I wrote this in the early morning hours of Christmas 2022. I hate to admit it, but I had quite a meltdown the night before and I had to remind my very own self what Christmas is about.

Enjoy …

I woke up thinking about the quote from the Chronicles of Narnia where Mr. Tumnus described Narnia before Aslan like this …

“It is winter,” said Mr. Tumnus, “always winter, but never Christmas.”

And I thought to myself, we celebrate this morning not only the love of family and festivities and frivolity, but the deeply mysterious, "capital S" Story that lies at the heart of the universe. A Story that undergirds our existence, our sense of purpose and our tenacious hope that maybe, just maybe, after what feels like an interminable winter there will, one day, be a great and eternal Christmas. A banquet of sorts …

A feast that never ends where the hungry and the hurt, the homeless and heartbroken, the war-weary and condemned, the poverty-stricken and powerless, will finally … feast … first.

At the heart of that Story lies the belief that we are not alone on this cold, dark planet, but there is a Light, a light that no darkness can ever overcome or extinguish, a Light that moves toward us in relentless love, despite our personal and collective darkness, despair, and destruction.

That Light - Christians believe - is the Light of the World, God incarnate, the Divine made flesh. Jesus the Christ. Christ not his surname, but his title: the anointed One, the chosen One, the One who will save, will deliver all people from a world that feels - for the bulk of humanity - like winter, but never Christmas.

This Light, this Christ, this capital S Story is why we celebrate together today. Why we give gifts in ridiculous abundance, why we laugh and dance and sing together, why we share food and drink and hugs and hope and heartache and monkey bread and Kerrygold butter.

So I raise a toast this cold winter morning to Aslan, the Christ character in the Chronicles, the one who on that first dark Christmas morning moved toward us in love, and continues and will continue to do so every day of our lives. The One who works the deepest magic, who on the Stone Table broke the curse that hangs over this world and makes death start to work backward on itself. The One who will make every wrong thing right.

This is why we celebrate together this morning.

Carry on! Mimosas for the win!

AMEN