Of all the holidays that we associate with going home or being at home, none comes near to Christmas. Not birthdays or Thanksgiving Day. Not the 4th of July or Mother's Day. Even much of our cultural music echoes the close relationship between Christmas and home. How many times have we heard "I'll be on for Christmas" over the airwaves these last weeks? At Christmas time we are especially aware of the plight of the homeless-those who have no home to go home to. Even if present responsibilities and geographical distance prevent us from going home for Christmas, this day draws heart and mind toward home.

There is another connection between "home" and "Christmas" that transcends the desire to be with family on this day. Christmas is the festival of the Father's eternal love, love that seeks to rescue His lost children and give them a place in His family forever. Home was what we lost in the fall of our first parents into sin. God created paradise and gave it to Adam and Eve as their home. They were at home there. God provided them everything that they needed. More than that, they were at home in the Father's creation, living in His presence and under the smile of his benediction.

You know the rest of the story. You know how that home was wrecked as the serpent tempted Eve and she succumbed to that lethal invitation. Satan, in effect, said to Eve there is more to life than paradise. God is holding something out from you. Wouldn't it be exciting to know good and evil? Wouldn't it be great to be like God? Eve trusted that satanic word and ate of the fruit of which God had said, "You shall not eat it lest you die." She gave to Adam and he consumed it, too. Their eyes were opened to their shame. Paradise was no longer home so they foolishly try to hide from the Lord God.

God expelled Adam and Eve from paradise. They can't go home again. The door is blocked by the flaming sword of the angel. If that had been God's last word, there would be no Christmas. God, however, spoke another word. It was a word of promise and of hope. It was a word that would be fulfilled in the fullness of time as a virgin conceives and gives birth to the Son of God. God said to the serpent:

"And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel."

Along with His prophetic word, God gave His people a very real, physical, concrete sign of His presence first in the tabernacle and then in the temple. God would be at home with His people by means of the tabernacle, the tent of His saving presence. God would cause the temple built by Solomon to be house for His name, the very location of His heavenly glory on earth.

The Christmas Epistle from Hebrews begins with these words "God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son." God who had clothed Himself in the words of the Old Testament and in the very physical structures of tabernacle and temple now comes to us in person. He comes as the Word made flesh. He is Immanuel, God-with-us.

In the past, God maintained His holy presence among His people through the cloud by day and pillar of fire by night as he led them through the wilderness. God was with His people in the holy tabernacle, a tent that was pitched in the middle of the desert. God's glory filled the temple and He was there to hear the prayers of His people and forgive them their sins. But now, the Apostle John declares "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." Literally, John is declaring, "the Word became flesh and pitched His tent, tabernacled among us. The Tent of Meeting, the Holy of Holies, the Tabernacle of God's presence in the flesh of Jesus Christ, God incarnate.

God is at home with us. The Lord of all creation becomes our Brother. He comes in our flesh and with our blood flowing in His veins to reconcile us to God by His death on the cross. He becomes homeless that we might be at home with God. Later He would say "foxes have holes and birds have their nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head." The Prince of Glory humbles Himself to become a Servant. "Mild He lays His glory by, born that man no more may die," we sing in the carol. How true. God does not disdain our flesh and blood, He does not despise our humanity but takes it into Himself to be our Redeemer.

Christmas declares that God has made His home with man that we might forever be at home with God. Earlier this week some of us toured the new Mormon temple in St. Paul. The tour guide told us that the Mormons believe the temple to be the most sacred place on earth. Only in the temple can the Mormon practice the ordinances of their religion such as baptisms for the dead and the sealing of marriages for eternity. In the darkness of unbelief, Mormonism does not see that Jesus Christ --true God and true man-is God's temple in the flesh. It is only in Him that we have access to our heavenly Father. It is only in the temple of the flesh and blood of Jesus that we have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. It is only in Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, that we are at home with God.

That, dear Christian people, is the glad news of Christmas. We are at home with God. We need not peer into space to find God. We need not probe the depths of our own souls to locate Him. He will not be found in the religious systems constructed by sinful minds. God will be found nowhere else but in the flesh and blood of Mary's Son, the Word made flesh. That Christ dwells among us still, giving us His body to eat and His blood to drink. In this gift we behold His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.