The Second Sunday of Christmas

What Was Born on Christmas

The other evening as I was writing and listening to the music on my iTunes, the U2 song, Grace came up. I stopped and listened and was taken again by the way the song says so much so easily. The images, the statement of faith and finally the deep human prayer for hope came ringing through.

Grace, she takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name

Grace...
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world

Coming from God, yes, it does change the world. In fact it goes against all the ideas of God that we so dearly cling to- a God out to get us. A God who expects us to DO something in order to be loved. No- that is not the God that came to walk among us after being born in those humble quarters of a stable back behind the Inn.

It's not God's shame or stain or blame that is being removed... it is mine and yours. Removed, hidden by some swaddling cloths.

And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything

Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma, karma
She travels outside... of karma

Outside of karma? Karma?-- the effects of a person's actions that determine their destiny?? --our "action" or "doing" that have eternal impact on us and our world?? --whatever one does, says, or thinks is a karma? No. Grace is far beyond destiny or the outcome of our actions. Grace is the work of God's actions which change our destiny into God's desires.

When she goes to work, you can hear the strings
Grace finds beauty in everything

Strings? Yes, and trumpets and angels wings. Let the shepherds tell what they saw and heard. Let the world know. Grace is born.

What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings...
Because Grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things

Like we human beings? Like what was once dead in sin? What was ignored and left out and oppressed? Yes. Again and again, YES! Why do we find it so hard to accept? Why do we spend so much time and energy explaining- and explaining away- the power of Grace? We are so not gracefilled and graceful. And yet....

Grace finds beauty in everything

Even you, and even me. Thank God for Grace!