For Christmas Eve, Rev. Cari reflects with the congregation about the Mystery of the Incarnation. Quoting Father Richard Rohr, the American Franciscan spiritual teacher, she opens up the meaning of Jesus as both divine and human, “in the same body, at the same time.”

This solidarity of God with humanity is not a matter for sentimentality at Christmas, but a shock of recognition, that means we no longer look at creation, or other human beings, as disposable or “other” again. God moves into the weary, suffering and broken world as an insider, and invites us to move inside our humanity in a new way as well.

Rev. Cari is grateful to the Rev. Dr. Rodger Nishioka, for the story she re-tells in the sermon about his former student Travis and his search for a friend. The mystery of the Incarnation is many things… including God befriending us… God moving in solidarity with us… and God inviting our full human presence and love with one another.