“Be Born in Us Today!”
“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier.”
C. S. Lewis was, I think, on to something with that comment. Hardly any of us would have thought to make the message of Christ so complicated and challenging: a virgin birth, of all things; angels singing to, of all people, lowly shepherds; strangers traveling so many miles over such rough terrain from, of all places, the land of the Medes and the Persians; the senseless killing of babies, of all things, as Herod reacted to the words of these men from the east.
It was, we now see, a foretelling of His unusual life. We might have missed Him altogether had it not been for who He was and is. For He was not the first to be born nor was He the first to die on a cross nor was He the first to experience betrayal. He was, in a very real sense, one of us!
But He was the first to
. . . invite any and all to . . . come to Him, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)
. . . say, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6);
. . . pray, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
. . . be raised from the dead, “. . . God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death . . . “ (Acts 2:24).
And so it is, on this Christmas Eve, this Christ whose birth we celebrate. But not only His birth as, in a real sense, our birth but His life as our life and His peace as our peace and His joy as our joy and His love as our love and His resurrection as our resurrection and His eternal life as our eternal life!
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, be born is us today!
“As you were born on Christmas Eve
All sinners to receive,
So let me, Lord, be born again
And I will cry, Amen! Amen! Unto the end.”
(Walter Wangerin Jr.)
Still on the journey this Christmas Eve . . .
Pastor J K
“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier.”
C. S. Lewis was, I think, on to something with that comment. Hardly any of us would have thought to make the message of Christ so complicated and challenging: a virgin birth, of all things; angels singing to, of all people, lowly shepherds; strangers traveling so many miles over such rough terrain from, of all places, the land of the Medes and the Persians; the senseless killing of babies, of all things, as Herod reacted to the words of these men from the east.
It was, we now see, a foretelling of His unusual life. We might have missed Him altogether had it not been for who He was and is. For He was not the first to be born nor was He the first to die on a cross nor was He the first to experience betrayal. He was, in a very real sense, one of us!
But He was the first to
. . . invite any and all to . . . come to Him, “Come to me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28)
. . . say, “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6);
. . . pray, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34)
. . . be raised from the dead, “. . . God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death . . . “ (Acts 2:24).
And so it is, on this Christmas Eve, this Christ whose birth we celebrate. But not only His birth as, in a real sense, our birth but His life as our life and His peace as our peace and His joy as our joy and His love as our love and His resurrection as our resurrection and His eternal life as our eternal life!
O Holy Child of Bethlehem, be born is us today!
“As you were born on Christmas Eve
All sinners to receive,
So let me, Lord, be born again
And I will cry, Amen! Amen! Unto the end.”
(Walter Wangerin Jr.)
Still on the journey this Christmas Eve . . .
Pastor J K
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