This day of celebration and joy is a day that is treasured by so many. Christmas traditions from eons ago continue to nurture us and bring us joy as we celebrate the birth of Christ, the incarnation of the God of all creation into a humble manger stall. For many, Christmas is one of the most joyful celebrations of the entire year. Christmas is a day that we should rejoice in, it is the day where God entered into human life in a totally new, totally unexpected way. On this day God acted to transform human history, to transform human life, to transform our lives into lives of hope. Through the birth of Jesus we are given hope that just as Christ has come in Bethlehem so too will he come into our lives to bring grace, new life, and salvation.

At the same time that we celebrate this Christmas reality we must also find this day as one that is filled with paradox. On the one hand millions around our country have gone out of their way to celebrate Christmas. You know as well as I that our nation has been preparing for this day, for good or for ill, for months. Homes are decked with beautiful decorations, families are gathered together from far and near, wonderful food is cooking away, the celebration is glad, the sense of the holiday is thick in the air. And yet, as we gather on this magnificent feast day which is equaled only by Easter, Pentecost and a few other great days on our Church calendar we find our church mostly empty. Paradoxically, on this religious holiday that holds so much sway in our secular culture our churches are mostly empty.

There is nothing new about paradox and Christmas. Paradox can be found throughout our readings, readings which speak of this promised day of the incarnation of the Messiah, readings which are filled with wonderful, powerful, hopeful images. In Luke for example, we hear of the birth of a child, heralded by angels, who is the longed for Messiah of God. The news is so great that the heavens burst forth with songs and yet this long-expected birth, this transformative event in which God acted in a new and amazing way to save humanity is accomplished in a humble barn and witnessed by scraggly, unkempt shepherds. The paradox of this Christmas day does not escape Luke as he writes of the birth of Christ.

Similarly, today’s paradox is clearly visible in our reading from Isaiah. The prophet speaks of this newborn child, who has yet to even take his first steps, as the very salvation of Israel. This child is the one who will redeem and restore an entire nation! The Psalmist goes even further speaking of the newborn child as a king who is so powerful that around him are clouds and an all-consuming fire. His presence is so radically powerful that "the mountains melt like wax at" his presence. These sort of descriptions are anything but the norm for newborns, even from the most devoted of parents. Finally, Titus points to the paradoxical reality of a babe and the power of God as he refers to Mary’s infant as "the goodness and loving kindness of God." Through Jesus very birth "he saved us". Reading after reading point to the confusing reality of Christ’s human birth. Here, in this newborn child, humanity finds all of its hopes and dreams. Here in this powerless child who is about to see for the first time, hear his mother’s voice for the first time, God is paradoxically, powerfully present in a way that has never been witness before or since. On this day we are confronted with the great paradox of the Christian faith, a tenet of faith which separates us from all the other monotheistic religions, the incarnation of God as a human.

In being confronted by this paradox, powerlessness containing the all-powerful creator, the helpless babe being the very source of our life and salvation, we are reminded that our God can do all things. Our God is a God for whom all things are possible. Our loving God will go to any and all extremes to reach out to humanity, to bring us home, to communicate the message of divine love to us. The God whom the heavens cannot contain will go so far as to be contained in the arms of Mary.

Today is a day where we celebrate, celebrate the fact that God’s love is so strong that God was willing to give up all his power, all his glory, all his heavenly host, and trade it in for swaddling clothes and the powerlessness of infancy. God’s love for you and for me is so great that just to reach out to humanity, just to guide us, teach us, to bring us back into a life-giving relationship with God, God was willing to be born a human, to know our frailties and weaknesses. This is the miraculous paradox that we celebrate on this joyful day. This is the miracle that lies behind all of our Christmas preparation and celebrations whether we realize it or not.

Dear friends, on this Christmas day when we celebrate the in-breaking of God into the life of the world in flesh and blood may our eyes be opened to see Christ still at work around us. On that blessed day when Christ was born heaven and earth were joined together in such a way that nothing can separate them. On that blessed day when our Lord was born in a manger our God declared with finality that the home of God is with mortals. God has cast his lot fully and finally with humanity. As a result Christ continues to be in our midst. Christ continues to be made known to us in unexpected places such as mangers and malls. Christ continues to act in our lives in powerful and mundane ways. This is the miracle that began on that Christmas day. God is with us, God has reached out to us, God has become one of us. May we be able to take this incredible, miraculous reality with us as we go forth into the world of which Christ was born to save. May we take with us the paradoxical knowledge that God is in the midst of human life. God is speaking to us through the incarnate Christ in prayer and in work, when we find ourselves in church and when we find ourselves at the grocery store.

Christ has entered into human life. Thanks be to God for this Christmas miracle! Thanks be to God for the divine being present in the world! Thanks be to God that God loves us so much that he might be born a human and live and die as one of us! Thanks be to God for the birth of Christ!