Wednesday, December 24, 2025
Christmas Eve
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Incarnation
Zechariah his father, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied, saying:
“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
for he has come to his people and set them free.
He has raised up for us a mighty Savior …
And you, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his way,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
to shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
Would God have chosen to be “enfleshed” if we had not sinned? We might never know. Why does God desire to be “one” with his/her creation?
God loves me, so he wants to save me from my sin. But perhaps the principal reason for the incarnation is love.
Not sin.
Karl Rahner asks God to “adapt Your word to my smallness, so that it can enter into this tiny dwelling of my finiteness – in the only dwelling in which I can live – without destroying it.”
In the long dark hours of Christmas Eve-ning, full of party and laughter, silence and prayer, gifts given and received, Jesus quietly comes to earth. His voice is recognizable, human, a baby’s cry. He is indeed tiny and unassuming, his birthplace the stable, his crib the manger. He fits into our world and destroys nothing.
Nothing? Except the foundation for our falseness and ego-driven striving. Fear has been replaced by joy, and the economy of scarcity with abundance. Jesus, tiny baby that he is, owns the cattle on a thousand hills. And he rejoices to share them with us.
The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of the Lord and of his Christ.
Rahner asks God, “Don’t tell me everything that You are; don’t tell of Your Infinity – just say that you love me, just tell me of Your Goodness to me.”
O Radiant Dawn,
splendor of eternal light, sun of justice.
come and shine on those who
dwell in darkness and in the shadow of death.
John the Apostle writes, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we saw his glory.”
This was not our end, Jesus, but our beginning. You never crush us, you always raise us up. When you come down to earth and invite us into your arms, your bosom, your kingdom, then we are not consumed by you, but made whole.
You are the Lord.
(2 Samuel 7, Psalm 89, Luke 1)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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