Our Prayerbook lectionary rather than following the Roman emphasis on the Holy Family has opted for further reflection on the mystery of the Incarnation. So today as in all three years we hear the familiar gospel of Christmas Day, the Prologue or introduction to St John's Gospel. “In the beginning was the Word”; “And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Likewise the lesson from Galatians is repeated each year reminding us that “God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” These two well-known and loved passages form part of the New Testament's reflection on the birth of Christ which was proclaimed at the Midnight Mass. If you like today the focus moves beyond the manger, although not forgetting it, and puts it in a broader theological context.

For Paul who had been startled out of his theological certainties by a vision of the Risen Christ he likens the birth of Christ, “born of a woman, born under the law”, to a process of redemption from, or freedom from the limitations of the law. He knew too well from his pharisaical past all about the strictures of the law. But now through his vision of the Risen Christ he savors a new sense of freedom, of being taken beyond some legal relationship to one of being adopted into a family, becoming a child of God. This may sound somewhat innocuous to our ears but for Paul it was a radical breakthrough, for his relationship to God is no longer limited by law but rather enlivened by grace, God's grace. It is this grace of God made known to us in the birth and person of Jesus Christ which is the source of new life. It is the Spirit of Christ within us that enable us to cry out in filial love, “Abba, Father.” This initimate cry is the gift to each one us brought into being through the birth of the Christ child.

John likewise does not see the birth of Christ as some discreet act, which is displayed and then put away until next year like some Christmas Creche! Rather John places the birth of Christ into the grandest of contexts, of the Creation itself. For John the child in the manger is none other that God's Word made flesh. And that Word of God is not somehow limited to the Nativity at Bethlehem, but is one and the same Word who was present in Creation. This Word was in the beginning with God; was a participant in the Creation process; was synonymous with the principles of Light and Life at the heart of Creation. For John the baby at Bethlehem contains all the qualities we associate with the Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the source of Light and Life. In Him we glimpse the “glory of God, full of grace and truth.” And even more Jesus is the very image or face of God. “It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.”

These biblical reflections place the birth at Bethlehem at the center of God's grand plan of Salvation and Redemption of the whole Creation. The birth of Jesus is the first sign of this New Creation into which we also are being caught up by grace. This is what Baptism is all about: it is our identification and acknowledgment that we recognize this truth: that fullness of life is found through God in Christ. That is why the New Testament talks of our coming into faith as New Birth. In Baptism it is like being born anew: born into a new reality of which God the Creator is the underlying principle and truth. That is why we have moved the historic Font back into the Church in the center of the Nave, so that you trip over it as it were as you enter. Here visually we are reminded that we have come to faith in Jesus through the Water and the Word of Baptism. We recall that by the water of baptism all that belonged to the old way of life (life without God) is washed away and the new way is watered into the new life brought about through the birth of Jesus Christ.

And as we are reminded every time someone is baptized here our Baptismal Covenant sets out clearly the commitment we make to ourselves, each other and to God's world in Baptism. We covenant to “resist evil”; “to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself”; and “to seek and serve Christ among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being.”

All these commitments flow from the Incarnation of God in Christ, the “Word made flesh.” So we are belatedly waking up to the fragility of our planet and to issues relating to environment and climate change. This is God's world, God's creation, not some human plaything to be abused and discarded like some toy. At last communities and governments are waking up to our shared responsibility for the state of our environment. As Christians we do so because we believe it is God's creation and that we are called by the Incarnation and by our baptism to be co-creators. Our Presiding Bishop has been speaking out about respecting the dignity of every human being in her courageous pursuit of the Millenium Development Goals aimed at reducing poverty and promoting universal education and health care and a just distribution of resources. Again these concerns are direct consequences of the Incarnation.

And last but no means least how often do we have to raise our voices yet again to defend the humanity of all people. What Pope Benedict thought he was saying in his Christmas address, God alone knows. But his demeaning remarks about gays and lesbians, transgendered and bisexual people, really contradict the whole meaning of Christmas. For me the truth of the Incarnation is about God's affirmation of our humanity; about Salvation for All as the Epistle at Midnight Mass puts it; about all people being invited to become children of God, to share in loving relationship with God in Christ.