The first Christmas reminds us that everyone is invited to find God. Hearing in the Gospel that foreigners were the first who worshipped God at His birth, reminds us that God gives everyone exactly what they need to find Him. He gave the Magi a Star. He gave us the Church. Now, He has given us to those around us to help them find Christ. Merry Christmas
My brothers and sisters, this is a great opportunity for us tonight. Tonight, we are gathered to the fullness of the church to celebrate the great gift of Christmas. Tonight is not a night for us to dwell upon what we did to get here. Tonight is our opportunity to remember why we are here. We’re here because Christ invited us. We are here because just over 2,000 years ago, Christ came, became a human being, so that we could partake in his divine nature. That is the invitation of God. And in this gospel that we just heard, who were the first human beings that recognized him? It wasn’t the Jews. It was the foreigners. The magi came because they saw in the stars that the king had been born.
You see, my brothers and sisters, God always gives us what we need to find him. The magi needed a star. The Jews needed a Messiah. The Greeks, we’re not native to the church. We needed the logical understanding of who God is so we could embrace him and follow him into heaven. You see, my brothers and sisters, God has given us what we need to follow him.
But the gospel also shows us what happens when we use our free will against God. Herod, a king of the Jews, should have been filled with ecstatic joy. God gave Herod everything he needed to believe, but Herod chose his own way. You see, my brothers and sisters, that’s why we’re here because we have chosen God’s way tonight because we have accepted his invitation and I promise you God will bless us for making that choice tonight. God will continue to bless our community every time we choose Christ and his way, instead of the way of the world. Don’t follow Herod. Follow the magi. Allow God to lead us into his kingdom. And then Christmas won’t just be a day of twinkling lights and banquet tables. Christmas will be the day that we discover that God has come to us and for us.
There’s a great movement happening in the church right now. Visitors are coming. I’m meeting them here in our cathedral on a weekly basis. We read stories of dozens and hundreds of strangers coming to the church. God has called them. Our opportunity now is to welcome them into God’s church because we have what they need, we have God. And God is going to use us as he used the star, as he used the angels. He’s going to use us to bring others to himself if we allow him that gift.
So my brothers and sisters, let’s celebrate Christmas, not just at the Christmas tree, but in our hearts and in the church, not just today, but tomorrow and throughout the year, worshiping God, welcoming him into our hearts as he welcomes us into his kingdom. Christ is born, glorify him.
