Gospel: John 1: 1-18
And the Word became flesh, and pitched his tent among us.
This is the literal translation of the text. God pitches his tent among us. God did not come to build a mansion or palace among us. God came to pitch his tent among us. Those who live in tents are nomads, shepherds, pilgrims. It is a reminder that we do not live in a permanent place on earth; that our only permanence is in God alone, and this God comes to live among us in our impermanence.
It is also a reminder of the time when God lived among his people in a tent as they wandered through the desert from Egypt to the Promised Land. God's presence stayed among his people and guided them those many years. God lived humbly in a tent and did not want any grand temple built in the Promised Land. God wanted to dwell among his people, not apart from them.
So Christmas is a permanent reminder that God comes to dwell among us in complete humility, and that only the humble and outcast - the shepherds and Magi - will come to recognize this dwelling among us. Only if we too are humble can God dwell among us and bring glory once again to our world.
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