2025 Pastor’s Christmas Message

From Our Pastor & Dean

My Dear St. Michael Parish Family:

When we look at a lot of Nativity scenes, we often see the baby Jesus with his arms wide open. Jesus is really holding his hands out to the entire world. I like to call this gesture Jesus’ first sermon as He says in an unmistakable way: “I love you.” He came into the world with his arms outstretched in the manger and left the earthly world with his arms outstretched on the cross, saying the same, “ I love you.” Jesus is God’s love made visible for us. God is not a tyrant or a slave driver or a master; God is a loving father. We are His children. But still the message seems not to get through to us. Weekly church attendance is not merely what it should be, and we so often turn to others and worldly things instead of turning to God and His Church.

I think we forgot just how much Jesus loves us because we allow ourselves to get distracted. Life is full of activities, opportunities, and things we say yes to because we feel guilty. When we have a spare moment, instead of praying we switch on the TV, computer, or pick up the phone we just had in our hands a minute ago. The Inn had no room to welcome Jesus because it was too full – just like our lives. The humble stable had space for Almighty God. Sometimes we don’t begin to realize the meaning of life until our own lives start to stink like a stable. Sometimes we have to be emptied of everything else before we begin to discover that only God’s love really matters.

The Baby born in Bethlehem really does reveal the secret of life: “I love you.” The Church seems to have a lot of strange teachings, and they seem strange to us because they only make sense if the Christmas story is true. Why does the Church insist that we pray daily? To stay friends with the One who loves us. Why does the Church say we have to come to Divine Liturgy every Sunday? To be fed by the One who loves us. Why does the Church have Confession? So we can come back to God’s love when we have failed. Why do we keep celebrating Christmas after Christmas Day? Because we love God so much, and are so excited to welcome His Son.

This Christmas and all throughout 2026 and the years after that, let us say “I love you” back to Jesus by being good church attendees, practicing our faith daily, and taking interest in the “Good News” instead of being distracted by the daily bad news.