1st Sunday after Christmas C

Happy 5^th/6^th Day of Christmas!!  That’s right isn’t it? Let’s Count it Out… It annoys me when even major retailers do not do their due diligence to know what the 12 days of Christmas are – this year I was getting all of the Starbucks coupons for special deals on the 12 days of Christmas – BEFORE Christmas. 

In today’s Gospel, we get the Birth Story of Jesus from John’s perspective – you heard all about the angels and shepherds and cows, and the manger in that didn’t you?  Nope.  This is John’s version and it is PACKED with Words upon Words about The Word.  We don’t get any glimpses of the Charlie Brown Christmas special here – or even a lineage like we get from Matthew – here we get the back story.  In the Beginning is actually better stated as Before the Beginning… before Genesis… before Creation… before Time began ticking.

If you remember your Genesis stories of Creation (yes there are 2) – God speaks Creation into being.  The lack of violence is one of the profound differences in the Christian version of Creation vs the other Ancient Near East versions of Creation.  God Speaks the Word and Creation begins.  The Spirit moves over the water at Creation – the Trinity in action from the beginning. 

This text from John is read every first Sunday after Christmas – maybe because it is such a tough concept for us to grasp – maybe because it is so important for us to remember that Jesus may have been born in the flesh in a manger but he was before time, maybe just to confound us.  It’s hard to know.  But He was born among us – perfect God and perfect Man – born to speak to us of God’s love.  Born to free us from the Law.  Born so that we could have Faith and be adopted as sisters and brothers, heirs, not slaves.  The Incarnation of Christ is the beginning of a new way for us to be in relationship to God.  A way of freedom and peace and light. 

On this 5^th/6^th Day of Christmas, let us ponder that new Light in our lives that the Word brings – Let us find new ways to accept the perfect gift freely given by Jesus. 

He became as we are so that we could strive to become as He is – Come Let Us Adore Him!