On the Sunday after Christmas, when the “world” has mostly moved on to putting out Valentine’s Day decorations and the Christmas “stuff” either on sale or gone as if Christmas Eve was the culmination of Christmas rather than it’s introduction, we in the church are just beginning to settle in with the newborn, to think about life with this savior who has arrived and how he might change our lives forever.

There are four accounts of how Jesus came to us and none are exactly the same. The writer of the Gospel (meaning Good News) of Luke gave us the beauty of a silent night when Christ was born in a stable, his manger surrounded by shepherds and angels. The writer of the Gospel of Matthew gave us the journey of the magi who followed a star in the sky to the stable. The Gospel of Mark, the first gospel probably written, has no birth story. Jesus arrived on the scene as an adult.

The Gospel of John is different from the other three gospels in that it introduces us to the Logos – the Word – Jesus – as a cosmic pre-existence: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. So according to John, Jesus has been in a cosmic existence ever since the beginning. Its author (or authors) makes no attempt to give a chronological account of the life of Jesus but rather “These things are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name."

John’s Gospel does not make it easy for our need to get our human expectations and explanations pinned down. Bible scholar and theologian, Walter Bruggeman says that, “The expectation of Jesus, is outside all of our normal categories. Our business is not to explain the text. Our business is to be dazzled at Christmastime that something is happening beyond all of our calculations. The arrival of God among us is a wonder and a gift that is designed to move us beyond ourselves.”

We celebrate Christmas – not for the presents or the decorations or the parties but because God came to be among us, in an unexpected way, in the midst of a world that was living in turmoil and fear, where shepherds were low class or no class, women were property, taxes to Rome weighed people down, the sick were ostracized because they must have done something wrong to get sick, and life was uncertain for most of the population.

God chose to be with us in our joy, in our suffering, our fear, in our exhilaration, our despair and in the rejection and harshness of life. The significance of this is astounding and beyond belief. I have to admit that the enormity and scope of God is way beyond what my small little mind can comprehend.

When I was living in Florida, I was thinking of this whole issue of God coming among us while I was driving to church early one Sunday. I saw a little puppy bounding down the road. It was a cocker spaniel, its little ears flapping away as it ran and it had an expression on its face that was quite joyful. Luckily there wasn’t too much traffic on the road, however, the middle of the road is never a safe place for runaway puppies to be.

A woman in front of me slowed down and I slowed as much as I could. The woman then pulled over, got out of her car, and tried to catch the puppy. By this time another car was coming up behind me. I pulled in front of the woman and looked back. The puppy had gotten away from her. I was about to get out when I noticed the other car. Oh no, I thought, he’ll hit the puppy. But instead the car stopped – so the woman’s car was stopped in the right lane and the other car was stopped in the left. A man got out of the car and together the man and woman finally caught the puppy. I drove on.

That image stayed with me though. There was that puppy, thinking it had somehow or other gotten free to do as it pleased, just running down the road without a clue as to where it was going or what it was doing or the danger it was in. And then there were those wonderful people who stopped, bound and determined that no harm would come to that puppy. I imagined that they must have knocked on doors that morning until they found the owner of the puppy. Honestly, I think that’s a great metaphor for God coming in our lives. Sometimes we’re like that puppy. Just going like crazy with all our free choices in life – many times clueless as to what we are doing where we are going or the danger in which we place ourselves. And I picture God thinking “I’ve got to do something to stop them from hurting themselves or others”. So God stops and enters into story of our lives.

Now in this day and age we deal in facts. All of this information from the Bible is not what we could call ‘factual’, recorded in the history books. So where does that leave us? Do we believe about Jesus, about God, without asking questions, repeat creeds and doctrine by rote without ever mulling over what they might possibly mean, and just accept whatever is handed to us? Or do we choose to actually believe in God, to feel secure enough in the love of God to ask questions, challenge Scripture, and still give our commitment, trust, and faith to God as known to us in Jesus Christ?

In Eugene Peterson’s translation of the bible called “the Message”, today’s gospel says: ‘The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood.” What would that be like to believe that Christ indeed not only came among us but is living in our neighborhood?

I suppose if we thought of a neighborhood as wonderful houses, tree-lined streets, a car in every driveway, we could imagine what a good life Christ would lead. But then that also means God could live in public housing or perhaps in a shelter near Family Woodstock or the Salvation Army in Kingston. What a different life Christ would lead.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God. Words are really just abstract concepts until someone acts upon them, embodies them. Words associated with Jesus are compassionate, generous, patient, understanding, righteous…what makes them more than just concepts is that Jesus lived out those words, embodied the words, and therefore was the Word.

On Christmas Day I wandered over to the Community Center and volunteered to be an extra pair of hands. I ended up at the dessert table for about four hours. Some people came in with guitars and I thought ‘Oh no, this is going to be loud in an already small place which was abuzz with noise.’ The singers, and there were several of them, sang everything from Run, run Rudolph to If I had a hammer. Their singing was a wonderful gift of embodying Christ on Christmas Day. Then, in the midst of all the adult guitars and singing a small child got up on the stage with violin in hand. Someone shushed the crowd and for about 15 minutes, this young girl had everyone spellbound with her beautiful repertoire of music. She gave us the gift of presence and of peace, and she embodied the spirit of Christmas – of the Word coming into the neighborhood to be with us. There is no age limit on embodying the Word – of being Christ in the neighborhood.

In this short season, this time of celebration when God came into our lives, how about letting Christ settle into the neighborhood of your heart. Think about the way he embodied his words through his actions. Mull over the Luke and Matthew Gospel stories which move pretty quickly from the sweet babe in the manger to a family fleeing from danger to a young boy teaching in the temple to an adult challenging the corrupt powers of the time.

Contemplate what you might do to embody the Word. Counting today there are still 10 days of Christmas left…plenty of time to turn words, concepts, into actions of generosity, compassion and love.