​When God calls, something happens.
 
In the deeply satirical story of Jonah, even the miserable effort to proclaim God turned a whole city to repentance.
In the Gospels, the first disciples drop everything and follow, when Jesus Christ the Word of God made flesh, calls.
In Genesis, God calls “let there be light” and there was!
 
When God calls, something happens.
 
The story of Jonah is one of my favorites.  In it, this character Jonah, God’s mouthpiece and proclaimer (kind of like Christians are called to be) is expected to bring God’s word to the last place on earth that God’s people would want to go or expect to see God’s mercy. 
 
And Jonah does everything in his power to prevent God’s word from coming to them.
First he runs the other way.
Then, when God gets him there anyway, he preaches to only 1/3 of the city. Probably only 1/3 of the Word he was supposed to give also.  He does the most abysmal preaching job he can, trying to prevent the Word of God from reaching his enemies.
 
And in the end…even though Jonah did all he could to prevent God’s work from being accomplished, the Word of God did its job. Something happened.
 
What we end up seeing in the story of Jonah is that our ideas of whom God loves, whom God calls us to befriend and find Jesus’ presence among, is not whom we might expect.  And we find that God uses us in showing love to the world in unexpected ways.
 
God’s mercy and love is for all.
 
God’s Word came into this world and showed us what the love of God looks like.  Jesus Christ is Emmanuel, “God-among-us”.  He is the restorer and savior of the world. And the way he restores the world is through relationship. 
 
Jesus came to be with us.  To be God with us. To know us, love us, and never leave us.  And in a way that we, too, can know him and know God.
 
In baptism, we take on a discipleship under Jesus Christ.  We enter a life of following him. Following Jesus is a journey that involves getting to know him, know God, better and better.
 
On this journey we know Christ more clearly, love Christ more dearly, and follow Christ more nearly, day by day, because he holds us to himself. 
 
Baptism is not our work, but it is God’s sign to us that we are loved and called to be children of God in the body of Christ.
 
The call to be part of the body of Christ, part of Christ’s work in the world takes many forms.
For Jonah, doing God’s work was like being drug kicking and screaming to people whom God loved but he didn’t.  For Simon, Andrew, James, and John, it meant leaving their fishing careers for what Jesus called “fishing for people.”
 
As followers of Christ, we are called to go where he goes.  We hear in the scriptures that God has a special concern for people who are vulnerable, for people who need help but are neglected.  We are part of Christ’s presence for our neighbors—especially those in need.
 
From Jonah, we find that there is no nation, people, or person that is external to God’s love.  God is the creator of all the heavens and the earth, all its creatures, and every person. God’s mercy and love is for all.
 
So it is that God has concern for all nations’ people—vast empires like America or small lands like Haiti.  God has concern for people in cold countries like Canada or the hotter sunnier countries of the African continent.
 
No one is external to God’s love, and Christ came to be that love for all.
 
This following Christ is a journey.  Sometimes we run, as Jonah did, and God uses us anyway.  Sometimes we drop our nets and willingly follow Jesus.  Most of the time it’s somewhere in between.  God’s work through your life shows folks around you that same love that God has for you.
 
God is working in your life.  Every day Christ is there offering a reminder that you are forgiven and loved.  Every day Christ is there with the strength and renewal you need to live out your Christian freedom for the sake of your neighbor.  Every day Jesus is there, bidding you each day “follow me.”
 
To Simon and Andrew he said, “follow me, and I will make you fish for people.”  To you he says, “follow me”…do what you do freed for your neighbor, renewed by Christ, journeying with him: “follow me.”

The Moravian star recalls the Bethlehem star, that one that brought the wise men to the baby Jesus.  It is also a symbol of the light of Christ.  The stars light up with a bulb placed in the middle.  So they, being spread across the world, show a symbol of the light of Christ to very many people in many places all across the globe.
 
We bought ours at the little factory where they are still made.  They are still put together by hand, glued if they are the paper ones, by 6 or 7 people there at the factory.
 
The simple sale and distribution of a Christmastime decoration, originally an Epiphany decoration and likely a geometry project for schoolchildren, continues to show forth, or manifest, the light of Christ around the world.
 
That star made known the one to whom wise men of the east would come, worship, and bring gifts.  Their gifts of Gold, frankincense, and myrrh made known that this child is King, God, Anointed One, and foreshadowed his crucifixion and burial.
 
Gold- The wise men honor him as a king with their gift of gold
Frankincense- a necessary part of worship at the time. With the gift of Frankincense, the magi honor the baby Jesus as divine.
Myrrh- another perfume.  Often it was used to anoint bodies as part of getting them ready to be buried.  Another use was in the high priest’s anointing oil.  Jesus the Christ—or “anointed one”—was recognized as such by the magi and at the same time we see a foreshadowing of his crucifixion and burial.
 
The birth of the Christ Child was a cosmic, global event.  A new star appearing in the sky; People from the East, from the other side of the world, coming to pay him homage.  But the most amazing thing is that this one—Christ, God, King—comes to you and me as friend and as neighbor.
 
He comes, claiming you in baptism.  Here he calls you “beloved,” reminds you that you are a child of God, forgives whatever you might get yourself into, and promises his presence with you unyieldingly—in this life, and in the life to come.
 
He comes, feeding you with his Word.  Together we hear him, God’s Word, read and proclaimed.  And together we are fed by him at his table.  His body and blood—his very self—he gives us nourishment, as a reminder of his presence, and a means of forgiveness and renewal.
 
In baptism and at the table he claims us and reassures us he will never leave.  He gives us strength to face each day and freedom from all that would get in our way of seeing him, of serving him, of being a light which shines forth his presence.
 
Paul wrote to the Ephesians that he has become a servant of the gospel so that through the church the world would know the wisdom of God, the word made flesh, the one whom we follow: Jesus Christ.
 
We, too, are servants of that gospel.  Jesus Christ is our source of Grace and Forgiveness.  He is our source of Light and life, our strength to be his shining stars and make the world a better place, to bring his love to our neighbors.
 
Like the Moravian star, each of you is a little light which points to the one true light—Jesus Christ in whom you are baptized, who has saved you, who came as one like you and who knows and loves you beyond what any of us can imagine.  Walk as a child of the light, let Christ shine in your hearts.
​

​The good news of great joy, for everyone—a savior has come!  God’s own son, born to us which is good news for all people.  And his birth?
 
Announced by angels: but not to royal messengers, kings, or even priests…to shepherds—homeless shepherds near Bethlehem.
 
Born in Joseph’s hometown with all the onlookers: animals in a stable—not family and friends.
 
This is a savior who has come defying expectations, in every way.
 
Jesus, the anointed one of God, comes—as prophesied—to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives.  And he did so: not by rule or law, or any show of power through violence—but with his very presence.
 
The son of God, brought a message of salvation, good news which shall be for all the people—and that message was given: to the poor, the hungry, the sick—to anyone who wasn’t anyone.
 
In Christ, good news for all the world starts with the littlest.  It starts with the overlooked and forgotten.  It starts with the most vulnerable.
 
Just as God’s presence: God incarnate—came to a young mother, unmarried and pregnant—finding no place to stay in her fiancée’s hometown—announced by a messenger from God along with heaven’s army which…sang.  To shepherds, homeless, just out watching over their small livelihood.
 
Just as God’s presence comes to the unexpected, the undeserving, the least obvious—God’s grace is for all.
 
What has come in this event we call Christmas, is the love of God.  The love of God has come to us, and has come to stay.  Jesus Christ came, died, and rose again—death cannot keep the love of God from staying with us.
 
“Love has come and never will leave us.”
Love has come to show us that hope, peace, and joy starts with how the homeless shepherds receive good news, it starts with how the unwed mothers are welcomed to town.  Hope, and joy, and peace, starts with how the hungry are fed, the naked are clothed, and the sick are provided for.  It starts with how the foreigner is welcomed, and the imprisoned retain their humanity.
 
“Love is Jesus, within and among us.  Love is the peace our world, our hearts, are seeking.” 
Jesus is good tidings of great joy for all the people.  Jesus is love—God’s love for us, incarnate, and found in the most unexpected places.  Jesus is the one for whom we wait, the savior we most need to follow, and the very God who loves us, forgives us, and frees us from all things that would prevent his love to be shared through our lives.
 
Merry Christmas, Christ has come, let all the world hear the good news!