Christmas: Three Thoughts

The wait is over, the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus is here.  Let me share three thoughts.

 For us, it means much, much more than the birth of a male child to a poor unwed Palestinian mother.  For is it is nothing less than the conviction that the God who preceded and created the Big Bang, birthing billions of galaxies containing trillions of stars, invaded the time-space continuum he created in order to bring us the salvation we need, salvation from being any less than all we can be, salvation from living anything less than abundant life.  In Jesus, we see the "human face" of God. We see how God loves, how God serves, how God cares, how God suffers with humanity.

Second, the story of the annunciation to shepherds is also very important.  In the culture of the first century, shepherds were accounted about one rung above rubbish.   Yet, Jesus is revealed, not to the wealthy, the powerful, the politically-connected, but to the most marginal of outcasts.  That story reminds us that everyone matters to God -- everyone of God's children -- and especially those who suffer privation, discrimination, and oppression.  He is the Deity who loves the least, the last, and the lost.  And so must we who are his emissaries to the world in our time and place.  As  Mother Teresa said, "God sent his Son, so his Son can send us."

Finally, the God seen as given to covenants, and eternally faithful to all of them, creates in Christ a new covenant open to all of humanity without exception.  That is great good news for us gentiles!  This child is born to deliver his message of a new kind of life for us, centred in the transformative power of radical, unconditional love, and the non-judgmental forgiveness and reconciliation that it demands.  As God's love and care extend to all, so must ours, in a spirit of gratitude and real joy,

I can think of no better illustration than this poem from the outstanding African-American thologian, teacher, and civil rights advocate, Harold Thurman: 

When the song of the angels is stilled,
When the star in the sky is gone,
When the kings and princes are home,
When the shepherds are back in their flock,
The work of Christmas begins:
     to find the lost
     to heal the broken
     to feed the hungry
     to release the prisoner
     to rebuild the nation
     to bring peace among people
     to make music in the heart.

 
Happy Christmas!