As we close the curtain on 2025 and prepare for what unfolds in 2026, there is likely much that occupies our minds. Personally, I am still trying to wrap my mind around the President of the United States calling Somali people “garbage”and making clear that he hates having them in our country. It doesn’t take allegiance to any particular party to empathize with those who receive unambiguous vitriol from their own president and are told in no uncertain terms that they are not welcome here. I served as senior pastor at the Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis for several years and came to appreciate Somalis, whom I had not known much about before my time in Minnesota.
The president has also engaged in adolescent name-calling, especially when insulting women journalists, including calling one “piggy.” One need not be a Democrat, Independent, or Republican to denounce disrespect. Yet, even with such shameful behavior by the one who holds the most powerful political position in the world, there are Christians who support and defend the president’s anti-immigrant, misogynistic behavior while simultaneously quoting “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men” (Luke 2:14, KJV) during this holiday season.
But before we get too discouraged, let’s take a moment to consider the Christmas Spirit. As I bring up the Spirit of Christmas, I am not referring to the spirits who visited Ebenezer Scrooge and prompted his conversion. (But since I brought them up, you might enjoy reading The Man Who Invented Christmas: How Charles Dickens’s A Christmas CarolRescued His Career and Revived Our Holiday Spirits. It’s a stirring account of how we got the beloved tale about Christmas in a world where the haves secure their social position by exploiting the have-nots.)
The Christmas Spirit reveals to us that Jesus Christ, the Savior of the World, is the essence of God’s good news—the gospel—even when many people feel as though there is not much good news to celebrate. When evil is so obvious, hatred so prevalent, poverty, disease, war, and exploitation abounding all over the world, the hope, peace, joy, and love that comes with the advent of Christ can seem elusive. But we need to remember the disruptive, effusive, and subversive Spirit of Christmas.
The Lord Jesus burst onto the scene over 2000 years ago, and his coming brought disruption, evoked effusive praise, and signaled a subversion of the status quo. Perhaps the first person who was most disrupted by the Spirit of Christmas, most effusive in her praise, and most in tune with God’s subversive ways, was Mary of Nazareth. Luke’s Gospel tells us some of Mary’s story in 1:26-56.
Through the angel Gabriel’s message, Mary met the disruptive Spirit of Christmas. The Spirit of Christmas challenges the status quo and breaks into our lives to point to God’s agenda and how we need to get our lives in line with it. Selfish agendas will drive us away from God. Even though God’s agenda may shake us up, make us uncomfortable, and may even shock us like it did Mary, it will turn out to be the best thing for us. I’m a witness to this! Perhaps you are too. What Gabriel told Mary was incredible, yet she was willing to deal with the disruption because she wanted whatever God would have for her. The same must be true for us.
After Mary heard the surprising news that she would have a baby through the Holy Spirit, Gabriel told her the good news that her relative Elizabeth would have a child in old age and was already in her sixth month. Mary hurried off to see Elizabeth. In Christian tradition this is called the Visitation. Before Elizabeth could return Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb. That’s effusive spontaneous praise! Verse 41 makes explicit what Elizabeth senses: The baby’s movement was out of joy. Effusive praise from a fetus! Elizabeth’s baby leaped for joy and triggered a revelatory moment for her. At that moment Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit—the Spirit of Christmas—and realized that not only was Mary pregnant, the child was no ordinary child but her Lord. Elizabeth was excited and so was the baby inside her. John the Fetus, before he was John the Baptist, was excited to be the forerunner of the Messiah!
These mothers express profound joy because they embrace the life-changing role they are playing in God’s plan for all humanity. Mary and Elizabeth were faithful women who were also prophets. Elizabeth and Mary were prophesying at the Visitation. Elizabeth made declarations that were yet to play out, and she also declared what was so at the time.
Mary prophesied through what is called The Magnificat. Her song praises God for the work that God does in the world through the Messiah. The subversive message from the Spirit of Christmas is that the Messiah comes to turn things around. He knocks down the arrogant. He does not yield to vicious, capricious rulers. Herod and Caesar Augustus will be humiliated, and their influence will wane. Jesus, however, has transformed lives for centuries, revealing more of who God is and what God intends for humanity. Mary’s God is always on the side of the oppressed, standing alongside the needy, alongside the hungry, alongside the impoverished and otherwise marginalized.
The Spirit of Christmas shows us that God does not need bullies to advance the Good News. The Spirit of Christmas will, however, disrupt the complacent, provoke effusive praise among the faithful, and lead to the subversion of evildoers. The Spirit of Christmas is the Holy Spirit. Despite challenges we face personally, nationally, and globally, let’s not be discouraged. Let’s enter 2026 with the Christmas Spirit. Let’s be open to how the Spirit will guide us in the New Year.
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