Meeting Jesus--December 24, 2021

Meeting Jesus--December 24, 2021

Today is simple.  Well, clear, anyway.  Today's faith practice for embodying hope--the last in this series for Advent, since today is the end of Advent and the beginning of Christmas--is only this: go to meet Jesus in worship.  Today.  Tonight.  Empty-handed.  Unsure of what to expect, that's fine.  Dressed in whatever you already have on--perfect.  Go.  Encounter the God who has come among us in worship this Christmas Eve.

That's what the story is all about, anyway: a whole bunch of people, most of them unrelated, all brought together and gathered into one place simply because that's where Jesus is--and God has drawn them to Jesus.  Shepherds who had no clue what to expect when they got there.  Joseph, still trying to figure out what his role is supposed to be in all of this.  Mary, absolutely exhausted as she looks at her newborn child.  And eventually, wanderers from even further away, who know only to follow the light in the sky that keeps pointing them to this child.  They all have one thing in common: they have been led to that place to meet Jesus.

We trust he is still waiting to meet us.  Not bound up in the same old swaddling clothes and stuck in an ancient manger, but still present.  Still ready to be met.  Still coming into places and times even when we make no room for him, or in situations where we can only offer what we have and trust that will be enough.  Still welcoming us into his presence with empty hands and surprised looks on our faces.  Yep--that's what Christmas is all about, after all.

So come.  Come in person to a house of worship today or tonight.  Come through technology and worship with a live-stream if that's the best means for where you are right now.  Come and set the other concerns in your life aside for a little bit--the flocks will still be there tomorrow, shepherd!  Come and meet Jesus, the One in whom God dwells with us.

We are ready, Lord Jesus, for your presence among us. Be real to us in new and deeper ways--and then be real for others by your presence embodied in us as well. Come, Lord Jesus.