THE NATIVITY OF THE LORD (CHRISTMAS)
Flesh from Our Flesh
Two thousand years ago, in the immense and powerful Roman Empire, Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken. Somewhere in the border region of Palestine, a young, humble couple, Mary and Joseph, set out from the insignificant town of Nazareth and traveled to the town of Bethlehem in Judea. There was no room for them in the inn, and so Mary gave birth to a son and had to put him in a manger. An angel said to poor shepherds: “That child lying in the manger is the Savior born to you and to the world: He is Christ the Lord.” This same news is proclaimed to us: Your Savior is born to you. You are happy and you smile. But now you must proclaim in word and deed that Jesus is your Savior and Lord. Let your mercy and love proclaim him. Let your sense of justice and fairness proclaim him. Let your love and unity proclaim him. Let your concern for the poor and your welcome to the weak proclaim him. Then we can really sing with one voice tonight: “Glory to God in the highest and peace to the people he loves.”
First Reading: : Isaiah 52:7-10
How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all’s well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, “Your God reigns!”
Voices! Listen! Your scouts are shouting, thunderclap shouts,
shouting in joyful unison.
They see with their own eyes
God coming back to Zion.
Break into song! Boom it out, ruins of Jerusalem:
“God has comforted his people!
He’s redeemed Jerusalem!”
God has rolled up his sleeves.
All the nations can see his holy, muscled arm.
Everyone, from one end of the earth to the other,
sees him at work, doing his salvation work.
Second Reading: Hebews1:1-6
Going through a long line of prophets, God has been addressing our ancestors in different ways for centuries. Recently he spoke to us directly through his Son. By his Son, God created the world in the beginning, and it will all belong to the Son at the end. This Son perfectly mirrors God, and is stamped with God’s nature. He holds everything together by what he says—powerful words!
After he finished the sacrifice for sins, the Son took his honoured place high in the heavens right alongside God, far higher than any angel in rank and rule. Did God ever say to an angel, “You’re my Son; today I celebrate you” or “I’m his Father, he’s my Son”? When he presents his honoured Son to the world, he says, “All angels must worship him.”
Gospel: John 1:1-18
The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.
Everything was created through him;
nothing—not one thing!—
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn’t put it out.
There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.
The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.
The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighbourhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”
We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.
We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding—
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.
Prayer
Glory to you, God in the highest,
for bringing peace on earth to your people
and for letting your Son Jesus smile on us
from the arms of Mary, his mother.
Let him be our hope and our joy,
our forgiveness and our life.
Create us anew in the image of Jesus,
for then we become more like him,
you may recognize us in him
and our love can become deep and faithful.
Help us to give him to the world,
that all may become fresh and new again
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.