These remarks were shared at Betty Kwan Chinn’s Community Christmas Dinner at the Eureka Municipal Auditorium on Tuesday December 23, 2025, when over 500 hungry people were served a prime rib dinner.
My name is Father Daniel London and I’m the rector at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka, a church named after the birthday boy (Jesus Christ of Nazareth) whose birth we celebrate each year at Christmas; and the way we give gifts to this special birthday boy is by giving gifts to each other, showing each other love and compassion, and gathering together for feasts like this. (Jesus loved feasts and he encouraged us to remember him by feasting on a meal that we call the Eucharist). Christmas is the most special birthday of all because we believe that this Jewish baby boy born 2,000 years ago, was, in fact, God in the flesh. God is Love and therefore God wanted to be one with the beloved, with all of us: you and me! And that union between God and us became possible through Christmas, when God entered the messiness of this bizarre human existence that we all share. With the consent of the Blessed Virgin Mary who whispered those words of wisdom “Let it be,”[1] God became a baby born in a messy manger in Bethlehem, because there was no room for them in the inn. So, God came into this world surrounded by the warmth and smell of animals and by the loving care of his mother Mary and father Joseph as well as by the curiosity of the bedazzled shepherds and the songs of angels. Some of those same angels might even be with us here tonight, if we have eyes to see. At Christmas, the God who is Love became a vulnerable human being so that He can share compassionately in our human experience in all its messiness: in our tears and smiles, in our sadness and gladness. And it is by entering into relationship with the God revealed in Christ that we can share in the divine experience in all its glory, thanks to that beloved birthday boy, Jesus Christ. Thanks to Christmas! Amen.
[1] Words memorialized by Sir Paul McCartney who grew up singing in the choir of an Anglican church (St. Barnabas Penny Lane) and who met his close friend and musical partner (John Lennon) in the parish hall of another Anglican church: St. Peter’s Woolton, in Liverpool. We can all thank God for the Anglican Church for providing a meeting-place for these two young people who went on to co-create some of the most beloved songs of the 20th century.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 