Christmas Day
This is the short homily I shared Christmas Day with the people of St Timothy and St. Mark Lutheran Churches. The scripture text was Luke 2:8-20.
In this passage from Luke, we see the angels appearing not to the
elite and rich. They appeared to shepherds, who were one of the lowest on the
societal totem pole. Shepherds were looked down upon even to the point where
their testimony was not allowed in a court of law. Once again, God turned the
world upside down by appearing to nobodies and giving them news of earth
shaking possibilities. Don't we see that happen in today's world--where God
moves outside of our perfect little boxes and does something totally unexpected
or appears to the most unacceptable?
We can be sure that if we are open to possibilities, God will
appear to us in any number of ways. After all, Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us
He brings “good news of great joy [to] all the people.”
I'm sure some of our gifts have already been been opened and it
is likely there are still more to come. There's the excitement of everyone
guessing just what their gifts may be.
Have you ever opened a gift and it was exactly the very thing you
wanted? It doesn't get much better than that, does it? It can be such a
exciting time. Isn't that what Christmas is all about? Yes, its about the birth
of Jesus as a baby, but it goes much deeper than that. Jesus is the greatest
gift that God could ever give his people. "God so loved the world, that he
gave the world his own son, so that all who would believe in him, would have
eternal life" (John 3:16}.
Now THAT'S a gift!
God's gift of life is for each and every one of us. God makes us
his own in baptism, feeds us with the gift of holy communion and surrounds us
with a church family of faith each day of our lives.
God wants to have an intimate relationship with us. We can ignore
God, despite the many gifts he has given us, especially the gift of His Son,
But he's going to keep reaching out to us again and again and again until we
respond to him.
So, what do we do with this great gift that God has given
us? We share it with others. As the
spiritual says, "Go tell it on the mountain over the hills and everywhere
that Jesus Christ is born."
Amen!
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