Maybe This Christmas
Sermon on the...Stack?
“Christmastime is he-e-e-e-ere,” sings the melancholy Peanuts gang and, for me, that means I’m back at it with The Lower Lights, getting ready for our annual Christmas concerts next week and—from there—the slick, turbo toboggan run into Christmas. One thing I’ve been thinking quite a bit about is how something that makes Christmas Christmas is the underlying concept of possibility.
Possibility is what makes Santa Claus and the anticipation of Christmas Eve and the electricity of Christmas morning so magical. It’s why a wrapped present feels just a little more special than handing somebody something with no wrapping paper (though that’s obviously nice too). Possibility is what makes every Hallmark Channel movie work, when the big time protagonist returns to their small town roots for the holidays. It’s what makes that swig of egg nog so great—maybe it’s got some extra sauce to it, maybe it’ll make you sick, maybe it’ll be the best thing ever. WHO KNOWS? And, of course, if you want to get to the Christian aspect of the season, possibility—and divine possibility in each and every one of us—is at the root of Jesus’ birth and life and teachings.
Maybe the best possibility-adjacent word is just that: maybe.
Which brings me to one of my favorite Christmas songs ever, “Maybe This Christmas” by the criminally underrated Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith. It’s not bossy, like “Get Your Act Together This Christmas” or condescending like “You Can Do Better Than That, Young Man, This Christmas” or preachy or anything like that. It’s just suggesting, yes, the power of possibility. (It’s worth noting that my kids often roll their eyes when I reply to one of their requests with, “Maybe.” They counter, “That just means ‘No’, Dad.” And they’re not totally wrong. But this isn’t that kind of maybe.)
In case you’ve never heard the song, here’s what Ron Sexsmith wrote:
Maybe this Christmas will mean something more
Maybe this year
Love will appear
Deeper than ever before
And maybe forgiveness will ask us to call
Someone we love
Someone we've lost
For reasons we can't quite recall
Maybe there'll be an open door
Maybe the star that shone before
Will shine once more
And maybe this Christmas will find us at last
In heavenly peace
Grateful at least
For the love we've been shown in the past
Maybe this Christmas.
It’s basically perfect. So much is possible.
Sexsmith’s song dovetails really nicely with a Christmas sermon I love from way back in 1994 by Howard W. Hunter. It’s always inspiring, sometimes reprimanding, and I would guess that at least one thing in there will ring a bell (or make you itch):
“This Christmas, mend a quarrel. Seek out a forgotten friend. Dismiss suspicion and replace it with trust. Write a letter. Give a soft answer. Encourage youth. Manifest your loyalty in word and deed. Keep a promise. Forgo a grudge. Forgive an enemy. Apologize. Try to understand. Examine your demands on others. Think first of someone else. Be kind. Be gentle. Laugh a little more. Express your gratitude. Welcome a stranger. Gladden the heart of a child. Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the earth. Speak your love and then speak it again.
Christmas is a celebration, and there is no celebration that compares with the realization of its true meaning—with the sudden stirring of the heart that has extended itself unselfishly in the things that matter most.”
Years ago, The Madison Arm—with help from our friends (and fellow Lower Lights) Sarah Sample on vocals and Tyler Lambourne on bass—recorded a cover of “Maybe This Christmas” at a now-defunct studio in downtown Salt Lake City. The song was never widely released, so I figured why not stick it in the ‘Stack? (It’s not as good as Sexsmith’s version, but what is?)
Here’s to a holiday season full of (and hearts open to) possibility.