And the Word Became Flesh

Christmas Day

John 1: 1 – 18      “And the Word became flesh.”

The power Jesus brought with him on that first Christmas night is the most unusual, and the uniqueness of that power is dramatized by the singular way Jesus came into the world.

 

Jesus came into the world as the son of a carpenter and a humble handmaid. He came into the world like you and me: naked, helpless. Jesus knew hunger. He knew thirst. He knew pain. Jesus experienced ridicule. He experienced rejection. He even experienced the worst death anyone could experience – crucifixion! When Jesus arrived in the world, he was greeted by lowly shepherds. When the time for his ministry came, he identified himself with the poor, with the suffering, with the powerless.

And this life of Jesus brings us to the extraordinary power that Jesus brought with him into the world. This power is contained in a two-fold reality: 1) God loves each one of us and because of God’s great love for us, He sent his only Son. 2) This loving God of heaven and earth is the Father of us all; because of this, we are all brothers and sisters! This two-fold truth is God’s Christmas gift to each one of us. What we do with this amazing reality is both our gift to God and the challenge of Christmas to each one of us beautifully summarized by an unknown poet:

“When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes had gone home, when the shepherds are back with their flocks, then the challenge of Christmas to each one of us begins – to find the lost, to heal the broken-hearted, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace among brothers and sisters, and to make music with the heart.”

            LOVING FATHER, AS THE LIGHT OF THE CHRISTMAS MORNING DAWNS UPON THE EARTH AND THE GLORY OF THE LORD SHINES UPON US, WE NOW EXPRESS OUR PROFOUND AND UNENDING GRATITUDE FOR THE GIFT OF YOUR SON. THIS GRATITUDE IS OUR RESPONSE THROUGH JESUS YOUR SON OUR LORD. AMEN