Photo: pravoslavie.ru The birth of Christ was a rude intrusion into the lives of so many:
Mary and Joseph have to deal with an unexpected pregnancy, and then the threats to the life of the baby whom God claims is His Son.
The Shepherds are startled by the appearance of angels.
The Magi see signs in the heavens, a mysterious star that behaves nothing like any star they have ever studied and leads them on a months long journey to Jerusalem where they find their own lives threatened.
Herod and all Jerusalem are upset by the appearance of the Persian Magi seeking the newborn king which threatens the legitimacy of Herod’s reign.
The young families around Bethlehem who find themselves being attacked by Herod’s troops who murder the young baby boys.
And then there is us, who come out at the end of December because we too have heard the good news of the birth of Christ. God intruding in all our lives through the birth of His Son, interrupting all the other things we might want to do this evening and this week with our families and friends, in our homes or at work.
Christ coming into our lives truly means we too at times will be troubled or afraid by the Gospel, by confession, by a sermon or the Liturgy or by receiving Holy Communion.
Though the angels proclaimed joy to the world, the response of so many at the birth of Christ was fear and upset and uncertainty and grief.
When we are troubled, then we need to find Christ who is meek and humble in our lives and only then do we find rest for our souls.
In the Scriptures, it is not the Jewish rabbis, who spend their life studying Torah who recognize the birth of Christ but rather it is the foreign astrologers and the uneducated shepherds.
It is not the people of God who recognize the Christ, but in the Gospel itself, it is the demons who recognize Jesus as Lord.
The Gospel of the Nativity of Christ is full of unsettling surprises which unexpectedly change peoples lives, including ours. Yet, the fact is that God comes to abide in us so that we can live in Him.
We are to live in God
Think in God
Feel in God
Act in God
Be virtuous in God
Be immortal in God
Be eternal in God
Only in God is a human a real and full and perfect human.
In Christ we see humanity united to God. We see what a human is to be in God’s eyes. Only in Christ can we ourselves become fully human.
Christ is born!
