Loading...After the glow of last night:
the babe born,
the mother exhausted yet thoughtful,
the father attendant and watchful,
the noisy angels giving a life-changing/world-changing message to the shepherds;
& all of us peeking into the shelter described in Luke’s story of Jesus’ birth—
after all of that, here we are.
After the flurry of activity the past few days –
and even this morning,
depending on if you were around children
and grandchildren earlier –
here we are.
There is always a grand build-up to Christmas.
You know them:
expectations? shopping? preparations? mailing packages? parties/gatherings?
And now, here we are together in this sanctuary for
Christmas Day service,
a place and a time set apart to remember God’s promise,
God’s mercy,
and God’s gift to us.
And, here, there is calm and quiet.
After all the hustle and bustle, we are quiet and contemplative.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Our Gospel text is different this day;
it is not the familiar Luke Christmas story
(you know, the one that Linus tells
during the Charlie Brown Christmas Special!),
Our Gospel text is a theological statement,
interspersed with parenthetical thoughts and descriptions.
John, the Gospel writer, doesn’t tell a story,
but, with echoes to other parts of Scripture – other parts of the story – John tells us what that story means.
The events of a baby born in the city of David, Bethlehem,
in a “rude and mean” animal shelter,
of exhausted parents caught up in the cruel
political system of the day,
with unusual attendants,
are not just some quaint story that we can look at and say,
Oooooo! Look! Pretty! Let’s make a card or ornament of it.
(or in a slightly more scriptural way:
Oooo! Look! This is exactly what prophets foretold!)
John, with his lyrical and poetic word, tells us – announces to us –
that this is God;
that this story, this birth, this Jesus – GOD.
This is God’s Word (not just the bumbly, tumbly words of God chattering away, but The Word) enfleshed.
This child born is the Word of God in human form.
This is God – incarnate.
This is God who is deeply involved and a part of what happens in our world.
This is God who began to create the world “in the beginning”.
This is God who has been a part of our world
through prophets and promise, song and action,
even if the world and the people didn’t recognize God
or what God was up to.
This is God who has given and gives life to all the earth:
rocks and trees, plants and sea creatures, animals and people.
This is God – the Word made flesh and living among us.
This is God, the glory of God shown
not in might, and strength, and power,
but in vulnerability, and ordinariness, and companionship.
This is God, the giver of peace, salvation, and hope.
This is the Word of God,
here with us now,
living among us as the Glory of God full of grace and truth.
This is the Good News of Great Joy
that the angels announced to terrified shepherds who,
phew!,
went to check it out and,
after seeing everything just as it had been told them,
went running with excitement to tell others.
This is the Good News of Great Joy
of the Word of God incarnate,
of God in human form.
This is the Good News of Great Joy
of God remembering the promise made long ago
(and renewed many times over),
of grace upon grace.
This is the Good News of Great Joy –
Joy to you, my dear friends, beloved of God.
Joy and peace, love and grace from the Word made flesh,
Jesus, Emmanuel. Amen
