Only God brings life, and only God brings Christmas
Dear friends,
Advent is drawing to a close, and as we navigate this last week before the light arrives, how are you doing? If you’re like me at all, you are feeling just a little too rushed, with a little too much to do, and not quite enough time left. Each year, I plan to be ahead, but somehow time disappears, and Christmas comes, no matter what, ready or not. In some ways, that’s very comforting and reassuring. Our Lord comes to us, no matter what, and ready or not, he arrives. Jesus takes us where we are, and Christmas happens. Knowing that about God helps me slow down and let it happen.
I don’t know about you, but one of the things I notice at this time each year is my limitations. I really can’t meet all the unspoken expectations, ignore all the remembered losses, overlook all those around us in need, or even locate ‘the perfect gift.’ This particular year, we find ourselves living in a world where war is raging, financial security may seem fragile, and our divisions are sharp. In such an environment, our fears and uncertainty grow. The world appears darker than usual.
At the time when Jesus entered the world as a helpless infant, the world was also in chaos. Caesar Augustus had just ordered everyone to travel long distances just so he could demonstrate how powerful he really was. Sending out decrees, disrupting people’s lives and demanding compliance for the sake of his power was about all Caesar could manage. The world’s power seemed dark and desperate.
God entered this scene quietly right under big Caesar’s nose. God came in a way no one would expect or believe. God came helplessly, vulnerable, and softly, as a human baby. He was surrounded by poverty and the simple ordinariness of his young parents. His power was essentially unnoticed by everyone, except for maybe Heaven’s angels who cried, “Glory to God in the Highest.” As John’s gospel says, when Jesus came, “The light shines into the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” The world was changed forever by the light.
Realizing my limitations is painful, yet inevitable. Whether my limits are physical, spiritual, or financial, I am not able to make life or Christmas come to me the way I may want. Only God brings life, and only God brings Christmas.
We can trust that because God sent Jesus, the light into the world of darkness, God will be with us in the middle of our limitations. When we place God at the center of our finances, at the center of our fears, at the center of our darkness, at the center of our pain, God will bring Christmas, Emmanuel: God with us.
The incarnation, that is, God coming alive in the flesh, is a mystery. Nothing about God entering our world as a human baby makes logical sense. No God of any consequence would come in weakness, be vulnerable or helpless. No God would come in humility, without armies, unarmed and powerless.
But on this day so long ago, God said to us, “I love you” by becoming one of us, beginning life as a baby. In Bethlehem’s stable, we find not only a baby, but our destiny. In Bethlehem, we learn that “all ground is holy ground because God not only made it, but was born on it, walked on it, ate, slept, worked, and died on it.” *
In Bethlehem’s stable, we discover, as Paul wrote in Galatians, that we are not just a part of God’s creation, but we are God’s children, that all of us are loved and valued, that we too can call God, “Father”.
And the gift of grace given in Bethlehem’s stable is incarnate. That means its grace not just given on that first Christmas, but given again and again, in people all around us, in friends and strangers on the street. Given even in places where grace is unwelcome. Those places become places of blessing if we will only look and listen.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, the Episcopal Church in Alabama will offer nearly 150 worship services in 86 different parishes to celebrate the birth of Jesus. I invite you and your family to worship in a church near you. All are welcome. I hope I see you there,
Blessings and love,
Bishop G
*Buechner, Frederick (1973). Wishful Thinking: A Theological Lexicon. HarperCollins