God's Journey

Charlotte Collins Reed
Christ Church Episcopal
December 24, 2022
 

                                          The Feast of the Nativity

At last, we come to the manger.  If we have kept an Advent calendar, we have opened the last door, or had the last cup of tea, or eaten the last bit of chocolate, and Christmas has arrived.  And so we gather this day to hear the story of our Savior's birth, to hear some Christmas music, and to feast at God's table.  The story is a familiar one.  Just last Sunday at the Children’s Christmas pageant the congregation watched as Mary and Joseph made their way to Bethlehem only to find no room in the Inn, so they delivered their firstborn child amidst the barn animals.  We heard the angels sing "Glory to God in the highest," and watched as the Magi arrived to deliver their gifts some time later.  The story is almost like a fairy tale; an incredible story of an event that occurred 2000 years ago in a far away place with a spectacular light show and a cast of unlikely characters.

What brings you to Bethlehem to greet the Christ child this Christmas morning?  Like Mary, are you full to bursting with the anticipation and wonder?  Or, like Joseph, are you not quite sure how you got involved with this baby and have come to Bethlehem for purely practical reasons?  Or perhaps you feel a bit like the Inn keeper, who had no room for Mary and Joseph, and no clue real clue what was happening but felt obligated to put them up somewhere.  Then there are the shepherds, who were minding their own business, tending their flocks, when all of a sudden they are faced with a divine interruption that sends them packing to Bethlehem.  Or the angels, who knew all along that the Christ child was coming and even so, they are so overcome with joy and gratitude at his arrival that all they can do is sing God's praise from the bottom of their hearts and at the tops of their lungs.

Whatever has brought you here, all that matters is that we are here.  We have come to see the Christ child with our own eyes, to hear his cry, to feel the softness of his skin, to experience Emmanuel, God with us.  The reality is that while there are many things that have brought us here this morning, God is the One who has really made the journey.  Whatever brought us here, it is really God who has come to us, to tell us in the most profound way possible that God loves us, no exceptions.  The story we hear on Christmas morning is not just a fairy tale, a brief escape from the real world we face that will wear off as soon as the last bit of wrapping paper is gone, the last bit Christmas dinner is devoured, and we go back to life as usual.  This story is our story, the story of God's love for us, the story of God's gift to us in the person of Jesus, and God's presence among us now.  The Christmas story is the assurance of God's presence among us, not as an escape from reality, but as that presence which gives us the strength, the courage, and the love to live our lives fully, and be the people God intends us to be.

In the end, the real question is not "What brings us here this Christmas morning?" or "What did we come to see this day?" but "Where will we go from here?"  Will we, like Mary, allow ourselves to grow in knowledge and love of this child, treasuring this night, pondering it in our hearts always, and allowing ourselves to be shaped by a deepening relationship with this child?  Or, despite the practical reasons for which we have come to Bethlehem, will we, like Joseph, commit our whole selves to this child.  Or like the inn keeper, will we make room for this child, despite the fact that our lives are already packed quite full.  Or perhaps, like the angels, we will sing God's praise so that some unsuspecting shepherds, out tending their sheep and minding their own business will hear the good news, be transformed, and journey to Bethlehem themselves.  Or, like the shepherds, will we allow ourselves to be transformed by the angels' singing, open our hearts to this child, and go into the world, into our ordinary, everyday lives, and tell everyone we meet what we have seen and heard this night?

The Christmas Story is a fairy tale only if we leave it here when we depart.  Regardless of whether we are Mary, Joseph, the Inn Keeper, the shepherds or the angels, regardless of where we are on our life’s journey, the promise of Christmas is that God is with us here and now and forever and that God loves us, no exceptions. 

Amen.