Story

The Christmas Story

Please enter into this story by reading and listening with an open heart.

A long, long time ago - perhaps 13 to 14 billion years ago, God began a new act of creation. Some say it began with a big bang, with space matter flying out at tremendous speeds. As we look out on a starry night, we can see what was in the mind of God - a vast and glorious universe with a hundred billions of galaxies, billions and billions of stars, planets, asteroids, and mysterious black holes. It is alive, still expanding, endlessly changing, pulsing with the creative energy of God.

As the primal matter cooled, planets were formed. Over four billion years ago, in the Milky Way galaxy a beautiful blue planet took shape with oceans, air to breathe, and dry land. It was warmed by a small star which came to be known as the sun, which gave it light during the day. The moon and the stars gave a softer light at night. This beautiful planet was called earth. The seas were full of life, while birds and animals roamed the earth. God looked at this creation and saw that it was good.

Yes, God saw that it was good. But there was something missing. Sure, it was beautiful, gorgeous, spectacular . But it was all pre-programmed by God. The earth and the heavens gave glory to God, but creation had to follow the laws of nature. It was all very predictable. What fun is there in that for God? What if there was a creature that would be completely free - and therefore unpredictable? What if there was a creature that could see beauty and write poetry? A creature that could think and learn? A creature that would even be made in the very image and likeness of God? A creature that would be completely free - free enough to even say no to God?

No, that would be too much, wouldn't it? It would be too big a risk. Such a creature would be unpredictable, impossible to control. Such a creature might ruin everything - even destroy the earth! Wreck God's creation - ruin God's dream for the universe. Not worth it. Too big a risk.

But not too big a risk for God. God created them male and female. In the divine image God created them. God told them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it." God created a race that He could have a conversation with. God could speak with them, and they could speak to God. Better yet, God could love them, and they could freely love God back. Think of it! There could be nothing better.

So God took the risk and God made them free. Even in a perfect universe, however, things can go wrong, especially when people are free to do their own thing. Cain killed Abel, people learned to lie, greed spread about, wars started here and there, people took advantage of one another and abused the poor. It was a sorry picture. People began to yearn for someone to save them, to show them the way out of all this tragedy. They cried out to God:

Hymn: Save Your People Oh Lord

What was God to do? Wash his hands of the whole thing and walk away? Scrap the whole creation and start over?

Lucky for us God is no quitter. God is compassionate, generous and kind. God considered the options and made a plan. It was to unfold gradually. It would start small and grow like a mustard seed or a loaf of bread rising.

Where to begin? God chose a small and humble people in the Middle East. God gradually began to reveal himself to them. He spoke to these chosen people through special leaders - Abraham, Moses, and various prophets who prepared the hearts of the people for someone to lift them up, to bring them healing and hope. In their imagination, the savior would be a human being - perhaps a great king like King David, or a great prophet, like Elijah, or a great priest, like the mysterious Melchizadek. But God's thoughts are bigger than ours. God's plan would astound and astonish even the greatest dreamer. God would actually come to earth and become a human being!

To do that, God would need a way to enter the human race. God would need to find a woman - the right woman, the perfect woman - who would be willing to give birth to the Son of God. Her name was Mary. She was the daughter of Joachim and Ann. She was engaged to a man named Joseph and probably was about 16 years old. St. Luke tells us the story:

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

"But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.

This news came as a shock to Joseph. St. Matthew tells how much of a jolt it was for him:

And this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

During the nine months Mary was pregnant, she went to visit her elderly cousin Elizabeth, who also was miraculously pregnant in her old age. She was to give birth to John the Baptist. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then returned home to await the birth of her own son.

Who knows the thoughts she pondered as she waited?

Hymn: Mary's Song

At last the day for his birth was drawing near. But there's always a glitch, even in the best of plans. The emperor ordered a census and Mary and Joseph had to travel to Bethlehem, to the city of King David. A hard trip under the best of circumstances, but extra hard for a woman in the late stages of pregnancy. St. Matthew tells us of their hardships:

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that the whole world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria.

So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Messiah and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."

Hymn: Holy Night

This story is so great, so much beyond our understanding, we continue to tell it every year. Imagine! God becoming a human being. We call it the Incarnation - a word that means "to take on flesh and blood." St. John tells it this way:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.

He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.

But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God.

And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling place among us.

We believe that Jesus came into this world to show us how to get out of the mess that sin had caused in the world - to save us and help us to rise above the sin of the world. However, some theologians believe that God loves us so much that He would have come into this world even if we had never sinned. You always want to be close to the ones you love, and God so loved the world that he sent his only Son, to live with us and be one of us.

The Incarnation is one of our favorite stories. Everybody love a baby after all, and we continue to try to grasp the meaning of God coming into this world as a helpless infant - as one of us - the greatest gift that God could ever give us. Each year we try to appreciate the story even more and understand it a little better. But that's not the end of the story of the Incarnation.

The story continues with us, because today God's Spirit comes to dwell within you and me. Today, in the year 2003, we give God the gift of our flesh and blood. We become the face of God. We become the hands of God in this world. Through our baptism, we become the Body of Christ on earth today! It's almost too good to believe. God gives us the gift of Jesus, and we give God the gift of ourselves in return, so that the love of God can continue to be born into this world as flesh and blood today, tomorrow and until God's Kingdom is complete.

This is the story of our faith. How God takes on flesh and blood in our world Don't let it die. Tell it to your children, and to your grandchildren, and to your great-grandchildren. Tell it every year. And live it every day!

For the Incarnation - for the first Christmas, and how it continues today, let us praise God in song:

Hymn: Beautiful Savior