He was munching on a cookie when he said it to me, this
teenage boy. “I never realized before how sad so much Christmas music is.” And
it was a profound insight, delivered by a teenage boy standing in Central’s
Auditorium, his one hand filled with Christmas cookies, the place packed with
the crowd from the Living Nativity. It didn’t last for long, this moment of
insight, as both of us soon turned back to the table in search of some more
chocolate chip cookies, but that teenage boy was right. So much Christmas music
is kind of sad, melancholy.
And I think
that sadness comes from the difference between the ideal of what we think that
Christmas should be and the reality of what it is. Take the song, “I’ll Be Home
for Christmas.” “You can count on me…. I’ll be home for Christmas,” the lyrics
affirm, before taking this sudden twist, “if only in my dreams.” For despite
the ideal of what we think that Christmas should be, the reality for some
people is that being home for Christmas is only a dream, and that’s sad.
You can
think of the ones who won’t be home for Christmas—soldiers serving far from
home—folks doing time in prison—refugees displaced by natural disaster and by
war. This week, due to our participation with other interfaith congregations in
the Homeless Sabbath, Dec. 16-18, I am thinking of homeless people.
Here in New Jersey, of course, it’s
easy for folks to end up homeless, since we are the 6th most
expensive state in which to rent an apartment. According to a study, working at
a minimum wage job, a family would have to work 127 hours a week in order to
afford the average two bedroom apartment in New Jersey, which equates to 3.2
full-time jobs! That’s why so many of the families we encounter when we host
Family Promise guests are employed. They just don’t earn enough to afford to
live here. And that’s why our local Interfaith Council has been working so hard
these past six months on affordable housing. This situation simply must change,
but it starts with a moment, a flash of insight, the reality, the dream beyond
the sadness. “I’ll be home for Christmas….”
--Pastor Don Steele
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