Christmas 2005 Year B. Our Lady of Grace 4PM, Midnight, 9:30AM.  Isaiah 9: 1-6.  Titus 2: 11-14.  Luke 2: 1-20.

After finishing the work of creating all the galaxies of the universe, God very carefully formed our sun, our moon and the earth on which we live. God filled our earth with a vast array of fish in the oceans and countless kinds of plants, birds and animals on the land.   God’s creation was very good and very beautiful. It was awesome to behold. When all was ready, God created our human family.  God very carefully created Adam and Eve in his own image. They were to be like God.  That means that Adam and Eve could think and chose and share in the work of creating and caring for the world.  As we picture God’s delight in all of creation as it is presented to us in the Book of Genesis, we can almost see God showing Adam and Eve around the Garden of Eden, in much the same way that a mother and father lead their children to the Christmas tree and show them all the presents, waiting as each child opens his or her gifts and ooos and awes in delight.  All was going well – just as God had planned, until Adam and Eve forgot about God, misused their wonderful gifts and made a mess out of the beautiful garden.  What would your parents have done, or what would you who are parents do, if you left your children at home alone for a while and returned to find out that they had gotten into fooling around and in the process they had tipped over the Christmas tree and made a mess of the living room?  What would your parents do if they realized that you didn’t care about the house or about them, but only about yourself?

The Bible tells us that God put our human family out of the Garden of Eden – and forbid us from going into the living room again until we learned to act better.  But God could never stay angry with us.  God made us.  God loves us.  And God knows that without God’s help we would never find our way back to our true home in the garden with God.  But what should God do to help us?   What would be the best way to help us live at peace with one another, in harmony with our world, and in union with God?

Would the best way to straighten us out be sending an army of angels to shape us up by force?   God could just force us be good.   Or perhaps God could send a dictator King to punish us the moment we step over the line again?   If we are afraid of punishment we will not do anything wrong.  Or even better, God could give us stricter laws and rules to keep us from getting into trouble? Then all we would have to do is keep the rules.  Or, God could give us great teachers and good books to straighten out our minds.   These are some of the things parents try or even do in desperation – and some of these things may help for a while.  None of these are the best way to straighten out our lives.  None of these are the primary way that God deals with us.

When God wanted to help us to live good lives and to live together in peace and love he sent a little child.  God’s solution to the problem of the disobedience, violence and confusion of the human race is made very clear by the birth of the Baby of Bethlehem.  God wants only one thing from us.  God wants our hearts.  If we open our hearts to God, God will also find a way into our minds, into our lust for power, and into our craving for pleasure.  The way to save the human race is through the heart of each one of us.  God sends us a little child to us to win our hearts.  And if that isn’t enough, God sends us a generous and loving man nailed to a Cross, again, to appeal to our hearts.   God could use power against us.  God could inflict great punishment upon us.  God could issue endless laws and decrees to control us or to appeal to our minds.   But having made us, God knows us well.  God knows that the only way to save and transform us is by winning our hearts. The appearance of the Messiah in our midst as a little child was a great surprise.  It was shocking to see the Messiah stretching out his arms to the whole world from the Cross. But God knows best. God sends us the gospel sign of a child wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger to appeal to our hearts.  “Yes, God so loved the world that he gave us his own Son, not to condemn the world, but so that the world might be saved through him.”  (John 3/16)

The Child of Bethlehem is the message.  This long awaited and unexpected Child of Bethlehem turns our hearts to one another and to God.  All of this happens because this child was born.

A ray of hope flickers in the sky,

A tiny star lights up way up high,

All across the land dawns a brand new morn,

This comes to pass when this child is born.

SPOKEN:  And so God sent the Holy Child of Bethlehem

as a messenger of reconciliation and peace.

God gave us this Child

to open the hearts of people of every race and nation,

the rich and the poor, sinners and saints. 

May the peaceful smile of this Child and every child

fill us with a new desire for God’s world of justice and peace.

All of this will come to be because this Child is born.

A rosy hue settle all around,

You got the feel; you’re on solid ground,

For a spell or two no one seems forlorn,

This comes to pass, because this child was born.

It’s not a dream, not an illusion now,

It must come true sometime soon somehow,

All across the land dawns a brand new morn,

This comes to pass because this child was born.

The Child is the message.  May we open our hearts to the God who comes to us as a little child.  May the love of God for the whole human race fill our hearts this day.   Merry Christmas!