Christian Christmas is different
from secular Christmas. Christian Christmas begins, rather than concludes, on
the evening of December 24. It lasts twelve days, rather than twelve hours. It
celebrates the light of Christ in a world that remains in most ways exceedingly
shadowy. It seeks to discover the gift that is God made flesh, rather than
being disappointed that nobody came through with the perfect gift we dropped so
many hints about. Christian Christmas is the beginning of joy, not the end of
it.
. . . Every year Christmas Eve is
about shepherds and angels and the stable. Christmas Day is about the
enfleshment, the incarnation, of the Word. –– Paul Bieber
John 1:1-14
On the day that we celebrate the
birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. . . John's beginning of the story of Jesus does not begin
with his birth in Bethlehem, but begins before the creation of the earth. Jesus
existed with God and as God before the world was called into being, and nothing
was created without him. Therefore, verse 14 reveals the scandal of the story
of Jesus: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us [literally tented or
tabernacled with us], and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's
only son, full of grace and truth.” What transcendent, eternal, creator God
would become flesh and live among the creation? But it is clear that in this
confession, the later church's doctrine that Christ is fully human and fully
divine is already implicit here in John's writing. –– Carrie Lewis
Isaiah 52:7-10
This Old Testament reading. . . links
together joy and salvation. . . with the imagery of a king returning with
triumph over his enemies. The feet of the messenger represent not only the
messenger and the. . . good news that the messenger brings. . . but they also
represent the long, hard journey that the messenger and the king have taken
over the mountain. . .
In the final verse. . . is the promise
that not only will this return of God be felt among God's people, but God's
holy arm will be seen by all nations and the ends of the earth will know the
salvation of God. Although this has a feeling of universality to it (“all the
nations” and “all the ends of the earth”), the prophet is probably not
extending God's salvation in a universal fashion here, but is letting God's
people know that all of the world will see the salvation of God's people. It is
not until Third Isaiah (60) that the light is for all nations. –– Carrie Lewis
Hebrews 1:1-4 [5-12]
The poetic opening is used in many
traditions as the response to the word within the service of Morning Prayer
(Matins). “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors, but in these last days he has
spoken to us by a Son. . .” These words link the revelation of God through
Jesus to the revelation of God through the prophets of the Old Testament—it
places Christ into the history of Israel. –– Carrie Lewis
Carrie L.
Lewis La Plante is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Indianola,
Iowa.
Paul Bieber is pastor of All Saints Lutheran Church, San Diego, California.
Homily Service 39, no. 1 (2005): 61-71.
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