Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 97
Titus 3:4–7
Luke 2:1–20C
I.N.I.
There is no rose of such virtue
As is the rose that bare Jesu.
Alleluia.
For in this rose contained was
Heaven and earth in little space.
Res Miranda. O wondrous thing.
The ancient antiphon declares it present tense: Today Christ is born. Hodie Christus natus est.
We laud our praise with sweetest song.
We allow our joy to bubble up and over.
We can’t contain ourselves.
We say that in the birth of Jesus Christ, God’s promises are fulfilled.
If Advent gets us at all ready for Christmas, if we have been connected at all to our deepest desires and what we need the most, then we can breathe in God’s Spirit tonight. We can bask in glory. We can bathe in light.
I have a memory of my child, my first born, the one named after the angel Gabriel. After changing, feeding, rocking, and lullabying, finally, at long last, through five minutes of sputtering, the cutest little tow-headed round-faced blue-eyed baby was asleep.
And I distinctly remember just staring at him, marveling at beauty, mystery, this life connected to mine now breathing rhythmically. I felt as close to God as I’ve ever felt before. As I just looked at him, I wondered, “where did he come from?” I was overwhelmed. I was awed.
In the collective memory of those who seek to know God and to be connected to God, the story is told of a baby’s birth. This story is told in the dead of winter, when the earth is furthest from the sun, creation itself is barren, and depression is at its peak. The return of longer days, the welcome return of the sun, is linked to the Nativity we celebrate, the birth of God’s Son, where long ago promises are revealed.
The promises unfold in the storms of political turmoil, where ordinary citizens don’t know whom they can trust. False and errant messages are being sold as truth. Families and homes are not secure, and future security is fleeting.
One hopes for a knight on a horse defeating the goblins and bringing an era of peace.
Instead we have a kid newly born in a stable.
This, we say, is God’s way of coming to us.
Who can ever know God?. I mean, if God is all around, immense and cosmic, how can you possibly say, “God and I, we’re tight.”
God is like way out there, a cloud of unknowing, like Bette Midler crooned God is Watching Us, From a Distance.
Not so, for Today Christ is born. Hodie Christus Natus Est.
As angels form a celestial choir overhead, and shepherds tumble to see newborn Jesus and tell everyone about it, Mary, the rose, staring at her newborn, takes it all in.
Da Jesus Book puts it this way: “Mary wen put all dese tings inside her heart, an tink plenny how spesho dey stay.”
Here is this child, flesh and blood, who invites intimacy, who needs to be nurtured, who is said to be the Messiah, the Lord.
This Jesus enters time and space not as a royal heir to the throne, but as a peasant to an unwed mother. This Jesus does not come with a silver spoon in his mouth, but has to spit out bits of straw as his bed linen.. This Jesus does not come on a war horse, but offers his life for the sake of the war-torn world.
Tonight we are connected with God who comes to us, who takes the initiative, who empties immensity into childhood, who blesses human life and love by receiving human life and love.
In person to person interaction, in the sense of awe at and the awareness of the divine in every day matters, in the ways of God overcoming war and hatred through community-building and reconciliation, we are able to celebrate Christmas, Christ’s Mass, the son’s birth anew.
For this, we dress up. We feast. We who hear the story of the Nativity of Christ, with the Jewish minority shuffling to be counted by the Roman occupiers in order to be taxed, see glory. In a baby that can be held.
And in ordinary human activity like eating and drinking. This God, who rules heaven and earth, who is above all and in all and through all, offers Christ to us in bread and wine, in song and prayer, in a worshipping assembly, as candles are lit, as we share peace with one another, as we look for God’s promises to be fulfilled in our time and our space and our world.
Into our troubles, our worries, our boredom, we stop with Mary and “wen put all dese tings inside our hearts, an tink plenny how spesho dey stay.”
This day, Christ is born. Hodie Christus Natus est.
Glory be to God.. Peace on earth. Good Will to All. Merry Christmas.
I.N.I.
The Rev. Timothy J. Keyl, Pastor
Christ the King Lutheran Church
| CtK Home
| Back to Pastor's Page
|