Christ is born! Glorify Him!

Brethren, we come once more to the Feast of the Nativity of our Saviour. Once again we stand at the cave, and behold the Incarnation of the Son of God. Like familiar friends we join Him beneath the star, veiling our eyes at His glory. We see the great made small, and the One Who is good beyond our evil, come among us.

But on this day we are made more than “familiar friends.” On this day the Son of God takes our flesh, and makes it His. We are drawn into His life. We are made His family. We are sons and daughters of His Father, Whom we now call “Our Father,” as this Lord has taught us. We are His.

And this means we are each other’s. We are no longer strangers, though we are always foreigners and wanderers in this world. We are brethren. We are one family, one Body. And today Christ is born, Who makes us His Body, and says to us in our weakness: “Love one another, as I have loved you.”

We cannot celebrate the Lord’s Nativity alone. We cannot celebrate it in separation or isolation. We cannot celebrate it with judgement, with coldness, or with despair. We can only celebrate it in love, and this love must be one love, offered from one heart. Christian people do not have many hearts or wills or minds: we have only One—Christ Himself. We must stand together as one community, committed to overcoming our sin, fully acknowledging our every weakness, and through this be filled with new life. New life is coming. It is already here. Christ is born in our midst! But before we shout, “Glorify Him!”, let us ask ourselves how we will truly give Him glory, and let us recognize that His glory will only be manifested in us, and we will only show glory to Him, when a stranger who looks upon the icon of our lives together as His Church, exclaims in genuine awe, ‘Look, how they love one another!’

May Christ’s birth teach us to love, to live with one heart, and to truly see His glory! Amen.

Nativity of Our Lord
25 Dec./ 7Jan. 2012