Nothing will ever hold God back

Luke 2:1-20 and John 1:1-14
By Rev. Heather J. Blais, Rector

​Merry Christmas!!!

There is Good News of great joy today. Are we ready to receive it? More importantly, are we ready to be changed by it?

While this morning we hear John’s Gospel reflecting the incarnation of God as the Word, I am going to draw on our collective memory, this creche, and reflect on last night’s Gospel lesson from Luke. 

In Luke’s nativity, we are reminded that God is not some far off entity who created the cosmos, only to silently watch and see what might unfold.  Far from it. God is passionate about their dream for this world. God is paying very close attention, particularly to those whom society would make invisible and marginalize. 

And Luke makes sure the message is loud and clear:

• God is Love. 
• God is here with us. 

• God moves in and through us, and all of creation. 

• In the beginning, now, and forever more.  

These themes show up almost immediately, which believe it or not, begin with a bureaucratic decision from the Roman Empire. Emperor Augustus issued a decree that required everyone in the realm to be registered in order to gauge population and adjust taxes. In the region of Judea, it was Governor Quirinius who oversaw the census, which involved people traveling to where their family descended from in order to register.  If we were to model this today, it would mean I would have to head back up to Maine, and my spouse would be on his way to Quebec. These days, the U.S. Census Bureau comes directly to our doors. 

But let’s pause here. There is already Good News. God can move in and through empires, emperors, decrees, governors, bureaucracy, and any variety of public policy. God is the Source of Love, and God is here with us. And nothing, nothing, will ever hold God back.

Because somehow, God will move in and through even this census, to bring the holy family back to Bethlehem. A place where Joseph’s family has deep spiritual roots, reaching all the way back to King David. While the empire necessitated the trip, it was Joseph and Mary’s faith that allowed the experience to be reclaimed as a pilgrimage. They drew strength and resilience from Bethlehem, a place that connected them to their ancestors in faith, and the communities that formed them. 

When a woman is bearing down in labor, to bring a child into this world, she must draw on every conceivable ounce of strength within her person, plus that of all the women who have gone before her, and the God who birthed us all. And Mary did just that. She and Joseph may have found themselves in the simple accommodations of a manger, but none of that matters. Those are character details for retelling a birth story. What matters is that Jesus was born, and tenderly loved, as his mother wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger. What matters is that in and through Mary, God birthed their Love into this world in human flesh. As John writes in today’s Gospel, “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,  the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth” (Jn 1:14)


This year, more than most, I am moved by the way God birthed Love into our World. Proclaiming boldly and loudly: 

• God is Love. 

• God is here with us. 

• God is moving in and through us, and all of creation. 

• And nothing, nothing, will ever hold God back.

Our Creator God called Mary, a young, unmarried woman in a patriarchal society - one of the most invisible people in her time and place - to be Jesus’ mother. And she said yes. She embraced her call with a joy that comes from liberation. We witness the freedom the Holy Spirit offers her in this pregnancy, in knowing and understanding God sees and stands with those whom our society makes invisible. 

She sings, and we sing with her:
“My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
my spirit rejoices in you, O God my Savior, *
for you have looked with favor on your lowly servant…
You have shown strength with your arm *
and scattered the proud in their conceit,
Casting down the mighty from their thrones *
and lifting up the lowly.
You have filled the hungry with good things *
and sent the rich away empty.” (Enriching Our Worship 1, pg. 27)

God is here with us. 
God is acting in the here and now. 
And God seeks out the vulnerable and invisible, lifting them up for all to see. 
Because the last will be first, and the first will be last. 

Mary’s call and liberating transformation shows us God’s Way of Love. Yet for Luke, God’s liberation of the invisible, is only just getting started with Mary. 
Immediately following the birth, Luke shifts his focus to the fields beyond Bethlehem, where shepherds were keeping their flocks. 

It is here of all places - not a palace, not even at a relative’s house - that an angel proclaims the birth of God’s child. 

The shepherd's social standing was a little lower than that of peasants.God’s liberation spread to the very margins of their society. Because this is who God is. God always begins at the margins, by bringing those on the outside to the very center and saying - there is a place for you. You are visible in my eyes, and I won’t stop until the world sees and knows there is a place for you in my kindom. 
The first will be last and the last will be first. 

Much like Mary, these shepherds who are accustomed to living on the margins, embrace God’s call.  As soon as the angelic visitation had ended, they went to Bethlehem with haste. They sought out Joseph, Mary and their newborn child to bear witness to God’s Love, the Word made flesh. And these shepherds, now made visible, were forever changed. “The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.” (Lk 2:20)

Luke tells us Good News of great joy, and does so through those his society would have deemed invisible. It begs the question: Who does our society deem invisible?  Because God is going to those corners, those margins, and seeks to work in and through those who our society would make invisible. 
Who is God speaking through right here, right now? The answer can be found on the margins, when we pay attention to who is being most harmed by changes in public policies. Based on changes in public policy this year, it would seem it is our transgender neighbors, our undocumented and refugee neighbors, our Palestinian and Jewish neighbours; our neighbors in need of food, housing, and healthcare assistance.   

This year has been challenging, as society’s center has grown smaller and the crowd on the margins has grown exponentially, and is still growing. But do you know what happens if this trend continues?  With time, with the Spirit’s guidance, it flips. The margins are realigned as the center, as the Word made flesh stands alongside those on the margins, calling on the Church to do the same. When we fail to stand in solidarity with our hurting neighbors, in our thoughts, in our prayers, and most especially in our actions - we misunderstand the miracle of Christmas. When God’s Love became incarnate in the Word made flesh in Jesus of Nazareth. When God the Holy Spirit moved in and through Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, and all of creation, and made the invisible visible. 

Yet just as God made Mary and the shepherds visible, we know God will not stop  until their dream has come to fruition. God will continue to call on her Church to stand with those on the margins, working alongside and for our neighbors who are most hurting right now. The Holy Spirit will continue to work in and through us, and all of creation. Because God is here with us, and in God’s dream, no one is invisible. And nothing, nothing, will ever hold God back.

There is Good News of great joy today. Are we ready to receive it? More importantly, are we ready to be changed by it? Amen.

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