Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve Bishop Eric Menees

Dear friends, Today of course is Christmas Eve, and I’m sure many of you are starting the Christmas season today with Eucharist at your church, either in person or streamed online. I want to take a brief break from our look at Ministry to the Dying and instead look at the collect for Christmas Day in our prayerbook.

Almighty God, you have given your only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and to be born this day of a pure virgin: Grant that we, who have been born again and made your children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with you and the same Spirit be honor and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

Christians around the world celebrate Christmas Day in multiple ways such as lessons and carols, posadas, nativity plays, but all of those things are reflections and celebrations of one singular truth, that God loves us so much that he would send his Son to take our nature upon him; to become man and taking on all the difficulty and weaknesses that entails. This year has been divisive, and there’s so much debate around this time of year on how to celebrate Christmas, but one thing is needful, the truth of the incarnation.  That doesn’t mean we can just sit and be content in knowing that fact, it’s a fact that calls us to action. Our celebration of Christ’s incarnation should be a reminder to each of us as Christians that we are not only created in the image of God, but we’re adopted sons and daughters of God. The Son of God became man so that we, man and woman, can become God’s sons and daughters. This Christmas season, don’t just celebrate the fact that God became man, rejoice in your own adoption. Spend time in prayer in thanksgiving for that adoption and asking God what that adoption means for you in your life. As God’s sons and daughters we are called to imitate Christ not only in how we live our lives but also how we minister and share the love of God with the world. I pray all of you have a blessed Christmas, rejoicing in the incarnation as well as your own adoption as a child of God!