TRADITION!
Our tradition the past few years is to gather in the dining room Walter built on our home five or six years ago.  We push back the oak table and set the chairs in a circle.  Then Walter chooses someone to read Luke 2, the account of the birth of Jesus.  Another is selected to pray.  And finally one or two of the younger children distributes the gifts from under the tree to the appropriate recipients.
Luke chapter 2 is the passage read in the Christmas Pageant of the familiar "Charlie Brown's Christmas" and where I probably first heard the Gospel as a child.
This year, I decided to read the Matthew account of Jesus' birth.  It is much shorter. So I read smaller portions and savoured the story.
Today is Boxing Day, so again, traditionally I read the account in Luke where after Jesus was born, Joseph and Mary took Him to the temple and gave the prescribed offerings for their firstborn.  At the temple, they encountered two faithful saints who blessed and confirmed their special Son as sent from God.
Instead, I was reading the verses in Matthew where John the Baptist was preaching and baptizing at the Jordan River.  Jesus was already a man and about to launch into public ministry.  He came to John at the river and asked to be baptized.  Baptized?
The radical prophet recognized Jesus and immediately protested Jesus' request.  Humbly, John says,
I am not worthy!  I should be baptized by You!"  But, Jesus, in perfect fulfillment of all God's will, submits to the protocol of repentance and baptism.  And God does something so unexpected and unprecedented!
As Jesus submits to the waters of the Jordan, and validates John's ministry of preparing the way for the Messiah, it is like John passes the baton of ministry to Jesus the Christ.  The heavens open.  (In another Gospel account, the wording is "the heavens were torn open.")  The Almighty Himself speaks from His throne, announcing His Son!  Before Jesus even preached His first sermon, healed His first blind man or called His first disciple, God was affirming His Chosen One.
I can hardly grasp the import of God's words.  He is well pleased with His Son.  He loves Him.  He blesses His Son with a heavenly pronouncement as He is about to move into the next three years of travel, homelessness, spiritual warfare and intense impact on the Twelve.  God knew that in His Son's humanity, Jesus would need these life-giving words to sustain Him.
How much more do WE need to hear, believe and absorb God's affirmation for us?
In Christ, we are adopted into His family.  I am the daughter of the Most High.  In Christ, I am already accepted.  I do not have to prove my place or position by performance.  In Christ, I have a ministry.  I am chosen to have relationships, gifts and tasks to build the kingdom with Him.
Just as the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus like a dove, we also have the filling of that same Spirit for our lives, our journey of healing, our ministry, our trials.  Jesus was the example and we can follow Him without fear.  He has already gone this way before...
It might not seem like a very Christmas-y message but this IS what Jesus came to earth through the manger in Bethlehem to do:  set apart and send us out just as He went forth with God's approval to share the "Good News of great joy."
HAPPY BOXING DAY!