Merry Christmas! During this season the whole world, both unintentionally and intentionally, pauses whether for family gatherings or in worship, recognising that the Mighty One has pitched His tent among humans in the incarnation.

This divine enfleshment and embodiment of human nature by the Son of God revealed in the person of Jesus, the Christ, bestowed upon all who trust in him a new status, “the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord”.

Those who trust in response to the call of Jesus come from an encounter through a “turning”. That is, repentance, which is a grace of God granted to us to enable us to forsake iniquity and lovelessness, and to embrace our true humanity created in Christ Jesus.

The baptism liturgy of the Church reminds us that this true humanity is bestowed upon all the baptised people of God as the ‘born-again’ and ‘children by adoption’.

Here, we recall the words of our Lord to Nicodemus, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (John 3: 5) and in John 1: 12, “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”

Our new status as the holy people, the redeemed of the Lord, was made possible by the actions of the Mighty One in God’s Emmanuel, God with us. As Fr Greg Boyle, founder of Homeboy Industries, which offers jobs, services, and dignity to former gang members reminds us, “The point of the incarnation is that Jesus is one of us in the ordinary. Jesus is God’s declaration that the infinite is present in it all…”

The epistle to Titus 2: 14 puts it this way: “He it is who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds.” Here we understand the term “give himself” in the light of the cross (see Mark 8: 31). For in the message of the angels to the shepherds: This child was saviour, messiah, and the Lord, he would save his people from their sins (Matthew 1: 21). He was the anointed one and the son of God whom they pierced. And, according to scripture, “…they will look on the one whom they have pierced”. (John 19:37)

Such love by the mighty one has set us apart. We may say., “make us holy”, as we are redeemed, purified, and “peopled”, that is, made children of God. We are the ones who will live in the new Jerusalem, the “sought out… a city not forsaken”, spoken by the prophet Isaiah. (62: 12)

What is the fulfilment of our prayers?

The Bible reminds us that God has ushered in the new age, that the time has come for the final great pilgrimage to Zion; that all of us who are caught up in ‘the Captivity of Babylon’, that is, all of us as victims of fear experiencing persecution, unemployment, oppression, crime, disease, homelessness, war, exploitation, psychological hurt, unfulfilled goals, sin and iniquity, must now make the trek to freedom. For the Christ child is with us!

Stand up! Raise your hands and heads! For our redemption is at hand!

If we listen amid the uproar of the merchants, and look beyond the twinkling pretty lights and decorations, we will hear the song of the angels:

“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on Earth peace among those with whom God is pleased!” (Luke 2: 14)

If we, just listen beyond the power-hungry leaders in the political, religious, educational, and economic environment, we will hear the song of Mary, the mother of the incarnate one:

“God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

God has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1:52-53)

Do you hear what I have heard?

“We are not to be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation with prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God.” (Phillippans 4: 6)

Yes! We are the ones whom God favours or delights, who are to inherit the new Jerusalem, the new Shalom, which is the “peace of God which passes all human understanding”. (Phillippians 4: 7)

What Joy! What hope for the coming rule of God, when God will be all in all.

In the words of John of the apocalypse: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘See the home of God is among mortals… ” (Rev 21: 2-3)

Are you and I prepared to greet the Christ child? Are you and I clothed in God’s righteousness or are we naked in sin and iniquity?

“O holy child of Bethlehem,

descend to us we pray;

cast out our sin, and enter in,

be born in us today.

We hear the Christmas angels,

the great tide and still.

O come to us, abide with us,

Our Lord Emmanuel.” (CPWI 82 v4)

Amen.