The Word Of Peace
Homiletic Reflections On Peacemaking

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti

Christmas

Christmas Homily 1996

The great American historian, Carl Sandburg once wrote, " The birth of every child is God's vote that the world should go on." That is, that God desires that human life and history continue; that God desires and wills for humanity wholeness, completion, salvation!

Today we celebrate the birth of the Christ child into our world and hearts anew. This special sign of God's love for us came and comes in ways that were not anticipated by many at that time--nor by many today. Jesus is born in a manger, a place where one housed animals. He was not welcome to be born among human beings, save for Joseph and Mary. There were no heaters in the manger, no decent health care for Mary and Jesus. They had been turned away by many, " there was no room for them!"

IS. Tells Israel that "a city is not forgotten", but how easy it would be to believe that many of our cities are or appear to be forsaken!   The multitudes of the homeless, poor, abused , gang members and the forgotten in our cities may not hear the news that the savior has come. Or, in hearing it they will not understand it. Or, upon hearing it, understand it all too well! Maybe it is easier for the forgotten to identify with Jesus , Mary and Joseph, to know what this savior means, because they too have experienced that in our society and politics there is no room!

In the birth of Jesus God tells us the world must go on! But how, in what way? God's answer is to enter the world in the humility of the manger, in solidarity with the homeless, poor and the forgotten, the marginal people of this earth. God shouts to the whole world from the silence and humility of the manger--"Here I am, I dwell with these forgotten and lonely!" "To know me is to move toward and know them ." This is so typical of our God ! Throughout the Hebrew Scriptures God speaks to the people, and the especially the powers that be, from the mouths ands situation of slaves, the lowly and the squeaky voice of children ! In this solidarity with the forgotten, God summons the world to its humanity and the experience of its salvation. Is this no the central aspect of the story of Scrooge. His salvation came when he noticed that the fate of every human person was his business! It is a summons of God to make known God's saving action in Jesus Christ in concrete actions that express our solidarity with the forgotten. Birthing Christ anew in our hearts and in our world.

In Jesus God summons those in power to use their power and resources not only to increase their profit margins, but rather to use those things to proclaim the prophetic vision of God's Kingdom in making the world a hospitable a place for all human beings! 

It is the summons to assume the perspective of God from the manger. Once this is done, the realities of hunger, poverty, injustice, political tyranny, racism, sexism and militarism become evils we commit our lives to overcoming with others and God ! God dwells with us in the other and calls us to make a world that celebrates and safeguards the miracle of the Other . That is why Mary treasured all that happened to her in her heart--because the God she celebrated in the MAGNIFICAT, is truly the God of human liberation and salvation!  This is the Father of Jesus Christ that promises to fill the deepest desires of the human heart and human history, to bring all to a successful conclusion!

That is why the shepherds are caught in PRAISE and glory of God . They represent those poor and forgotten who now that God has not forgotten them. That all of the fears, suffering of the ages and death are not the last word in life and history. God's revolution in Jesus has begun in a special way. Things are going to be different!  Like the shepherds we too are called as Church to the manger, to see and to understand. We too can be overcome with the Christmas JOY of knowing that in this child, God has staked an irrevocable claim on human history and human happiness. That through the FORGOTTEN, through the children of this world the voice of God summons us , to give us hope in today and the morrow.

For us, this means a call to respond in our WORLD by making war not an inevitable part of our FUTURE; but a memory of our tragic past. Also, by placing the social scandals of homelessness, violence and poverty on the top of our social and agendas. And by turning to the other in our families, work places, pews and sanctuary and seeing the Christmas radiance of the Christ child in their eyes and on their faces.

Through the humble, the children, God calls us to build a Christmas world. To accept our responsibility to the forgotten and the children In the words of Ina Hughes: " We are responsible for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled; who stump in puddles and ruin their pants. " We are responsible for children who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead. We are responsible for children who squirm in church and scream into the phone. Whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry. We are responsible for children for children who want to be carried and for those who must, For those we smother...and for those who will grab the hand of anybody king enough to offer it ."

This Christmas we are called to take the hand of the Christ child in the forgotten, the children of this world and to create with God and others a Christmas World --habitable for all human beings. A world that truly offers glory and praise to God!

Deacon Robert M. Pallotti, D. Min.
Uploaded January 14, 2000