A Socially Distanced Christmas
/This 2020 Christmas and the surrounding holiday season have been unusual to say the least. We all have been trying to figure out how to be with loved ones and maintain whatever traditions we could and still be safe.
Well, rather than nixing our family Christmas Eve tradition of “Poppi’s Christmas devotions,” my darling husband John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, used what has been happening in our COVID world to share with the grands and their parents (in our hybrid celebration) the glory of the Incarnation.
So here is my favorite “Guest Branch” John, revisiting his message to our family this past Christmas Eve . . .
“Socially distanced” has become the catch phrase of the pandemic.
· We have had to resort to distanced ways to speak to or meet with someone.
o 6 feet away with a mask on
o Phone
o Email
o Facetime
o Zoom, Webex, Skype (School, Dads)
· But what is the best way to say something special to those we love?
. . . by being present, unmasked!
o We long for it
o Almost can’t resist it
o Incredibly essential
Let’s think for a minute how many ways people have sent messages to one another or signaled or talked to one another from a distance.
· How about if you are lost in the wilderness. How would you tell someone from a distance that you need help? (No cellular connection or your cell phone died.) You want to get back to together with your family.
o By yelling real loud
o By building a fire or sending smoke signals
o By reflecting the sun off a mirror
o By crafting a message with stones
o By shooting up a flares
· How about some ways people used to keep in touch with one another in the past without being together?
o By writing a letter (e.g. Paul the apostle writing to the churches)
o Through inventions
§ Telegraph
§ Telephone
§ Radio
§ TV
o But these just are not as good as actually being together in the same place, face to face.
Christmas is all about how God used a very unusual way to tell us in person about his love for us. He didn’t stay socially distanced.
· Hebrews 1:1-2 (NASB)
God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son. (literally, “in a son” or “in the person of a son”).
It is the way he did it that stands out.
By a Son, God made known to us who He is.
Christmas is a remembrance of how God has spoken to us.
The Christmas account emphasizes what the pandemic has made clear to us: that the best way to speak to others is person-to-person.
This Christmas season is all about rejoicing that the Lord Jesus chose to speak with us in the best way possible, face-to-face, as a man, in person, not socially distanced.
· John 1:14-18 (JBP)
So the word of God (Jesus) became a human being and lived among us. We saw his splendour (the splendour as of a father’s only son), full of grace and truth…
Indeed, every one of us has shared in his riches—there is a grace in our lives because of his grace…
It is true that no one has ever seen God at any time. Yet the divine and only Son, who lives in the closest intimacy with the Father, has made him known.
Jesus spoke to us about who God is by becoming one of us. Jesus identified himself with us.
Because he is one of us, he is able to gift us with his special favor so that we are uniquely one with him.
Because he is one of us, he has explained (“has exegeted”) who God is in a way we can understand.
He was “all in” when He became a man. He was not like us wearing masks, staying distant to be safe from COVID. He came to us, exposed Himself to our sinful world, took our sin “disease” upon Himself without being sick himself, and died instead of us to to make us whole.
· Isaiah 53:4-6 (The Message)
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.
So . . .
God found the best way to tell us about who He is,
face-to-face
as a man
in person
not socially distanced.
He sent His Son to be a man so that He could take care of our problem with sin through Jesus. He did not stay separate from us. He became one of us.
That is what we celebrate at Christmas.
