O COME LET US ADORE HIM!

Why should we worship and adore God? For many Christians, worship is what we do on a Sunday morning, singing a few hymns, listening to a teaching from the Holy Book, sharing communion/Eucharist, and doing whatever else is scheduled. But worship is so much more than that. Worship is bowing before our God. When we come before God in worship, we humbly give ourselves up to His Lordship, proclaiming that He is worthy and exalting Him in praise.

In the fourth chapter of Revelation, John sees a vision of God on His throne in heaven, and surrounding the throne are four living creatures and 24 elders. They are worshipping God and saying, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honour and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.” They are proclaiming that God is worthy of our worship because He created all things. All things have their being in Him.

And so we come to this season of Christmas. The well-known Christmas carol “O Come Let Us Adore Him” speaks to the reason for what we should be concentrating on at this time. The liturgical season of Christmas begins with the vigil Mass on Christmas Eve and concludes on the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. During this season, we celebrate the birth of Christ into our world and our hearts. His birth makes us reflect on the gift of salvation that is born with Him, for He was born to die for us.

Exactly why does our celebration of Christmas mean more than an affirmation of a historical event of the birth of Jesus? How does the meaning of Christmas impact our lives daily as the people of God? Perhaps an answer lies at the heart of the nativity narratives in both Matthew and Luke. God came in human flesh and identified Himself with us as human beings. Amid the most unlikely of circumstances, to the most unlikely of people, God became a human being to reconcile all peoples to himself (2 Cor 5:18-19). Max Lucado said, “God goes to those who have time to hear him – and so, on this cloudless night, He went to simple shepherds.”

I am a sinful human – one who was separated from the love of God by my sin. But God made a suitable sacrifice for my sin and adopted me into His family. He prepared an eternal future for me with Himself. It is this possibility we celebrate at Christmas. We do so with confidence, born not of our desire but from the birth of a child over 2,000 years ago, a child who was the Son of God.

This year has been a challenging year for all of us. The coronavirus is ravaging the whole world, with no respect for age, colour, religion or gender. It has brought unbelievable distress to the countries, through economic loss in millions of dollars as well as through loss of lives. It has disrupted family lives through forced unemployment and, in some cases, through the loss of lives of the breadwinners. Amid this global pandemic, it has become increasingly difficult to focus on the Nativity of Jesus. Like any good father, God wants to see His children grow. His primary way of growing our love is through adversity. There is no other effective way of deepening our relationship with Him. But we must choose to view adversity as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle. When we do that, we grow in our Christlikeness. Adversity is a given. Growth is optional.

So let us jubilantly sing “O Come Let Us Adore Him” and may the Peace and Joy of Christmas be yours; and may the coming year be filled with God’s richest blessings for you and your family.

– Bishop Burchell McPherson, Bishop of Montego Bay