The Word Made Flesh

Charlotte Collins Reed

Christ Church Episcopal

July 15, 2018

Christmas in July

          Until I started seminary about 25 years ago, I was mostly stay-at-home mom to our two sons.   I had done a little teaching here and there, and a lot of volunteer work, but for the most part my life had revolved around Slocomb and Caldwell.  So, my entry into the world of commuting to school an hour away from home four days a week and taking a full load of courses was a rather jarring transition.   A friend of mine at church-who I considered to be an older woman at the time but she was probably all of 60-said this to me one day just before school started: “I am going to bring dinner to your house one night a week every week this year.”   She stated this as a fact, not a question, and I knew her well enough not to argue, because arguing would have been a waste of breath.  Every Thursday night for an entire year, Anita brought a home cooked meal to our house.  One week the meal might be meatloaf and mashed potatoes, made from scratch.  Another week, we might have homemade lasagna, or a casserole, or any number of hot nourishing meals.  Every week for 52 weeks until we moved to Chicago for me to finish school, Anita nourished our bodies and souls with her food, kindness, and outrageous generosity.

          What, you might reasonably ask, do Anita’s meals have to do with Christmas in July?  Christmas in July reminds us that the Christ Child is born in our midst, the Word becomes flesh, not just when we have cleared space on our calendar, purchased or made gifts and wrapped them, decorated our homes if we are so inclined, and have Christmas dinner ready to pop in the oven.  The Christmas story tells us that the Christ Child was born in a common stable, where a manger was used for his bed, to parents who were about the ordinary and probably annoying work of taking care of bureaucratic red tape, and the ordinary became holy.  The Christ child is born in our midst, the Word becomes flesh, in the midst of our ordinary lives, in surprising ways, when we least expect Jesus to show up.  Anita’s meals were, for me, a surprising and grace-filled expression of the Word made flesh, the ordinary made holy as she extended lavish kindness to my family and myself.

          I sometimes wonder if we hear the words of the angel to the shepherds differently in July than we do in December. The angel says to the shepherds "Do not be afraid." And the shepherds swallow their fear and leave their flocks to find the Christ Child lying in the manger. In December, when it is cold outside and not only the church but all of downtown Hudson is decorated, I hear those words and feel comfort and hope at coming to this place and greeting the Christ Child here. In December, we do offer gifts of baby food for the baby Jesus and hungry babies in Summit County.  So our focus is not entirely on greeting the Christ Child here, but on Christmas Eve, at least for me, the focus is on the Christ child being born in my own heart and greeting him in this place so that I can swallow my fear and go into the world to serve Christ there.

On Christmas in July, I hear the words of the angel to the shepherd differently. I hear the angel say to the shepherds-"Do not be afraid. The Christ Child is not here in the fields where you are comfortable and know what you are doing. The Christ Child is in Bethlehem, where you are not comfortable and you do not know what you are doing. Swallow your fear and go there."   The shepherds believe the angel, leave the sheep to their own devices, and venture into unknown territory without so much as a map much less a GPS to guide them as they look for a newborn baby in the midst of the city of Bethlehem.  The shepherds have certainly swallowed their fear!

Christmas in July, which I cheerfully admit is weird and uncomfortable, reminds us that the manger is not just here, where we greet the Christ Child and are comfortable and know what we are doing. The manger is equally in those places where we are less comfortable and less likely to know what we are doing, such as places where children do not have such basic items of clothing as socks and underwear, or where people live lives completely different from ours, or hold different values, or are marginalized because of race, or gender, or education or income or any number of other reasons and places where people face challenges we cannot begin to imagine. Christmas in July takes us out of our comfort zones, reminding us both that the Christ child is found in unexpected places and that we are called to be the Word made flesh for others at all times and in all places.  Christmas in July reminds us that Jesus often shows up where we least expect him, and that sometimes we have to swallow our fear to find him.

                                                                                     Amen.