Here is a link to Luke 2:1-20, our Gospel reading for Christmas:
http://bible.oremus.org/?ql=254815373
Have ever tried to change one of your family’s Christmas traditions? For those of you that have tried, how successful were you? Most likely, not very successful. Christmas is a time when want everything to be the same. Even the most forward thinking and progressive among us become traditionalists during Christmas time. We eat the same food, we hang up the same decorations, we sing the same carols and so on and so forth. Christmas is a time for tradition and this tradition usually includes how we see and hear the Christmas story.
How many times have you heard the story that we just heard from the gospel of Luke? How many times have you heard the story about the lowly shepherds in the field watching their flocks at night, and suddenly in a starlit sky there comes an angel and the heavenly host proclaiming good news to all of humanity, and the shepherds go and follow the directions of the angels and they find Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus lying in the straw surrounded by the silent, innocent animals in the stable and all around them glows a heavenly light? |
How many times have you heard that story or seen it portrayed in greeting cards, and nativity scenes and movies—every Christmas—this wonderful, warm, loving image? 10, 20, 100? It is a comforting image isn’t it. It warms the heart. It takes us back to our childhoods. It is a story we hold close to our hearts. It helps us keep warm in the deepest winter. It makes us feel that though we live in a world of rapid change, some things never change. No matter how much the world around us changes, Mary and Joseph and the little baby Jesus will always be in that stable. Again, a tradition that can never be changed.
But then in the back of my mind I hear a very little voice saying, “but wait a minute Suzannah. Is this really the story that Luke is telling? Did that stable with Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the Shepherds and the animals really look like the Christmas cards we give each other every year? If it were really that warm and cozy, why did the angel have to tell the shepherds not to be afraid? Wasn’t that scene in that stable over 2000 years ago the beginning of the biggest change that the world had ever or has ever known? Isn’t Christmas really the celebration of the moment when God entered into human history and nothing was ever quite the same again?”
Hmm. Incarnation, the coming of God into our world as a human being, is really about change. It means that God came into our time and our space, into our lives and our comfort zone to shake things up and recreate everything in a new way.
But then in the back of my mind I hear a very little voice saying, “but wait a minute Suzannah. Is this really the story that Luke is telling? Did that stable with Mary and Joseph and Jesus and the Shepherds and the animals really look like the Christmas cards we give each other every year? If it were really that warm and cozy, why did the angel have to tell the shepherds not to be afraid? Wasn’t that scene in that stable over 2000 years ago the beginning of the biggest change that the world had ever or has ever known? Isn’t Christmas really the celebration of the moment when God entered into human history and nothing was ever quite the same again?”
Hmm. Incarnation, the coming of God into our world as a human being, is really about change. It means that God came into our time and our space, into our lives and our comfort zone to shake things up and recreate everything in a new way.
Incarnation is the story of ultimate power, God, pouring itself into a powerless tiny baby born in a backwater town in a dirty smelly stable to parents with no money or status. The incarnation is the story of a Creator that loves us so much that He was willing to accept the frustrating limits of the created so that he could be closer to us and bring us closer to Him. The incarnation, the birth of Jesus, is all about change.
How ironic that on a day when we want absolutely nothing to change we are, in fact, celebrating the greatest change ever. And we are told by the angels to fear not, that change, this change is not something that we as Christians should fear. Change is the nature of life. It is the nature of Christianity. It is the nature of God. And this is good news.
For the world as we know it is not such good news. In the world as we know it, people do bad things to each other. People wage war, the rich steal from the poor, children die of disease and hunger, and we hurt each other in countless ways. But this is not God’s will or plan for us. God did not and does not want us to treat each other in these ways. In God’s world all have enough and no one hurts anyone else. And the good news is that God came into the world over 2000 years ago as a little baby in order to teach us how to live as God would have us live. And this is good news. Because when we live as God would have us live we find the true peace of God which passes all understanding. But to live as God would have us live, also means that each and every one of us will have to change.
How ironic that on a day when we want absolutely nothing to change we are, in fact, celebrating the greatest change ever. And we are told by the angels to fear not, that change, this change is not something that we as Christians should fear. Change is the nature of life. It is the nature of Christianity. It is the nature of God. And this is good news.
For the world as we know it is not such good news. In the world as we know it, people do bad things to each other. People wage war, the rich steal from the poor, children die of disease and hunger, and we hurt each other in countless ways. But this is not God’s will or plan for us. God did not and does not want us to treat each other in these ways. In God’s world all have enough and no one hurts anyone else. And the good news is that God came into the world over 2000 years ago as a little baby in order to teach us how to live as God would have us live. And this is good news. Because when we live as God would have us live we find the true peace of God which passes all understanding. But to live as God would have us live, also means that each and every one of us will have to change.
For most of us, if we take an honest look at our lives, have to admit that there are ways in which we are living that are not exactly as God would have us live. When God became human he became co-creators with us. God, through Jesus, enlisted each and every one of us in the work of bringing all of creation back to God. And God did this not for God’s sake but for ours, because God loves us with a love that is beyond human understanding.
So, as you celebrate Christmas with your, enjoy your traditions. Rest this Christmas day in the comfort of your traditions and in the Christmas story. Rest in the crazy love of God that caused God to become one of us that we might know him better. Gain strength and nourishment this Christmas day, so that you might be ready anew for the changes that God is bringing to you and to the whole world. Let your Christmas traditions refresh you and inspire you so that you will not be fearful when you see God working change in you and the world around you. And join in the change that God brings, be an active agent of change. Be a co-creator with God.
Let us pray:
Almighty God of change, God of what is new and what is coming to be, we want to be your partners, we want to be your co-creators, in the world around us. But on this day, we want to rest with you in that timeless moment of your nativity in the mystery of your incarnation. Let your Spirit so comfort us today, so wrap us up in the swaddling clothes of your truth of your truth and compassion and mercy that we rest gently in your arms as a baby lying in a manger. And when tomorrow comes, give us the strength and courage to join you in changing the world. Amen.
So, as you celebrate Christmas with your, enjoy your traditions. Rest this Christmas day in the comfort of your traditions and in the Christmas story. Rest in the crazy love of God that caused God to become one of us that we might know him better. Gain strength and nourishment this Christmas day, so that you might be ready anew for the changes that God is bringing to you and to the whole world. Let your Christmas traditions refresh you and inspire you so that you will not be fearful when you see God working change in you and the world around you. And join in the change that God brings, be an active agent of change. Be a co-creator with God.
Let us pray:
Almighty God of change, God of what is new and what is coming to be, we want to be your partners, we want to be your co-creators, in the world around us. But on this day, we want to rest with you in that timeless moment of your nativity in the mystery of your incarnation. Let your Spirit so comfort us today, so wrap us up in the swaddling clothes of your truth of your truth and compassion and mercy that we rest gently in your arms as a baby lying in a manger. And when tomorrow comes, give us the strength and courage to join you in changing the world. Amen.