The Rev. Canon Mary Holmen

Luke 2:1-20

Those of you who know me well will not be at all surprised when I tell you that one of the most important ways that I experience and express the meaning of Christmas is through music. Music is a huge part of my spirituality, and has always possessed the power to move me in joy or in sorrow, far more than words alone can do. In fact, I sometimes joke that when I leave this life and get to wherever I’m going next, if there’s no music, I’ll know I haven’t reached my final destination yet. The music of Christmas, like the story of Christmas, is the gospel in miniature. If you read the words carefully, it’s all there. In the music of Christmas, there are lessons for us if we can just bypass the tinsel and glitter, the commercialism and overconsumption. The story of Christmas finds meaning in its smallness and simplicity.

There is an old English carol called “The Holly and the Ivy”, which speaks of the symbolism of the holly. There is a refrain that talks about the rising of the sun and the running of the deer, that I was unable to find any explanation for. I have no idea what that refrain signifies. But the symbolism of the holly in the carol is very clear.

• The holly bears a blossom as white as any flower – suggesting the purity of both Christ and Mary
• The holly bears a bark as bitter as any gall – suggesting Christ’s suffering
• The holly bears a berry as red as any blood – suggesting Christ’s death
• The holly bears a prickle as sharp as any thorn – suggesting Christ’s crown of thorns.
• Love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.
• Whoever would be great must be the least of all and slave of all.
• The last will be first and the first will be last.
• All who humble themselves will be lifted up, and those who exalt themselves will be humbled.
• To the leaders and pious people of his day, he said that tax collectors and sinners were gaining acceptance into the realm of God before they were.

In short, the holly with its white flower, bitter bark, red berries, and sharp prickles is used to tell the story of Jesus Christ’s suffering and death – and the purpose of his birth and life. The holly is symbolic of the crown of thorns.

Why in the world would anyone want to preach about or tell a story or sing about Jesus’ crown of thorns at Christmas? The answer, I think, lies in the title of a book that caught my attention a number of years ago. It’s by the late renowned biblical scholar Raymond Brown, and its title is An Adult Christ at Christmas.

Christmas has become terribly sentimentalized. Because it is the story of a baby’s birth, we naturally focus on all the warm, happy, loving and enchanting things that come with babyhood. But that baby grew up and became a man. He began a ministry of healing and teaching, and proclaiming that the realm of God had made its appearance. He said startling and unusual things, things like

He called people to a radical loyalty, not to the Roman Emperor or the religious establishment, but to the upside down values of the realm of God. And one day that man stood on trial for his life, crowned with thorns and mockery. And he died. And then he was raised from death. And in that dying and rising, he walked the road of suffering and experienced the worst that human beings can do to each other. And he found, and he gave to his followers, the assurance that cruelty and hatred, greed and power, suffering and death, were not the end, not the final answer, but that those who endure through such things will find new life and new meaning in life.

Christmas gets its meaning from Good Friday and Easter. It is only because of the end of the story that we celebrate the beginning at all.

The crown of thorns is a crown of suffering and humiliation. The story of Christmas is told from the point of view of the shepherds – the lowest and poorest in Jesus’ society. It is told from the point of view of refugees, as the Holy Family flees into Egypt. It is told from the point of view of the mothers of Bethlehem, weeping for their slain children murdered by a tyrant. It is told from the point of view of Mary, the lowly servant of God who took the enormous risk of saying yes to God. The story of Christmas is a story of God in solidarity with human pain, a God who stands beside those who suffer, whether from the actions of other people, or their own misdeeds and mistakes, or simply from the way life unfolds; a God whose will is for life, and who is sorrowful and perhaps even angry when life is denied.

It is right to be joyful at the birth of Christ, to sings hymns and carols of praise, to meditate in quiet wonder, to celebrate with family and friends. But we also need to remember that Christmas is just the beginning of the story. The story continues in the life and ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. The story continues in the church, where we are schooled in the ways of the kingdom. The story continues in the life of every believer, in ordinary men and women and children like you and me, as we try to live as God’s holy people in God’s world.

“The holly bears a bark

as bitter as any gall,

and Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ

for to redeem us all.” Amen.