Love Came Down at Christmas:
“Love was born at Christmas. Star and angels gave the sign”
Written by Calum Piper
I know we're nearly at Christmas and we're nearly into a new year, but I want you to cast your mind back to May, to that special day where King Charles III was crowned at Westminster Abbey. Throughout the day it felt like every time he moved he was accompanied with a fanfare. Trumpets galore were surrounding Westminster Abbey as the king got out the carriage, there were trumpets as he entered Westminster Abbey, as he was presented, and then as the crown was placed on his head. As the King left the abbey there were then more trumpets. There was a really big statement being made. This is our king and this is him being crowned.
The story of Christmas is God reaching down to the world he made. It's a story where God says “I love humanity so much. I want to really engage in that relationship with them.” He knows the only way he could do it was to come and be present on earth himself.
God is born. As a human.
Mind blowing. The theology can be just completely baffling, but, the creator of the universe, the creator of the earth, becomes a human being.
If I was God, I would have probably done it a little bit like King Charles did his coronation day with all sorts of trumpet fanfares, with great spectacle, majesty, pomp and ceremony to make my point known; ‘Look, I'm God. I'm coming to Earth. Look at me’.
And yet God didn't do it like that.
God chose to come as an innocent baby child.
God chose to come to a woman who was betrothed to be married, but not yet married.
God chose to come as the son of a humble Carpenter.
Quietly in a stable. He chose to come in complete poverty despite the fact that he had existed in the riches of heaven.
There was no Roman army to welcome him. There were no Jewish ceremonies to welcome him, to say, ‘welcome. Aren't you amazing? God, the Messiah has finally arrived.’
The only fanfare for Jesus was a star to say ‘Look, he's here’. A star that needed someone really intelligent to understand it.
Then there were angels who appeared to people who were considered not acceptable to wider society.
God came to Earth and made his home in the stall in a stable. He was welcomed by shepherds and foreign wise men. In that moment, God shows us exactly what love is.
Love is not going round shouting about ourselves saying how great we are, but love is about that humble serving attitude. Saying ‘I love you so much. I will do anything I can to reach out to you and to tell you how amazing you are’.
God came at Christmas, as a child, to tell each and every person that was alive then, that is alive now, that has been alive in all that time between and all those people who are yet to be born, that they matter.
God came to each one of those people at Christmas to say you are loved, you have a purpose and you matter. He did that through the most powerful way, not coming and saying look at me, but coming and living as one of us and sharing all that we experience,
“God is love. And those who live in Love, live in God and God lives in them.” (1 John 4)
Love was born at Christmas through a baby child, who reaches out to you to say:
‘You matter! I love you! Let's do life together.’
Wherever you are this Christmas, however, you're celebrating. Know that the birth of Christ, which is at the heart of the story, is for you. And you matter. Wherever you are. However, you're celebrating from everyone here at St Michael's, Happy Christmas.