I’m reminded of an ancient Chinese saying, “If you can see someone who doesn’t perspire, however hot it is; if he doesn’t cast a shadow, however bright the sun; if when you look closely, and you see the soles of his feet just fail to touch the ground – then look out – it might be a god come down to earth.” But because of Christmas we know that our God is not like that! We know that our God is well and truly tangled up in our lives. Our private concerns as individuals; in political and world affairs; in the story of a nation and its royal family, but above all in one particular person. We know that our God has never wriggled out of his involvement in our human story – in spite of countless disappointments. For one dark night a child was born. And his name was Jesus. In Jesus, God was and remains well and truly tangled up in our human story – in the politics of censuses, taxes and the running of an empire; God involved in the politics of revolution, revolt and national pride; in the everyday stories of comings and goings, loving and hating, noticing and ignoring, of dying and living. Above all, in Jesus, God was and is well and truly tangled up in our ordinary human experiences. He was involved in conception, and birth and childhood, in the rough and tumble of temporary lodgings, the squalor and smell of a stable; in the ordinariness of the shepherds and the extraordinariness of the magi, and in the delight and worship of Mary and Joseph. Then in the plight of refugees as they took flight into Egypt. The wonderful gospel truth of Christmas is that the hopes and fears of all the years are met in Jesus this Christmas night and every night.
If we allow ourselves to come to the stable we will meet the One in whom our hopes and fears are well and truly met. In Jesus we will find the God who truly perspires, who casts a shadow, has His feet on the ground – God well and truly tangled up among us in our history and in our human lives. We find God in Jesus whose name is Emmanuel – GOD WITH US.
I pray that you will all have a happy and blessed Christmas.
God bless you all.
+ Glyn