The prophet Isaiah’s words today, “Arise, shine, your light has come,” give us a double command, says scripture scholar, Diane Bergant.  “Arise,” means, “Get up—do something!” But not only that; we are instructed to “Shine”—which seems to give the sense of spreading something around!  Something wonderful has happened!  Jesus, our light has been born!  I think it is important that we look at just what that meant then and for us today.  All the prophets throughout the Old or First Testament, spoke with assurance of the coming of the Messiah, the One who would save them, basically, from themselves, the One who would teach them how to live—simply put, how to love and care for one another.

Throughout the readings that the Church has given us today, there are three themes or ideas that run through them. The first idea comes from Psalm 72 and names Jerusalem as the source of the light for the nations.  The psalmist is praying that God would bless the King or ruler, so that in turn, the ruler can bless the people.  We see that, it is not so much about who the ruler is, but how that ruler will be with people.  The movement of grace—of good, is always meant to move outward–never is it meant for just one family, one people—but inclusively–for all people.

In Old Testament times, authority for the Jewish people was always seen as given by God, or regulated by God. The psalmist prays wonderfully for the King, that the ruler, then and now would have a measure of God’s own justice and that this justice would give birth to harmony and peace because then this would lead to complete well-being for all.

This sense of having authority, or power, and understanding that it is a gift to be regulated, to be shared for the good of all reminds me of an experience that I had in the recent past, with someone that I was required to be in a ministry position with who was seemingly into her own power and it made it very difficult for me to work with her, because she seemed very possessive of that power and gift. I was apparently judged and convicted of some “crime” before even being put into the position and as a result, she simply chose to ignore me and treat me with disdain, even though our respective positions required that we work together for the good of all. This situation didn’t allow for much peace or harmony.

And in your lives, you realize that receiving just treatment in this life enables you to be at peace and live to your potential.  This is true for each of us.  Without just treatment, our lives can be pretty miserable as I realized in the example from my own life.  We can also think of those who live in poverty—those who have no jobs or not the kind that give them a decent living, those with mental illness, those who suffer from addictions—their situations may involve injustice too, especially if no one steps up to help.

For the prophets in Old Testament times, as well as for the people; the real sign of the true character of leadership was seen if the most vulnerable in society were cared for—the poor.  If these lowliest ones’ needs were met, then indeed, this was the sign that “justice had flowered in the land.” History, I believe, will record that part of the legacy of the Obama Administration will be his concern for these same poor—that our national debt would not be laid entirely on those most vulnerable and least able to bear it—that again, justice would rule.  Each of us is challenged to meet the needs of those in our midst, to live compassionately, remembering, “that there but for the grace of God, go I.”

The second theme that runs through our readings is that Jesus, who is the Christ, the Anointed One, is the very revelation of God to all the nations. This is what the astrologers; the Three Kings understood when they saw the baby Jesus in Bethlehem. They further realized how right it was that this new ruler should come not in majesty, but in poverty—for indeed he would be a light to all the nations making it very clear that the least among us are loved and cared for by our just God and if we would follow him, we must do the same—we simply cannot ignore the vulnerable in our midst.

The third theme or idea running through the readings today is the new relationship that will be from now on between Christ, the Jews and the Gentiles.  The Gentiles represent all the others who are not Jews, like all of us here!  You see, the first Christians—Jews, thought that Jesus’ coming was just for them, but soon came to realize that Jesus meant much more than that.  That is the whole point today of the coming of the Magi—the Three Kings—from foreign lands, to see the manifestation of God for all peoples.

In this light; I reflect on the interfaith group that Dick Dahl and I participate in in our community—recognizing that we are all one under our One, Good God!  The Kings weren’t intended to merely see, but to share the Good News, that, “God is with us!” And this is where the “shining” comes in—the Magi took the wonderful news back to the “foreign” lands that they came from.

Friends, as we complete the Christmas Season today, let us remember and not often forget that our mission is to share Jesus and his preferential option for the poor with the world in which we live. We are also called to be compassionate people—ever grateful for all that we have been gifted with in life and to share our abundance with others in the ways that we can.  This will mean, showing kindness, mercy, understanding and love. It will mean taking responsibility for seeing that the poor and down-trodden in our midst is cared for—we have the wonderful example of the Warming Center in Winona which opened its doors this weekend. Being of this mindset should find us enraged with tax cuts for the wealthiest in our country. It will call us to make sure that those we elect to lead us have this same vision—we will be challenged in this in the next four years!  But if we can do these things and more, then our world will indeed become more just for all people—Jesus’ light will continue to shine through us!

So, my friends, if we look at the crib and see only a sweet baby—then we will have missed the point of Christmas! Jesus came as a sweet baby, yes!—the way we all come into the world, because God wanted us to know how much we are loved and the best way to do that was to be one of us and with us! But his mission and ours mean so much more than simply being born, living a while, and then dying. Each of us needs to live in such a way that when we come to the end of our lives, we can truly and humbly feel that Jesus’ love and justice are more a part of our world than before we came because that is what we have lived for and tried to bring about.

I began today with two commands—I repeat them now for us all—Arise! Shine!—our light, Jesus, has come and shows us the way!  The joy that the Magi found in a poor stable in Bethlehem, was a truth they could carry back to their homelands—our God has come in poverty to show us what is most important—that we live and love and care for all.  May we each be blessed this New Year to be people guided by the light of that same star that showed the Magi what life is really all about—love, pure and simple—this is the Christmas Story—this is what the Incarnation is really all about!

My friends, we are at a New Year—2017—a new beginning—a new chance to start again—a reason to hope.  The Church Universal gives us a reason to be encouraged as the theme of “fullness of life” bursts forth in every reading today, says scripture scholar, Diane Bergant.

The first reading from Numbers contains one of the oldest pieces of poetry in the Bible, she tells us. It was originally given to Moses and passed on to Aaron, his brother and ultimately to the priests for the People of God.  The blessings contained therein are asking for peace, which for the Jewish people was the condition of absolute well-being continues Bergant.  If you were at peace, and we can assume in a physical, emotional and spiritual sense, you really had it all! To be at peace in this sense was considered to have, “fullness of life.”

We can imagine that this sense of being, “at peace” came because one’s family was near, they were fed and otherwise cared for; they were well in body, mind and spirit.  This state of well-being gives each of us peace, when it is present.  I can’t help but think of the people right here in Winona that have to struggle many nights for a place to stay, out of the cold, and of the Winona Community Warming Center slated to open soon to alleviate some of their suffering.  This is a concrete example of living out our faith.

We see in the first reading from Numbers, our God, who wants us to know that we are not alone in our suffering, whenever and wherever we might experience it, wanting to help us make it better.   The reading says, “Invoke my name over the Israelites.”  In Hebrew, we get a clearer understanding of these words, when we read the translation—“Put my name on them” and I will then bless them.  In other words, we belong to God and God will indeed, walk with us.

Paul, in his letter to the Galatians, spells this out and makes clear the relationship intended by God with each of us.  We are made daughters and sons of this God because we have “the spirit of the Child which calls out, Abba!”  Abba can be translated as “Daddy” or “Loving Parent.”

Within this reading; we can’t lose sight of the fact that our God will work through the patriarchal society that exists, where the legal heirs in any familial or business dealings will be males, but under Christ, our God says, all become worthy, all become daughters and sons, “heirs” and children of God.  As someone once said, “This is huge!”

Paul goes on in his letter to the Galatians to make very clear the intentions of our God in caring for us.  Jesus, our brother was sent specifically by our loving God to teach us first and foremost, that we are loved and then once we know and understand this basic idea—really wrap our heads and hearts around it; we can then go out and do the same.

For Paul, this is all about “mission.”  Jesus, as God’s envoy—making him divine, “born of a woman”—becoming human—we are united, heaven and earth and as a result, are so capable of so much good!  Part of the good that each of us is capable of is pointed to in the gospel from Luke.  This gospel is the same one used on Christmas for the Mass at dawn, only the focus has changed from the shepherds to the child and his parents, Bergant tells us.  We see that Mary and Joseph respected the law as they had Jesus circumcised and they named him according to the instructions given by the angel before his conception.

The aspect though that I wish to call most attention to in this reading is that of Mary being a real, down-to-earth example of the need of contemplation in our lives.  We read, “Mary treasured all these things and reflected on them in her heart.” No doubt there was much that she didn’t understand about the miracle of which she was part—she and Joseph, so to reflect on the purely human, joined with the divine and all that it would mean, was truly something to treasure!  In our lives as well, we must take the time in our days to reflect on all that happens, how our God may want to work through it, through us, to allow Jesus to be born again and again, into our world.

Part of what makes the Christmas Season so rich is that each aspect is given its time; the shepherds, the Child, the parents, the Magi—each attempting to call forth something different in us.

We began this homily reflecting on the “fullness of life” as depicted in the condition of “being at peace.”  Mary, given to us today, as a woman of reflection speaks to this peace.  We have to be at peace to be able to reflect on what something means—none of us reflects very well when in a state of chaos. She encourages us to think on the significance of our faith as lived out through our daily experiences.  She points to being faithful to daily spiritual practices—contemplation being one—that better helps us see God’s presence in our lives—through each other.

So, my good friends, as we begin another new year, let us keep the psalmist’s prayer on our lips and in our hearts, “May God who is merciful, bless us,” and remember that this prayer is basically asking God to “smile upon us.”  Let us remember too that this is exactly what God wants to do!

And as we have said throughout this season, the over-the-top love of our God in sending Jesus demands that we respond in kind, giving love to all of God’s family, which will bring world peace—one day—“fullness of life”—for all!  Amen? Amen!

My friends, tonight and throughout the next 12 days of Christmas; we will be celebrating the fact that we are mightily loved by our God.  The birth of Jesus in time is testament to this great love—a God who wanted us to get this one fact and make no mistake about it. How better to do that than to take on our flesh, our human existence, become one of us? When the prophet Isaiah proclaims this truth, great hope comes with the proclamation—“A child is born to us!”—a child for whom the people will expect much; a child who will eventually show us the way to live our lives to the fullest.

As we have talked about throughout the Advent Season; it is all about love—freely given with the intent that this gift will be freely accepted and then shared with all.

The Christmas story is one that touches each of our hearts because it is such a purely human story.  It is good to spend time amid and throughout our Christmas festivities to focus on why we love this time of year so much, to look about our families and friends gathered and see at the heart of it all, the locus of the joy—God-is-with-us!  Because every bit of joy, laughter, fun, merriment, reaching out to others comes directly from the heart of God who made us precisely for this.  Let me say that another way—we, each of us are made to be “Christmas” people—living our human lives as fully as possible as the spiritual people each of us truly is.

I was watching this week, in preparation for this homily—I was watching for the joy.  With a little one in the house, the days are full with the simple, daily discoveries of what is new, interesting and fun—what can be shared with each other, and for me,  it was all encompassed each night as Elliot was prepared for bed by his mom and dad with his last joyful utterance, after all the hugs and blessings for a good night were spoken and shared, “I’ll see you tomorrow!”

Hope springs eternal at Christmas time—somehow it brings out, for the most part, the very best each of us can muster and I believe this is because we are hard-wired for just such goodness.  We show it partially through gift-giving which is ideally the over-flowing of a love that is already present and calls for special expression in this time/season of love.

This past week brought word in our family of a new, first baby for a niece and her husband, of an engagement for a nephew and his now fiancé. I think too of other joy-filled moments that came to my attention—of a 16 year-old young man who has been interested and motivated since he was 10 to reach out to the elderly in nursing homes bringing them letters of joy and caring.  His original interest has grown into a national and world-wide non-profit organization that strives basically to bring anonymous letters of joy to people that he realized in his own city of Cleveland, were being forgotten.  This is being our best!

And of course this season of joy has brought news of that which is less than our best—867 hate incidents in the 10 days after the presidential election—hate crimes that the U.S. Attorney General, Loretta Lynch has said “Stain our dearest ideals and our nation’s very soul.”  Certainly not our best!

We still hear of war around the world, of refugees simply looking for a place to call home, free of fighting, of bombs falling around them.  Again, not our best!

So friends, we see the juxtaposition of the coming of a child of love—which incidentally is true of every child born, each is a child of love—so we have this juxtaposition of a child who calls us to our best, now and always, even though, we as humans,  are capable of bad as well as good.

Christmas calls us to all that love means—the reaching out, the standing up for those who can’t stand for themselves, the giving of tough love at times when the best we have, our children, stray from their best selves, the speaking of a word of truth when the crowd is silent in the face of evil—so much my friends, and more.

The 14^th Century monk and theologian, Meister Eckhart was known to have proclaimed, “We all need to be mothers of God, birthing God into our world.” Jesus merely showed us the way to be our best selves and as his followers calls us continually to this quest.  As we celebrate the over-the-top love of our God in sending us Jesus, let us be strengthened and inspired to be his “mothers” in our world, wherever we are and in whatever we are doing.  Come, Jesus come to each of us this night and always!

Christmas is drawing near friends and during this final week, as throughout Advent, we are invited to think of our Loving God sending Jesus to be one-with-us—Emmanuel.  One of the images that is always raised is that of Jesus, as our king.  Let’s look at that image for a bit.  Jesus is king, yet not king, as we, or people then, knew a king to be—part of the reason that I always encourage us as a community to consider Jesus as brother and friend as opposed to “king” at the end of the Church Year. God turns things on their head in Jesus. Our notion of a king is about royalty—royalty is born of royalty—but not so here. Mary is a teenage girl—Joseph, a common laborer and not Jesus’ biological father.  Yet, these two common folk are asked to give Jesus physical life and care, and they do, giving everyone present, then and now, a whole new view of royalty.

We can think of all the young parents we know, especially those who are parents for the first time.  Everything is so new and the fragility of a newborn is so evident—they are so dependent on their parents for everything.  When we think of Mary and Joseph; we have to believe that they too worked together to care for their fragile, little Jesus who came to them in somewhat of dire circumstances according to the gospel account.

I think we sometimes reflect on the Christmas crib scene, the simple beauty, the divine connection and we forget the purely human elements which make the story so rich—the couple who had to be a couple of love to bring this miracle of love about.  Added to that, they must have had a great deal of faith, trusting that their God would be with them.

So, royalty in the instance of Mary and Joseph is more about that which we find within them as opposed to what we find without.  God, in Jesus, is always about showing us something new—a new way of thinking, a new way of being.

We can hardly look at how our God chose to come among us and not marvel.  Not in glory, but in simplicity.  Not in splendor, but in poverty.  Not in power, but in weakness.  Looking at this we must make the connection that Jesus came for the simple, the poor, the weak, proclaiming a message of love, hope and joy.  And whether we consider ourselves part of the middle class or above, Jesus still comes for each one of us because we are all, at times, poor and weak, whether it is in body, mind or spirit.

The readings today give us this juxtaposition, that our God comes for all of us—in our poorness—in whatever way.  Isaiah’s reading speaks of the king, Ahaz of the House of David.  The Southern Kingdom of Judah is being severely threatened at this time and Isaiah is speaking a word of hope, as all good prophets do, encouraging the king and all the people to be about “tranquil waiting,” not about terror and fright.  Isaiah goes on throughout his book proclaiming that faith alone in our loving God can save us.  Our sign will be a child who will be called Emmanuel—God-with-us.

We are called then to “tranquil waiting” the prophet Isaiah tells us—this opposed to living in fear.  The topic of fear is taken up in the gospel from Matthew as Joseph struggles with the purely human decision to take Mary as his wife even though the child she carries is not his.  A purely human dilemma! Another reason that we have to believe that this young couple loved each other very much—Mary trusting that Joseph would understand her “yes” to God even though she was already committed to him. We see Joseph, struggling in a purely human way, with his continual “yes” to Mary, given her circumstances.

But the gospel tells us that the heavenly visitor told Joseph to, “not fear.”   I think each of us, in our walk of faith must hear the angel’s words too, “fear not,” when life happens: illness, death, misunderstandings with friends, family, job loss, doubt and depression.

We should look to this young couple, so prominent in our scriptures of Advent and Christmas time and have hope that life does continue on and that we won’t be alone in our struggles.   I think it is important for us to wrap our minds and hearts around this story of the teenage girl and the laborer—Mary and Joseph, and let them come alive for us.

We spoke earlier of “royalty and I have suggested that the royalty was more from within than from without—to look at the crib scene, one wouldn’t think “royalty” at first glance.  But God had something else in mind—to have Jesus not only come into humanity, but to come in utter simplicity, humbleness and as an initial object of scorn through his parents’ assumed act.  Jesus then becomes someone that each of us, in whatever trouble we may find ourselves, can go to, because of the humble way that he chose to come into our world.

Earlier I mentioned my belief that Mary and Joseph had to have been a couple in love with each other to ultimately make the decisions they did, and to put their lives in peril even, to keep the child safe once he was born and they were forced to run for their lives to save him from the presumed king, Herod who so feared losing his power that he killed all the innocent children that he saw as likely rivals to his throne.

Faith, coupled with love can do great things—think of all the times in your life friends when you were sure there was something that you could not face, could not accept, but really had no choice but to face.  You managed to get through whatever ordeal it was and you probably would say that faith helped you to do it!  You may have even been aware that you had a strength beyond yourself.  That was your heart and spirit loving and giving beyond your own need to be fulfilled. It was a life-force greater than this world.  It was God-with-us—Emmanuel.

As you pray before the crib this Christmas Season, you might want to look into your life and find one unsettled issue there that you could bring before this Holy Family of love and faith and ask for the strength to do your part to bring Emmanuel—God-with-us to that place in order that in the New Year, more love and less strife can be present.

At Christmas time; we will be celebrating this God who wanted us to so clearly know that we are loved as to become one-with-us in Jesus.  We also celebrate the fact that Jesus not only became vulnerable this first time, but continually is ready and present to us—all we have to do is ask. Christmas finally calls us to the realization that Jesus will come a final time to bring each of us home.

For now though, it is sufficient to place ourselves, our hearts and minds into the story of a young couple who had great faith and great love and were willing to share that love for something greater than themselves.  This is the Christmas story.  It is a simple, yet profound message that engages people of all backgrounds and at all socio-economic levels.  I believe this is why, amid all the rush that this season can bring, that many people love it just the same.  I believe hope springs eternal within each of us, that love will prevail, that the best that we humans can give and be, is possible, now, and always!

We began this reflection speaking about kings and indicating that Jesus would be a king different than we expect.  Jesus will turn our concepts of “right” living on their heads at times—his way of being “king” will always be about the kingliness within—not the pomp and circumstance without.  Where and when, people move out of faith and love and show it in the works of mercy,  justice, compassion and self-giving for others—God will be there; Jesus our king will be present.

In that light, I wanted to share with you the informational meeting that Robert and I attended this past week for the Winona Community Warming Center where 25 people signed up to assist in covering the night hours that will allow the center to be open and give shelter from the cold to 10 homeless individuals each night.  Our parish is helping the endeavor additionally through material and financial gifts. Thanks to all of you who contributed.  This is the type of “royalty”–from the inside, that our brother, Jesus calls us to in our lives. Amen? Amen!

Friends, we have reached the mid-way point of our Advent journey to Jesus—to the crib, and we rejoice!  Amid the rejoicing though, there is doubt as evidenced by the chosen readings for today’s liturgy.  The two aspects of rejoicing and doubting not only show themselves in our readings today, but, if we are honest, in our lives as well.  Most of us live between the tensions.  We know the hope, for which we live—that Jesus lived, died and rose and that his life changed. Because of him; we know the same is true for us—yet we struggle through our imperfect lives at times.  There are many moments of joy—but there are times of sadness, loneliness, sickness, war, misunderstandings in families, among friends and nations, suffering in the world that we can’t alleviate and we pray—“How long O God—come, Jesus, come—show us how to make life, our world better.”  Isaiah addresses our concerns today—“Courage! Do not be afraid! Look, your God is coming—is coming with justice—is coming to save you.”

This past week, our little Elliot celebrated his 3^rd birthday and we, his family, remember well his precarious entering into life, two months early at 3#2 oz. and of how wonderfully he has grown ever since! The tensions we live between!

This past year has been full with the new and different, the disappointing, the ups and downs, joys and sorrows—our country, for the first time in our history nearly elected its first woman president and because of her courage to take on a system that has never before elected a woman to its highest office, it will be much easier for the next woman to do it!

Each of us has lived through the ups and downs of this past year and could speak to what has been good, what, not so good and how these experiences have changed us.  Hopefully, you and me have come through it all, better,  and knowing that our good God has walked with us.  During this Advent Season, one has to marvel that our God chose to be one of us and become, like us, so fragile, yet so wonderfully made!

And so, even though life isn’t perfect, the human spirit, coupled with the divine within each of us, moves in hope for that time when strife, illness, confusion, poverty, and war, will be no more.  We can take encouragement from our readings today that the human struggle each of us walks with, was the struggle our forebears had too.

Last week we saw the prophet John taking on the Pharisees, calling them to make their “crooked roads straight,”—something each of us is called to at times.  This week we see that same prophet, now in prison, doubting who Jesus truly is. The answer to John’s question, “Is God with us—are you the Messiah?—is the answer that we as Jesus’ followers must hear too in our doubts.  Jesus gave John hope by recounting that, “The blind see, the crippled are walking, those with leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, the poor have the Good News preached to them.

So even though many of us are still recovering from the loss of an election that promised so much for the least among us and walking amid doubts of what our country and world will be now in the hands of billionaires who think of the rich first, we must keep our focus on Jesus, keep following him and trusting that the good we do and the good we see in others, does and will continue to make a difference. When we see all this too; we know that the dream we all hope for has come about—the lamb lying down with the lion and so on.  The dream of a peaceful world, free of suffering has everything to do with each of us—it won’t come without us friends.  We must keep doing our part, keep trusting, and keep believing—hope is our life blood!

In that light, it gives me great joy to share a bit more about the group that Dick Dahl and I have been asked to be part of here in Winona.  This group has endeavored to gather the voices of many different religious backgrounds and of those with no particular religious voice to discuss how “we are more alike than we are different.”  In the new climate that seems to have raised its ugly head during this past presidential campaign, stating basically that those who are perceived as different from white America are less than acceptable; this new group is discussing how we, young and old, can prove this thought, wrong.  Watch for more about this group and some programming  in the near future.

As we keep our eyes on Jesus, walking with him through the ups and downs of his human experience; our own ups and downs have new meaning and purpose.  It has always been truly significant for me to reflect on the struggles of Mary and Joseph to bring forth Jesus and to couple that thought with my own experience during the times that I was pregnant, or the experience of our daughter and son-in-law.  In your own lives as well, whether giving physical or spiritual birth through being there for others—whenever we can combine the divine and the human, the experiences become profound and so much more meaningful.

Friends, Advent calls us to develop an advent heart, learning how to live as we wait, in Joan Chittister’s words. She continues,  “Sometimes random moments of grace help us do this.”  At this time of year, there are examples all around us—of people opening up their closed hearts, letting them expand in the pattern of the Christmas story—an over-the-top giving of love. I think of present initiatives that our parish has been involved in recently—the wonderful clothes and food collection for our sisters and brothers at Standing Rock, that was packed and delivered into the hands of our driver by Michael and Robert this past Friday—of the Winona Warming Center, a project a long time in the making for the homeless in our city.

And even with all of this, faith tells us that this goodness, born out of our love, which is the divine spark within each of us, is more than urpassed by God’s all-encompassing love for each of us!  Friends, we are truly blessed today, even amid all that isn’t right! We must keep on after the model of our brother Jesus, one so strong, yet so fragile, like us!  Amen? Amen!