Today is the first Sunday of Christmas, and we have all woken up,  haven’t we, with nothing on our minds other than celebrating the coming of Christ incarnate, thanking God for becoming human and living alongside us, and celebrating the incarnation of God to save us – and the world – through a love beyond exception!

When we celebrate Christmas, it feels good to cosy up to the Incarnation, to think about soft baby cheeks, cute coos and to forget about the complexity of the place where Jesus was born: the smell of manure and feed, the terror and pain of childbirth, the stress and anxiety of travel, the fear and hopelessness of oppression by politics and poverty. Today, especially at the end of a horrendous year for us all, locally, nationally, and globally, we may feel particularly drawn to twinkling pine trees, cheery music, and lovingly-given gifts in the Christmas season, and choose to forget about the harshness of the world in which Jesus lived!

We might also reflect on our own terror, anxiety, sickness, and grief, and think to ourselves… did it even work? Did Christmas come?  Is Jesus really present—did Jesus’ life and mission even make an impact on the world today?  Is Christmas just an excuse for a party—or is it always winter and never Christmas around here?  Is it possible to think about hope, unconditional love and redemption in a time such as this?  Maybe Jesus came, but couldn’t really save us from ourselves, or from each other.

Sometimes, it may seem that if we just do everything right, if we can just be better, then we’ll get ahead, we’ll be happier, more loved, more worthy, and things will get easier. If only we could make the right decisions, choose the best and most efficient path, then our worries would cease, strife would end, and all would be healed and protected!

This is an easy trap to fall into as Christians, as well.  We might think: if we could only follow God’s commandments, we would go to heaven. If we could only follow Jesus’ example, all of our pain would go away. If we could only stop sinning, we would be loved. The Hebrew Bible in particular often reads like an anthology of laws, some of which are laws to distinguish the followers of God – the chosen people – from others.  Many of the first followers of Christ – and Jesus himself – were Jews, who were familiar with these laws and their interpretations. In reality, the many legal requirements were probably more like ideals, not norms, but that context is important as we read Paul’s letter to the Galatians. At that time, Paul had recently converted a number of Gentiles to Christ, in the region of Galatia. Soon after, other missionaries arrived on the scene, and insisted that believers must follow all the parts of the Jewish law in order to be fully right before God. Law and order—a dangerous perspective in any context—was an obscenity to Paul, who thought that the legalism, which centred on the argument about circumcision, was an affront to God, and a rejection of the justification God provided through Jesus Christ. One interpretation is that the law acted as a disciplinarian, to keep God’s children on the right path until the arrival of Christ. At no point, however, was the law meant to put a person into good standing before God.

This is what Paul means when he writes that we are justified by faith, not action. It’s not a matter of following a set of rules, and, if you check them all off, you’re a paragon. The word ‘justified’ is not the same as being loved, being saved, or being smug. To be justified is to be in a right relationship with God, especially in times of crisis. Christ’s coming has not changed our relationship with God, and it hasn’t changed the need for right relationships. Instead, the coming of Christ, our brother, has elevated our relationship with God, confirming us as God’s children through our faith, and not our actions!

The relationship between God and humanity has a long history, and one which continues still.  Today’s Psalm is a post-exilic song praising God, the Redeemer of Israel, who restored the exiles and rebuilt Jerusalem. That restoration re-establishes the covenantal relationship between God and his people – the return to a right relationship after a tough season of despair and isolation.

Our 1^st Reading from Isaiah, also written at the end of the Babylonian Exile, similarly affirms the love of God through hard times. It’s written to people who were despondent, those who were currently living in exile, or who had finally left it. Think about the stress, fear, anxiety, and sickness they must have experienced!  The scripture reminds the people that the God of Israel is still powerful and still loyal. Only one God is the true God, and God alone has created the world and brings redemption.  It might feel like we’ve been in exile this dreadful year as well – isolated in our homes, as injustice, illness and hate surround us, stressed out about money, violence, politics and the pandemic.  We, like the Children of Israel, also need reminding that God created the world, is with us in it, and brings redemption. Christmas is not only a season to celebrate a baby’s birthday but also the same thing we celebrate at Easter: God’s unimaginable, inexplicable love for us, no matter how much we mess up!

The Gospel of John, with its poetic and mysterious language, leaves much room for interpretation, including ones that can resonate with us today. The very first sentence is about the beginning of time. The ‘Word’ used here is from the Greek ‘logos’ and can be translated as ‘a word which embodies an idea.’  ‘Embodiment’ brings to mind incarnation, flesh, and humanness. Therefore, one could (and many do) interpret the use of this word, ‘logos’, or ‘the Word’, to symbolize Jesus – the one who was with God before creation is that same Jesus on Earth. God has been with us since before life began, and Jesus has been alongside God since the beginning, and will certainly not abandon us now! The season of Christmas gives us an opportunity to celebrate the God who has come alongside us at this particular moment in time, as we come together to celebrate Jesus’ birth, and journey to adulthood. Jesus was with the animals in the stable. Jesus was with the women at the tomb. Jesus was at the creation of the universe, and Jesus is here with us today!

Perhaps on this 1st Sunday of Christmas, we need the bright moments of the story, but possibly we relate more to the stress, and oppression that is the true story of the life of Christ. The real miracle today and every day is that Christ is with us in all of it. Through the Incarnation – God somehow made fully divine and fully human – God has said, “I am with you.” Nothing we do, no mistakes we will ever make, or rules we break, can separate us from the love of God. To be in a right relationship is to seek God in all of our lives—no matter just how messy it gets!    Amen.