As Christians, we are called to minister to the oppressed and lift up the down-trodden because God is particularly and peculiarly interested in the marginalized, the oppressed, those that our society often sees as “less than”. People of color, people who identify as LGBTQ+, people who are poor, people who have mental health challenges. In God’s eyes, there are no “less-than” people, only God’s beloved ones. Martin Luther King Jr understood this. Our faith is not only about our own private salvation, although it is most certainly that as well. It is primarily about the salvation of the world. And God’s kingdom starts now.

I think that the four evangelists took care with the presentation of this story because of their conviction that where Jesus leads we will follow. Our baptisms bear all of these elements that are used to portray the baptism of Jesus. Baptism is a token of the life of repentance into which we enter. It is a reorientation from a preoccupation with self to a following of Christ; it calls us to discipleship; and it joins to a family of faith.

When all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened."

We are all weary, bone-tired, there is no doubt about it. But holding on to hope and channeling our inner “Ted Lasso Wise Man” is key to our spiritual health as we go forward. God led the wise men with a star in the sky and a light in their hearts and that same light has burned throughout the ages leading faithful people forward and it still lights our way forward today, step by step by step. We will get through this, together, and our faith will continue to keep us strong, flexible and resilient. The Christ Star is within us and beyond us and it never burns out.

Beginning, end, or somewhere in between, wherever you find yourself in time’s contemplation today, take a moment to rest in the knowledge and love of God, and his Son, Jesus Christ, who did truly, as T.S. Eliot so beautifully puts it, allow for “grace dissolved in place.” [2]

For what is grace but those sometimes rare, always unbidden, and ultimately fleeting moments of transcendence – still points in the midst of our busy, scattered lives, where we connect to God and to whom we truly are: God’s beloved children. Where we, in our temporal lives, brush against something gloriously timeless. Truly, all things have been filled with the knowledge of God. [3]

“This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” Luke 2: 1-20

These simple words are powerfully understated and deeply mysterious. “This will be a sign for you.” When the shepherds responded to these words and went to the manger, what did they see? A newborn child born to poor parents, just like so many others, or a holy child who held the hopes and dreams of years and years of prophesy and longing? What we see depends upon our capacity for wonder.

Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.

At Christmas, we are reminded that to love is to be vulnerable. And that the same is true for God. For God is love. And when God decided that to be God without us was unacceptable, he became God with us in a very specific way: as a “little baby, all red and wrinkled, olive skinned, thick dark curly hair, but a face that looks like Winston Churchill, as all babies do.”

A baby, placed in our hands. Vulnerability incarnate.