I mentioned in my last post that I loved presiding at the Christmas Eve Service of Lessons, Carols and Candlelight. It was not my preference, and therefore, not my practice to preach on Christmas Eve. Rather, I gladly surrendered the evening to the power of the actual scriptural narrative, beautiful and beloved choral Christmas music, and well-chosen poetry, which I tried to weave into a liturgy that would enchant and enliven the mystery and magic of such a silent, holy night. During the last five years of our ministry, I incorporated Maya Angelou’s Amazing Peace: A Christmas Poem, letting it preach the story and its truth, and lay claim on our hopes, sense of gladness and purpose in life.
Fifteen years have passed since using Angelou’s poem in the aforementioned way. As Christmas approaches, however, I decided to use it again, this time in the service of my blog and a message for Christmas.
On December 20, 2025, Nicholas Kristof wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times titled What Would Surprise Jesus about Christmas 2025. The article reports on the interview he did with Professor Bart Ehrman, a prominent New Testament Scholar at the University of North Carolina, and the author of a soon to be published book, Love Thy Stranger. In the interview, Kristof asks the title question of Dr. Ehrman. Here is an excerpt from the interview:
Kristof: If Jesus were to time travel and show up for Christmas 2025, what would surprise him the most?
Ehrman: I don’t think Jesus would recognize Christianity today. The idea that he was a pre-existent divine being who came into the world as a newborn is not found in any of his own teachings in our earliest Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, and I think he would be flabbergasted to hear it.
Kristof: Then what should we be thinking about when we gather with families on Dec. 25 and seek inspiration at a difficult time?
Ehrman: The Gospels are stories intended to convey important messages. I find the message of Christmas to be very moving. It’s about God bringing salvation into a needy world through an impoverished child. This is a child who will grow up and give his life for others.
At a time when world events thunder around us, and our capacity for cruel and even inhumane treatment of others has created division and discord of disheartening measures, we understandably worry and question God:
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
It is, thank God, into this climate of fear and apprehension, of hatred, shame and guilt, of anger and violence that Christmas enters, urging us to make our way to higher ground where our common humanity can be affirmed, and we can live authentic, moral and faithful lives.
It is a Holy Instant, this Birth of Jesus Christ! Let us keep it holy in 2025.
AMAZING PEACE: A Christmas Poem
by Maya Angelou (December 15, 2005)
Thunder rumbles in the mountain passes
And lightning rattles the eaves of our houses.
Flood waters await us in our avenues.
Snow falls upon snow, falls upon snow to avalanche
Over unprotected villages.
The sky slips low and grey and threatening.
We question ourselves.
What have we done to so affront nature?
We worry God.
Are you there? Are you there really?
Does the covenant you made with us still hold?
Into this climate of fear and apprehension, Christmas enters,
Streaming lights of joy, ringing bells of hope
And singing carols of forgiveness high up in the bright air.
The world is encouraged to come away from rancor,
Come the way of friendship.
It is the Glad Season.
Thunder ebbs to silence and lightning sleeps quietly in the corner.
Flood waters recede into memory.
Snow becomes a yielding cushion to aid us
As we make our way to higher ground.
Hope is born again in the faces of children
It rides on the shoulders of our aged as they walk into their sunsets.
Hope spreads around the earth. Brightening all things,
Even hate which crouches breeding in dark corridors.
In our joy, we think we hear a whisper.
At first it is too soft. Then only half heard.
We listen carefully as it gathers strength.
We hear a sweetness.
The word is Peace.
It is loud now. It is louder.
Louder than the explosion of bombs.
We tremble at the sound. We are thrilled by its presence.
It is what we have hungered for.
Not just the absence of war. But, true Peace.
A harmony of spirit, a comfort of courtesies.
Security for our beloveds and their beloveds.
We clap hands and welcome the Peace of Christmas.
We beckon this good season to wait a while with us.
We, Baptist and Buddhist, Methodist and Muslim, say come.
Peace.
Come and fill us and our world with your majesty.
We, the Jew and the Jainist, the Catholic and the Confucian,
Implore you, to stay a while with us.
So we may learn by your shimmering light
How to look beyond complexion and see community.
It is Christmas time, a halting of hate time.
On this platform of peace, we can create a language
To translate ourselves to ourselves and to each other.
At this Holy Instant, we celebrate the Birth of Jesus Christ
Into the great religions of the world.
We jubilate the precious advent of trust.
We shout with glorious tongues at the coming of hope.
All the earth’s tribes loosen their voices
To celebrate the promise of Peace.
We, Angels and Mortals, Believers and Non-Believers,
Look heavenward and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at our world and speak the word aloud.
Peace. We look at each other, then into ourselves
And we say without shyness or apology or hesitation.
Peace, My Brother.
Peace, My Sister.
Peace, My Soul.