{"id":912,"date":"2012-12-25T08:05:14","date_gmt":"2012-12-25T13:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=912"},"modified":"2012-12-25T08:06:32","modified_gmt":"2012-12-25T13:06:32","slug":"christmas-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/christmas-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

Christmas, Year C<\/a>
\nIsaiah 9:1-6
\nTitus 2:11-14
\nLuke 2:1-14
\nDecember 25, 2012<\/p>\n

O Come All Ye Faithful!<\/p>\n

Familiar words to many.\u00a0 It\u2019s my favorite Christmas hymn.<\/p>\n

It also fits today.\u00a0 Look at all the people.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about Christmas that draws many people out.\u00a0 We welcome all of you here, whether you are a regular, a visitor from out-of-town, or an occasional attendee, we\u2019re glad you\u2019re here.<\/p>\n

What is it that draws some people this day?<\/p>\n

Well, with faith in Jesus, Christmas is a joyful day for the Lord is triumphant over this world.\u00a0 O Come All Ye Faithful!\u00a0 Joyful and Triumphant.<\/p>\n

The song calls us to Bethlehem.\u00a0 We aren\u2019t all going to Bethlehem, the holy place of Jesus\u2019 birth but as we celebrate his birth, we come here to God\u2019s house.\u00a0 We remind ourselves of that first Christmas (beginning with our pageant) and recalled in our manger scene.<\/p>\n

It is a humble scene, the grace of God has appeared.\u00a0 The Son of God lies in a manger.\u00a0 It is no grand scene fit for a king.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very humble scene.\u00a0 A little infant born not in plushy accommodations but in a stable, no place for any child, let alone the Son of God.<\/p>\n

The humbleness of the scene is part of the joy.\u00a0 God did not demand we bow before him but rather came to be one like us to give us hope. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Who were the first to see him?\u00a0 Not kings and leaders but rather simple shepherds.<\/p>\n

Why might we need this hope?\u00a0 Our world is not perfect.\u00a0 Terrible things do happen.\u00a0 We might feel like we live in darkness.\u00a0 We want out of the darkness and into the light.\u00a0 We want to know there is something more.<\/p>\n

God had been promising good things and a new king for centuries.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 birth shows us that God always keeps his promise.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Even our gospel reading takes time to point out that God has a plan and keeps his promise.\u00a0 Part of the promise was that the new messiah would come from David\u2019s line.\u00a0 The descendants of David had grown astray but God never forgot his promise.\u00a0 The time has finally come!<\/p>\n

So Jesus\u2019 birth is truly good news of great joy!<\/p>\n

For today in the city of David, a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.<\/p>\n

Yes, a Savior!<\/p>\n

Not just another prophet but a savior.\u00a0 We have sinned and we need a savior.\u00a0 We need a new beginning.\u00a0 Through Jesus we have a new beginning, a new beginning from the days of the Israelites to the Christian faith with all the hope.<\/p>\n

As our Savior, Jesus will pay the price for all our sins.\u00a0 Maybe we fall into darkness but in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we confess our sins and Jesus gives us a new beginning, a new beginning in hope, hope knowing that God loves us so much as to become human. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We look at Jesus lying in the manger.\u00a0 We see new life.\u00a0 We see the innocence of a child.\u00a0 We see hope.<\/p>\n

Jesus returns us to our innocence.<\/p>\n

Today truly is a joyful day.\u00a0 We come with faith in our hearts.\u00a0 We come with hope.<\/p>\n

All this is a gift.<\/p>\n

Christmas can be a busy time with much happening.\u00a0 In the midst of all of the busyness we take time to come here to remember what it is all about. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Remember we began with O Come All Ye Faithful.\u00a0 Do you also remember the words repeated in the refrain, O come let us adore him?<\/p>\n

We come to honor Jesus.\u00a0 We come to look upon Jesus lying in a manger.\u00a0 We come into the light.\u00a0 We come seeing great joy at Jesus\u2019 birth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christmas, Year C Isaiah 9:1-6 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-14 December 25, 2012 O Come All Ye Faithful! Familiar words to many.\u00a0 It\u2019s my favorite Christmas hymn. It also fits today.\u00a0 Look at all the people.\u00a0 There\u2019s something about Christmas that draws many people out.\u00a0 We welcome all of you here, whether you are a regular, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Christmas Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[62,82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-eI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=912"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":916,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/912\/revisions\/916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}