"What if . . . " ** a sermon for Christmas Eve, 12/24/25**

What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Tryin' to make His way home?

 

So asks the song by Joan Osburne.  As people of faith, we believe that we do not have to wonder.  We believe that God, did in fact, become one of us.

 

Tonight, we gather to remember that wonderful mystery.  God became human flesh and blood in a vulnerable, helpless baby.

 

Or, as Max Lucado likes to say, God moved into the neighborhood.  God pitched tent and lived among us.  As one of us.

 

Can you imagine that?

 

The Author and Source of all life became like one of us.  That is how much God, the Creator of the Universe, loves us.  Each and every last one of us.

 

The Babe of Bethlehem, the Christ Child is God’s personal love note to you and me.  God did not send another prophet.

 

No, God sent the One called Immanuel, God with Us, the Son, God’s very own Self to “live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to God.”

 

Theologian and poet Howard Thurmun reminds us that we celebrate Christmas best when we honor the Christ Child by feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the poor.

 

May Christmas not be just a day, a season . . . but a way of life.  A life that points others to the hope, the mystery that God is one of us and is with us in the darkness.

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