Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015 (Luke 2:1-14) “In those days….”

Jesus is the assurance that God is real, God is personal, God is love and God is with us.

In those days, in the way way back when Jesus was born, people lived by fear. They were only one crop failure away from starvation. They were only one tax increase removed from poverty. They were only one breath away from death at the hands of religious extremists or government decree.

In those days people were going about their daily lives. They were gathering to pay their taxes. Shepherds were watching over their flocks to protect them from wild beasts and human thieves. Caesar Augustus ruled a vast Empire. A man by the name of Quirinius was the imperial governor of Syria. Luke wrote these words only sixty years after the event. He grounded his account of the birth of Jesus in what was for him and his readers recent history. It would be similar to someone today mentioning that an event took place when Ronald Regan was president.

“In those days” fixes the birth of Jesus at a particular place and time in human history. It is the place, the time and the person who unifies time and eternity, humanity and divinity.

In these days, our day- our present time and place, we question the record. We sentimentalize the story. We miss the meaning in the message. The message is Good News. The Good News is the real presence of God at work in the universe, on our planet, in our species and in our own lives.

The Good News in our day is the infinite and eternal love of God united to our species through a single person. The better news is that God himself has reached out to us and continues to reach out to us in the here and now of our daily lives. The best news is that God is love. Jesus is the love of God manifesting in human flesh. Jesus is the love of God offering himself as the great gift of God to all people everywhere. Jesus is the infinite and eternal love of God entering into this universe of matter, energy, time and space to assure us that God is real and that God is with us.

When Jesus tells his disciples: I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me, he is saying: love is the way, the truth and the life; no one can come to God except through love. What is this love? Jesus reveals exactly what this love is. It is kindness, compassion, and civility. It is the Lord of Creation reaching out to a species lost in pride, self-will and fear. It is an infant born in a stable. It is the good shepherd leaving the glory of the eternal realm to seek and find the lost who do not want to be found.

If you want to understand love from God’s perspective then read the stories about Jesus. If you want to experience this love for yourself  then receive the gift of love in Jesus. Simply make a real choice to receive the gift. Simply affirm to God: I receive the gift of divine love you offer me in Jesus. I pledge my life and love and loyalty to the way of divine love. I pledge my life and love and loyalty to Jesus Christ.