Many times I am asked the difference between the gospels
and why and how are there four gospels.
The scripture choices for today and last night
are a great example of the contrast in the gospels
and how they share the story of the birth of Christ.
In Luke’s gospel which we read on Christmas Eve, last night,
emphasizes the humanity of Jesus Christ.
In becoming human he redeems the human race,
last night and all day yesterday I spoke about the emphasis on humanity
and humbleness of Christ’s role.
Today, we just heard from the gospel of John.
John, on the other hand, emphasizes the divinity of Christ.
He emphasizes that yes he is human but he is God
and it was so from the very beginning.
We have this very lofty explanation of how Christ came to be.
The Word was made flesh.
In the Church world, we call Luke’s gospel and all the synoptics
low Christology as it emphasizes his humanity;
And John’s gospel is called high Christology,
emphasizing the divinity of Christ.
There is a balancing act between these two approaches;
and that is why both are used for the readings of all of Christmas.
Today’s reading is this emphases that God was always planning
what he does in and through Christ.
The Word made flesh.
From the beginning of time, Christ existed.
This high Christology emphasizes that when Christ becomes human,
the process of us becoming divine is triggered.
It is actually a solid theology in the Eastern part of our Church.
And the name of that is the “divinization of humanity.”
It is our true teaching, which we still teach;
on the day we are born, we begin a divinization
in the same way that on the day Jesus was born, he became human.
We hear this in the first reading, the first opening prayer
and you hear it throughout all the readings today.
In other words, Christ came to us in the form of humanity
so that we could know that we are divinely destined
to be back with the Lord.
That process begins with our understanding
that God loves us so much that he became one of us;
that in a sense he traded places with us so that we would know this;
that he literally became one of us,
took on our human condition so that it was not some far-away God
but a God who choose to be with us in the flesh.
Do you remember the movie back in the 1980’s called “Trading Places.”
It was sort of a funny movie.
It was about these rich, white business investors
and they had sort of anointed their nephew to be the heir apparent.
They gave him all the gravitas and all that.
Then one day they were passing a young, black man who was begging.
And they made one dollar bet with each other
that if they traded places that they could make Eddie Murphy
into just as good an executive at running this business;
and it had nothing to do with race and nothing to do with education.
It was to do with privilege and money.
One guy was Dan Aykroyd and the other was Eddie Murphy.
Eddie turned out to be a natural investor and one brother lost the bet
but not before Eddie Murphy heard about the bet
and they switched roles again.
It’s a funny story and it is worth watching.
The point of this is God doesn’t make a bet and trade places like that.
He actually comes and trades places with us.
It is not a bet.
It is an underlying pinning of our Christology;
our understanding of who we are;
that we divinely destined to be divine and live forever.
The question then is how do we do that?
The first thing we have to do is
to allow this love of God into our hearts
and allow the message of what we celebrate here today
that Jesus is God’s love made manifest;
that God loves us so much he became one of us.
If we can allow that love into our hearts it transforms us.
Any of us who have felt that love deep
in our hearts knows that love transforms us.
That is why that metaphor is used both last night and again today
“a Light in the midst of darkness.”
Because when there is love, it overcomes everything.
Love is the only way to win against hate, fear, ugliness.
Love overcomes all of that because once we feel loved
and then in return love others then we are participating in God’s very self;
we are becoming divine.
We are participating in God’s very self.
That is what John’s gospel will emphasize both here
and in the letters of John will emphasize how
when we love one another
we are participating in God’s very self.
When we love our sick Mum; or Dad,
we are participating in God’s very self.
When we love our children and shower them with our love,
we are being literally, literally being made divine
and when they love us in return
then the divinity of their life starts to shine.
Their light starts to shine in the midst of the darkness.
The whole project of Christmas is all about accepting love from God
and passing that love on to others without impediment.
It is called the “divinization project.”
It is what every single one of us take on the day we are born.
What we do when we come to celebrate around this Eucharist today
is to take it on a little bit more seriously.
We actively engage in it.
And the whole purpose behind Christmas gifts
is to express our love to the person to whom we give the gift.
It can be just a kiss on the cheek.
It doesn’t even have to be anything material.
It can be a handwritten note.
In fact, some say a handwritten note is worth a thousand gifts
because it is done with love and the heart.
It could be a phone call.
It could be a simple expression.
But today is the day that we are called to become more divine
because Christ chose to become human
to show us the way back to God the Father.
So for all of those people at home,
who are not able to make it,
know that we love you and we are here with you.
And for all of us who are here gathered around
to celebrate this birth of Christ,
it is also for us to continue to participate in this divinization project,
this divinization process
that will last every day of our life
until the day that we die and resurrect
and then we will finally be complete with the divine
and the process will be complete.
Until then, the more we love the more divine we become.
The more we accept love, the more divine we become.
Today, may we accept that process,
that love of one another
because Christ first loved us.
