A BLESSED AND Merry Christmas to you all.

I'M SURE THAT you are busy: either heading to some festivities or returning with a full stomach and unwrapped gifts. I don't intend to take up much of your time, as we know this Feast backwards and forwards. We know the chocolates, the greenery, the carols, the candlelight; we know the pageants, the Yule Log on WGN; we know "In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus . . ." and the like. We could do it in our sleep and, in fact, some of us do.

WE KNOW THAT this is the feast of the Incarnation, when divinity took on flesh in Jesus Christ. This is the feast when the Heavens drop down as the earth rose to bring forth a Savior. This is the Feast when God chose a humble Virgin in order to redeem the world. This is the feast we know so well. We know it so well that perhaps we do not stop when one of the Creeds writes about how Christ is fully God and fully man. We certainly do not stop when the Creed further states that redemption happens "not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by the taking of the manhood into God." Through Christ (The God Man), we are drawn-up in our very nature to union with God.

WHAT DO WE MEAN when we say that he took our nature upon himself? What is this manhood that is taken up into God? There is the obvious, of course, that the Divine took upon Himself these flesh-and-blood bodies of ours that sweat and creak. This is a miracle in and of itself. But in his taking of the manhood into God, he also took our sins which have distorted and warped our natures almost beyond recognition. As St. Paul wrote: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him (1 Cor. 5:21)." So, not only does this manhood that Christ bears to God consist of our physical nature but also our sins.

WE KNOW SIN, too. We know that sin is a scary word that we know we don't like. It invokes images and memories of fiery judgmental words that was born more out of self-gratification than love and service to your sister. In so many ways, our understanding of sin is distorted by sin  but the concept of sin is still pertinent to the Christian life. There are many definitions of sin and each lends an understanding to it: a moral problem of actions and words; a breaking of the law; it is those things that separate us from an all-holy God; or even that it is a predominately a problem of the heart. I like to think of sin as those dark corners of the heart where we go to hide from God -- much like Adam and Eve did in the Garden after they ate the forbidden fruit.

HOWEVER YOU VIEW it, sin is taken right along with the physical aspects of the manhood into God. Notice that they are not first wiped away, cast off or forgotten. No, they are first borne up into God. These dark corners are absorbed (if you will) into the light of the Divine, through Jesus Christ our Lord. They are not trampled, but embraced by God. In the absorption and embracing by God, they are transformed. Our sins, through Christ, are borne up into God, plunged in the fire of his Divine love. The Prophet put it this way: "The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of his Christ."

THROUGH THIS CHRIST-CHILD,  our sins are borne up into God. Which is really quite marvelous! Even sin, the darkest and dirtiest parts of ourselves have a part to play in salvation. To cast them off (which is really just repression) would rob them of this wonderful role. To think abstinence is the only way to deal with sin is to ignore that all of you is borne up into God. Sin is not meant to be first cast off or disregarded. No, our sins are to be borne up into God.

INDEED, I THINK is the purpose of sin: union with God. I think this is why St. Julian of Norwich precedes her most famous quote with the phrase: sin is behovely (useful). Even that which separates us from God and alienates us from our brothers and sisters has a purpose. It is not meant to be cast off, ignored or repressed. Its purpose, its end is to be borne into God, through Jesus Christ with the rest of our very being. Sin, therefore, should be embraced and brought before God with the prayer, "Make this something beautiful for you, O God." Embraced in the love of God, it will then transform into that which we seek.

WE KNOW THIS. We know that through the incarnation, we are absorbed and transformed in our nature.
And these dark corners of our hearts will erupt in light and transform,
much like the Cave-Manger of old Bethlehem,
from something dark and dirty,
dank and disgusting,
into a throne room fit for him who rules the universe.
"And Heav'n as at som festivall,
Will open wide the Gates of her high Palace Hall."