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        We now interrupt our regularly scheduled, Third-Sunday-of-Advent programming for a late-breaking bulletin from the Joy Police:

         Do the holidays have you feeling a little down? Would you rather have a root canal than go to yet another Christmas party? Do all the carols and shopping, decorating and merry-making make you even more aware of the gaping hole in your heart—that aching place left by the loved one who passed away, the special place you had been preparing for the baby who didn’t come, the empty place that now echoes with grief over your loss of a special relationship, a beloved pet, a dream, or a job?

         Or maybe you’ve had a wonderful year and yet . . . you’re just not feeling the spirit of the season. Or maybe the season has you missing friends and family who are far away.

         Well, here’s the deal: You know that lack of joy you’re feeling? The brokenness and pain, the sadness and loss, the emptiness and confusion? The darkness that seems to surround you?

         Well, welcome home. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable—because that is what Christmas is all about, and it’s you that Christmas is for.

         Would there even be a Christmas if everyone were happy all the time? If we all got along, if the world had always been at peace and justice reigned forever, would the human embodiment of God’s love have been born in a barn? If no one had ever suffered a broken heart or treated someone badly, if no one had lost a loved one or felt lonely and depressed, if no one had looked for love and happiness in all the wrong places, would the Word have been made flesh?

         Would we be preparing for and celebrating the coming of Emmanuel—God with us—if we didn’t need God to be with us?

         Advent and Christmas are born out of God’s awareness of, and  compassion for, our vulnerability and our need.

         God sees—and feels—our discouragement, and says, “I’m going to give them hope.”

         God sees us stumbling around in the dark, making a mess of things, and—in God’s mercy—says, “I’m going to send them the Light of the world.”

         God feels the unspoken pain under our “Bah, humbugs.” God sees the aching heart beneath the meanness of every Mr. or Ms. Grinch, and says, “I know life can hurt. I see them seeking—but failing to find—meaning and fulfillment in money and relationships and success. I’m going to give them true joy.”

         God knows our hearts’ desires, and God knows how much we need each other—and how badly we fail one another. And so God says, “I’m going to show them what real love is.”

         Christmas is the celebration of God’s hope breaking into a hopeless world. Christmas stakes our claim on God’s peace in a world of strife. Christmas is the announcement of God’s joy to a world of hurt. Christmas is our invitation to swim in God’s love poured out on thirsty hearts.

         Christmas is why we can rejoice in the Lord. Always. Glory be to God.

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