Sermon - Christmas Eve - 12/24/21

<p>As we come together on this night, we gather to celebrate what the heart of God is all about. We come to celebrate <strong>God’s heart of love</strong> for the entire world.  It is all about God’s desire to reach deep into this world, deep into humanity, into our very flesh, touch <strong>our</strong> hearts, and change them. Christmas is all about God’s love for us. And, quite frankly, love is messy.  Sometimes I think the <strong>choice</strong> to <strong>love others</strong> and the <strong>work</strong> of <strong>love</strong> <strong>could</strong> be described and labelled as “<em>Outreach in a state of mess</em>,” because love can be difficult, hard, messy work.  Christmas is about God reaching into the messiness of our lives, into our very flesh, to say, “You are loved. Have <strong>a heart of love</strong>!”</p> <p>Why heart? Because God knows that logic and reason and might only go so far. If logic, reason and might were all that is necessary, there would be no hatred, no poverty, no violence, no racism, no sexism, no xenophobia, no war, no greed, no selfishness. And with our great military might, we would have everything necessary to enable this world to live in peace, to have a “silent night…” and to truly “…sleep in heavenly peace.” But we don’t, and we can’t because logic, reason and might have definite limits. So, tonight we celebrate the amazing, overwhelming risk God has taken on this world and on us, the great risk God has taken just to know us, just to know <strong>you</strong>. God knows that our default position, like King Herod, is to ostracize or kill the things and the people who unsettle us. So, Christmas is about God’s great risk, attempting to maybe, just maybe, reach past our often hard, well defended, heavily fortressed selves, to reach down deep and through our commitment to hostility and willful ignorance, to get through all of those securely protected walls, get through our fear, and reach right into the flesh of our lives and the depth of our hearts.</p> <p>As we look at the