Father Rick Bolte's Homily

A: The Nativity of the Lord: Christmas                          2007-12-25

The event we’ve been planning for for two months is here.  Remember, before Halloween the Christmas decorations went up in stores, music about Santa starts being heard everywhere, and toys are being advertised far more than usual.  You’ve made Christmas lists, planned parties and the family get-togethers, and bought and received gifts.  There are many things about the Christmas celebration that are good and enjoyable, but they’re not the main event.

Scripture tells us that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.  Fearing god doesn’t sound like our modern approach to religion but there is something essential here.  Our God should be feared in the sense of awesome respect.  Our God is the creator of the universe.  We are but a small speck on a planet, that itself is one of the smaller planets of the solar system, that is on the far edge of a galaxy that is measured in incomprehensible numbers like “billions of light years.”  And even our galaxy is merely one of billions separated from each other by distances that make numbers almost obsolete.  Our God existed before all this came to be and indeed caused it to exist.  Our God will be there when it all comes to an end.  Isaiah describes humanity as a maggot or worm in the presence of God.  It’s not that we are so worthless but that in the presence of such a powerful and overwhelming God, we just can’t imagine ourselves small enough.

Not only are we insignificant in the vastness of the universe, we are also sinners.  We fail to even use well what we have.  And today we celebrate that despite our insignificance and sinfulness, God chose to come among us.  And to keep us from grave panic, God comes to us as helpless baby in a not too prosperous a fashion.  Jesus is not just God in a human form, Jesus is fully human.  Jesus had to learn and made mistakes the same as any of us.  The only difference is that Jesus did not sin.  Through Jesus, God is revealing that it is good, at the core, to be human.  God is one of us completely.

Still further, Jesus does not opt to exclusively associate with the people who are “good and holy.”  In fact he says he has come to save the lost sheep and chooses to live and work among sinners.  Our great God does not even allow our sin to separate us from himself.

We celebrate Christmas with the Eucharist.  In the Eucharist, we receive the body of Christ.  When we receive the body of Christ, we eat it; our bodies and Christ’s become inseparable.  This is Jesus’ intention.  Yes, we have an awesome and powerful God.  But God comes to us even though we are sinners.  And despite our sin, he chooses to become one of us and to be united even physically with us in a way that can not be undone.  We celebrate the utterly, unimaginable love God has for us and we go forth as his presence in our world!