"Of Eavesdropping and Theater Marquees" - Sermon for Christmas Morning, 12-25-25

I eavesdrop. I spend much of my time in public spaces, so I really can’t help but overhear and listen in on conversations.

“What are you doing for Christmas?” people say lately. I hear a long list of responses: leaving the city to see family, and anticipating travel headaches; staying home to be with family, and anticipating hosting headaches; going out to dinner; cooking dinner at home; waiting tables; tending bar; doing as little as possible; doing absolutely nothing; Many say that Christmas is too much: over-done, over-hyped, over-sold, over-bought.

What I have yet to hear in my public eavesdropping is “I’m going to church.” Even people I know, people who know me and my occupation, have asked me what I’m doing for Christmas and seem genuinely surprised when I remind them that I work on Christmas, with Mass on Christmas Eve, and again Christmas Midnight, and again Christmas Morning. “Nine, twelve, and nine,” I say. “Easy to remember. You should come.”

Now I know that I live in secular San Francisco – where the marquee on one Union Square theater claims that the stage production of “The Golden Girls” is the true meaning of Christmas – so I’m not so very surprised that going to church on Christmas isn’t on any of the lists I’ve overheard. And I know that Christmas long enough ago became a generic, secular, public holiday, disconnected from the Christian Church. Yet still I wonder how we have gotten so far away from “Jesus: the reason for the season.”

“Put Christ back in Christmas,” is the rallying cry of the politically conservative and the religiously fundamental. These assuredly are not characteristics of most San Franciscans, myself included. But I acknowledge their point. So few people truly give thanks for our founding on Independence Day, or remember slain soldiers on Memorial Day, or rally around organized workers on Labor Day. And don’t even get me started on Easter! We like the day off. We like the presents, the parties, the picnics, without giving much of a thought as to why we celebrate. And just when did I become a curmudgeon?

But you are here. And many others were here last night, at nine or at twelve. And many more, I expect, in churches around this secular city. Why, I wonder? Why have you put Christ back in Christmas? Or kept him there all along?

Any reason is a good one, as far as I’m concerned: deep devotional piety; or family tradition; or spiritual seeking; or a warm and dry place to sit; or just wanting to sing some carols – church as karaoke. You are here. And that is good. And even if your mind is a million miles away right now, wondering what is under the tree for you, or if the roast is big enough, or if you will find enough to eat, or how you will pay the bills that come due – you are here. And today God blesses you and gives you true Christmas gifts: The Body and Blood of Jesus in Holy Communion. The sacred Word read and preached. The texts of the carols sung and of the prayers spoken. The community gathered to celebrate. All of these are God’s gift to you

And all of this is only possible because of God’s eternal and enduring love, shown most completely in the birth of God’s Son made human in the infant Jesus, born of Mary, protected and raised by Joseph, announced by angels, and worshipped by shepherds.

And – what’s more – God loves as equally and deeply those for whom Christmas is only a public holiday, or who don’t even celebrate at all. God’s gifts aren’t restricted to people who come to church at Christmastime. God’s generous grace isn’t reliant on the Church. But it is we, who make it a point to celebrate in church, it is we who see more clearly the gifts that God puts under the trees of our hearts and in the stockings of our souls.

And knowing that God gives us these gifts prompts us to thank the giver and to be generous in sharing what God intends for all of us: mercy and compassion, joy and peace, forbearance and forgiveness, faith and hope, and above all, love.

Let your life be the marquee that boasts the true meaning of Christmas. Amaze the people who eavesdrop on you.

Merry Christmas!

Father Daniel S.J. Scheid, SCP

Christmas Day – December 25, 2025

All Saints’ Episcopal Church, San Francisco

“Of Eavesdropping and Theater Marquees”