Christmas Prayer

Today I share as a message, a prayer written by my friend and mentor, the late Rev. Dr. Herb Meza.

Please pray with me:

Eternal God, you invaded our world in the form of an infant. Omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God, all bound up in swaddling close and lying in a manger. It staggers our imagination, it overwhelms our logic, it scandalizes our way of doing things. Why give up all that power, all that privilege? Something escapes us. Is there something we are missing? Why this fascination with your incarnation?

And yet, it hasn’t all been overlooked, you know. We date our years from that event, suggesting that it was a new beginning. Some folks date their beginning from your presence in their conscience and sub-conscience and call themselves “born anew.” There are hospitals, schools, orphanages, and countless other institutions that can be traced to your intrusion in baby form. There have been decrees of emancipations and theologies of liberation all giving you as their inspiration. And of musicians, Bach’s sonatas and Beethoven’s Appassionata, Handel’s Oratorio and Jesus Christ Superstar, all claiming your praise as their motivation. And churches and choirs and sanctuaries devoted to your glory. What have you done with that bundle of flesh and divinity so innocently nurtured in Bethlehem’s vicinity?

Our minds are boggled by that infant’s struggle where darkness seeking to prevail becomes of no avail; our own contemporary darkness now left impotent by your existential frankness, our fears mastered by our faith, our sins no longer left un-atoned, our hopes determining our lives, all of life becoming sacred, all our living devoid of hatred. What have you done in that bundle of flesh and divinity wrapped in swaddling civility?

We pause again, O God, amidst the lights and the music and the candles and the cards and the trees and the ornaments and the gifts and Santa Claus and the candy and the food and reindeer and the wrapping paper; amidst eggnog and sleigh bells, we pause to remind ourselves how it all began. And we praise you for your wisdom and we love you for your gift, your pain, your sacrifice and we ask that we may never be allowed to forget what Christmas is all about: “That little baby wrapped in swaddling cloth, lying in a manger.”

Your love reaching out to us with all you had, your willingness to trust us to see your world through its madness, your quiet determination to be patient, your irrevocable concern for all people, your gift of peace never fully believed in, waiting around for men and women of goodwill to make it a reality. We thank you, O God, for a truly Merry Christmas. Amen.