Christmas Day 2006

December 25, 2006
The Ven Richard I Cluett
Isaiah 52:7-10 + Hebrews 1:1-12 + John 1:1-14

In the name of God, Immanuel. Merry Christmas.

Immanuel. God with us. Thanks be to God, that is what we celebrate this day. At the darkest time of the year, at a time of darkness in the world and for our own country, at a period of darkness in the lives of too many people, we pause to remember, we pause to celebrate that God is with us. One of the names for God is Immanuel.

There was an eon – an age – when God was thought of in another way. God was believed to be kind of a Deus ex Machina. That is a dramatic term for a play’s plot twists and improbable endings. A god who acts, willy-nilly, in improbable ways. A capricious god. A god removed from his creation and the lives of his people. An absentee god. An uncaring god. A god at whose mercy is all of creation. An unfeeling god. A god who was not a caring father. A god who was not a loving mother.

God was believed to be complete, omni-sufficient, no needs of any kind, omni-everything. It was thought that if God has needs, if God has feelings, if God is not “the un-moved mover”, then God would be as vulnerable as any human being – and that is not good.

But if that is the nature of God, then why did God utter that Word, the Word, the word that creates… that creates everything? "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be…' And the Word became flesh and lived among us." (Genesis 1:1-3)

Our God, the God of Abraham and Sarah, the God of David, the God of Mary and Joseph, our God is a God who creates so that there will be an other to love, who seeks to be in relationship. A God who yearns that God’s love will be answered with a love of another. The beloved.

Stephen Bayne, a wise bishop and saint of this church believed in this God. He wrote: God put freedom into his created universe in order that the universe could respond to his love with an answering love of its own...He put into the created universe a principle of choice; and He paid a two-fold price for that. First, He limited his own freedom to have things his own way. Second, he committed himself to having to win out of freedom what he could easily have commanded as a right (– the right to be loved). Why did he do this? He did it because God is love and because love needs an answering love of its own.

The Beloved Apostle, John, wrote in a dark time from his refuge on Patmos long, long ago, Beloved, let us love one another because love is from God… God is love and those who abide in love abide in God and God abides in them.

The extent to which God will go to seek the beloved is what we celebrate today. Becoming flesh of the Virgin Mary. Coming in the vulnerable guise of a baby, named Jesus, completely at the mercy of others. Willing to live and die at the mercy of the powers of the world. It is because of the birth and life and death and resurrection of Jesus born of Mary in Bethlehem that we know the true name of God, Immanuel, God with us.

The highest and best of our humanity is when we are with one another, when we love one another, when we care for one another, when we respect the inherent dignity and worth of one another. This is the true image in which we have been created.

We are most like God when we love. We, too, are created for relationship.

So this morning, what answer do we make to this God who loves so much? What is my answer to God’s love of me? Where is God calling me to love, to care, to work, to bless, and to pray? What is the Word of Love God speaks? In whom will that Word be enfleshed today, embodied today, incarnated today?

God seeks an answering love to the love that comes in the birth of Jesus we celebrate this Christmas Day. What will we answer?

In the name of Immanuel, amen and Merry Christmas.