And the Word became flesh: God became flesh and lived among us…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
This Holy Night we are reminded that God has continued to be interested in human kind. Our response to God’s constant and faithful interest in us, was Mary, the Mother of Jesus – who recognised in her life a truth of God, which is that God is ever faithful, God is ever interested, God is ever seeking ways to make God’s self known to us. So 9 months before the birth of Jesus. Mary said, ‘yes’ to God. On this holy night we understand the implication of that yes, upon the world.
The mighty and powerful God seeks no longer might and power. The all seeing and ever present God seeks no longer to see all and be everywhere, but to look into the eyes of a mother and Joseph and become located within a small town. The God who some interpreted as dangerous: is now naked, and vulnerable in the stable, surrounded by a royal court of oxen and donkeys, and if Cypress school children are to be understood, giraffes, monkey’s and goldfish also.
This Holy Night everything has been turned on its head. This holy night the God who we thought we could know and second guess… has outwitted the finest theological minds and soothsayers of Mary’s generation. This Holy Night – God, born in the person of Jesus, simply reminds us that God is still interested in us.
The break up is over: well, it was humankind who walked out on God.
And Tonight God has come home, and asks that we receive him… that we soften our hearts just a little and let him in. That we prepare ourselves to be loved again by the one who has only ever loved us, and that in being loved, we might soften the edges of our world and vision of our lives. That we like Christ – mighty and powerful, might use that authority wisely and differently to what we have been doing. That we who through our digital age can see all things and know all things, might decide that we should look to the local thing and this community. That we who are dangerous to the environment and creation – might become humble and mindful of our part in creation and not our need to dominate or consume it.
We are not God’s but we are made in the image of the Christ who is born in Bethlehem, and he is of God, so that we might also be of God.
Friends, God is interested in you. God asks this Holy Night that you welcome God into your lives, into your hearts, and his Kingdom which is fair for all people, into your world.
God has done God’s part. Now it’s over to us once again to do ours.
Amen