A God Who Is Close

How delightful it is to see so many people gathered here today. It is a joy to be part of this celebration of the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you. Whether you are able to worship with us every Sunday during the year or whether you are visiting us for this holy day, I want to extend to everyone the blessings of this joyous celebration.

Part of the joy of this Christmas day is that it beckons us to stop what we are doing and reach out to others. It draws us to gather with our family members and it draws us to this holy place to pray. Christmas evokes in us a desire to remember and reconnect. In today’s world, we often feel uprooted. Work and other commitments can scatter families across long distances. The support systems that once nourished our sense of community and belonging are not always within reach. In the hustle and bustle of life, we can be distracted from our own sense of loneliness and loss. However, throughout this season, we feel the tug of our longing for tradition, stability and community.

There is another longing in each human heart which can often get lost in a world caught up with status, possessions and power. It is the longing for friendship with God. We can become distracted from that deep rooted desire within us by keeping busy or filling ourselves with material goods or other pursuits. However, nothing can fill the God shaped hole within us except God Himself. And so, this Christmas day is a beautiful gift for us. It is a time not only to reconnect with family and friends but to reconnect with our God. That longing is what brings us all to this holy place today.

Many times we fail to recognize our need for God because of the image we have of Him. Some of us view Him as a stern judge policing our every decision and punishing our every failing. Others of us imagine God as a Being far removed from the world He created and unable to sympathize with our suffering. These images of God often stem from our disillusionment with life. Hurts and disappointments left us feeling as though God did not answer our prayers for help. We were left feeling as though God did not care or even notice us. From there it becomes impossible to believe that we would need Him much less long for Him.

This feast of Christmas shatters any illusions we might have of a God who is aloof, who keeps His distance from us or who is unconcerned with our suffering and pain. By appearing among us in the most vulnerable way imaginable - as a baby totally dependent on others - He shows His willingness to experience the human condition as we do. He literally “gets under our skin” to feel intimacy, joy and tenderness as we experience them. In so doing, He is also willing to feel cold, hunger, discomfort, rejection and suffering.

Jesus Christ is God’s hand stretched out in friendship to us. He is God’s arms spread wide, welcoming us and drawing us to Himself. This baby is our Heavenly Father’s love letter to us, His revelation of His earnest desire to share this world with us - not from a safe distance but up close and personal.

In Jesus, we discover that just as we long for friendship with God, He longs for friendship with us. He was born in a stable so that not only wise men from the East could have access to Him but also lowly shepherds. Throughout His life, He did not wait for people to come to Him but He traveled from town to town seeking out the sick and the outcast. Though sinless Himself, He loved sinners and brought them the good news that God had forgiven them. That love and concern continues throughout the world today through the ministry of the Church which He established to bring the good news that friendship with God is possible through the child born this day, Jesus Christ.

Whether we recognize it or not, what draws each of us here today is that longing for friendship with God. The good news is that, no matter where we are in our journey, friendship with God is possible. No one is so lost that God cannot find Him. No one has sinned so greatly that God cannot forgive her. Jesus was not only born for sinners but He also died for them. He assured us that there is more rejoicing in heaven over the one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine who have no need to repent. All we need do is turn to Him and ask Him to enter our hearts. As He satisfies our longings for love, truth and meaning, we can finally begin to experience some peace and enter into the joy of this Christmas Day.

In Jesus Christ, born this day, our God draws near to us, not to condemn us but to befriend us. We can really know Him and enter into a relationship with Him. He can change us in ways that we cannot begin to imagine. If we allow Him to lead us, veritable miracles will take place in our lives. The worries and anxieties that once consumed us and seemed so important will begin to lose their power over us as we glimpse our ultimate meaning in Jesus Christ and His love. Nothing will seem impossible for us as we tap into the power of faith in the Son of God.

Saint John assures us in today’s gospel that “to those who did accept him he gave the power to become children of God.” Let us take this day, then, to reconnect not only with our family and friends but with the God who created us. Let us welcome the child born this day into our hearts. Let us experience God no longer as a stern judge or distant being but as a loving Father, intimately involved with every aspect of our lives who longs for friendship with us and who asks for nothing except that we love Him in return. Then this Christmas Day will be like no other we have ever experienced.