Is 52:7-10; Heb 1:1-6; Jn 1:1-18
Theme: The Power Given to Those Who Accept Him
After God has delivered the people of Israel from Egypt, in order to take them to the land promised to their ancestors, he led them through the desert. For forty years, the people were heading towards this Promise land through the desert, and God was using the opportunity to instruct them in his ways and to teach them of how to live as children of God. God kept speaking through Moses to the people of Israel. The people were afraid to meet God, but they
were willing to accept and do whatever God asks of them through Moses.
At a time, God wanted really to be in the midst of the people. He wanted to come closer to them, so that they always feel his presence. But because the people knew that they were a stubborn people who from time to time go against God and do things not pleasing in his eyes, they were afraid that
if God should live in their midst, he might wipe them off one day because of their stubbornness.
So, they preferred to build a tent very far from where they were living and keep the ark of the covenant there. Whenever they would like to meet God, they would purify themselves and then go to this tent of meeting where the ark of God was residing. Afterwards, they would go back.
But this is not how God really wanted to have a communion with his people. God wanted to enter into the life of his people. He wants to live with them so that his people. When the people arrived in their land, in the time of king Solomon, they built a temple to God.
Yes, the glory of God was in the temple and the temple meant so much for them that an Israelite without a temple is not a true one. But even at this moment, the people tend to live differently in their places but comport themselves when in the temple because they believed God lives only in the temple.
Later, the Babylonians captured the people and destroyed the Temple. This began the exile of the people. While in exile, the people were totally destroyed because they had no king nor temple. The temple reminds them of the presence of God in their midst. So, with the temple being destroyed, they believed God has departed from them.
But when the time comes for God to fulfil his desire, and to keep his presence in the midst of his people, in such a way that it can never be destroyed by any more attacks he sent us his son, Jesus Christ so that he becomes for us “Emmanuel”. In Hebrew, the word means “With us is God”. This may sound so simple, but it is a name that expresses the deep desire of God right from the time of Israelites in the desert. In the gospel reading of today, St. John says
that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Greek word ἐσκήνωσεν is from the root σκηνόω (skenoo). English translates it simply as “to dwell” but it is more than that. A better translation, though not even exhaustive include: “to pitch one’s tent’, ‘to camp in a tent’, ‘to take up residence’.
Hence, the tent of meeting which contains the Ark of God, which the people of Israel kept at a distance from where they were living, is what God now brings himself and makes to stand in our midst. God now has his tent in our community. And he does this in Christ Jesus. Jesus therefore becomes the temple of God among us. Jesus becomes the tent of meeting with God which now is no longer two tablets of stone that can be stationed in one place, but
the Word made Flesh who lives, moves and interacts with us. The reason for this is because God wants us to always live in his presence and with him. Knowing that God now dwells with us, and he is always with us, we are then called to live like those who have God, no longer far away from them.
As the letter to the Hebrews says, God spoke through the prophets in the past. But in our time, when the time arrived, he chose to speak through his own son. Jesus Christ became the fullness of the Word of God. In order words, to listen to God’s words, we do not need to send a prophet anymore, we need only to look at Jesus. Jesus came bearing our face and our nature, in order to make us see in Him God’s face and love.
Yes, he lives in our midst but only those who accept him, who welcome him, who open up to him, who encounter him always, are the ones he gives the authority of becoming children of God, just as he himself is. Hence, that he lives in our midst does not make us automatically God’s children. Someone can be living in a community but can never be recognized as part of
the community until the people of the community admit him/her. That we are in the world created by God, and even more that we are Christians, does not automatically make us God’s children.
Our being recognized as children of God comes from our accepting Jesus, who is the Word of God made Flesh. So, are we going to reject him or receive him? Are we going to push him away from us or are we going to open our houses and let him in? We should not be afraid to have Jesus live with us. We should not be afraid to always identify ourselves with him by the way we live our lives. We should not be afraid to be addressed as true sons of God even when the world does not wish to hear that. We should not be afraid to give Jesus to others by showing true love for which God’s children are known. We should not be afraid to say “Jesus, I am not worthy, but I still want you to come into my life”.
We have been generated to God through our faith. May our actions bear witness to what we profess in our faith. Amen.
Wishing You a Joy-filled Christmas Celebration.