Imagine, if you will, what the first Christmas must have been like for Mary and Joseph.
You have this recently married couple who are expecting a child - and they are forced by a foreign occupier, imperial Rome, to travel to another town that is 80 miles away (in a straight line). It would have taken them several days to get there.
And when they finally arrive in Bethlehem, there is nowhere for them to stay. Imagine the panic that must have hit them. Setting aside the knowledge they have that this child is Someone special, they had to accept the reality that He would be born homeless, in what was probably a cave.
The first Christmas was not an easy one. The Holy Family was ordered away from their home and forced to spend the night outside.
It was chaos.
And into this chaos came the Son of God.
He didn't come to Caesar Augustus in his palace in Rome. He didn't appear before King Herod or in the Temple in Jerusalem. He didn't show up in any way that we would expect.
He came into the world in a cave; to a humble couple who were far from home.
In the midst of that chaos, and probably fear, God appeared as a baby.
God who made the universe now had hands and feet.
He who made the sun, the moon, and the stars, now couldn't even walk.
God who invented air and designed our lungs took his first gasps of breath.
God who knows everything and everyone now had eyes that could barely see anything beyond a few inches away from Him.
It may be difficult for us to grasp how radical this is. We've probably all grown up seeing nativity scenes and hearing the story of that first Christmas. We've heard of Jesus.
But the truth of what we celebrate tonight should shake us. When that baby was born in a cave, the world was changed forever.
There in that manger is everything we've ever wanted. That baby is the answer. We all have a desire for fulfillment, for meaning, for peace - that baby is all those things. The thing our hearts are longing for is a person and he's given Himself to us as a child.
Why? So that we may come to love Him. To quote a line from Pope Benedict's Christmas homily, "God makes himself a child ... so that we may dare to love him."
What Jesus did so many years ago is the same thing he does now. He descends into our chaos, into our fear, and our busyness - and he offers Himself - His love, His mercy, and His friendship.
Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and the magi all had other, very real things with which to concern themselves. But rather than going along with the chaos and noise of the world, they knelt before an infant in a cave.
How do you and I respond to this gift?
We gather together here every year and hear the same stories. We light up trees and give gifts; but are we allowing Christmas, allowing Christ, to change our hearts?
Am I more loving this year? Am I making my relationship with God a real part of my life - more than just when I'm in this building? Once the tree is down and the presents are put away, is the coming of God into this world as a baby something that touches me every day?
Now is our chance. Jesus gives Himself to us again tonight in the Eucharist. Let's receive Him as he came to us - in quiet humility and love.
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