Sermon for the Second Sunday After Christmas
“Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.”
“This thing which is come to pass” is, literally, the saying or the word that has happened, what John memorably identifies as “the Word made flesh.” The birth of Christ sets the shepherds upon a journey, literally leaving their flocks by night, it seems, and hastening to Bethlehem to “see this thing which is come to pass.”
A journey to Bethlehem and yet Bethlehem is more than a destination. It marks another beginning, the beginning of a journey of the understanding. The shepherds go and are changed by what they hear and see. They “returned, glorifying and praising God for the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.” Ideas are communicated to us and they have the power to change us, to change our outlook and our ways.
What we behold in Bethlehem has precisely that kind of power. It is the power of the truth of God with us that so captivates the understanding that we are changed. We embark upon a new journey, not necessarily to a new place but certainly with a new understanding about ourselves, our humanity and God. Such is the radical meaning of the Christ’s holy birth. It changes how we see one another and how we see ourselves. Why? Because Christ’s holy birth bestows an unsurpassable dignity upon our humanity. Jesus Christ is God made man. In Christ our humanity is made adequate to the life of God; even more, our humanity finds its completion and truth in union with God in Christ. He comes to dwell with us so that we may have our abiding in him. How? By paying attention to all the things that are “heard and seen,” as the Shepherds say.
