born for you - Christmas Dawn C 2018

Have you ever wondered why we are happy during Christmas?  It seems that joy and Christmas are synonymous. In my country we even have an expression which describes a sad person.  We say, your face looks like lent.  And should it become more serious we say, your face looks like holy week.  But Christmas – it is always joy.  You can’t wear a sad face on Christmas.

Why?  I would like to refer to it as the shepherds’ joy.  The shepherds after hearing the birth of Jesus from the angels said to one another "Let us go, then, to Bethlehem.”  And Luke says they went in haste, they were in a hurry and full of excitement just as Mary went in haste to visit her cousin Elizabeth.

Why so?  Because they have receive something very personal.

When the angel appeared to them they were told, I proclaim to you good news of great joy…For today in the city of David a savior has been born for you.  And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger."  The angel did not just say, a savior was born today and the angel did not just say this is the sign.  No. The most important part in the message of the angel was the dative case personal pronoun you, for you:  a savior has been born for you and this will be a sign for you.  It was not just a birth, it was a birth whose reason was you.  It was not just simply the coming of a savior, the savior was coming specifically for you.  

The shepherds were the first persons who came to know the birth of Jesus.  They were also the first to adore him in the manger.  So I’m telling you a trivia – our nativity scene may be wrong – the shepherds and the 3 wise men have never actually met.  Going back Why were these shepherds chosen?  Were they better than the rest then?  Were they more worthy?  

By choosing the shepherds to be the first receivers of the good news God wants to show us, as St. Paul says, that we are loved even while we are yet unlovable.  Our second reading says more directly, “the kindness and generous love of God our savior appeared,not because of any righteous deeds we had donebut because of his grace, because of his mercy.”  Fr. Edinson narrated to us last night the dangers of wearing make-up to church especially when he blesses with holy water.  Eyeliners can be washed out by the holy water.  You see in God you don't have to be beautiful in order to be loved.  In God you don't even have to be good in order to be loved.  This is what the shepherds learned that night that so excited them to see this child who was born for them.  If it was Santa Claus who came today bringing his list about who has been naughty or nice, many of us would have reasons to be grumpy this morning. But it was Jesus who came.

So why should you be happy on Christmas?  Because from now on it’s not what we own, or what we do, it is not what we know or our rank or social status that defines us.  Rather it is who we are because Jesus was born for me, because Jesus came to be my savior, not for any merit of mine but simply because he loved me.  And that is my self-worth; your self-worth and everyone else’s self-worth.  And from now on regardless of what you do and what others do to you, regardless of what happens and what will not happen – success or failure, saint or sinner, rich or poor, the fact will always remain that you are loved, and nobody can ever take that away from you - because a savior has been born for you today. And that is what makes us happy.  Merry Christmas.