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FROM THE HUMAN PERSPECTIVE, when you compare [God] to the other gods of the other religions in the world, you have to say our God is really sort of odd. He uses the most common of people, people that aren't any different from any of us here; he comes in the most common of ways, when by his Spirit an anonymous young woman is found to be with child. And the strangest thing is that he comes at all—he's not the Above-Us-God, too holy to come down. This God's love is so immense that he wants to come down. And he has proven his love by the fact that he did come down and touch our ground.
James R. Van Tholen, Where All Hope Lies

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WE DO NOT BELIEVE that the virgin mother gave birth to a son and that he is the Lord and Savior unless, added to this, I believe the second thing, namely, that he is my Savior and Lord.
Martin Luther, "Sermon on the Afternoon of Christmas Day 1530"

DO YOU WANT TO SEE the humility of God? Look in the manger and see him lying there. Surely this is our God. Seeing an infant, I wonder how this could be the one who says, "Do not I fill heaven and earth?" I see a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes. Is this the one who is clothed in the beautiful glory of unapproachable light?

Listen! He is crying. Is this the one who thunders in the heaven making the angels lower their wings? Yes, but he has emptied himself in order to fill us.
Guerric of Igny, Liturgical Sermons

NOW IS THE TIME to sing, envision, enact, and retell a story of God coming unexpectedly in the worst of times as a baby born poor, born homeless, born to die that all human life might be transformed and dreams made real. It's God's Good News—but only because we already know the story of Easter.
John H. Westerhoff III, A Pilgrim People: Learning Through the Church Year

DESPITE OUR EFFORTS to keep him out, God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."
Peter Larson, Prism (Jan/Feb 2001)

JUST FOR A FEW HOURS on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the stupid, harsh mechanism of the world runs down, and we permit ourselves to live according to untrammeled common sense, the unconquerable efficiency of good will.
Christopher Morely, Essays

THE HEAVENS cannot contain him; a woman carried him in her bosom.
Augustine, "On the Birthday of Our Lord Jesus Christ"

THERE IS NO IDEAL Christmas, only the one Christmas you decide to make as a reflection of your values, desires, affections, traditions.
Bill McKibben, Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For a More Joyful Christmas

Copyright © 2005 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Where All Hope Lies, Liturgical Sermons, A Pilgrim People: Learning Through the Church Year, and Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case for a More Joyful Christmas are available from Amazon.com, Christianbook.com, and other book retailers.

Luther's Sermon on the afternoon of Christmas Day 1530 is available online.

Past Reflections columns include:

Poetry (Dec. 12, 2005)

Grace that Surprises (Oct. 3, 2005)

Friendship (August 31, 2005)

Wisdom That Sticks (August 8, 2005)

His Body, His Blood (June 08, 2005)

On Baptism (April 25, 2005)

Discovering God (April 07, 2005)

Welcoming the Stranger (Feb. 22, 2005)

The Church and Mission (Feb. 02, 2005)

The Church (Jan. 11, 2005)

Word Made Flesh (Dec. 20, 2004)

The Way of Salvation (Nov. 08, 2004)

Sin and Evil (Oct. 18, 2004)

Teaching and Learning (Sept. 15, 2004)

Wisdom for the Road (Aug. 02, 2004)

Discipleship (July 13, 2004

Conversion (June 09, 2004)

The Outpoured Spirit (May 03, 2004)

He Is Risen (April 08, 2004)

Jesus' Cross (March 15, 2004)

Lenten Inventory (Feb. 25, 2004)

Following the Star (Dec. 23, 2003)

Advent (Dec. 10, 2003)

Wisdom for Ministry (Nov. 10, 2003)

Discerning God's Will (Oct. 6, 2003)

Work and Vocation (Sept. 17, 2003)

Bumper Sticker Theology (July 30, 2003)

Songs from the Soul (July 8, 2003)

Walk Humbly (May 28, 2003)

Mercy (May 8, 2004)

Cross and Resurrection (April 16, 2003)

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December 2005, Vol. 49, No. 12