by The Rev. Craig Lemming, Associate Rector of St. John’s, St. Paul, MN
In the Name of Jesus, God’s Love born in us by the power of the Spirit. Amen.
Merry Christmas, everyone! Tonight’s homily is about past hurts, present healing, and future hopes. What hurt you in 2024? What is healing you now? What do you hope for in 2025? These questions are as important as we choose to make them. For the next few minutes, I invite you to make these questions as important as those whom you love and those who love you. What hurt you in the past? What is healing you in the present? What do you hope for in the future? On this Feast of God’s Incarnation, we acknowledge the sacredness of our true humanity. When we think and feel and reflect on our hurts, our healing, and our hopes, we honor God who became human with us. So, I invite you into a short spiritual practice with me. Center yourself, close your eyes, place your hands on your heart, and take three deep breaths with me. On the first breath, we remember that we are made in the image of God who is love. On the second breath, we remember that we are healed by God’s love incarnate in Jesus Christ. On the third breath, we remember that we are being made new by God the Holy Spirit. Now repeat these words after me: I am who I am. I am enough. I am loved. I can love. God is love. Amen.
Thank you for centering down in God’s love with me. My homily will be brief.
I had the privilege of taking a three-month sabbatical in September, October, and November of this year to research and write the remaining chapters of my doctoral dissertation. At least, that was my hope. The tragic and unexpected death of a chosen family member; the heartbreaking end of a relationship and friendship; and the myriad implications of the election results, especially for immigrants, all led me to a complete emotional breakdown. Thank God I had time to heal. In the face of these heartbreaks, God slowly turned never into nevertheless. God made a way out of no way. God turned up in my hurts with healing and hope. And how did God do this exactly? When friends, family, colleagues, therapists, professors, and neighbors turned up with loving kindness, God’s love was incarnated. God turns up in you. God is in your words. God is in your presence. God is in your prayers. God is in the cards you write. God is in the meals you prepare. God is in your faces, hearts, hands, and voices. God is fully human, like you and like me. When we become as vulnerable and as loving as that sweet, brown, Palestinian-Jewish baby Jesus, God is with us.
Born into Herod’s world of lies and deceptions; betrayals and violence; greed and destruction, God’s Love is made human flesh in Jesus. The power of Luke’s Gospel account of the Incarnation resides in those who turned up, in the flesh, to see the Christ child. To see God born in terror and poverty, cradled in a manger, surrounded by animals. Shepherds, the poorest of the poor, nomads on the margins of society, well acquainted with suffering, are the ones God chooses to send angelic messengers. The people who walk in darkness – those who work, or watch, or weep through dark nights of the soul – they see a great light; those who live in a land of deep darkness, the Prophet Isaiah tells us, on them light shines.
Do you find yourself in that land of deep darkness? Do you know someone working, watching, or weeping through grief, betrayal, or terror? Tonight, God’s Word and Sacrament remind us, that God became as human as you and me. So that in sanctifying our humanity we can shine God’s light into one another’s lives. Your presence in another person’s life is sacred. You are enough. You are loved. You are love when you love others. God is born as vulnerable, as hungry, as cold, and as needy as Jesus wrapped in bands of cloth – as human as you and me.
Whatever hurts you are suffering through. Whatever healing you are seeking or finding. Whatever hopes you are daring to believe in, you are not alone. God is with you. God is hurting, healing, and hoping with us. God is with us when we turn up in one another’s lives with goodness, truth, and beauty. Our presence is the best of all Christmas presents. Open your gift of presence bravely, lovingly, and with reverence. Make God’s love known by being the vulnerable, loving, human that you are. You are God’s image of love. You are God’s agent of healing. You are God’s inspiration. Be who you are. And be that well. And we mustn’t forget the very serious business of being the silly, imperfect, joyful children of God we are created to be. So, place your hands on your heart again and repeat after me: I am who I am. I am enough. I am loved. I can love. God is love. Amen.
