Over the Christmas services we'll be hearing a few different Christmas readings.  On Christmas morning we'll be hearing Luke 2.1–14, and at our midnight services John 1.1–14.  You can find them both here.

Luke tells a very 'earthy' Christmas story - capturing the human experience not only of Mary and Joseph, but of the characters around them.  He spans the gamut of society - spelling out the role of the emperor Augustus (unbeknownst to him) right down to the shepherds, some of the lowliest members of society at the time.  He carefully pins his story not only in society, but in history - identifying clearly and precisely when it happens as well as to whom (while Quirinus was governor of Syria, of course!).

John, by complete contrast, disappears into the realms of ethereal poetry, and pseudo-gnostic philosophy.  The pre-cosmic 'Word' intermingles with God, and induces light, and life (seemingly interchangeably) before overcoming darkness, and the will of the flesh, to make its dwelling amongst us.  There is something here deeply beautiful, almost unintelligible, that resists being contained - the Word, it seems, doesn't quite fit in words.

I really enjoy the contrast between the two as we experience it.  Because isn't this contrast, and the dissolution of it, precisely what Christmas is about?  That the God who defies our capacity to define him - who contains all beauty, glory, wonder, reason, and creativity in a way that can never be held in our minds or understanding - that God - became a human baby, and entered the world of emperors, carpenters, virgins, shepherds, and us.

This season is about peace, yes, of course, and goodwill, and cheer, and joy - and all that - but it is about those things because the fulness and source of them all decided against keeping them remote and abstract, and instead snuggled down in a manger.

Remember as you approach that baby, that you approach the king - and the whole of eternity lies in the depths of those innocent eyes; those pudgy hands aimlessly punching the air are the same ones that flung the stars into space; and that plaintive mewl is the voice that spoke creation into being.  He became thus that you might know him, and understand him, and love him.  Marvel, wonder, and rejoice: You can hold in your arms the one who carries history and eternity.  Will you carry him also in your heart?