Homily For Christmas Day

We prayed a few moments ago, ALMIGHTY God, who hast given us thy only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

God sent his Son into the world in humility, in lowliness, to take our nature upon him. Becoming human, being joined with our humanity through the blessed Virgin Mary.   We therefore pray for the renewal of the Holy Spirit day by day because of our union with Christ through being regenerate - that is born again unto new life in Christ and united with him by becoming God’s children “by adoption and grace.”  

It is this adoption and grace that I want us to focus on this Christmas morning,  God’s Son became man and offered perfection in our humanity back to God for all the failings of our sin.  He offered obedience in our stead for our disobedience and sinfulness.  Today, is the celebration of this beginning of new life offered in Jesus Christ which culminated in the death, resurrection and ascension of our Lord. 

Our Gospel is the very beginning of St. John’s Gospel where he takes us back to the very beginning.  Not just to Bethlehem. Not just to the Garden of Eden. He goes back to the very beginning of time.  We read,  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.”   The Word existed from the very beginning.  The Word made all things and all creation depends upon him for “without him was not anything made that was made.”   Truly, in him was life.  The Word was the source of life and this life was the light of men.  He directs them into the way of truth, into the path of eternal life.  

Then, St. John gives us the story of John the Baptist, who was not the light, who was not the Messiah.  Rather, John the Baptist “came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.” John the witness, the forerunner of the Light.  The true light, that is able to bring sight and clarity to all who come into this world.    

St. John in our Gospel pivots back to the reality of the Word.  “He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”  The Word came into the world he created and the world could not discern his presence.  They knew him not.   

Indeed, he came to his own tribe, his own people, but they refused to believe.  Yet, the joy we celebrate this morning is the offer to all who will believe, who are eager to receive Christ.  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will or man, but of God.

Listen to that again.  But.. for those who received him, to as many as received him, to them Jesus gave the power to become the sons of God.  Receiving  here in St. John’s Gospel is an action of a person who “takes” that which is within reach as eager to make it their own.  They are anxious to have what is offered.  He gave power, not just the ability to do something; it is the authority, the right standing, given by the one with special status.   Christ offers unto us through belief in him the power to become truly the children of God.  

He purchases one the right standing, the privilege because He is the righteous son of God.  His status gives  us the right to call God Father.  The privilege of being in his family.  Even to them that believe on his name.  In the Greek, that is to believe into.  It is to believe into Jesus, which though it is awkward in English, means to be committed to Him. To entrust oneself to Him.  To his claim, his right as the son of God Incarnate.

St. John then talks about the nature of this adoption, this “becoming the children of God”. It is not of blood, it is not of the will of the flesh, not of the will, it is not of man.  More specifically, it is not because of a good bloodline that we become the children of God.  It isn’t because we have stronger wills that we are the children of God or that we have discovered some great spiritual technique that gives us the right to be God’s children, instead this birth comes from God. It belongs exclusively to Him.  

God accomplishes this for humanity in Jesus, who comes to us as an infant in Bethlehem, who was made flesh and dwelled among us.  God through Jesus brought his glory, the power of his presence, into this world and filled it with grace and truth.   We do so by believing and trusting in God’s sufficiency for us because of Christ’s work, death and resurrection.   This is indeed the Good News of Jesus Christ. The hope of acceptance before God, our renewal in our relationship with him and one another, being made God’s children by adoption and grace.

So, this Christmas morning, we celebrate with great joy the love of God toward man that moved him to send Jesus to us. To take our nature upon him and be born in humility.  The purpose of his coming was to bring about our salvation through our adoption.  For him to do for us all that we could not do for ourselves. 

To give us new birth, the second birth because of his faithfulness to God in his perfect life and his trust in God in his sacrificial death and resurrection.   All needful things have been done. There is nothing lacking in the salvation offered to us by Jesus Christ.  Now, we must receive him.  For in receiving him, we are given new life.  How do we receive him?  We do so by faith and repentance.  Faith, trust in Jesus to do for us what we can’t do, to give us hope and peace in the Father’s presence.   Faith is coupled with repentance whereby we turn from our self-will, our desire to be in control and instead submit to Jesus as our ruler and obey his will as known to us in the Bible.  Being engrafted into His church through baptism and strengthened through daily prayer and being fed week by week by Holy Communion and the word of God preached.   This is the path that Christ calls us to walk.   There is no better time to turn to Christ, to believe and trust in him, than this morning.  He came to save; he was born to bring about our redemption.  Let us draw near to him and faith and be transformed by His love.  Amen.