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JESUS CHRIST IS BORN! All the angels in heaven are singing glory to God. Christmas has come.
As you worship this morning, I hope you are experiencing Christmas in all the ways that are meaningful to you. I especially hope that it is a time for you to deepen your bonds with family and friends. Christmas has a way of helping us see those who are less fortunate. I know that ministering to those in need is an important part of your Christmas celebration. If you are here this morning, then you have made the worship of the one who gave us the gift of the Christchild a priority. Giving yourself and your time this morning is a good gift.
Family, friends, service to others and worship of God are all significant elements of the way we experience Christmas. We cannot imagine that first Christmas without thinking of our own Christmases. Our experiences and expectations of Christmas sometimes make it difficult to appreciate the character of that first Christmas.
When I think of Mary and Joseph, I wonder what must have been going through their minds. How did they make sense of what God was doing in their lives? How did they balance their understanding of how God was working with the practical concerns of a new baby and a growing family?
Of course, we can easily dismiss such questions with the notion that God is going to take care of God’s Son. While that notion is certainly true, I wonder how fully Mary and Joseph grasped God’s involvement in their lives. Were they anxious and worried?
Then Joseph has the dream where the angel tells him to take his family to Egypt because Herod wants to destroy the baby. If they were not anxious and worried before, they certainly have reason to be now. Is there any feeling worse than one you get when you think someone is mistreating your child? The angel in the dream told Joseph that Herod wanted Jesus destroyed.
The word desperate comes to mind. Were Mary and Joseph desperate to get Jesus to a safe place? Were they desperate to get him away from danger where no one would hurt him? They were if they were anything like parents I have known with a new baby.
When I think of baby Jesus, our young ones here at church come to mind. I can think of no reason why Jesus would not have the same tender expressions and warm cuddly appeal that they have. Nor do I see any reason to think that He did not have the same needs as the infants and toddlers that are such a blessing to our church family. He needed to be fed, to be changed, to be held, to be kept warm and to be talked to. Imagine the Son of God totally dependent upon someone else for His every need. There are few stages in life when we find ourselves so vulnerable.
What was God thinking? Was God so desperate to connect with humanity that God was willing to take on flesh and be human? Why did God choose to do it the way He did? Why not a royal family instead of Mary and Joseph? Why not a couple that already had some standing in society and world affairs?
God found in Mary one who was willing to say, “...let it be with me according to Your word.” I am not sure that God would have found one among society’s elite who would have been willing to so totally and completely yield her life to God’s purpose.
God wanted so desperately to love humanity that Jesus was born. Born of the flesh in an out-of-the-way place, to parents of modest if not humble means, Jesus was God’s ultimate expression of love.
One thing that has not changed after all of these Christmases is that God is still longing to know men and women, girls and boys, and to be loved and known by them. The world today is just as desperate for that kind of love. So many of the troubled places and difficult situations in our world are marked by an absence of love.
More often than not they are characterized by greed, envy, sloth, pride, gluttony, lust, and hostility. These are places and situations where Christmas needs to happen. These are the places and situations where lives need to yield to God’s purposes, where the needs of the Christchild are aching to be met and where God’s desperate desire to love and be loved need to be turned loose.
So Merry Christmas is not just a greeting of good cheer that acknowledges a long-ago historical event; there is also a forward-looking dimension to that happy phrase. Yes, Jesus Christ is born and He still needs to be born in those places and situations where his love and mercy are so noticeably absent. Christmas day is here, but Christmas doesn’t end for those who know this child as Lord and Savior. For those who have been touched by His love, restored by His grace, embraced by His compassion, and comforted by His mercy, Christmas is more than a day or a season. It is a way of life.
Joy and Peace,
Ed
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