Merry Christmas! God rest ye merry gentleman and ladies, for today is born our Savior, Jesus Christ. On this day we celebrate and rejoice, for today God comes to us in the form of a baby, pure, innocent, and adorable. In the still, silent night, a baby’s cry was heard in Bethlehem and angels from the realms of glory came to a group of shepherds to tell them of the birth of their Lord. That’s the story, to put it simply. There is no messy love triangle, no toys to sell, no debate over the sanity of someone proclaiming to be who they are, just a baby born to a mother and father, and the coming of well-wishers. Ok, so its slightly more powerful than that, since it is the Son of God, the Mother was a virgin, and the well-wishers were sent by angels, but it still a story about life, about how God comes to us in the most basic and natural events in our lives. Sometimes they are a bit dirty and painful, as childbirth is, but in each of those moments God is present in our lives out of a desire to be with us and out of pure love. We don’t need angels to come and tell us these things, but we do need to hear the stories and to proclaim the goodness of God.
And actually, we do need angels. The word in Greek refers to messengers, and each of us are called to be messengers for God, proclaimers of the reality of God in our lives and in the lives of all people. We are all commissioned to serve God by spreading the good news of His message of love and peace. We are called to go and tell it from the mountaintops that Jesus Christ is born, our Savior is here and present in this world, His kingdom has come and all we need do is see it and live in it. True, we do not have many mountains here in Ohio, but we still have given the opportunities to proclaim the goodness and mercy of God each day of our lives.
Our proclamation is not limited to one day of the week. We are not bound by a Holy night or day, and nor are we called to silent nights and days for each day and night is open to us to worship our God and to witness to others’ about the good things that he has done for us.And what has he done? He has come close to us in the mortal flesh, in the birth of Jesus that we celebrate today, born in the little town of Bethlehem to the virgin mother, and raised by her and Joseph. Think about that for a moment. What child is this? Not some everyday child, but the Son of God Himself, in fact God Himself, and He is raised by two human parents out of love for us, because God wanted to experience life with us and to suffer alongside us and to bring healing and salvation through being with us. So we give thanks and we proclaim his holy name, this day and every day. For he has shown us amazing grace and he has given us freedom for our Sin, in order that we may be with him eternally. Thanks be to God.
Amen.
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