Christmas Eve 2009

Alleluia. To us a child is born: Come let us adore him. Alleluia. This is an amazingly meager set of words to proclaim the event that has changed us forever, the inbreaking of God into our world. "It happened while they were there that her term was up and the days were completed for her to deliver. She delivered her son, the firstborn. And she wrapped him up and placed him in a feed trough because there was no place of lodging for them anywhere else." Certainly an inauspicious set of circumstances in comparison to the cultural celebration of Christmas we witness today. No snowy winter, no animals overlooking the baby's crib, not even a stable, no innkeeper crying out "no room". But then, the inbreaking of God’s kingdom is announced by a rather spectacular appearance to the shepherds by an angel doing what an angel does—delivering a message. At the appearance of the angel, the shepherds respond with fear.

How do we get from the simplicity and grittiness of the feed trough into which this miraculous baby was placed and the splendor of the proclamation by the heavenly choirs singing Glory to God in the highest heaven to the conspicuous consumption that is Christmas today? How do we get from the angel announcing do not be afraid, to the fear of offending someone with the Good News? How do we look forward instead to a world that is marked by the inbreaking of God. God, who is love, and can do nothing but give of Godself. How are we changed by this inconceivable conception? What difference does the incarnation make? Why do we gather on a night like tonight?

I think there are as many answers to these questions as there are people. But I also think there is one answer. God desires not to be a distant God, not to be separate from humanity, but to be with humanity, to be with you, and me, to walk with us, all of us, as individuals and as community, to love us. Incarnation is absolutely amazing. Incarnation is God’s desire for relationship. At any time in our lives, we can choose to be in that relationship or to choose out of that relationship. In the relationship, we have a chance at wholeness, at hope. Not perfection though, you see, the flaws and the scars become part of the beauty, the victory is not the removal of suffering, sadness and death, but the victory is in the relationship that brings our brokenness to wholeness.

We respond to God’s self-giving love for humanity, God’s love for each of us, by opening ourselves to God’s presence right here in our presence, we do that by being present to God’s interruption in our lives. In a world where there is little room at the inn for a poor child, maybe we must make room for God to surprise us with unexpected revelations given by unusual messengers.

We gather on a night like tonight because God’s love for us matters. The creator of the universe, the baby born in a barn, God’s willingness to be with us matters. Without God’s relationship with us, we founder, we lose direction, we are tossed about. Without God’s relationship with us, we look to ourselves as the center of the universe, we whine in the darkness and we implode. Without God’s relationship with us, we are hopeless.

This inconceivable incarnation shows us that the world doesn’t have to be made perfect before it is made new. You and I do not have to be perfect before we are made new. That’s what’s so amazing about God with us. God comes to us in the midst of the chaos, in the midst of the darkness. God comes to be with us in the midst of our isolation and alienation, in the midst of the muck of the stable, and the pain of a Roman cross.

This is an extravagant love, an abundant love, poured out for each one of us as if each one of us was the only one in existence; poured out for all of us in unlimited supply. This abundant love is offered without reservation or regard for what you have and haven’t done, or how many Christmas cookies you make, or how many Christmas presents you give.

The prophets of the Old Testament testified to this love, but the love that God has for creation is beyond comprehension. That is why God came into our midst, to shed light on this love. You see, Jesus is more than a teacher who can help us understand the words in scripture. Jesus is the Word made flesh. We don’t have to figure it all out; we can experience it in relationship.

God with us, God in our midst, the light that has come into the world is the power and the hope of Christmas. And this isn’t just something that has happened, or that happens to us, we are not a passive observer. This is a relationship in which we participate. The Word made flesh meets us in the Flesh. One way we express this participation is when we gather together and the Word is present in our midst, and we are re-membered in the Body and Blood of Christ, just as we are doing right now.

And then we respond to the relationship that God offers us, the love that God offers us, by carrying the light into the world. You see, God’s work is not contained inside a church. We participate in God’s work, and are nourished and fortified to do God’s work, but most of that work takes place out there, it takes place in your work and in your play, in your school. We are to be the light that illuminates God, we are to be the light that shines on people and shows them the way to God.

It’s a new life. It’s a new world. Right here, right now, we are invited to experience the Incarnation we celebrate in Christmas by living and loving as Christ’s body in the world. That’s the light we walk in, that shines all the more brightly in the darkness that cannot overcome it. That’s the hope that sustains us, the peace that keeps us centered amidst life’s turmoil, the joy that makes eternal and abundant life present in the here and now.

Alleluia. To us a child is born: Come let us adore him. Alleluia.