RCL Christmas Day III
Isaiah 52:7-10, Psalm 98, Hebrews 1:1-4, Saint John 1:1-14
Last night we heard the old story about the tax, the young family, and the baby in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. Last night we sang “Silent Night” with candles and crowds.
What are we doing on Silent Morning?
The Gospel you just heard tells us. And it tells us this. Do you remember your Confirmation Classes, where you learned that a sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace?[1] The old story about a baby in swaddling clothes is the outward and visible sign. It is what happened. Today’s Gospel, about the Word becoming flesh and living among us,[2] is the inward and spiritual grace. It is the explanation of what happened. It tells us the meaning and the purpose of the old story. It gives us what inquiring minds want to know. Both Gospels are “true.” But they belong to different levels of understanding, and so they do not contradict one another. The story is true, and the explanation is the Truth.
Our lives now are different. From now on, we know our purpose. We are here to know him, to love him, and to be guided by him and his love for us until, by God’s grace, we see him face to face, until we complete all that he gave us to do and all that he gave us to be.
[1] BCP, page 857.
[2] Saint John 1:14.
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