentimental images like the carol and it follows with images of power – “your all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed.”
Egypt was the doomed land that chapter 18 of the Wisdom of Solomon referred to. But all lands were doomed, ARE doomed! Because we still prefer divisions. We still prefer to spend our money on weapons that can wipe out all life on the entire planet. But God’s power is greater than all the weapons of the world combined. The powerful Word of God became incarnate in a baby to show us the irony that a defenseless human being can represent the infinite power of God. Because God’s power is not a power that destroys. It is the power that heals. Yes, there is destruction in the Bible. But those are the metaphors of the Bible, not the reality. The reality is in that baby that we sentimentalize in our Christmas creches and Christmas pageants. And as I said before, there is nothing wrong in sentimentality and the child’s fantasy of Christmas. We all need sentiment and a little fantasy in our lives. But don’t allow the fantasy and the commercialism obscure the fact that something truly extraordinary, truly powerful happened in the silence of that sleepy town long ago, when the all-powerful Word leaped from heaven into our lives.
As Richard Rohr said, If the great division between God and us can be overcome, all other divisions can be overcome too. Ryan helped me see Santa as a metaphor, a metaphor for the season, a metaphor for the gift that heals divisions and leads us to the throne of God where glory waits for all God’s people. May the peace and healing power of Christmas be with you this week and throughout the coming year.