12/25/2014 – The Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) – mass during the day John 1:1-18

       I really love the Gospel readings that we have in our celebration of Christmas.  I remember my first year as a priest at St Richard as the associate pastor.  I was assigned to preside at a couple of masses on Christmas eve and at the morning mass on Christmas day. Father Mike O’Brien, the pastor, told me that I could use the readings of the midnight mass for the liturgy on Christmas morning if I wanted to.  The readings for the midnight mass are what we expect at Christmas, aren’t they: Mary and Joseph traveling from Nazareth to Bethlehem, Jesus being born in a humble manger, the angel announcing Christ’s birth to the shepherds watching their flock at night, and the heavenly hosts singing the Gloria in response to Christ’s birth.  But, I also really love the Gospel reading from the beginning of John that we hear this morning on the mass of Christmas day, and I always choose to preach on that reading during that mass.  John’s Gospel does not describe Christ’s birth with the details of those earthly circumstances that are told in Luke’s account, but rather John looks at Christ’s birth from a more poetic, transcendent perspective.  John’s Gospel has no Joseph or Mary, no angels singing, no shepherds, no manger. 

      In a very profound way, the Gospel of John exclaims: In the beginning was the Word of God.   Jesus is God’s Word embodied.  Jesus is God’s Word incarnate.  Jesus brings life and a relationship with God to all who believe in him. That sums up our Gospel reading in a nutshell from the beginning of John.

      Testimony is a big part of the Gospel today.  It is a big part of the Christmas story.  It is a big part of our story as disciples of Christ.  We heard a lot about John the Baptist during Advent, about how his birth story was intertwined with Jesus’ birth, about how he came to prepare a path for the Lord in his life and in his ministry.  John the Baptist came into the world not as the light itself, but rather to give testimony to the light, so that all might believe through that testimony.  The saints and Mary also guide us to the light of Christ through their example of faith and through their testimony.  St John of the Cross, a 16^th Carmelite priest from Spain, spoke to us during our Advent journey through his feast day that falls during the Advent season of preparation.   John of the Cross once said: Our endurance of the darkness prepares us for great light.  Through times of struggle and darkness and pain in our lives, we can grow closer to God and grow in our faith and grow in our ability to testify to others.  So, like John the Baptist, like the saints who have come before us, all of us as disciples of Christ are to be witness and to give testimony to his light.

        I remember when I was a missionary up in Canada, a Mennonite pastor with whom I was serving in the soup kitchen and food bank asked me how I saw the light of Christ in my life. She asked me to give a reflection on that question at the Christmas Eve mass at her church.  Wow, did that question cause me to ponder and reflect upon many things in my life.  Without the light of Christ leading me and guiding me and giving me strength, being a missionary would have been out of the question.  I definitely saw the light of Christ in my many missionary experiences, probably brighter than I had seen it before.   As followers of Christ, we all experience his light, and those experiences are varied and diverse.  We are called to testify to the way that light shines in our lives.

      The Gospel of John states that the “Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.  But why the Christ child? Why the birth of Christ into the world?  The Jewish people were awaiting a Messiah, a mighty military leader, a powerful political ruler.  Yet, instead they got a vulnerable little child born in a humble manger.  They got a Messiah, that received their Savior, but in a way very different from what they imagined. Through Christ’s ministry and his proclamation of God’s kingdom, he continued to break through their expectations about God and their faith.

        The birth of Christ is not an end. It is not the entire story.  God sent us his Son out of his love for us.  And that love calls out to us.  Christ came to our world as that little baby as one of us to make us part of the story.  So that we could continue his story.

        The last statement in today’s Gospel states that Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, who is at his Father’s side, has revealed his Father to us. The incarnation is all about revelation. We are to take what has been revealed to us, what continues to be revealed to us.  We testify to that revelation.  And we continue our journey as children of the light.