What Earthly Good is Jesus?

Christmas Eve is an evening when much (but not all) of our normal day-to-day activities pause as we anticipate the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem. Christmas Day is a great big celebrative time-out for most of us. But what difference does it make for our Mondays (post hoopla) when we read Luke 1: 26-38 and consider Mary and Joseph's story of giving birth in a stable (or cave) to Jesus?

1st, we can contemplate our reactions to the birth of any sweet baby.  New babies break our hearts open - usually filling us with loving feelings and thoughts.  When it's the Son of God breaking our hearts open, not only do we contemplate the world through our eyes of love; but we also often can now see the realities of the destruction we wreak on our planet and the destruction we wreak on each other through violence or abuse or broken relationships.  When our hearts are broken open, we can see more clearly - both the wonders and the woefulness of the world.

2nd, we realize that Baby Jesus is a real earthly person like each of us.  Jesus will experience childhood, adolescence, and adulthood as we do.  Jesus will experience hunger, anger, sadness, and happiness.  Jesus knows what it is like to be us, because Jesus is us in our humanness.  As a part of the trinitarian Godhead, Jesus can relate to us and our trials and tribulations as well as our triumphs.  Jesus knows us in an intimate way, unmatched by even our mother or spouse.

3rd, Jesus is God-come-to-earth.  After trying kings, judges, prophets, and all kinds of messengers, God decides to send Jesus to show us who God is.  Jesus walking/preaching/teaching/healing among us says, "Here I am.  This is what God looks like.  This is how much God loves us that God would send God's Son."  When we yearn to know God, Jesus says, "Look over here.  I Am...."

What earthly good is Jesus?  We celebrate the birth that changes the world.  The birth is the beginning of Jesus growing up and initiating God's kingdom on earth in a whole new way.  Jesus' birth matters because Jesus is one of us, living in this world in a particular time and place.  We too live in this world in a particular time and place, with specific needs and hungers haunting our lives and the lives of our community and beyond.  Because Jesus knows us so well and dwells among us, we live into the hope of the kingdom, both now and not yet, of which we can be a part beginning tomorrow and carrying us into our Mondays and beyond.
                                                                                 May your Christmas be filled with blessings,
                                                                                 Pastor Shelley