UU Society of Cleveland

December 21, 2007

Blue Christmas

by Rev. Colin Bossen

Tonight is the longest night of the year. Tomorrow the days will begin to grow longer. Tonight reminds us that even in the bleak of winter spring is imminent.

On this longest night it is good to reflect upon Christmas and the winter holidays. For many such holidays are a joyous time filled with bright lights, laughter and the warmth of family and friends. For others the holidays can be more difficult. Some people are estranged from their families who do not accept them for who they are. Other people are alone or in a strange city far from their loved ones. This will be the last Christmas some see and it is the first Christmas without a much loved family member or friend for others. And there a few for whom the Christmas holiday is complicated because it has been transformed from a religious holiday where the dream of peace on Earth is celebrated to a consumer holiday whose focus is material consumption.

The readings I picked for our service today were meant to lift up the complicated nature of Christmas. Kenneth Rexroth's poem "A Sword in a Cloud of Light" is probably my favorite Christmas poem. It suggests to me just how complex and difficult Christmas can be. On the one hand, the poem has a joyous tinge to it. Rexroth and his daughter "walk out/ To watch the Christmas Eve crowds/ On Fillmore Street" in San Francisco. There are men in Santa suits, carols, bright lights and children with "spangled/ Eyes."

On the other hand, even the joy of Christmas reminds Rexroth of the crass materialism and violent nature of our society. There are women dancing in strip clubs. Shopping and gift giving reminds Rexroth of the greed that be found throughout our society.

Most of all the holiday itself presents Rexroth with perennial challenges: How does one live an authentic life in our society? How does one teach one's children in the face of all of the consumer pressures?

Rexroth also is very aware of the impermanence of things. Even while he is encouraging his daughter towards counter-cultural beliefs he is cognizant of the impermanence of the world around him. He knows that everything ages, everything dies and that nothing is permanent. The year’s turning serves as a reminder of our mortality. Each day we live is a day that brings us closer to death. In spite of this he urges his daughter to: "Believe in all those fugitive/ compounds of nature, all doomed/ To waste away and go out."

Reading this poem helps me remember how light and dark are tied together. Rexroth finds joy in the Christmas season even as he is reminded of the darkness of the world around him. The tension between light and dark, loss and gain, joy and sorrow is the theme of this Blue Christmas service and I think Rexroth captures it well.

Yeats's poem reminds us this holiday celebration will be some people’s last. There are those who knows and those for whom this will come as a surprise. Either way the poem suggests that the giving of little graces, bringing a Christmas tree to a dying friend, is part of the spirit of the season. It might be a Blue Christmas but there are things we can do together to make it a little less blue.

The poem speaks of giving a little grace to a woman right before she dies. It is about trying to find a small happiness in a dire situation and knowing that a little light can shine through almost anything.

The arrival of the Christmas tree does not stop the lady's coming death. It merely gives a brief joy in a dark time. Christmas can be like this sometimes, a brief respite in the face of a difficult time in our lives. Other times we do not have friends to bring us a Christmas tree or give us cheer and the season serves as a reminder of how alone we are.

The final reading touches on the dual nature of the winter solstice and the relationship between light and dark. The pain some experience at this time of year, the pain of loss and of isolation, is often the mirror image of joy held earlier in life. We are acutely aware of what we lack or who we are missing because at one point we knew joy, a joy that we have now lost, except in memory.

Light and dark are tied together. Without one the other is meaningless. This is one of the lessons of Blue Christmas. It is also the hope that the solstice brings. In the darkest moments of the year, even as we struggle the most, we can be certain that the sun's light will return.

All three of the readings represent people trying to reach out, despite the pain they might feel. That too is what we are doing together tonight. We have gathered for worship amid the bustle of the holiday season. We have gathered even though some of us may be alone for Christmas, some of us are grieving and some of us cannot refrain from quietly raging against the injustices of our world even in the midst of the holiday. It is good to be together tonight. Now is a time for us to be present with our complicated emotions. To acknowledge that even with the lights of the holidays come our own feelings of sorrow.

Let us then, be thankful for each other tonight. In the face of all of the losses, the difficulties and the sorrows in our lives let us be glad that we have this warm place in which to gather. We maybe far from our families and friends, we maybe facing difficulties or feeling the absence of loved ones long gone but in this moment we have each other. That, I hope, may make a Blue Christmas a little less blue.

Amen and Blessed Be.