Rector's Rambling: Christmas

Rector's Rambling: December 2013

The passing of Thanksgiving and the coming of Advent calls us to prepare our hearts for the birth of Baby Jesus, who is the Christ, our King and our Lord. He is the agent of creation, and in him we live and move and have our being. He brings us salvation and peace with the Father, and offers us that transformation which puts away our guilt and shame. He fulfills the prophesies and makes it possible for us to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and to live with the very power of God as we seek to follow him in humility and obedience every day of our lives. Beneath the beauty of this holy season lies the foundational truth that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The truth of Christmas is an historical truth, not an allegory or a profound work of fiction. It is reality! “So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoso believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” There are those who would downplay the centrality of this truth, and what a sad thing it is that they replace the truth of God's deliverance with traditions of warmth and beauty and peaceful sentiments, for without the reality of the living Christ, all of our beautiful traditions are merely distractions and half truths which delude us into sentimentality and self-satisfaction.

In this wondrous season of the year, I pray from the bottom of my heart that we might embrace the reality that God the Only Begotten, the second person of the Holy and Glorious Trinity, did indeed come into the world physically and in fulfillment of the prophesies in order to accomplish the Father's will in this wonderful world he created to his own glory. Like the wise men before us, might we seek him who came to save us from the ravages of sin. Like Blessed Mary the God Bearer, might we offer ourselves unconditionally in the service of her Son. Like Blessed Joseph, might we commit ourselves to nurture and serve the Holy Child and his Mother, who is perhaps the embodiment of our common humanity. And like the shepherds, might we kneel in wonder before the mercies of God usward, for indeed his provision for all our needs is sure, and his love for us is everlasting. Through Christ our Saviour. AMEN.