Dear People of St. John’s,

“Can you tell me the weight of a snowflake,” asked the sparrow of a wild dove?

     “Oh, nothing next to nothing,” said the wild dove.

     “In that case, I must tell you a marvelous story,” said the sparrow.  “Just yesterday as I sat close to the trunk of a fur tree, it began to snow.  It was not a heavy snow, like a raging blizzard.  It was more like a dream, without a sound, without any violence.  I had nothing better to do, so I began counting the snowflakes as they settled on the branch next to me.  I had counted exactly, 3,741,952.  When the 3,741,953^rd snowflake dropped on the branch---nothing next to nothing, as you say---the branch broke off.”

     Having said that, the sparrow flew away.  The dove, since the time of Noah an authority on the weight of things, sat thinking for a long time.  Finally, she said to no one in particular, “Perhaps a snowflake weighs more than I originally thought.”

     The announcement of the Christmas Good News is like a snowflake, gently landing on the hearts of men and women for two thousands years.  It does not feel like a great weight, but weighs a great deal more than we originally thought and can cause a powerful explosion.  Now that Christmas 2007 has been observed, we get to decide how much this news weighs.  Will we allow it to weigh enough to break self-will run riot?  Will we let this Good News weigh just enough to lift the burden of exclusivity from our worldview and help us see our connection to and responsibility for brothers and sisters without regard for borders and barriers?  Will the Epiphany manifestation of this news bend our hearts and minds to pay more attention to our baptismal ministry?

     This is Good News because it is from God.  That makes this news divine.  News that comes from God is always divine.  A promise has been kept.  God has reached down and planted a kiss on the cheek of every human being.  We must be still if we are to feel it, kind of like the weight of a snowflake landing on an eyelid.  This is divine news because God has come to us.  We could not go to God.  This one we call Jesus the Christ has become the bridge upon which we may cross to be reconciled with the Father.  This is divine news.

     This is also durable news.  “Take heart,” God says to us.  “This is your hope.  This is your light in the darkness.”  Humanity’s attempts for the past 2000 years have failed to destroy or discredit or erase this durable news.  Christmas is about the durable news that Jesus the Christ was born in Bethlehem and lives today in the hearts of men, women, and children who, in faith, will receive him still. 

     Hope and light come gently, like a snowflake floating lazily down until it finds the outstretched hand waiting for it and admiring its uniqueness.  Snowflakes on warm hands never last too long.  No two are ever alike; just as no two people are ever alike.  It takes an amazing God to plan something like that.

     This news is also intended to be distributed.  That is the Epiphany challenge.  This Good News reaches its fullest potential when it is given away to others who have not heard it or have forgotten it.  Christmas and Epiphany is always about evangelism, like the shepherds who made known all that they had seen and heard and the Wise Men who returned home sharing a marvelous story.  We, too, have seen and heard. 

     A lost and struggling humanity needs to hear this news more than any news they will ever hear.  A spiritually famished world awaits those who will take seriously the Lord’s call to distribute this Good News through the giving of themselves to others in service, as if they are serving the Lord himself.  Distributing this news is best done by example.  People may well read the story of the giving of this Good News by watching closely those who say they have received it. 

     Christmas is Good News that is divine because God is the source of it.  It is durable because the gates of hell cannot prevail against it and the schemes of human beings to thwart it always crumble.  It can be distributed because God has promised to be present with every disciple who accepts the Epiphany challenge.

     This news deals with human destiny and calls for a personal response.  Those who hear this news are either for the cause of God in the world or against it.  They are either for discipleship to the one called Jesus the Christ or against it.  They are either for continuing their fellowship with others through the church he established or against it.  They are either for service to others in Christ’s name or against it.  They are either for keeping the old heart filled with prejudices, resentments, and hatreds or for accepting the new heart filled with love, joy, and grace that he will give to all who have felt the weight of a snowflake.

     News that is divine, durable, and can be distributed always contains within it the potential that if just one more person will put their weight behind Jesus the Christ and his cause perhaps the face of the earth can be renewed.  Dear friends, never think the weight of your discipleship is “nothing next to nothing.”  For it is profoundly true that the best way to understand the many for whom this Good News has been given is to remember that in God’s eyes each one is of infinite worth.

 

                                                                  A Happy New Year to all you snowflakes,

                                                                                                                                                                                Tom