For generations the Jews waited for their savior. We wait for Christmas each year with great anticipation. The celebration of Christmas is the celebration of our savior. He has come so that our pain and suffering is only temporary. Let’s celebrate the great joy and gift He has given us. No more waiting.

Transcript:

When I was a little boy, I couldn’t wait for Christmas. I dreamt of all those presents under the tree. Now that I’m older, I dream of bacon for the end of the fast and maybe a cheeseburger.

But we all are waiting for something for Christmas. We are waiting to celebrate the birth of our Savior, and we are not the only ones waiting. We as a human race have been waiting for generations and generations and generations. Imagine what it was like living as a Jew under the throngs of the Roman Empire as third and fourth-class citizens. They waited generation after generation after deportation after exile and they waited and waited and waited.

Then with no fanfare, with no public announcement, in the quiet of a cave, our Savior was born with only a few people around him. But the world could not keep the good news silent. The very creation announced his birth. The star brought the Magi from the East. They knew something had changed in the world. The King they had been waiting for had been born, and they went to go seek him out. From the moment he was born in the cave, there were two sides chosen in life, those who sought the Savior, those who sought the King like the Magi and the shepherds. Then there was Herod. There were the political elites, the leaders who didn’t want to give up their power and control, and they panicked. Herod, as the gospel says tonight, trying to be sneaky, was trying to figure out where Christ was. As we’re going to hear this coming Sunday, he did everything in his power to kill the newborn King.

You see, my brothers and sisters, what we have been waiting for, our Savior, was born 2000 and some odd years ago, but we’re still here waiting. We’re still here waiting for life to be different. We still suffer. We still struggle. In the land of his birth, in the Holy Lands, they are still being oppressed by dictators. They are still hiding under cover for being bombed and shot.

Christmas will be different this year in Bethlehem, and we need to pray from this moment that the war ends because they still have two weeks. Remember, they’re on the old calendar in Jerusalem. They still have two weeks to celebrate the birth of Christ. By God’s grace, we need to pray for peace. We need to pray not just for a temporary ceasefire, but an end to the war.

I will tell you as a priest, I have great hopes for peace. As a man who has lived in this world for 54 years, I don’t have a whole lot of hope because as the gospel said, from the day he was born, half the world was following him and half the world was trying to kill him.

So my brothers and sisters, here we are in the balance. We free to fill our church, while our brothers and sisters in the Holy Lands will take their lives into their own hands by going to church this year for Christmas. But that cannot distract us and cannot derail us from having faith in Christ.

I know that this year, besides the wars, besides poverty, I know this year many of our families are dealing with the first Christmas without a loved one and it hurts. It’s painful. But remember, Christ is born, and the Savior has come so that our pain is only temporary.

So celebrate the birth of Christ. You don’t have to have big, giant celebrations if you’re grieving, but still celebrate as they will be in Jerusalem. Whether or not the war has stopped, they will celebrate the birth of Christ because he’s come to defeat war and poverty, and he’s come to heal the pain and the grief in our hearts. This is that great joy that is Christmas. Yes, there’ll be presents under the tree, and I guarantee by Presvytera’s promise there’s going to be bacon waiting for me tonight when I go home. But more than any present or bacon, we have Christ who has come to be with us as one of us to save us from all of the pain and the suffering in the world. Christ is Born! Glorify Him.