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Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.
- Luke 2:14 We’re often tempted to think of Christmas as one of the most spiritual of holidays. This time of year, we’re looking for something to lift us up, to help us get a glimpse of peace and joy, to be lifted above the fray of all the busyness, ordinariness, and messiness of our broken world. We’re looking for a little escape. But when we really look at the Christmas story in Luke 2, there isn’t much escape in it. In fact, there’s a whole lot of ordinary. A census for taxes. Shepherds in the fields. A birth out in a barn. If you’re looking for escape, I’m not sure what to tell you, because Christmas moves in the opposite direction. But this is good news. Because if God would become a vulnerable infant in a feeding trough, then it means that there is no place so dangerous, so risky, or dark…or busy, or mundane, or happy, or safe—that he cannot or will not go to find us. And this means that we no longer have to try to lift ourselves up out of this mess to get to God. It means that we don’t have to try to pull ourselves up to God—through our piety, or through our own attempts at good works. It means that we don’t have to create a perfect Christmas. It means that we don’t have to have accomplished any especially warm and fuzzy feelings for Christ to come to us. Jesus Christ comes, seeking you and me, wherever we are, and in whatever condition we are found. God climbed down from his world, his heavenly place, into ours. At Christmas, we celebrate God’s invasion of our world. If God’s holiness, God’s majesty, God’s power are present in this most unspiritual event, then there is no place that is too unspiritual for God to be there too. When we realize this, we can start to see how he breaks into our lives—our everyday lives. He breaks into our chaotic mornings of running around the house, yelling at the kids trying to get their lunches packed and them dressed and out the door for school. He breaks into our daily commutes, driving the same way, passing the same slow cars, hearing the same songs and news stories. He breaks into our days at work—whether they’re chaotic and busy and exciting and full of accomplishment or they’re dull and mundane and boring and unfruitful. He breaks into our afternoons of struggling to help the kids get their homework done and to prepare dinner, and our evenings of cleaning the kitchen or flipping through channels or running errands. In Jesus Christ, God breaks into all these places that we think we want to escape. And he breaks into them to shine light into their darkness, to redeem them. The message of Christmas is that God works in the midst of our life. Not only our blessed, satisfying, and secure life, but also our crazy, messed up, broken life; and our boring, tedious, uneventful life. God works in the midst of our life, not in spite of it. So this evening, we celebrate the birth of Jesus not as a mere escape, but as glorious good news that shines light into any and every dark corner where we might find ourselves. Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests. ~Pastor Matt