Saint James UCC of Hamburg, NY

Luke 1:39-45; John 1:1-18

Preached by Rev. Robert Matlack
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Perhaps no message is more powerful or more basic to the good news of Christ's birth than that God is love. God is love, and so we are loved. God is love, and so God gives us the gift of love, a gift which not only comes for us, but a gift which we are freed to share with others - a gift which grows and grows when we nurture it. God is love, and so "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us". With these words the gospel of John reminds us what Christmas is really all about.

The Word - God's love, became flesh and lived among us, in our very midst. That's an incredible thought - people found it so two thousand years ago. The shepherds were amazed and astonished. The people with whom they shared their experience wondered. Mary is left pondering all that has happened. The wise men were so in awe of this event that they undertook a long and difficult journey because they saw a star.

For all of these people, their experience of the birth of Christ was something that was beyond explanation - a mystery, a wonder, something that they could not rationally explain, but which moved them to worship God. They realized that something special, something unique had happened. God's love was present in their midst in a new and very special way, and it all began with the birth of a tiny baby.

God is love, and how appropriate it seems that God's love has been shown to us in the birth of a child. As I think back to the birth of my own children, I am reminded how much they have taught me about love over the years. I think back to when they were first born, and of course they required a great deal of care, as do all babies. They totally rearrange your life, and yet in the process a special bond of love develops. While babies can be very frustrating - particularly in the middle of the night - they really do seem to bring out something special in us. We care for them, and somehow that caring, that love, seems to nurture us in some very profound ways. Babies need a lot of holding and cuddling, and in the process of loving them we are loved too. Have you every noticed how much some people enjoy holding babies? The truth is that they are probably getting more out of the experience than the baby. In loving that child, they receive an abundance of love.

How appropriate then that God's love first comes to us in the form of a baby, for it reminds us that from God we receive more love than we give. We receive love that comes to us freely, joyously... Love which changes our lives.

Certainly that was true for Mary. The Announcement by the Angel Gabriel that she would become pregnant and bear a child changed all of the neatly arranged plans that Mary had for her life. Everything was different, and yet as she accepted this new direction she also experienced a very deep a profound joy in response to this priceless gift.

Mary went to visit her relative Elizabeth. who as you remember had been childless until she was well past the normal childbearing years. Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah had given up all hope of ever being blessed with a child, when suddenly an angel appeared to Zechariah in the temple and told him the wondrous news. Now Elizabeth is over 6 months pregnant with the child that we know as John the Baptist, and when Mary comes to visit her, Elizabeth speaks through the spirit to call her the most blessed of all women, and to share her joy at this wondrous blessing.

In spite of the many changes and challenges that this pregnancy brought, Mary knew herself to be blessed. This was indeed an incredible gift from God... a gift not just for Mary or for Mary and Joseph, but as our text from the gospel of John says so well, "Out of the fullness of his grace he has blessed us all, giving us one blessing after another." Jesus Christ is a blessing, a gift who has come to each and every one of us.

How do we experience that wonderful blessing this time of year? In the midst of the hecticness of our preparations, in the midst of our frantic concern to get done all of the things we think that we should be getting done, in the midst of our efforts to do things right, what is it that we are really celebrating? What is the message that we need to hear and to share? What is the meaning of Christmas that we seek to lift up in our lives and in our celebrations?

This weekend the malls have been crowded, the stores packed, and I expect that many of the shoppers feel something that is far from the real Christmas Spirit. They struggle with the frustration of trying to find a parking space, the impatience caused by long lines, crowded hallways, and trying to find the perfect gift amidst so many options, and in the case of some of the real popular items - amidst empty shelves. At the same time they worry if they can afford what they are buying, and perhaps if their job will be their next month or six months from now.

We're trying to give gifts as an expression of our love, and yet those gifts lose much of their meaning when the process of getting them moves us so far from the Spirit of Christmas. We give gifts to one another in response to the incredible gift that God has first given us. Without that as the context and reason our gifts become hollow and gaudy.

Advent is a time of preparation, a time of preparing to celebrate the birth of God's Son with all of it's mystery and magnificence. It's easy to become impatient, even for those of us who are adults. We want to move from the preparing to the celebrating. Yet the wisdom of the Advent Season is that we do need time to prepare, for when we don't take the time, we often lose track of what it is that Christmas is really all about, and we end up celebrating something far different than the birth of Jesus Christ.

Have we really experienced God's love and forgiveness this advent season? How have we sought to share that love with others? In what ways have our actions communicated the Spirit of Christmas?

I suspect that we can all squirm a little when we hear questions like these. There is a rhythm, a pace that our society seems to get caught up in this time of year, and unfortunately much of it has little to do with the true meaning of Christmas.

Yet, one of the amazing things about this gift of God's love is that it comes to imperfect people. God does not demand perfection of us before we receive the gift. The shepherds who came to celebrate Christ's birth were a pretty rough and uncouth lot. Look at Joseph, he was ready to end his betrothal to Mary when he discovered that she was pregnant. Even Mary, whom we tend to think of as so gentle and sweet, probably offered plenty of complaints about having to travel to Bethlehem when she was nine months pregnant, or about having to deliver her baby in a stable with the animals.

God's love comes to us as we are, and it is in our willingness to accept that love and to be changed by it that we are made whole. It is in our recognition that God lives in us, that we experience the call to live as God's children - to accept the wondrous, amazing love of God and to love both God and each other in return. It is in the opening of the real gifts of Christmas, the gifts that God gives us so freely, that we discover and begin to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.

Christmas is almost upon us, but I would like invite you to take the next two days to really prepare yourself to celebrate the birth of God's son. Let yourself take time to experience the wonder of God's love for you, and to explore the ways in which you can not only receive that love, but share it with someone else. For God's love is here in our midst. "The word has become flesh and dwelt among us", and it is in that message that we find the true meaning of Christmas.

Amen.