Peace for Christmas

A sermon for the congregation of St. Saviour Anglican Church, Penticton BC on Christmas Eve 2024 — The Very Rev. Ken Gray

We all have our Christmas traditions. My own include hauling out Raymond Briggs books and videos including Father Christmas and The Snowman. I often watch the Alistair Sim version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol though this year I spent time with A Muppet Christmas. At Church, as Advent draws to a close, I would often read poetry including Christmas by John Betjeman. It was the late Herb O’Driscoll who first suggest these lines as ideal for any Christmas Eve sermon:

No love that in a family dwells,
No carolling in frosty air,
Nor all the steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single Truth compare –
That God was man in Palestine
And lives today in Bread and Wine.

My favourite poetic Christmas tradition is a very Canadian piece written by John Terpstra, the Little Towns of Bethlehem. Please raise your right hand when your hometown is named:

For unto us in Aklavik is born a child, in Attawapiskat, Gaspe, Cornerbrook Newfoundland. And a son is given, in Westaskiwin, Bella Coola, Flin Flon.

And the future of the whole earth is placed upon the shoulders of the daughter of Tuktoyaktuk, Tignish, Swan Lake.

And the place of their birth is called Vermilion, Temiskaming, Nain, Picture Butte.

An angel of the Lord appears in the night sky over Rankin Inlet, over Iqaluit, saying:

This shall be the sign: you will find the babe wrapped in cast-off flannel, lying on a bed of straw, in Esther, Alberta, in a winter feeding stall, an open boxcar, outside Kindersley, Saskatchewan.

And sure, several hours north from Hogg’s Hollow, just this side of Englehart, you see one, sleeping in its mother’s arms on the soft shoulder, where their car broke down.

And the dark highway shines imperishable life, while helping them beneath these northern lights and driving on, through Cochrane, Kapuskasing, Hearst, past Nipigon, and on to the little town of Emo, Rainy River Region,

and least among the little dots that lie scattered as stars and litter the map of Northwest Ontario, where they’re expecting you, as in so many other of these least likely dots this expectation also is; in Miniota, Pickle Lake, Ohsweken, Glace Bay.

For unto us. For into all, this night is born a child, this night bearing each, and the places of their birth, and nativity is given every name.
—©John Terpstra, Excerpted from Two or Three Guitars: Selected Poems. Published by Gaspereau Press, 2006.

If you follow my blog at takenote.ca you will have read my description of the Northfield, Minnesota, St. Olaf College Christmas Festival. In his opening comments, Anton Armstrong, artistic director of the annual Christmas Festival introduced the theme for this year’s festival: Our Hope for Years to Come. He noted that when he and his colleagues began early in the year to plan this year’s festival they did not know where the world would be, come December. He described escalating conflict in the Middle East, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and social and political divisions in the US.

“But this season always reminds us of the possibilities for the future, that peace, goodwill to all, might actually find a place in our world.”

Now let’s leave our beloved and chilly Canada for a much warmer clime, for Jerusalem. Within their annual message of faith and hope, the Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem issue a profound and timely Christmas message.

[Extracts] “In the midst of these dark days of continuing conflict and uncertainty in our region, We, the Patriarchs and Heads of the Churches in Jerusalem, remain steadfast in proclaiming to our local congregations and the wider world the eternal Christmas message of the True Light shining in the darkness: the birth of our Lord Jesus in Bethlehem (John 1:5).

For in Christ’s Nativity, the light of God’s salvation first came into the world, enlightening all who would receive Him, both then and now, and offering them “grace upon grace” to overcome the dark forces of evil that ceaselessly conspire to bring about the destruction of God’s creation (John 1:16).

John the Baptist later testified to the light as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23; Isaiah 40:3). As the above passage reveals, its divine rays first dawned upon our spiritual ancestors, who received the message of salvation while dwelling “in the region and shadow of death” (Matthew 4:16). Enduring many hardships, they went on to pass along the Holy Light of Christ’s Resurrection, becoming His witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout the Holy Land, and to the ends of the earth.

This ancient path of redemption leads us full-circle to our time, when wars still rage and untold millions in our region and around the globe continue to suffer grievously. Outwardly, little seems to have changed. Yet inwardly, our Lord Jesus Christ’s holy birth sparked a spiritual revolution that continues to transform countless hearts and minds towards the ways of justice, mercy, and peace.” (Micah 6:8; Ephesians 2:17)

Returning home, to this place, to our families, co-workers, neighbours and friends, to our traditions and even our occasional bit of seasonal silliness, I ask a simple question tonight: “What do you really want as a present this Christmas?”

At a recent concert at the Venables theatre in Oliver, the Canadian pianist Michael Kaeshammer responded to this question personally with a tune I will shortly share with you tonight. It’s called Peace for Christmas.

Sittin’ here again with paper and pen
Lookin’ at the world and wondering when,
All the battles will be done
Only silence, no more need
To hold a gun

All I want is
Peace for Christmas
Is that too much to ask am I dreamin’ all alone
All I want is Peace for Christmas
and for all of us to find a way
to come on home.

May this be our prayer this Christmas.