Meditating on the mystery of Jesus' Birth, the Incarnation Dear Fellow Children of God,of God's Son!

On Tuesday, December 10, I confined myself to my office at church to work on worship services and bulletins – lots of them. In addition to regular Sunday worship, and in addition to Advent Mid-Week Wednesday worship, I sought to plan worship in a way to reach people’s hearts with the love of Jesus for four other services. I worked on bulletins for the funeral service of Linde Katritizky on Friday, December 20, for a special 5:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service for young children, for a special 7:00 p.m. Christmas Eve Candlelight Service - with LOTS of special music - for adults, and for a peaceful, quiet Christmas Day communion service. That is quite a number of worship services and sermons. (Please also remember, When the pastor has these extra tasks, so do the office staff, volunteers, and music ministry!)

Through the years, I have learned to try and not be overwhelmed by the busy-ness of this season of faith. I try not to resent this holy celebration. I have heard people, I have even some church workers say, “I can’t wait for Christmas to be over!” The lesson I have learned is to try to be in the moment to enjoy the mystery of Jesus’ birth. I have come to believe that this mystery of our Lord’s incarnation is so deep, that it takes a LOT of thought, and consideration, and meditation.

Please meditate with me for a moment on the words of Ephesians 3. These inspired words are not usually considered Christmas verses, but please meditate on them with me again. God inspired St. Paul to write to the Christians in Ephesus,

“14 . . . I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—"

“that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

“20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever.” (Ephesians 3:13-21)

Have you ever considered how great a mystery it is that our holy Lord, THE Son of God, took on human form? (If you desire to delve more into this mystery consider some other verses of Scripture: Psalm 110:1 and Matthew 22:41-46, and also Galatians 4:4-7.) The birth of God’s Son Himself as a man is truly beyond our ability to comprehend. Yet, God’s love for us led our Heavenly Father to send Jesus. That love is, as Paul says in Ephesians 3, “broad and long and high and deep!” (v. 18) That love does “surpass knowledge.” (v. 19) The fact that, through the angel, God named His Son “Jesus”, or “SAVIOR” (Matthew 1:21), is amazing! (Consider also 2 Corinthians 5:21 and Philippians 2:5-11.) This infant, born of Mary in a manger, is THE Son of God who came to bear the sin of the world and to offer forgiveness and salvation to ALL people!

In my devotional readings for today I read a verse from Proverbs 14, which has never struck me before. Proverbs 14:4 reads, “Where there are no oxen, the manger is clean, but abundant crops come by the strength of the ox.” In other words, when there is no work to do, when no ox is needed, even the manger in a stable is clean. BUT, there was a lot of work to do in saving the world. Jesus came to a dirty manger and took on the mess of this world for us! What a mystery!

Paul prays that we may have strength to comprehend this mystery of God’s love, a mystery which does surpass understanding. I personally need a lot of time to meditate on the broad and long and high and deep love of God found in the unfathomable incarnation of His Son. Maybe that’s why I get to prepare so many worship services! Maybe that is why we get so many opportunities to worship, and pray, and meditate, and thank, and praise during this holy season!!!

My bulletin work is done – for the most part. I have started work on all my sermons through Christmas Day. I will focus and meditate upon the broad and long and high and deep mystery of Jesus, which is surely beyond my understanding!