Yesterday there was a cast of thousands! There was Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus, angels, stars, donkeys, sheep, shepherds…we had people everywhere. The chancel was full to overflowing.
It is such a great story to tell…the little couple traveling far from home…the baby born in a cattle stall, lying in a manger…shepherds in the fields…angels in the sky…such an easy story. Even little kids get it.
But today! Today’s story is very different. The only easily recognizable player is a man named John, whose job it is to give witness to the Light. The other characters in the drama are God, the Light, and the Word. It is pure mystery, but mystery on a cosmic scale. This is the Star Wars version of the birth at Bethlehem. This story is huge. It cannot be contained in our chancel, or indeed in any building made by human hands. Today’s story began before there was a beginning, and it will never come to an end.
Today we have, not a baby, but a Word. The baby we held last night was tender, vulnerable and helpless. Today’s Word is strong, powerful, omniscient and omnipresent. The Word was and is and will be forever. The baby will grow up and die. The Word overcomes death with life, which is the light of all peoples. The Word spoke and chaos became heaven and earth. The Word spoke and the Red Sea parted, offering freedom to God’s people. The Word was uttered and Mary had a baby. The Word cracked through the air like lightning, and the rock sealing the tomb was rolled away. Today mystery is before us, full of grace and truth.
The Word is everything the baby is not: powerful – not weak, assertive – not dependent, commanding – not demanding. Yet both the Word and the baby are God.
We have no choice but to try to speak of God in our own words, but our words can never contain the mystery. The gospel of John says that we speak of God by giving testimony – that is we speak through the experience of our own lives. In other words, we are all witnesses. Our attempts to talk about God are a process, a growth of comprehension, rather than a product of faith. We do not get understanding and then speak. We speak in order to gain understanding. And because my experience of God is singular, we must always be listening to the words of faith spoken by those around us. The mystery is far greater than any one person can grasp or contain.
Last night’s story was easily represented. In fact, it shows up everywhere: on the lawn of Greensboro college; under the family Christmas tree, or perhaps on a table or mantel. Today’s story can only be made tangible in the things that Jesus gave us: water, for baptism; bread and wine, for communion. When we see representations of last night’s story, we are given to words: isn’t it beautiful? Look how sweet the baby is.
But the sacraments of holy baptism and holy eucharist bring forth a great silence. When we are in the presence of the Word, our own words become pale and useless.
But again – it is all God.
God has chosen to be with us, and that revelation comes in many ways because God is beyond our understanding. Each experience of God – the baby, the bread, the wine, the suffering of the cross, the empty tomb – each experience connects us, opens us, and draws us closer – closer to one another, and closer to the heart of God.
The glory of this mystery is its eternal presence. The Christmas holidays will soon be ended. We will go back to work, to school, to the everydayness of our lives. But the mystery of God-with-us – the mystery of God present in our lives will not be ended. God will not go away. Perhaps – out of all the many meanings of Christmas – this is the most important. Many years ago, God chose to come be with us – to wear our flesh, to experience the joy and sorrow of human life. God came – and God has remained. “To all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”
Thirteenth century mystic Meister Eckhart said that Christmas is something that happens within us. Christ is born – not only in a manger in Bethlehem, but in our present day in us. The union of God’s spirit and our own flesh makes this miracle happen every day – every time that we are willing, every time that we receive him. For this amazing Christmas gift, we can only say: Thanks be to God.