In the creed we always refer to the fact that Jesus, the Son of God, became Man. And that’s what we are celebrating today. We refer to this mystery as the “incarnation”, which is latin for “taking on flesh”. And of course for us Christians that’s the key moment at which our salvation began. Jesus, the son of God, took on flesh, was born, grew up, preached and worked miracles, suffered and died, and rose again from the dead to return to the heaven from which he came. But why? Why did God choose this way to save us?
He didn’t have to. There was no obligation of God’s part to save us. But also, he didn’t have to do it this way. God could have saved us in any number of ways, most less painful and maybe more effective than the way he chose. What if the incarnation had never happened?
Some of us remember the story of Robinson Crusoe. There is a scene after the shipwreck when Crusoe finds that many things have been washed up on the beach. Somehow they all contribute to his ability to survive on the desert island. Why did these things wash up and many other things didn’t? In the story this fact just moves the plot along, but it might lead us to the question, why me? Why did God call me out of nothingness, and not someone else? In a sense each of us has been saved from a wreck. We don’t have to be, and we don’t have to be what we are. God’s dealing with us is generous beyond imagining. Whatever else happens in our lives -- pain, old age, suffering; but joy, loving relationships, children, good food --whatever happens beats not existing at all. So why did God make you, make me? One theologian said that the reason was that God thought we might like it; he loved us before we began in our mother’s womb.
Not to digress, but think about the miracle of Cana. Jesus took water and made it into wine. Pretty spectacular, right? But put it against the background of how ordinary wine is made. Water is taken up by the grape plant and using energy from the sun, and the labor of human beings, it becomes wine. Jesus, being God, was not doing something unnatural, but something that reflected the essence of a natural process.
You may know someone who has had amazing spiritual experiences; I do. I’ve heard of people who have spoken in tongues, been slain in the spirit, witnessed the expulsion of demons. You may have heard of someone who was almost miraculously converted; some overwhelming experience changed a life forever. I’ve known people like that as well, people who almost overnight went from indifference to an overwhelming desire to be a saint. But just between you and me, I’ve been an average Catholic all my life, never doubting that I was in the right faith, always aware that I do not live up to the standards of the saints. No sudden conversion, no miraculous happenings.
The incarnation is something like the miracle of Cana. It’s not a one-off spectacular miracle; it’s a teaching for each of us from God. God gives his Son, gives himself, really, as a total gift to us because he thinks we might like it. He shows us his plan through the life of Jesus -- who lives our life, who is like us in everything but sin; who dies, and who is rescued from death and seated in heaven --that’s the gift God offers to us. And we’ve done nothing for the gift of existing, and nothing for the gift of salvation. As scripture tells us every good and perfect gift comes from God.
We live our lives as though we are the center of the universe. That’s just a fact, not good, not bad. What do we do in response to God’s gift? All we can do is give him our hearts. That’s what love is all about. Giving God our heart means that we try to put him in the center, which means we try to make room there so God can occupy it. And you and I can do this no matter what we might have experienced or failed to experience, because incarnation happened and it happens even now as God enters our lives and we are born again, and he gradually or suddenly takes on our flesh, our body, our soul.
The only thing that is ours, the only thing we can bring to God, is our sin, our false self. And that’s all he wants. And we go to him and say “lord, I feel bad about myself, but I’m yours. Lord, I’m not proud of what I did, but I’m yours. Lord, I’m sorry for failing you again, but I’m yours.” And the incarnation reminds us that God has given us the greatest gift he can give -- himself. And all he wants from us, no matter how sinful, how imperfect, how damaged we may be, is our heart, the center where we live. He says "move aside, and let me be the center of your universe. That’s why I called you into being. That’s why I gave you my whole self. All I want is your heart. .
As you leave Church today, pause in front of the manger, look at the baby, and say, “Lord, I’m far from the gift I wish I could give you, but I’m yours; take my heart.”
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