Once upon a time, in a night just like this, promise and fulfilment met.
Long, long ago, on Christmas night, Jesus, the Newly Born King arrived into this world, not to receive gifts, but to offer Creation the most pure gift of love and grace.
Indeed, Jesus is His own gift to the world.
As the prophet Isaiah tells us, “Unto us a Son is given,” a Son who came full of grace, super-abundant grace. Or as our Second Lesson tells us in the words of St Paul, “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all (….). For it was Jesus who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.”
And that, my friends, it is the best Christmas gift that you ever received – Ever!
As I told you at the beginning of Advent, grace was not reserved for a time or a season. Yes, God’s grace was manifested in Jesus Christ, but grace did not die on a Good Friday.
The miracle of grace was not reserved just for 34th Street but began in God’s heart long before the world came into being and will continue to reach out even after the end of time and space. Indeed, all the way down to us, gathered here in this old St. David’s, Aylett.
And you know what? Here it is an extra bit of Good News. Christmas was not happenstance. Christmas was God’s chosen way to gather for himself a people of his own. Yes, us, who were far away from God, now we have been brough into the family of God.
So, which such good news, it shouldn’t surprise us that heaven and earth sing the praises of God: “Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”
One year ago, (2023 Christmas Message) Bishop Sean Rowe, our new Presiding Bishop share some thoughts about Christmas and about the traditional nativity scenes which pop out “At home, at church, at Target and on Etsy —everywhere”.
But just consider the reality of the manger scene, asked Bp Rowe.
“The Son of God is being born in an appalling place. It is filthy and it smells, because stables do, and the animals are probably irritated and made noisy by the intrusion of so many people. Birthing babies is not neat, and it’s hard to imagine there are clean towels and hot water at the ready to clean up the mess. And just when things are starting to calm down, as the story goes, here come three strange men on camels”.
So, Bishop Rowe asked, “What God was thinking, coming to us like that. Frankly, it’s hard to imagine”, right?
Now, let me tell you this: Here is why – God was thinking of you.
And so, God sent Jesus, to be born from his Most Holy Mother, to arrive among us, indeed lo live among us, full of grace.
“Grace” not as “being gracious” but “grace” as in dealing with us not as undeserving sinners – for so we are – but to receive us back home and to embrace us with the unquenchable flame of His love.
For if the Christmas story tells us something is that God is not afraid to come into the mess of our lives. So, my friends, my brothers and sisters, here is another bit of the Good News.
While in the first dispensation – what we call the time before the arrival of Jesus – God chose to show Himself as the Most High, the Inaccessible, the One who could not be touched, and the One who nobody could see or even name.
But in Jesus God reveals Himself as the Servant who washed the feet of his disciples, the One who carried the sin-sick sheep on His shoulders, the One who had no qualms in being seen with the wrong crowd, and the One whom we call Jesus, and the Master and Teacher whom we can call “Brother”.
How do we know this is true and it is not just a childish story to tell on a cold winter night?
Because Jesus came filled with grace – and truth. So, my friends,
O come let us adore Him! O come let us adore Him!
O come let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!
Fr. Gustavo
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