On this Christmas Eve we read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2:1-20 where we hear about Mary and Joseph’s long journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem in the days leading up to Jesus’ birth and we reflect on the mystery of Emmanuel, God With Us, that came to be in the birth of Jesus Christ. God With Us embodies God’s love for us - ALL of us - not just the pretty perfect parts. May this good news of God With Us liberate you from all the ways you feel less than. May it liberate you from all the ways the world has called you other and point you towards the truth that within you dwells humanness so beloved that the divine made a home within you.

As Mary and Joseph were welcomed into the home of extended family - you too are welcome here! Whether this is your hundredth time at Kindred or your first, you are welcome here. Whether you are used to church, you’ve never really been one for church, or if this is your first time at church in a long time, there is a place for you here - just as you are.

We give thanks for the many journeys and paths that brought you here, just as we give thanks for the shepherds’ who journeyed as well to come and bear witness to the great miracle of Emmanuel, God-with-us.

The story of God With Us is echoed throughout all of scripture and points us towards a God who is faithful and full of love.

And tonight the story of God With Us begins in a new way with the birth of Jesus Christ

And it changes everything.

It changes everything because in the birth of Jesus, God comes closer to us than ever before. God becomes human to walk among us, and teach us, and love us in radical and liberating ways.

The beauty of God With Us is that God didn’t come to us in the form of a Hercules type Demi-God, almost human, but stronger, faster, richer, and better in every way.

God With Us came to dwell with us, because we were created in the image of God.

We were created in God’s likeness, all of us.

In the many forms and variations of ourselves, we are created as God’s likeness. And God knows that. And God calls us good.

God calls us so good in fact, that God came to dwell among us, as one of us.

God With Us came to be in the midst of two ordinary people, two people who drew close to the margins of society, and who in the midst of carrying Emmanuel, were thrust far out into the margins by those who didn’t understand - those who saw Mary pregnant and unmarried.

God With Us came to be in human form through Mary and Joseph because God With Us recognized their humanness - and therefore our humanness - as godliness. There wasn’t anything special that Mary and Joseph had done, just as there’s nothing we can do, to make ourselves more worthy of God With Us. We don’t have to be perfect.

We don’t have to be perfect, and yet God With Us comes to be not even in spite of our imperfections, but welcoming our imperfections as part of us and calling them good and beloved. God With Us comes to be even in the parts of us that we struggle to love, in the parts of our lives that are sources of deep pain, God With Us remains with us and dwells in them. God With Us settles into all of our imperfections and hurts and calls them good and beloved.

The divine becomes embodied in our flesh through the birth of Jesus, and in the theology world, this is called Incarnation. With the birth of Jesus, we proclaim that within each of us, the divine also dwells.

That is the good news of Christmas - that God’s love for God’s people becomes incarnate. It becomes embodied.

We become embodiments of God’s grace and love.

Our whole selves are a witness to the goodness of God’s creation and the miracle of the Incarnation. That time when God With Us came to dwell with us in a crowded room full of friends and family and framily.

That time was both hundreds of thousands of years ago in Bethlehem and is happening now right here in our midst. We come together on this night to recognize the mystery of Christmas and the wonder of God With Us both as it manifests within us now and in all the ways it has shown up throughout history.

This is certainly “good news of great joy to be shared with all people,” as the angels proclaimed among the shepherds on that night in Bethlehem and just now among us today.

May this good news of God With Us liberate you from all the ways you feel less than.

May it liberate you from all the ways the world has called you other and point you towards the truth that within you dwells humanness so beloved that the divine made a home within you.

May it liberate you from all of the people and places who say they have no room for you anymore, and welcome you into a place and a people who recognize the divine in you and call you their chosen family.

May God With Us be with you in all of the places you go, and inspire you to proclaim God With Us to those who have yet to receive that good news.

God With Us begins anew with US tonight, and so we cry out with the angels in the heavens and the shepherds in the ﬁelds:

Alleluia! Our God is now here!

Amen

God With Us - The Good News of Christmas!