In a world where we have pushed the heavens into the farthest recesses of the universe

And we filled the pores in the world where angels and demons, magic and mystery could enter in

Filling each transcended node with the immanent certainty of rationality and reason

Plugging ourselves into our own isolation connected through patterns of numbers and light

We created a world of which we were our own new gods claiming the generative power of words

Yet, as our own new gods we find ourselves being consumed by the hungry creation we unleashed

Wired into our wireless networks, completely disconnected in our continual connection

Yearning for hope in the tyranny of the soulless world in which nothing is sacred

 

Yet, there is a memory of a different story from a different time that tugs at my thoughts

Of the transcendent coming to occupy the immanent, of the creator incarnating the creation

Of the infinite coming to occupy the mundane and the ordinary, of making sacred the secular

And perhaps in this season as we remember the narrative of the Word that become flesh

Living among us and daring to enter into a creation that has lost its dreams of tomorrow

That the light may enlighten the present darkness of our permanently lighted world

That we may dream of the truth beyond the facts and the vision beyond our perception

The poetry of a God who invades the impersonal world in the form of a person

Who brings acceptance in the midst of rejection and love in the midst of hatred

In the midst of our perceived wisdom the wisdom of God may appear foolish

And strength comes masquerading as weaknesses and power in the guise of powerlessness

 

If the Word becomes incarnate and lives among us it comes not to conquer and enslave

But it does come to offer us a dream of a different world and to shape for us a new reality

While it may describe and illuminate and deconstruct the world we shaped for ourselves

It comes as the wisdom that holds the creation together and narrates for us a new story

And in the light of this enfleshed Word we are renamed and our stories have a new frame

Where the sacred inhabits our secular world and life takes on a sacramental reality

And from the soul of the new creation emerges again and ancient hope that we are not alone

For Emmanuel has come and our God is with us, we are among those God favored ones

The ancient angelic host announced in a long ago age when our world still had a place for them.