Clergy Members Share Their Thoughts on the True Meaning of Christmas

Patch asked clergy members at area churches to share with our readers some of their thoughts about the meaning of Christmas and the significance of this day.As you share this day with your friends and family, please take a few minutes to read what local pastors have to say about the true meaning of Christmas.
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The Rev. Seth Dietrich
, Whitefish Bay

There was no room in the world for Jesus. There was literally no room for him and his parents at the inn that night in Bethlehem. And this foreshadowed how Jesus would eventually be rejected and killed.

But even the world did not make room for God’s Son, God’s Son responded with love. Jesus was all about making room for others.  He dined with outcasts.  He healed the lepers and brought them back into the community. He made room for people like Samaritans, who were considered an inferior ethnic and religious group. He made room for people who were full of doubts and anxieties. People just like us!

So this is the good news of Christmas: God forgives us humans who so often do not make room. In Christ, God proclaims that there is room for all people; all are given a seat at the banquet table. And this good news challenges us to transform, to become people who make room for other people, especially the most vulnerable, those who are most different from us.

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Jim Bender, Co-Pastor
, Shorewood

This Christmas, the ways of the world are once again turned upside down.

In a world consumed by never-ending violence and life-shattering warfare, incredible injustice, the soft cries of Mary’s child are more deafening than any bomb, a sacred reminder that power is not displayed in the weapons of war, but belongs to the vulnerability of a newborn baby.

No longer does the world bow to Caesar Augustus, or Quirinias of Syria, or anyone in our time that normally commands the world’s attention.

Most of our days are spent competing with ourselves and one another, climbing the ladder of success, trying to prove our worth in the various arenas of our lives.

We strive to be successful at work, at home, in the classroom, and even in the amount of time we give back to the community.

Deep down in our theological DNA, the worn out heresy of works righteousness still dictates much of our living.

If we only try hard enough, we'll earn the love and approval of our family and friends.

If we only study long enough we’ll make the grade and validate our sense of self-worth.

If only we pray long enough, we'll earn God's love and blessing.

In the face of this earning and competing mentality, the child in Mary's womb is a neon stop sign, putting the brakes on our efforts to garner our own salvation.

Because we cannot work our way up to God, God becomes small for us, a living, breathing, tangible means of grace bundled in a young girl'ss arms.

The King of kings is born in a stable with a few lowly shepherds as the guests of honor.

The gift of Christmas is God's love for the world and the package is flesh and blood, the most powerful force that the world has ever known.

We who have been hardened by the tenacity of our lives, bruised and scarred by shattered dreams and broken hopes, have become steeled to the brutal stories of the world around us.

We are saddened by the dark places in our own lives and exhausted by our efforts to earn approval; we need this gift of God's becoming small, this gift of tenderness and mercy delivered in a manger.

We are like shepherds in the dark night, scanning the horizon for any signs of hope, for the promise that this world is not all there is, that the darkness will give way to a light that shall not be overcome.

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Rev. Dr. Susan Patterson-Sumwalt

Everything about the Christmas story points to the virtue of humility.  Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the king of kings.  This was not lost on the people of Jesus' time and those living near Bethlehem today.  From every point in Bethlehem you can see a man made mountain  King Herod had built for himself.  It is a mountain higher than the highest point of the first century, the great Giza pyramid.  On top of this mountain King Herod had a palace built that did not spare any luxury.  It even had a home theater that could seat 900 of his closest friends.  Imagine.

When Jesus was born, it was in a place where animals were kept.  He was placed in a manger or feeding trough.  What a contrast from Herod's place. The first people who were told about Jesus' birth were shepherds.  Actually, they were night shepherds.  The lowest of the low.  When people first heard that the shepherds were the one's who first received the message of Jesus' birth, they would have said, 'You've got to be kidding.'  From the moment Jesus was born,he was humbled.  What we learn about God through this, is that God is concerned about everyone.  The scriptures tell us that if we humble ourselves before God he will lift us up.

What God asks of us to remember through our successes is that our abilities are gifts from God, from the encouragement of others around us, from a little luck, and most likely a lot of hard work.  It is easy when we are successful to think we have accomplished everything ourselves.  The shepherds teach us about the heart of God who wants us to have humble hearts as we approach the world and those who live in it.