Tuesday, December

Philip’s Focus

A Journey for all to Celebrate Jesus’ Birth

06

Our Advent journey is four weeks to prepare our hearts to celebrate the birth of Jesus. My grandson Luke was peppering me with Jesus’ birth questions last Saturday. Why did God come as a baby? Why was Jesus born? How was He born? I must admit, even after all these years of preparing Advent sermons, I still have many of the same questions as my six-year grandson.

There is such wonder and mystery in Advent. I still have mystery in answering questions too. How can Jesus be fully God and man? How can a virgin conceive? I have spent 47 years pastoring, swimming in the mystery of these questions.

While I do not fully grasp all the mystery of Jesus’ birth, I do glimpse a little more each year. Over time, I am grasping there are three births of Christmas. One, there is the miraculous birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Two, there is the new birth in our hearts when Jesus becomes our Lord and Savior. Three, when we engage again in the good news of Jesus’ birth every year, we experience the joy of this new birth yet again.

The first mystery is the actual birth of Jesus. We read the story in the Gospel of Luke of the virgin Mary, no room in the inn, a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, a star, shepherds, and wise men. In forty-seven years of pastoring, I have read or heard Luke’s extraordinary narrative and it never gets old! In fact, many times it is like hearing for the first time.

The second mystery is the birth of Jesus in our hearts. The Gospel of John shares the good news of the mystery that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Later, John would describe this as a new birth of the heart with the story of Nicodemus. The mystery in Christ is we can be born a second time.

The third mystery is Jesus can be born in our hearts each Christmas at another time. This is the most profound mystery for me. Even though I have celebrated Jesus’ birth over 60 years, each year I observe the season with child-like wonder and the message helps me interpret my current circumstances differently from the last years. Perhaps the mystery of 2 Corinthians 5:17 captures some of the mystery of celebrating Jesus’ birth yet another time… “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come; the old has gone, the new is here.” (NIV) My prayer is all of us will celebrate the birth of Jesus for the first time or another time this year! May our Advent journey make this year the greatest celebration ever!

Shalom

Philip