Reverend Marci Scott-Weis, MDIV

I love the Christmas story so much. I love the shepherds and the angels and Mary and Joseph and little baby Jesus. It’s a wonderful story and it connects me through time to that starry night so long ago. But here’s the secret about Christmas. The true meaning of Christmas is not really about what happened so long ago in Bethlehem in that little manger with that little baby. That is a beautiful story, an important story, a good story. But Christmas is not about the birth of Jesus. Not really. Not directly.

But before we dive into what Christmas is really about, I want to share a different story. This is the story about a famous artist, one whose work we probably all recognize. His name was Vincent Van Gogh. Here is some of his art that you might recognize. He was famous for his sunflowers and his paintings of beautiful fields. Van Gogh painted in beautiful and expansive colors.

A few years back, I had the chance to stand in front of one of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings, ‘The Starry Night’. It left me breathless. After seeing this amazing painting, I felt drawn to learn more about the artist and so I did some studying on Van Gogh and there is quite a story behind both him and this painting. And on this starry night, it seems like a good time to tell the story behind this painting.

Van Gogh came to paint late in life, after he failed at his pursuit of a life in ministry. He was a pastor’s kid who spent years serving as a minister in a coal mining community until he ran afoul of the Dutch Reform Church and then the Methodist Church and was forced to leave ministry. Destitute, Van Gogh turned to art. For most of his life, he experienced mental illness including frequent episodes of depression and paralyzing anxiety.

In May of 1889, Van Gogh was admitted to an asylum and it was there that he painted ‘The Starry Night’. It is the view that Van Gogh saw out his window at the asylum. What doesn’t show in this painting are the bars that blocked his view to the town beyond. Van Gogh didn’t paint those.

I look at this picture and I have to ask, how was a man, so tormented, struggling through so very much, how was he capable of creating such beauty and promise from the window of an asylum? How did Van Gogh conceive ‘The Starry Night’?

Van Gogh’s letters have provided great insights to art historians regarding that answer of ‘how’. Throughout all his life’s challenges, sorrow, suffering and anguish, Van Gogh had continued to see God radically alive and present in the world around him, regardless of where he was at or what he was experiencing.

Now here is the really important part about this particular painting. Art historians know from his letters that Van Gogh used blue to represent God’s presence in his paintings, and yellow to represent God’s love.

Blue to represent God’s presence, and yellow to represent God’s love.

Looking at ‘The Starry Night’ in this light, it is hard to not see that God and God’s love are present abundantly in Van Gogh’s world, even the world that exists outside of his window of an asylum. I happen to believe that ‘The Starry Night’ is one of the greatest sermons of our time, one that shows a way for us all of us to see God’s presence and God’s love alive and around us, within us, swirling in beautiful and expansive color.

So back to the stories we heard earlier tonight, stories about a baby born in a manger on another starry night. Like I told you earlier, while that is a beautiful story, an important story, a good story, Christmas is not about the birth of Jesus. Not really. Not directly.
Christmas is really about God being with us. Being with us in our lives, here and now, being with us in our hearts today, now. Yes, the birth of Jesus is a sign of that. And that story brings many of us comfort and we cherish that story. But the true meaning of Christmas is so much bigger than that story. The deepest meaning of Christmas is so much closer to us than that and if you look closely at Van Gogh’s painting, you can see it.

The real meaning of Christmas is that God is always present with love in our lives and in our world. Gently healing us. Gathering us in God’s embrace. Removing our burden. Giving us life. Forgiving us. Gently enabling us to forgive ourselves. Loving us, with us.
Tonight we come together to proclaim and celebrate that God is with us; we are radically accompanied. This means that there is nothing in our lives that is not touched and ultimately transfigured and transformed by the divine. God is with us!

This means that all beings, all things, are infused with spirit, alive with love, called into the embrace of the divine. This means that we are not alone. God walks with us as friend, as sharer in our existence, the good and the bad, we are not alone. God is with us!

Tonight, we come together to proclaim and celebrate that God is with us! Just like Van Gogh painted so long ago, God surrounds us with swirls of blues and yellows, connecting us, inspiring us, healing us and comforting us. God is with us on this starry night and on all nights! We are accompanied, we are sustained, we are loved. That is what we celebrate on Christmas.

And in return, we use that wellspring of loving presence to pour love into the world. The great Howard Thurman wrote, ‘when the song of the angels is tilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and the princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, then the work of Christmas begins: to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among the people, to make music in the heart.’

As we go from this place tonight where we have heard sacred stories of starry nights, where music has touched our hearts and our souls, where we have joined in community and fellowship, may we each rest in the peace and comfort of God among us, within us, sustaining us and walking with us to do the great work of this world, to bring about justice and peace and to love.

God is with us!

Praise be to God!

Amen