Christmas - December 25, 2011

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You may have heard this story before. A first grade class was entertaining their parents with a rendition of a song called “Christmas Love.” As the class would sing “C is for Christmas,” a child would hold up the letter C. Then, “H is for Happy,” and so on, until each child holding up a letter had presented the complete message: “Christmas Love.” A girl holding the letter “M” mistakenly lifted it upside down so it appeared as a “W.” When the last letter was held high, the message read loud and clear: “Christ Was Love!”

Tonight we begin the celebration of the mystery of the Incarnation. We remember the day that our God became one of us. Jesus is born in obscurity in the little insignificant town of Bethlehem. His first bed is a manger - a feeding stall for cows, horses, and livestock – because there is no room for them in the local inn. Jesus is the revelation of God’s grace, the one through whom God granted us forgiveness and reconciliation! His birthplace also makes the connection that he came to die for us and then to give us His presence in the Eucharist so that, as the animals fed on wheat and hops in the manger, we are blessed and nourished by his real presence in Holy Communion.

A newborn is fragile, yet demanding and full of promise. The spark of love lit in our hearts this night is equally fragile. Every baby, by its birth alone, is a sign of promise, a sign that our Creator God wishes the world to continue.

Some communities celebrate in a very poignant way the mystery of the coming of our God into flesh and blood and time and space in order to save humankind from sin and death. The same wood they use to fashion the crèche at Christmas is taken apart and restructured into a cross for Good Friday!

Some years ago I remember the University of South Carolina Baseball Coach Ray Tanner telling me that he looked at their season as something of a marathon. To run a marathon takes much training, sacrifice and hope to achieve a goal so rarely completed. He tries to keep his team in the moment, to be prepared, to get back up after a disappointing loss and to strive to be the best they can be as a team and as individuals. I remember how devastating the loss was in 2000 to the University of Louisana at Lafayette, the Rajun Cajuns, to all of us who are USC baseballs fans. I remember the story of Coach Tanner in Mass that evening with his head in his hands feeling intense pain as he saw his number 1 ranked team which had only lost about 5 or 6 games all season lose its final game and not make it to Omaha. He has persevered! He has kept his dream. He picked himself up and some 10 years later won USC’s first national championship in any sport, and then repeated as national champions again this year.

I don’t share that story to upset Clemson fans! I share it to make the point that our lives are very much like those experiences. Even when we are on the top of our game, we can “lose!” With faith, hope and love, God can help us through those disappointments. Like the Israelites wondering in the dessert and Isaiah calling to them, for those who walk in darkness a light has come! Jesus so wants to be with us in every joy and every sorrow and all of the days in between. We need only to invite him in.

The birth of the Savior in itself will not change our living conditions in this 21st Century. Jesus is not a magician, making things simple for us. It is in the midst of the human conditions with all its experiences of triumph and tragedy that God works wonders. We are capable of loving amidst all the hatred and suffering into which he was born. Each of us and all people, with all of our failings and weaknesses, can love and be loved because the birth of Jesus assures it. Such love will happen to the extent that we allow Jesus to take over our lives. Think about that. Is it not almost impossible and very scary to allow Jesus to take over our lives? What does that mean? I think it means that we dedicate all that we are and all that we do to our God. It means that we hear this Christmas story with ears and eyes and hearts of faith. It means that we learn to love and forgive like Jesus loves and forgives. When we do that, God who can seem so lost in the tragedies and disappointments or our lives, is there with us in a way we could never have imagined before. God is love! Jesus in that manger is Love – God’s gift alive for us tonight…extending his arms for us to hold him in our hearts with all of the joy and hope a baby brings.

This year, and every year, we reenact the arrival of a helpless baby - Jesus the Messiah, the only Son of God. Jesus is God’s love to us. He was born to grow and triumph over all obstacles and destroy sin and even death itself. There is a present under the tree for us: a baby wrapped in a blanket with the tag “To you with all my love, God.” Not “Fondly, God,” or even “Love, God,” but “With ALL My Love, God!” May we receive this gift with joy and take it into our hearts!