Diocese of New Westminster

Merry Christmas! I love Christmas – not so much because of Christmas festivities, gifts and holidays (although they are all good). I love Christmas: it is the best season to be with the young and the old to contemplate on the mystery of the Christmas story; it is at the beginning of the yearly cycle in church to re-visit God’s being with us through the Word of God; and it is the most timely embrace with God, with the good news of peace and salvation coming to us in these days of shortest daylight in the year.

I grew up in Hong Kong, with much milder weather in winter, and the contrast in length of daylight isn’t a big contrast with that in summer time. The feeling towards Christmas isn’t the same. After taking up residence here, Christmas speaks much louder to me. I arrived in October and my first Christmas was a white Christmas and I can still remember walking to church as the car could not gain access into the side street where the church building was. Paradoxically, the experience of difficulty in making to the church in the snow storm made the Christmas message of peace and salvation from God alive for me. Like what we heard from our First Reading today: ‘How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’, we do need God’s reign coming to us with peace, good news and salvation in our lives where storms and darkness sometimes pervades. That’s God’s promise of Christmas for us, as we recall how our First Reading today continues: ‘Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the Lord to Zion. Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord has bared his holy arm before the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.’

Yes, salvation to all the ends of the earth and for people of all the nations, as well as redemption for the people of God (personified by Zion or Jerusalem) all started with Christmas, with the birth of the Son of God to become Son of Man in a manger in Bethlehem, because there is no room in the inn. Once again, this is what we heard from our Gospel Reading today: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God . . . All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. . . He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God . . . And the Word became flesh and lived among us’.

Obviously, all these references to Jesus as ‘the Word’ came about with St. John’s pointing to Jesus’ presence in the beginning of the world with God the Father, and participation in Creator God’s bringing things into being by uttering commands such as ‘let there be light’ and there was light. Following such line of thought, St. John led us through the mystery of the Christmas story – that Jesus came to people originally created in the love of God, to join them as fellow human being, but was not accepted by these creature human being. What mystery: that God became man to live among us! What tragedy: that human beings reject their creators’ entering into solidarity with them, and reject light and life from God through God’s presence with us!

Well, as we walk through these annual shortest daylight days in Christmas, will we ever cast our minds to God’s deep love for us by being present with us as we walk through darkness, by casting light in front of us as we open ourselves to receive him and his company for us, and by giving us life to be children of God as we believe in his name? Like my walking through snow-storms to attend Christmas service brought me to appreciate God’s presence with me and my family on that Christmas Day almost two decades ago, will our walking through these dark, short wintry days now help us appreciate that ultimately what we need is the light and life from Christ, a gift we inherit as we undergo baptism to be marked as Christ’s own forever? And if so, would St. John in today’s Gospel Reading remind us what ‘gifts of light and life’ from Christ we have been bestowed, upon Jesus’ coming to the world to take up flesh upon himself on Christmas to be with and for us?

Many of us here have walked through Christmas after Christmas, always thankful for the divine mystery of the Son of God as Word became flesh, and often pondering upon the gifts of light and life from Christ, the babe of Mary born in the manger. It’s my hope and prayer that we’ll walk deeper into such divine mystery, by opening ourselves to taste the good news of peace and salvation and to savor its blessing upon us. With that, we can proceed to live out the gifts of light and life given to us as divine Christmas presents to us, for us to inherit, and then to share with those around us.

As I was preparing this sermon, I also turned on some sacred music on the birth of Christ. There is one piece called ‘O Magnum Mysterium’ which goes like this: ‘O great mystery, wonderful sacrament, that the beasts should see the Lord made flesh, lying in a manger. Blessed Virgin, whose womb was worthy to bear the Lord Christ. Alleluia.’ Yes, Jesus’ coming to us in Christmas is such mystery that can keep us contemplating throughout our entire life. In our Gospel Reading last night we were reminded that even Mary the mother of Jesus kept pondering what the shepherds told her about the angel’s explanation of what Christmas means (despite she had already got from Angel Gabriel all the peace and assurance she needed, and she had already expressed to God her praises and thanks for her bearing the Son of God, Jesus the Savior). In any event, continued processing through contemplation and pondering of the holy mystery of Christmas will do us good – it’s sad that some people think they’ve already known everything about Christmas, for they deprive themselves of opportunities to go, like the shepherds, to see God’s human face as the baby in a vulnerable place, namely, a manger. It takes us life-long contemplation and pondering to appreciate how we got invited to participate in the Christmas grace and truth upon believing and receiving the Son of God born for us and to be with us. Listen again to what St. John said at the end of our Gospel Reading again: ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.’