In the last full week of January Smith College hosted two prominent broadcast journalists, Rachel Maddow and Ana Navarro, and asked them to reflect on the recent election. They spoke on different days and, although each had her own perspective, I was struck by something they share.

We are at a crossroads, in every sense of the word. Our building stands at a prominent intersection, but that is only a visible crossroads. We are at a crossroads in terms of living into our vision, and we need to embrace a future that is still taking shape. “Gathering at the crossroads of ancient faith and contemporary culture, we are a Christian church asking God to open us to a new way.” The constitution of the United Church of Christ “affirms the responsibility of the Church in each generation to make this [ancient] faith its own in reality of worship, in honesty of thought and expression.”

Why do we only celebrate the birth of Christ in late December? In fact, we don’t! For the last two years, Deb Moore has designed and led a Sunday service she calls Christmas in July. It is a wonderful reminder that the crux of Christmas, the irreducible essence, is not the date on which the historical Jesus was born, but the arrival in our lives of a God who wants so much to be part of our lives and have us be part of God’s.