December 24 & 25, 2022

Well, we preachers get quite nervous when it comes to writing Christmas sermons – we want it to be super special because of the awesomeness of the day. So, in my nervousness what did I do while the blank page on the screen stared at me in quiet expectation? Why, I scrolled to my Amazon phone app and typed in snow shovels, of course. And now a shiny red wide plastic shovel should reach me by January 13th. I figured it was time to surrender to the inevitable and do an upgrade from my tiny car-trunk sized shovel which is all I brought when I first moved to west coast BC in 2009.

Oh, joyous day when Jesus, the Word or Logos or Wisdom of Creator God -- became flesh and came to live in our world as a vulnerable human being. That’s what we celebrate today – the Incarnation – God the Creator taking on human flesh to dwell amongst us – both for God to experience being human, and for Jesus to show us what God is like. In 2021 a new First Nations version of the New Testament was published, and here’s part of how they define ‘The Word’ or Logos that we heard about in today’s gospel: “It was understood as the means by which Creator revealed himself to the world. It was also understood as the unseen power that held the universe together. The Jewish people understood that there was a wisdom persona that came from the Great Spirit and created all things (Proverbs 8: 22-23).” (p. 482 https://a.co/d/eNMknNr). This beautiful definition of ‘The Word’ brings its depth and beauty to life.

Last week on Dec 18th and 19th the daily Richard Rohr meditations were about the First Incarnation and the Second Incarnation. I thought there was only one Incarnation for us as Christians, but Rohr pointed out that the First Incarnation was Creation itself. Rohr is a Franciscan, and he views Incarnation as beginning first with the birth of the cosmos, long before the birth of Jesus. Rohr suggests that the first Incarnation was the moment in Genesis 1 when God joined in unity with the physical universe and became the light inside everything. Through the act of creation, the Divine Presence flowed into the physical and material world. Citing Romans 8 (19-25) he writes that “Ordinary matter is the hiding place for Spirit, and thus the very Body of God.”

Then the second Incarnation, Rohr says, flows from the first. Jesus experienced the full human journey, both joys and sorrows, so we are connected to that amazing phenomenon – a God who is both fully human and fully Divine. This is why today’s gospel from the first chapter of John’s gospel is also called the Christmas gospel. Matthew and Luke tell us the nativity story, while John’s typical gospel process is to tell us what it means. “He was in the beginning with God” John tells us, “All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” So, Jesus was part of the Creator since long before time, and Jesus was the Word, or Logos Holy Wisdom Spirit, since time immemorial. Right there we have the best biblical melding together of the Trinity and humanity.

Let’s look at our other readings today as well. I love the first line from our Isaiah 52 reading: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation …” May we soon hear announcements of greater peace in our world, as we rejoice in the birth of the Prince of Peace today. “For the Lord has comforted his people” says Isaiah. May all who are most in need feel this comfort through the ways in which people of compassion support and respond to their needs. “Break forth together into singing” God tells Isaiah, which is part of what we’re here to do every Sunday.

And our epistle from Hebrews tells us that Jesus is “the exact imprint of God’s very being”. Again, Jesus came to show us what God is like. Jesus is unique in being superior to angels, but also shares in some of their divine properties of helping humans respond to the challenges of our world. A few verses after today’s Hebrews reading, we’re reminded that “In the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands” (v 10) so again we see what Richard Rohr was trying to say – that Creation was probably the First Incarnation.

As we consider what we can take away from the gift of both the 1st and the 2nd Incarnation … let’s remember the name that the prophet Isaiah used for Jesus; and was also cited in Matthew’s gospel last week: Emmanuel – meaning … God with us. What would we do in our lives and in our world without the blessed assurance of God’s loving presence and action in our lives? Most or all of us have faced many challenges in life – and what a gift and blessing it is that we had God in our hearts at these times. God is with us in joys and sorrows. ‘God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in times of trouble’ as Psalm 46:1 tells us. As mentioned before, I’ve been a student and teacher of world religions, but no other religion has what we have – a God who with elegant and excruciating humility -- enters the human realm as a fragile and vulnerable human baby. He is made more vulnerable because of his parents’ poverty and other circumstances – so that his situation can be compared with today’s countless numbers of migrant families in totally insecure and precarious situations.

I know that we continue to work, donate and pray for the alleviation of so much of this kind of suffering in the world. Meanwhile on this Holy Day of Christmas, let us also rejoice in the gift of God’s blessings and angels that so often come to our assistance – and help us to see the beauty and even humour of life at many points in our experience. May our Creator God and Jesus/Emmanuel God-with-us and Holy Spirit Wisdom and Sanctifier be precious gifts for us today – gifts that last throughout the year, until we celebrate again the immense hope, grace and joy that infuse our lives as followers and disciples of the Prince of Peace. As we commemorate his birth today, we also rejoice at his ongoing presence to us in many grace-filled & surprising ways, Amen.