I’m all over that, for I do BELIEVE and I consider the incarnation---God taking on flesh and bones to live among us—to be a magical and glorious thing. Likewise, I find Santa, his sleigh, those reindeer and the elves to be pretty magical and glorious as well.
Lately, there’s been a lot of chatter on social media about putting the “Christ back in Christmas,” about focusing less on Santa and his sleigh and more on Christ and his crib.
Well you know what? I don’t think these two images are mutually exclusive. I think these stories can peacefully co-exist because they’re both wonderful tales of love and mystery…all we have to do is believe.
Believing is a wonderful thing.
But it’s also where we get into trouble. You see there are an awful lot of people who spend a whole lot of time trying to tease the “facts” out of the Christmas story. There are people who vehemently deny the notion of a virgin birth, there are others who take great glee is noting that there is no historical evidence that there was a census in Judea in the early part of the first century, while still others like to point out that this birth happened in August not December, in Nazareth and not Bethlehem.
Whatever.
You see the Christmas stories—the one with Jesus and the one with Santa—aren’t about fact, they’re about truth.
And the truth of the matter is, I believe.
I believe that Jesus is God in the flesh, born of a peasant girl and her betrothed, Joseph.
I believe that this was an extraordinary birth in otherwise ordinary circumstances.
I believe that God chose to come among us in this way because God didn’t want to make a big splash.
I believe God wanted to come to us in a whisper not a shout.
I believe God wanted to ease into living among us, in the flesh of Jesus.
And I believe we needed to be eased into having God among us, in the flesh.
I believe this was not something to be entered into unadvisedly or lightly. I believe this needed to be entered into cautiously and with restraint.
I believe that God came to live among us, because I believe God really wanted to know just what it was like to be human.
I believe that God wanted to know creation not only from the top down, but from the bottom up.
So God came to us the same way we all come, through the very natural, very messy, at times very complicated and very risky process of pregnancy and then birth.
You see, Jesus being born to two ordinary people in a somewhat extraordinary circumstance is exactly how the Messiah, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God in the flesh needed to come to us. Because the sacred and the miraculous isn’t only in the gold and shiny, the neat and tidy and the all put together.
It’s in the mess and muss of birth.
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only the glorious sunsets, it’s also the rain storms.
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only the fabulous arias, it’s also the tinny tune of a tone deaf child
The sacred and the miraculous isn’t only on Christmas and Easter.
The sacred and the miraculous is every single day.
The sacred and the miraculous is all that God has created, because all that God creates is beautiful, stunning and miraculous…even when it’s messy.
All that God creates is priceless
All that God creates is holy
And all that God creates is wonderful.
This is the wonder and the glory of this holy and blessed night: that God came to be among us in the skin and bones of humanity, in the dirt and dust of the wilderness, in the baying, baa-ing, mooing and clucking of the donkeys, sheep, cows and chickens of that barn. That God came to be in the hearts and minds and souls of each and every one of us gathered here on this silent night.
I believe that God as Jesus Christ was born to Mary and Joseph and that this birth was revealed with a great heavenly host to shepherd’s tending their flock in a nearby field because God is in the ordinary and the mundane, as well as the extraordinary and the magnificent.
I believe that Jesus is born to Mary and Joseph each and every year so that maybe, just maybe, a few more people will come to believe that God loves us—US—so much that God just can’t stay away.
I believe in the miracle of Christmas, because I believe in the never-ending, all encompassing love of God, a God who needed, absolutely positively needed to be with us, skin and bones, dirt and dust, baying and mooing and baaing.
I believe in the absolute truth of this Holy Night: that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, come to earth through us and for us.
And that, my friends is one fantastic Christmas gift.
Now all we have to do is return the favor and give God the only gift God desires, the only thing God wants: us. So on this most beautiful of Christmas nights I encourage you, I implore you, yes I am not above begging you to take a lesson from God and do everything in your power to accept God into your hearts and your minds and your souls this night and forevermore. Because when you do that, when you welcome God into your life, you will, Believe. And that, believing, is, by far, the greatest gift of all.
So, go, tell and believe: Jesus Christ is here, Alleluia and Amen.
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