Merry Christmas,
My friends.
This is Mark Ludman,
Also known as Brother Frederick James,
Your friendly neighbourhood monk-in-dogs.
And this is day 26 of our Advent series for 2025,
Waiting with Matthew.
And on today,
Christmas Day,
Our reflection point is back in the first chapter of Matthew,
Where in verse 21 Matthew writes,
She will bear a son,
And you are to name him Jesus,
For he will save his people from their sins.
So I invite you just to stop,
Close your eyes,
To settle in your body,
In your spirit,
To open your ears,
Your mind,
Your heart,
Your hands,
And your home to the leadings and the promptings of God's Spirit as we reflect on this passage together today.
Now on Christmas morning,
The light feels different.
It's not merely the soft brightness of a new day rising over the horizon.
It's the light of fulfilment,
The light of promise kept,
The light of God drawing near in a way the world had never before imagined.
For 25 days,
We've been walking a slow and deliberate road,
The road of Advent,
The road of longing,
The road of waiting.
We've walked through genealogies and wilderness,
Through dreams and silence,
Through exile,
Hiddenness,
Blessings,
Hungers,
And light breaking into darkness.
We stood beside shepherds and prophets and weary travellers,
Waiting for God to show up in the places where we least expect God to do so.
And today,
Christmas Day,
We arrive at the heart of it all.
A child,
A name,
A promise fulfilled.
She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.
This isn't just the beginning of the story.
This is the mystery around which the whole story turns.
This is the moment where the waiting world is met by the one who can finally carry the weight of its longing.
Today,
The wait ends,
But today,
Something new begins.
Matthew tells us the child must be called Jesus.
In Hebrew,
Yeshua,
Meaning God saves or the Lord is salvation.
So his very name is a mission,
A revelation,
A confession of who God is and what God is doing.
And also notice Matthew's phrasing,
He will save his people from their sins.
Not from Rome,
Not from hardship,
Not from discomfort or confusion or mystery,
But from their sins,
From the deep places that fracture us,
From the inner distances that separate us from God,
From the patterns that distort our ability to love and to be loved,
From the shadows within that no human effort can fully heal.
Advent's been teaching us that salvation is not God rescuing us from the world,
But God healing us for the world.
And today,
In the birth of Jesus,
We see what salvation looks like.
Not a sword,
Not a system,
And not a sudden escape,
But a child,
A presence,
A God who moved into the neighborhood and refuses to leave.
Salvation comes as nearness,
As companionship,
As God with us in skin and bone and breath.
And we stand here at Christmas,
And it becomes clear that every step of Advent has been preparing us for this moment.
Remember we began waiting through genealogy because God wanted us to know that the story of salvation is woven through messy lineages,
Complicated histories and ordinary people.
We waited through dreams because God speaks in ways that require trust,
Not certainty.
We waited through danger and exile because salvation unfolds in real human vulnerability,
Not in sanitized stories.
We waited in Nazareth's obscurity because God's deepest work often happens in hiddenness.
We waited in the wilderness because God clears space in us before God fills it.
We waited for repentance,
Righteousness,
Humility and light because salvation isn't merely forgiveness,
It's transformation.
It is God reshaping our desires,
Our imaginations and our lives.
And then finally,
We waited for peace because children of God resemble the parent.
And the parent,
Our God,
Is always making peace.
Everything that we've walked through these 25 days has been preparing us to receive Jesus,
Not as a story,
But as a presence,
As a way,
As a life that takes root within our own.
Christmas isn't simply the end of Advent.
It is the beginning of incarnation,
Not only in Bethlehem,
But also in us.
And the heart of Christmas is astonishingly simple.
God comes,
God stays,
God saves.
Not from afar,
Not from the heavens,
But from inside our human experience.
God doesn't save us by replacing our humanity,
But by taking it on.
It's fears,
It's limitations,
It's hungers,
It's fragilities,
Which means that salvation isn't something that happens to us,
But something that grows within us like a seed in the dark soil of our hearts.
Jesus comes not only to dwell among us,
But to dwell within us,
To be formed in our compassion,
To shine through our gentleness,
To speak through our courage,
To be recognized in our mercy,
To be revealed in our peacemaking,
To become visible in the tiny and tender ways we move through the world.
This is the fulfillment of waiting.
The Christ that we've been longing for is the Christ who has been longing to make a home within us.
This is the Christmas mystery,
Friends.
Christ is born in Bethlehem so that Christ may be born in you.
And every day from this day on becomes a continuation of Christmas,
A day where Christ takes shape a little more fully in the way you live and love and listen and serve the world God loves.
As this Advent comes to an end,
I want to speak a word of hope to you.
You haven't just been listening for 26 days.
You've journeyed,
You've opened,
You've waited.
You held scripture,
Prayer and longing with tenderness and courage.
And now on Christmas Day,
Friends,
The invitation is this.
Carry the joy,
Carry the peace,
Carry the light,
Carry the Christ that you've encountered into the ordinary rhythm of your life.
Carry Christ into your work.
Carry Christ into your family.
Carry Christ into your decisions,
Your friendships,
Your silence,
Your desires,
Your uncertainties.
Because the gift of Christmas isn't a past event.
It's a present reality.
Christ is with you.
Christ is within you.
And Christ is alive in you.
And when you walk into your day,
Even the most ordinary day,
You carry Emmanuel,
God with us,
With you.
You carry the one that we have been waiting for.
And so as we step into this Christmas Day,
Let us pray.
Jesus,
Child of Bethlehem,
Light of the world,
Fulfilment of all our longing.
On this Christmas morning,
We welcome you again.
We welcome you into our hearts and into the places that still feel like stables,
Ordinary,
Overlooked,
Imperfect,
Waiting to be filled with light.
We welcome you into our families and our friendships,
Our wounds and hopes,
Our weariness and wonder.
We welcome you into the year that lies ahead,
Trusting that the same God who has come is the God who remains,
Who guides,
Who renews and saves.
Let your presence be born within us.
Let your peace take root in us.
Let your joy rise in us like dawn and let your love flow through us into every corner of the world we touch.
Amen.
And so as you move into Christmas Day,
May you know the deep joy of this holy day,
The joy of God made near,
God made small,
God made tender in love for you.
May you carry the light of Christ into every ordinary moment,
Seeing him in yourself,
In others and in the world he came to save.
And may this Christmas fill your life with peace,
Hope and overflowing love a love strong enough to sustain you through every season to come,
This day and every day.
Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me over this past 25,
26 days of the Advent season.
We've walked slowly through scripture,
We've sat with longing,
We've listened for God in silence.
We've opened our hearts to the one who comes gently,
Faithfully and always on time.
And so we arrive at the quiet centre,
At the centre of it all,
God with us and God within us.
The presence that we've been awaiting has taken root in us in brand new ways.
There's light that you carry now that can be reflected into the world.
May the joy of everything that we've walked through and this holy day settle deep in your spirit and accompany you far beyond this season.
Thank you for making space each day to pray,
To listen and to grow together with me.
For all of your comments,
For all of your donations,
Thank you and bless you.
It's been a privilege to walk with you this past 26 days and I wish you a blessed,
Peaceful and joy-filled Christmas.
Christ is born,
Christ is here and may Christ go with you.
Amen.
Until next time my friends,
May grace and peace be with you.
Merry Christmas.
