Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
and merry Christmas!
This morning, like the shepherds who were visited
by the angel of the Lord we too have heard the proclamation of the birth of the
Christ Child in song and Word, and we are witnesses to the birth of
Jesus.
And while they were terrified at first and wondered
what it could mean, their fear quickly turned to wonder, curiosity and awe.
So, together, we can wonder, what child is this?
Born of the Holy Spirit, to a young mother and her
husband,
in a place far from their home,
without warmth or comfort.
Instead of an imperial monarch wielding sovereign
will and power, Jesus comes into the world as a vulnerable baby,
wrapped in bands of cloth, not ermine or mink,
and laying in a manger on a bed of straw.
Through Jesus,
God makes the Good News of God’s love known to us.
God’s only Son comes into the world, as John says,
not to condemn but to save. To save us from our sin and from ourselves, from
our pride and our self-centeredness, or what Martin Luther described as “being
curved in on ourselves.”
With the birth of Jesus, we wonder anew at what God
has done and is doing in the world, recognizing that God turns our expectations
upside down and offers us grace upon grace, out of the fullness of God’s love
for us.
In the prologue of John’s Gospel, the Evangelist
says, “the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.” (1:14)
On this Christmas morning, we are filled with the
goodness of God’s grace and truth and invited, like the shepherds, to return to
our vocations, to our families and to our communities, glorifying and praising
God for all we have heard and seen.
Let us pray.
Good and gracious God, thank you for your Son,
Christ Jesus, born as a Messiah and Savior for us all.
Send us out, glorifying and praising You for all
you have done.
By your Holy Spirit, make the good news known to us
and through us.
We pray in your Holy Name.
Amen.
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