Please click the link to watch Rev. Cynthia’s video recording of this homily.

Have you ever witnessed a miracle? No? Have you ever been in a delivery room when you, your spouse, or someone else was giving birth? Did mother and baby survive? Was that baby welcomed into a loving family? Wasn’t that a miracle?

Around the country tonight in many Unitarian Universalist congregations the words of Sophia Lyon Fahs, Unitarian Universalist religious educator and mother of five—three of whom survived—will be read.

“For so the children come
And so they have been coming.
Always in the same way they come—
Born of the seed of man and woman.
No angels herald their beginnings
No prophets predict their future courses
No wise men see a star to show
where to find the babe that will save humankind
Yet each night a child is born is a holy night.
Fathers and mothers—sitting beside their children’s cribs—
feel glory in the sight of a new life beginning.
They ask, “Where and how will this new life end?
Or will it ever end?”
Each night a child is born is a holy night—
A time for singing,
A time for wondering,
A time for worshipping.”

We use the words of Fahs regularly on Christmas Eve. We do not regularly use a carol in our hymn book by the Unitarian Universalists Robert Lehman and Betsy Jo Angebrandt, but their sentiment is similar. Lehman’s words to Angebrandt’s music are, “Within the shining of a star we catch a glimpse of who we are; in every infant born we see the hope of our nativity. The miracle of each new birth can shake and save the stony earth; triumphantly the newborn’s cry echoes from the waiting sky.”

You are a miracle. I am a miracle. A miracle of life and a miracle of love. Many of us, though unfortunately not all of us, came to be because of the love of our parents. All of us came to be the people we are today because we had people who loved us in our lives.

The twentieth century theoretical physicist Albert Einstein said, “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”

Unitarian Universalist minister Robert T. Weston wrote this poem:

“Out of the stars in their flight, out of the dust of eternity,
here have we come,
Stardust and sunlight,
mingling through time and through space.

“Out of the stars have we come,
up from time.
Out of the stars have we come.

“Time out of time before time
in the vastness of space,
earth spun to orbit the sun,
Earth with the thunder of mountains newborn,
the boiling of seas.

“Earth warmed by sun, lit by sunlight;
This is our home;
Out of the stars have we come.

“Mystery hidden in mystery,
back through all time;
Mystery rising from rocks
in the storm and the sea.

“Out of the stars, rising from rocks
and the sea,
kindled by sunlight on earth,
arose life.

“Ponder this thing in your heart,
life up from sea:
Eyes to behold, throats to sing,
mates to love.

“Life from the sea, warmed by sun,
washed by rain,
life from within, giving birth,
rose to love.

“This is the wonder of time;
this is the marvel of space;
out of the stars swung the earth;
life upon earth rose to love.

“This is the marvel of life,
rising to see and to know;
Out of your heart, cry wonder:
sing that we live.”

Many say that the baby whose birth is celebrated tonight was special, was holy, was even God incarnated in human flesh, but as Unitarian Universalists we say every baby born is special, is holy, perhaps even an incarnation of God.

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said in his Harvard Divinity School Address, “Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there…. One man was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates (Godself) in (humanity), and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of (the) world. He said, in this jubilee of sublime emotion, ‘I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me; or, see thee, when thou also thinkest as I now think.” (Divinity School Address – Ralph Waldo Emerson).

This is a night to celebrate miracles, and the greatest of miracles is that we live and that we love and are loved.

Go in search of the child, who is every child and everyone who was once a child, and bring your gift to lay before them, the gift of your blessing of love.

I invite you to pray with me using words from UU minister Rev. Linda Olson-Peebles.

“Sitting (here),
with the huge universe of sky and space all around, may we let our eyes be open to the miracle of life in every person whom we see.
May our hearts and minds not be numb
or unaware or unconcerned.
The vibrancy of life is all around.
The power of love and nurture
is ours to bring into being,
to help ourselves and every child we meet.
Who we are and how we are with one another matters.
May we bring blessing and witness to
the sacredness of our being human. Amen.”

If you’ve appreciated this sermon, please text to give or visit our Give Now page to support the UUCSH Share the Plate efforts to assist those in need.