Christmas, December 25, 2007

      A cowboy walked into a bar, had a beer, walked back outside, and found his horse gone.  He walked back into the bar, fired his Colt 45 into the ceiling, and said, “Which one of you ornery curs stole my horse?”

     No one answered.

     “All right, I’m gonna have one more beer and if my horse ain’t tied up outside right where I left him by the time I’m finished, I’m gonna do here what I dun in Texas.”  He drank another beer, walked outside, and his horse was back.  So he got on it and got ready to ride out of town.  The bartender followed him outside and asked, “Say partner, what happened in Texas?”

     The cowboy turned to him and said, “I had to walk home!”

     Concern about what happened in Texas brought the horse back.  Fear is a great motivator and fear of the unknown is right near the top of the things about which we are fearful, I suspect.  Light lessens fear; somewhat like knowledge lessens the fear of the unknown. 

     John uses what is called the Prologue to talk about light, darkness, witnessing, faith, law, and gospel.  Here we find the most brilliant theological statement about God’s desired relationship with the world and all of us creatures that dwell herein.  This beginning section of John’s telling of the Good News, written in the most beautiful Greek in the whole New Testament, does a number of things for us.  I want to mention three of those things.

     First of all, this gift from John provides a new way to see God.  We are given a new visibility.  John says that if we wish to see the Father we must look at the Son, for he had made known the Father.  Christ’s coming into the world moves God from being wholly transcendent and far removed from the human condition to being totally immersed, present in the everyday course of things.  This one whose birth we celebrate talked about his relationship with God and said that he and the Father were one.  He said to Philip, when Philip asked Jesus to show him the Father, “have I been with you this long, Philip, and you still do not know me?”  Anyone who has seen the Son has seen the Father.  That gift is made clear in this section of John’s Gospel.  The birth of this gift in the world allows us to see God.

     Secondly, this gift from John provides a new way for us to live.  We are given a new possibility.  Through faith, by God’s amazing grace, we have the possibility of becoming children of God.  And, as St. Paul said, if we are children of God we are also heirs of God and joint heir with Christ. 

     This gift, handed down in the faith of generation to generation provides the possibility of inheriting the Kingdom.  Now, try finding that in an after Christmas sale at the mall.  The cultural hype surrounds the question of whether this Christmas has been a commercial success.  I have not heard much mention about whether it has been a theological success.  God’s gift to us in the Word becoming flesh lifts not just our eyes but our hearts, dreams, goals, and priorities.  Life takes on new possibilities.  We have been given the opportunity to change our focus from being strictly earthbound to gazing at and living for heaven.

     Finally, this gift from John provides a new power for living.  John says we have received grace upon grace.  This gift provides superabundant grace to help us meet every need we may ever have.  I cannot imagine facing the randomness of life without the grace of God.  This post-9/11 world almost demands a grace-filled approach to living.  That was what the angel reminded the shepherds about.  “Don’t be afraid.”  Another way to say it is that we need never be fearful again.  Not in the ultimate sense, anyway.  We know who God is and we know whose world this is.  As Archbishop Tutu said, “We have read the book and we know who wins.”  God wins!  We know that ultimately love conquers all and love alone endures.  This gift is pure love and lives beyond the grave; beyond his borrowed tomb and our own final resting place.

     Christmas is about gift-giving and gift-receiving.  We seemed to be more comfortable giving to others than we do receiving.  But, in this instance, we have been given the greatest gift ever given and we can only receive it with profound thanksgiving.  In receiving this gift we are reminded that we have gifts to give.  Since God has given us a new way to see, and new visibility to see the things before us, and a new way to live, a new possibility, and a new power for that living, we are to reach out to others.  It remains one of the most amazing paradoxes in history that this gift grows the more we are willing to give it away.

     So, no doubt some gifts have to be returned during the days after Christmas Day.  Some are the wrong shade, some are the wrong size, and some may have arrived broken.  But the gift of God in the Incarnation comes in all shades, and fits all sizes, and will not be broken for some time.  Even then the breaking is done out of love.

     Only the foolish will turn down such a unique gift.  Some are foolish because they see this gift as some to be realized in the future.  Some are foolish because they see this gift as a relic from the past. 

      If we will linger around the manger long enough we will see that God is present in that straw, that in the squirming flesh of a new born babe a bridge has been built over which we may walk back to the Father, and that a Light has been lit that darkness cannot comprehend.  The truly wise will hold this baby long enough to see just how personal this gift really is and how perfectly fear has been cast out.  Amen.              

        ~The Rev. G. Thomas Mustard