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There is an undercurrent of excitement at our house these days. Our kindergartener is a little more exuberant than our 18 and (as of this coming Sunday) 20-year-olds…but you can see it in their eyes at certain moments; the excitement is present: Christmas is coming! As has become our tradition, we put the decorations up, inside and out, the weekend after Thanksgiving, and even got all three boys to help decorate the Christmas Tree. The energy level is up and the anticipation is palpable and very difficult for our 5 year-old to contain. I can’t imagine being a school teacher at this time of year. Of course, when I was growing up we never let the excitement of Christmas get the better of us and were always able to control our energy level and our behavior!
But why not get excited? There is a break in school coming up, lots of extra treats seem to find their way into little hands, decorations, parties and preparation for the Great Exchange and the mystery of Christmas. While Christmas morning may bring about the exchange of gifts and the
revelation of mysteries unknown as packages are unwrapped, that is not the primary exchange or mystery that Christmas brings. The mystery is that God, the creator of the cosmos, becomes creature; divinity is exchanged for humanity as the transcendent becomes subject to the conditions of the world.
In that mysterious exchange, God has become vulnerable; the One human beings rely on is now reliant upon human beings for care. The baby Jesus is reliant upon Mary and Joseph to feed, shelter, clothe, and love him. He is reliant upon their awareness of events around them so that they can protect him when danger comes and they must flee to Egypt. We are given the amazing gift, the wonderful responsibility of caring for God! We still have the amazing gift, the wonderful responsibility of caring for God. The mystery of Christmas is both a new thing, and a reminder.
Incarnation is about Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us in one place and time. It is also a reminder that God is always present in the world. That same baby in a manger will grow up to say, “As you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to me!” Our continued care for God is wrapped up in our continued care for one another as well as our care for the stranger, the foreigner, the homeless, the hungry, the one in prison, and the sick.
So, celebrate this Christmas! Be excited! Let your exuberance get the better of you, for we do have so much to celebrate. God is with us, incarnate in our world living among us, restoring us, calling to us, loving us and being loved by us. Have a joyous Christmas! And may God move among you in surprising and revealing ways.
Shalom,
Pastor Owen
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