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December 31, 2006, Christmas Day, All Souls'
Episcopal Church
Wherefore, thou art
no more a servant, but a son…
At Christmastide, we
celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Christ. He is born a
son, a savior, and a king. In his Epistle to the
Galatians St. Paul writes: When the fullness of time had
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem those who were under the law,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. At
Christmas, we celebrate the birth of our redeemer, the
one who redeemed us – or bought us back – from sin and
death and who saved us. This savior is one of us, the
son of man. This savior is God, the Son of God – of one
substance with the father, very God of very God.
St. John wrote: God so loved
the world, he gave his only begotten son. For
Christians, this is the beginning from which all else
follows – the love of God. Creation itself was brought
into being by this loving God. This is, in the words of
the poet, “the love that moves the sun and all the other
stars.” This God who loves us comes to us as one of us;
the God whom no man has seen, the invisible, immortal
One, takes on visible, mortal flesh. He is born, flesh
of our flesh and bone of our bones, uniting humanity
with divinity forever. We believe that the whole created
order is a gift of love given by the Creator Himself. We
believe His greatest gift to be the gift of Himself,
born one of us, for all of us, on Christmas Day. And,
this graceful gift of Himself is given to us in a manner
which best expresses and shows forth the great epiphany
of His love, for He gives us His only Son, full of grace
and truth. When God unites humanity with Himself, He
does so in the most loving way. He gives us His Son. I
will repeat this for it bears repeating. When God unites
humanity with Himself in the incarnation, He does so by
coming to us in the most loving way – by giving us His
Son, His eternally beloved Son. God unites us with
himself forever in the incarnation. Through this most
holy mystery, God is saying to us: I am giving you
myself and thus uniting you with me forever. I am giving
you myself in love. I am giving you my eternally beloved
Son. I invite each of you to make this the focus of your
thoughts and prayers this new year and always.
At Christmas, we celebrate
the birth of our Savior. As the Christmas carol puts it:
Good Christmas men,
rejoice, with heart and soul and voice;
Now ye need not fear the grave: Jesus Christ was born to
save.
As our
kinsman/redeemer, Christ Jesus offers himself as one of
us for all of us upon the cross of sacrifice. We are
saved by him, through him, and in him. Having united us
with himself in the incarnation, he redeems us from sin
and death and conquers sin and death by his sacrificial
death and glorious resurrection. He ascends to Heaven
with his resurrected humanity – bone of our bones and
flesh of our flesh. Listen to these words of a medieval
hymn sung by Christians on Christmas Eve. They are
written from the point of the Son of God:
Tomorrow shall be my dancing day: I
would my true love did so chance to see the legend of my
play, to call my true love to the dance. In a manger
laid and wrapped I was, so very poor, this was my
chance, betwixt an ox and silly, poor ass, to call my
true love to the dance. / Then on the cross hanged I
was, where a spear my heart did glance; There issued
forth both water and blood, to call my true love to the
dance. / Then down to hell I took my way for my true
love’s deliverance, and rose again on the third day, up
to my true love and the dance. / Then up to Heaven I did
ascend, where now I dwell in sure substance on the right
hand of God, that man may come unto the general dance.
Sing O my love, my love, my love; this have I done for
my true love.
Our Lord Jesus was born a
son, a savior, and a king. The birth of a future King
would have been an event prepared for with the most
careful and painstaking detail. Every effort would have
been made to ensure a safe delivery followed by a joyful
celebration. It would have been a state occasion. The
death of a King would likewise have been a state
occasion of great solemnity followed by a period of
public mourning. When the Son of God was born – the King
of Kings and Lord of Lords – there was no room for him.
He was born in a stable. He died after a period of
public mocking and humiliation. He was executed as a
common criminal. “Greater love has no man than this,
that a man gives his life or his friends.” This greater
love which Christians celebrate in Christmastide makes
plain that in Christ, no one is too poor or lowly; no
one is marginalized; no one is outcast; no one is
forgotten; no one is left out and left wanting. All may
join the general dance: the poor, the weak, the homeless
and the forgotten. All may come to the banquet of God’s
love.
St. John wrote: “The
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” In his book
entitled: Mysteries of the Middle Ages, historian Thomas
Cahill, writes: If God became man and took on our
weakness, our pain, and even our death, these things can
no longer be the woeful embarrassments we have always
conceived them to be, for they are now shot through with
his grace and elevated by his willing participation in
them. If God became man, lived an earthly life as all of
us do – wept, slept, loved … bled, died – but also rose
and returned to Heaven, that same route has been opened
to all of us.
In the words of
the carol:
Child, for us
sinners, poor and in the manger, we would embrace thee
with love and awe;
Who would not love thee, loving us so dearly?
O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord.
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