Christmas 2005

 

Essentially Christmas is “an act of love:” the love of God took on human form; the love of God became human in Jesus, which was an act of love by God… for humanity.

 

But there are other elements in the Christmas event worthy of note:

-it was ordinary and miraculous: there is nothing more ordinary, yet miraculous as a baby being born.

-it as unplanned, Mary and Joseph had not planed this all to happen,

-it was humble: no doctor, mid-wife or hospital for the birth, not even a motel room, just the generosity of an overbooked innkeeper who let “a couple in need” borrow his barn; even an animal loaned his feeding trough to hold the newborn.

-it was anonymous: Mary and Joseph were not “royal” in the celebrity sense. They would not have made “The National” or “CNN;” they were like you and I, just ordinary people going on with their lives.

-Jesus was born under the threat of violence from Herod; we still live in a violent world.

 

But, although the birth event was ordinary, unplanned, humble, anonymous, and under the threat of danger, it was still a miracle that changed the course of world history.

 

“The power” that worked through the ordinary, unplanned, humble, anonymous, and dangerous event, that turned the world upside down was an immense spiritual power heralded by angels and a star in the east: the birth of love in Jesus Christ; a baby who became a man who told us the incredible secrets of how we might attain the kingdom of love in our own lives.

 

Jesus introduced us to a few rules that world leaders cannot even understand yet young children seem to be able to do so.

 

Christmas! Are we ready?

 

Are we ready for love to be born in us?

 

Are we ready for a divine event in our ordinary, anonymous, lives?

 

Are we ready for God to plant love inside of us in the most simple, ordinary, humble, anonymous way in times and places, even when we are scared and in mortal danger?

 

That’s the message of Christmas: that God’s love can indeed be born in us.

 

You now know the recipe, so get ready because when God’s love is born inside of you, your world will turn upside down for the better, another star will be seen in the dark sky, and Jesus Christ will be born again: God’s Kingdom of Love will be alive in you and in me.

 

AMEN                   Rev. Alan Stewart