Word to the Wise
Friday, December 25, 2009 - The Nativity of the Lord - Midnight Mass
[Isaiah 9:1-6; Titus 2:11-14; Luke 2:1-14]For a child is born to us, a son is given us; upon his shoulder dominion rests...... [Isaiah] The grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires...... [Titus] Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. [Luke]
There are many ways to proclaim good news. It can be shouted or whispered or e-mailed or blogged or snail-mailed or broadcast......you name the way! The Roman Martyrology has a wonderful, even if a bit fanciful calendar/history-wise, passage which situates the good news of this day in the broad stream of history. It ends, however, with the fundamental good news: TODAY IS THE NATIVITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH. This is the good news of this day! Could we, for just one day, change the greetings we normally give and say, CHRIST IS BORN, MERRY CHRISTMAS!? Stores will be filled this weekend with folks returning gifts or shopping for bargains to give next year! The birth of Christ is not a gift to be returned. It fits all and requires no batteries, even if it does require our energy to proclaim the news of it! The passages from Isaiah, Titus, and Luke all give us patterns of proclamation. We can design our own. We can lift up the figure of the infant Jesus from the crib set in front of all the gifts and say, CHRIST IS BORN! MERRY CHRISTMAS! before opening all the other gifts! To each and all my beloved "congregation" around the world I offer those same words in gratitude for the gift of your patient "listening" and most of all in gratitude to God for the good news: CHRIST IS BORN! MERRY CHRISTMAS! AMEN!