More than 30 years have passed since Reverend Harry E. Chase, the Pastor of a church in northern New Jersey, wrote and preached a Christmas message titled Eden in Winter…
In the beginning, the Lord God made a garden. The name of the garden was Eden. The place of the garden was Earth. Eden is an ancient word meaning “paradise.”
In the collective unconscious of mankind, there remains the strange awareness that once there was a garden; Once there was a goodness, and a peace, and a purity; Once there was an innocence, and a tranquility, and a cleanness to life. Wherever in the world, whenever in time, whomever you ask, men have always known – Deep within the inner recesses of cultural memory, Lost in the mist, shrouded terrain of antiquity, just beyond the historical recordings – men have always known that once there was an Eden; A place, a peace, an innocence, a tranquility, a goodness.
Not only that, but every religion that man has ever known – however pagan or primitive – has always anticipated and clung to the hope . . . that the heaven which lies ahead strongly resembles the Eden, the paradise, that was left behind. The Jewish prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel told of the coming Kingdom of Peace and Joy, where even wild animals would not attack one another. Man has always remembered that once there was an Eden; and man has longed to return.
The American Indian longed for his return to a Happy Hunting Ground, a paradise patterned after the wilderness he knew and where he lived. Ancient Greeks told of Elysian Fields, a pleasant place for the righteous in the life to come. In sixth century Ireland, Saint Brendan was said to have found his way to the Fortunate Isles, the Isles of the Blest … where the souls of favored mortals lived happily in a paradise.
Ancient Scandinavian and Morse Mythology had its Valhalla, a paradise to share with the God Wotan. There were also the Valkyries – those angelic maidens on horseback from heaven, those daughters and attendants on Wotan … who carried the slain heros to Valhalla. Wherever you go, wherever you search, whomever you ask, Man has always known that once there was a garden.
The American Thoreau said human beings are always searching for some lost Eden. And, the heaven which lies ahead strongly resembles the Eden left behind. The psychiatrist Eric Fromm says “man has become the eternal wanderer over the face of the earth.” Man is a wanderer, searching for the lost Garden.
And, do you know what? Christmas gives us a glimpse, a brief look … a glittering, glistening, bright, beckoning look at Eden in Winter. Like a long lost love, whom one now expects to see again, Christmas calls to mind the almost non-retrievable past … and the bright promise of the almost realizable future. Christmas shows us in the winter of our discontent … a peek at Eden as it passes by in the process of time.
That’s the reason for the beauty and the charm, the warmth and the universality of Christmas. The whole world celebrates Christmas, not because the whole world believes in Jesus Christ … but because the whole world does want to see and share and experience once again … however briefly, however vicariously, Eden in Winter. Once there was a garden, and man wants to find it again. At Christmastime we do for a while.
That is why radio stations play Christmas Carols without commercials, and television stations present Christmas specials, and department stores pipe-in sacred music, as do bus depots and airports and restaurants . . . everyone wants to see Eden in Winter, everyone wants to know that it is still true. Everyone wants to know there is a promise, and a reality, and the anticipation of a restoration … of a peace on earth and good will among men, and joy in the heart, and innocence in life, and tranquility in the soul. Even if people do not see it completely, they want to know that it’s true, that they can look forward to it!
Even the critics of Christianity – inside Christianity and outside Christianity – want to know again and again that it is true. To my Jewish friends, who may object to too much Christmas I say, “relax, be glad, enjoy. At Christmastime the whole world celebrates the birth of a little Jewish boy. And that little Jewish boy, Jesus, more than anyone else has the power and the possibility of bringing peace to the earth, of restoring the Garden, this Eden in Winter, which we glimpse at Christmastime.”
To my friends – Christian and non-Christian – who complain about the so-called commercialism of Christmas, I can only say, “relax, we are a commercial people … 364 days of the year we are commercial people. Why expect us to be otherwise, instantly, on one day of the year?” This is a commercial culture, because we do not produce what we consume. Whatever we produce and consume and use, whether it be food or clothing, equipment or entertainment … whatever we consume, we buy from someone else. Therefore, we are inescapably commercial. And being commercial does not pre-empt being generous.
To my friends who then question how much must be bought, and how much must be sold, and how commercial must we be, I have a very simple answer. “Not much; because there just isn’t much money, is there?” And isn’t it wonderful … Christmas does not suffer from the lack of money. It may be that what has become the most commercially active season of the year does not suffer from the lack of money. Yet, at the same time, it cannot be purchased for all the money in the world. Christmas is a glimpse of Eden in Winter!
This message comes through the music of Christmas … all the music of Christmas, yet especially two outstanding Christmas songs. There are two completely accepted and sung and celebrated Christmas Carols in America. We know and sing and love them because of a Garden. One of these is “Silent Night” and the other is “I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas.”
“I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas” is the Carol of the Secular World, every bit as much as “Silent Night” is the Carol of the Christian world. “I’m Dreaming Of A White Christmas, just like the ones I used to know …” is the echo of a memory that once there was a garden, once there was an Eden, once there was a paradise.
And the whiteness of that Christmas is not all snow. It is the whiteness of innocence and tranquility and happiness. Some of us have sung that secular carol on a war-time island in the Pacific Ocean, with a warm, sandy beach nearby and the palm trees overhead. But the hearts of all of us were elsewhere, in a garden. The dreamed-of “white Christmas” tells of a place where the air is clean, and the sky is clear; where there is room for wonder and mystery, where treetops glisten and the children listen with excitement and anticipation.
Beloved in Christ, you know that once there was a Eden. You know also that Jesus promises that Eden to you, and makes it possible for you. Please keep in mind, the whole world longs for that Eden, looks for that garden, and rejoices to see it, even briefly. Share your Christmas joy with them. Share your Christmas joy with them all, unapologetically. Exuberantly sing the carols, sound the greeting, give the presents, and share the love. Share your Christmas faith, love and joy with everyone.
Say to the world, the poor, tired and harassed world – the unhappy, overworked, under-loved world – say to the world “Merry Christmas!” “In the name of Jesus, I wish you a Merry Christmas!” Not just “Happy Holidays,” but “Merry Christmas!” Help them to see and to share and to experience, to know and to believe that here we see Eden in Winter. Help them to see that the Christ Child who offers us Eden in Winter … is the Christ Child who offers us Eden for all eternity. “God rest you merry, gentlemen” Let nothing you dismay! Remember, Christ our Savior was born on Christmas day, To save us all from Satan’s power, when we were gone astray …” looking for the garden, that Eden in Winter.
Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas! Amen. Amen.
© Reverend Harry E. Chase
