The nativity of our Lord (Proper 3): December 25, 2007.

Isaiah 52:7-10

Psalm 98

Hebrews 1:1-4 (5-12)

John 1:1-14

First Reading--Remember and reveal

Themes running through this day, beginning in Isaiah, are the ways God is remembering us and revealing God's presence to us and the ways that we can do the same. Remember. Reveal. What is God known for according to Isaiah? God has done marvelous things. God brings victory. God is revealing vindication, remembering love and faithfulness, redeeming people thought to be lost. Because of the wonder of who God is, according to the psalmist, all of creation is part of singing praises.

And then there is the messenger of God. This is the one who announces peace, brings good news, announces salvation and says "Your God reigns." To the ends of the earth all shall see the salvation of our God. In fact, they sing for joy because in plain sight they see the return of the Lord. Remember. Reveal. Psalm 98 continues in this same vein. The psalmist sings out that others should join in the song including all the earth--instruments, floods, hills, everything.

In the same way that so many traditional tales begin, Hebrews 1 starts with the stock story phrase, "Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways." But suddenly, just as we are hunkering down for a tall tale, we are catapulted instead to the present and future. Today, in the last days, God has spoken to us by a Son. One of the ways God's Son is described is as the "exact imprint of God's very being" or the "express image of his person" or "exact representation of his being." Jesus is like the mirror image or the thumbprint of God. According to Harold Attridge, "Divine Wisdom is also described as the reflection and image of God," (14) so perhaps Hebrews is linking these or perhaps working to take this relationship between the Son and Creator even a step farther. According to the writer of Hebrews, as we look upon and experience Jesus, we are experiencing God's nature, God's presence. Yes, the God who sustains or "bears along" all things by his powerful word. This is a great prelude to John 1.

Like Matthew, it is a priority for the writer of Hebrews to cite sources, drawing on the biblical tradition. The writer quotes a number of psalms. We are reminded that in the beginning, you [God] formed the earth, the heavens are the work of your [God's] hands, they will perish but you [God] remain; they will all wear out like clothing ... but you [God] are the same and everlasting.

These same themes are carried through in John 1. We look back to the very beginning, the intimate connection of the Word and God. We hear about John, witness to the light. We hear about the people's rejection of the true light, but we also hear that "to all who received him and believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God." We hear about a new way of being born of God, the adoption that comes to us through baptism. Finally, we hear the words we can say by heart with the proclaimer of the gospel, "And the Word became flesh and lived among us ... full of grace and truth."

Even if it is not the usual practice in your congregation to memorize and perform the scripture, this can be a powerful way to share this Gospel. Because it is such a "wordy" and abstract portion of scripture, your taking the time to learn it by heart will have an impact on your hearers. This can be a powerful demonstration of the Word proclaimed on the feast that celebrates that God and Word are one.

Pastoral Reflection

In efforts to resist the materialism of this season and have a simpler, more meaningful celebration, perhaps we can go too far. "Things" are not unimportant in our faith or during this season. We do not have an anti-material God. But if it's difficult to distinguish between the things that give life and the things that give stress, in our efforts to simplify, we may end up throwing out the baby with the bath water.

We celebrate a God incarnate in Jesus through these twelve days of Christmas, a God who has not withdrawn from the world and all its trappings but who came and immersed himself in the world. Jesus was born like other babies throughout the world, in the muck of blood, mucus, and dirt. Jesus went down to the Jordan and got into the muddy, life-giving waters. Jesus broke bread with all kinds of people, enjoyed the best of wines, and, when looking deeply into the eyes of others, loved them. Jesus faced misunderstanding, loneliness, rejection, grief, torture, and death. This is a season when we marvel that God comes to be present with humanity in all of these ways.

If Jesus could be so fully human, how might we be more fully human during this season? This can be a season of becoming very self-centered or very family-focused, in the narrowest sense of family. Another way to celebrate and practice the incarnation of God-with-us is to immerse ourselves in stories of those who followed the way of Jesus. You might watch the films Romero (1989), Gandhi (1982), Malcolm X (1992) or the Motorcycle Diaries (2004) for stories of people who immersed themselves fully in the suffering of people around them, who had experiences in which they saw God in the flesh in the ordinary lives of neighbors and strangers, who gave their lives because they dwelt with the people.

As Oscar Romero became Archbishop in El Salvador in the 1980s, he confessed in his first sermon that he came to them as a person with a lot of "book learning" and that, while many things can be learned from books, he would now be learning from the people. (15) As he learned from them, God became flesh, and Romero recognized where God was present in the people and stood with them. This faithful stance did not mean always being "poised." When his friend and fellow priest Fr. Rutilio Grande was murdered, he wept. He became angry, lost his temper, shouted. He cried out when he witnessed the torture of another young priest. Amid all the suffering, there were moments when he laughed and sang with the humblest of people. Romero, a priest who had once been mocked and dismissed as a bookworm and sickly fellow who "wouldn't last long" as bishop, is now remembered as a saint throughout Latin America and the world. It's true, his life didn't last long, but the impact of his life was profound because he became so fully immersed in the lives of "the least."

In a world in which many people feel powerless to change the world, God reminds us through the words of John that to those who believe and call on God's name, God gives power to become the children of God. In a church filled with people who are suspicious of power, grasping for power, or struggling with feeling powerless, today is a good day to preach about the gift of power--the power that is a gift of the Holy Spirit, that is given so that all might have life as children of God, full of grace and truth.

"The Risk of Birth, Christmas, 1973"
by Madeleine L'Engle

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour and truth were trampled by scorn--
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn--
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth. (16)

14. Harold W. Attridge, The Harper Collins Study Bible (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publishers, 1989), p. 2252.

15. Romero, dir. John Duigan (Lion's Gate, 1989).

16. Madeleine L'Engle, Glimpses of Grace: Daily Thoughts and Reflections (San Franciso: Harper, 1996), 330.