Farnes 1
The Rev. Joseph Farnes
First Sunday after Christmas
December 27, 2015
St Luke’s Episcopal, Altoona, PA
Good morning and Merry Christmas, St Luke’s! I bring you greetings from your brothers and sisters at St Stephen’s in Pittsfield, Massachusetts! It is wonderful to visit and to enjoy your hospitality and the hospitality of my dear friend and brother priest, Josh.
Whereas on Christmas Eve we hear Luke’s Gospel with the story of the manger in Bethlehem, on Christmas Day and this First Sunday after Christmas we hear John’s Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word.” One is literally a birth story, and the other is a story about a different kind of beginning: ours. John describes the Word that was to be born as a human in Jesus Christ, but he doesn’t start in Bethlehem. Luke’s manger scene describes what we were doing at Jesus’ human beginning, and John describes what God was doing at our beginning, at the beginning of creation.
Just as we imagine the Christmas scene and putourselves in the story standing there, looking past the shepherds, looking between Joseph and Mary to look at Jesus in the manger that was his cradle, John’s Gospel lets us imagine God standing at our cradle, the cradle of creation. God’s Word wraps around us like swaddling clothes, shines out brighter than starlight, and is our very breath of life, all from the very beginning. In a very real sense, we have God not only standing there at our beginning, but God is also the manger that is our cradle, and our own breath. We have been God’s children since the very beginning, deeply loved.
Then it should be no surprise that Paul tells the Galatians in his letter to see themselves as children of God and also heirs of God. The word “disciplinarian” in Paul’s letter refers to a household slave who was in charge of keeping the children of the house out of trouble. By comparing the Law to this disciplinarian, Paul is pointing out that we are children in need of guidance and that both the Law and Christ are helping us to be the adults we are called to be.
The Law was in charge of us to help us grow up correctly, just as children need love, guidance, and boundaries to help them grow up well. As children grow, they begin to understand the difference between right and wrong, and they take in the values and principles that people show them in thought, word, and deed. How many times do you have to remind a child to say, “Thank you” for a gift, even if they don’t like the gift? We do it not just to teach them good manners that will serve them well as adults, but also to remember that gratefulness for even the most humble or odd gift shows love to the person who gave it.
The Law, then, invites us to see all the ways in which we are to show love to God and to our neighbor. We are grateful for the Summary of the Law: To love God with all our heart, and all our mind, and all our soul, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. That right there tells us the kind of people we’re supposed to be as we grow up; that is the statement of our values and principles, something we aim for in everything we think, say, and do. We are grateful that we are not left without direction! Thanks be to God for the Law for guiding us along the right path as we mature.
When the fullness of time had come, God sent Jesus, born under the Law, in order to redeem those who were under the Law so that we might be adopted as children. Why speak of adoption, if God is already our parent? Because the world has been alienated from God and creation is so fundamentally (but not completely!) broken, Paul is acknowledging that we experience this distance from God, yet this distance is overcome by God sending Christ to us.
A mentor of mine once said he wished he could adopt his biological children – biology made them his children from the start, but adoption says, “I choose you, I love you, I choose you to be my children!” It’s a way of saying that even if there were no biological ties, there is the bond of love, and it is the bond of love that makes us children and parents. God adopts us in order to assure us we are deeply loved children, by nature and by God’s choice.
There should not be much difference, then, between how we act as children under the Law and how we act as adults with the faith of Jesus Christ. We should love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. As we love more and more, then it becomes easier to love. It then becomes our nature, becomes who we are, and we are reaching spiritual maturity. We probably cannot be perfect in loving during this life, but we can sure try, just as adults try to be the best they can be while not being perfect.
Whether we are currently children under the Law or are living into our freedom through faith in Christ, we should also be mindful that we are always growing. The challenge of spirituality is to be wise and also humble at the same time, and to be ready to listen and to look inwardly. Just as physical maturity is a transition that takes time, so is spiritual maturity. There’s this assumption that faith is kind of an on/off switch, when it really is more a pilgrimage to the heavenly Jerusalem where we need to keep checking a compass and talking to our guide to help ensure we are on the right path. If we assume that our freedom in Christ means that we can just go it alone, then we’re mistaken. We might not need a disciplinarian anymore, but we are not beyond the need for guidance, correction, and help. We need a community of faith, we need wise people along our journey to help us grow in love with God and with our neighbor.
This, then, leads naturally to sharing the love of God with our neighbor. As we grow and mature, becoming more and more like children of God, then others are drawn into that same source of life. Your growth and maturity shines out like a beacon for the community – and even a humble admission that you’re still growing and maturing, when mixed with abundant love, will draw others in. If you shine with the light of Christ, then others will see and rejoice.
But, again, remember that Christ is in you to help make this happen. You are not alone, because Christ has given you sisters and brothers in the faith to help you walk, and you are given to them that they may walk, too. And Christ himself is at work in you, strengthening you when you stumble and lifting you up when it all feels dark. You are God’s own children, both from the beginning of creation to your adoption in Christ. God looked on you from even before you were born. God has looked on all of creation, and loved it from the very beginning. Can you let the love and light of Christ shine out in your life? And what are the things that will help you to do that even better? What are the tools and help you need to mature in Christ?
Soon it will be New Year’s Day. So many people make resolutions to lose weight, give up a vice, or take on some other discipline. Take this opportunity to look at your spiritual life. You’ve already done a great thing by coming here, joining together to praise God and to share the gift of communion. What do you plan to do tomorrow? And the day after that? If you need to take baby steps, take baby steps. If you’ve got a good foundation, keep going! And if you stumble and need to start back at baby steps, that is just fine! We learn from it, we get back up, and we start taking whatever steps we can.
God looks uponus all and, like a proud parent, rejoices to see children growing up a little more each day and sharing God’s love with all the world. Look into the manger, love that infant Jesus. Look into the face that loved you from the very beginning, the face that loved you when you took your first breath.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen.