Christmas
Story
“The
Christmas story is about the incarnation and the image of God. We
tell it as if it is frozen, like a snapshot in time. But it is an
ongoing revelation, echoed in the birth of every child in the midst
of human struggle, and in camps that cage refugees, an unfolding that
tells us as much about who and what God is 'not' as about who and
what God is. The Ground of Being, God, our Source and Mother and
Father, the Great Mystery which defies definition—has a character,
a personality, and it has broken through to us in the life of Jesus.”
Dave
Barnhart (Saint Junia United Methodist Church)
My friend, Sally Harris,
forwarded Pastor Dave Barnhart's, Facebook post to me this morning.
It touched my heart to know there is a church in Birmingham where
this message is being taught and received—it's a house church, too,
like the early Christian churches in the days of Paul and Silas and
Lydia.
I love the notion—and
believe it to be true—that the birth of the Christ child didn't
happen only once, in Bethlehem, two-thousand years ago. It is
something that happens every day here in the “kingdom of heaven.”
We witness it every time a baby is born, in the midst of a loving
relationship, in the kind eyes of strangers and in the hospitality of
friends and family. Anyone who has held a newborn baby and looked
into its calm, quiet eyes has seen the Light come into the world.
What we seem to miss is the message. The message that Jesus brought
was “love one another as God loves you.”
If we want to carry the
message of Christmas out into the world, we can do that by treating
others with love an respect. We can do it by lending a helping
hand—not just at Christmas—but whenever, and to whomever, gives
us the opportunity. The spirit of the Christ child incarnates in
babies born in our midst, as well as those born in refugee camps,
whether or not they are American citizens, "legal" or not, white or
black or brown. Christian or not. Steel cages cannot prevent the
Source of Light from being born into our world and bearing witness.
The only question is, how will that child of God be received?
In the Spirit,
Jane
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