We have just remembered again the beautiful story of the birth of Jesus. We have been reminded of the miracle of the virgin birth. Most of us have been satisfied just to remember and wonder and enjoy. But there is a meaning behind that event that we need to know. Christian scripture and tradition tell us that, in the birth of Jesus, an aspect of God's own being took flesh to dwell among us as one of us. One of our favorite Christmas carols has us singing, "Veiled in flesh the God-head see; hail incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel." What does all of that mean? And what should it mean to us? It is important for us to know. The book of Hebrews tells a story that will help us understand. But first, let me tell you another story.

I will tell you a parable. There was a certain college track team that could not win a track meet. In their particular league, there was a special event that was unique to their area. It was an obstacle course similar to the obstacle courses that are part of military training. Every athlete was expected to run it. That was the team's worst event. They almost had a tradition of finishing last in that event - or of not finishing at all. The college was well endowed and they continued to have a track team because they could offer attractive scholarships. But, they were so famous for losing that only those athletes who couldn't get a scholarship anywhere else would come. They also had a record for changing coaches several times a year. Coaches came and went through the motions halfheartedly until they could find another job where they could coach a winning team. If they didn't quit before the year was over, the college administrators fired them at the end of their losing season because the alumni who contributed to the support of the athletic program believed that they should be able to buy a coach who could produce a winning team. The news media sports reporters finally began to make their own sport of composing derogatory jokes about the losingest team in the league.

Then one year a certain young man with an outstanding athletic record came and applied for the position of coach of the track team. The administration was so surprised at getting an applicant that they did not have to seek out and bribe to come that they gave him the job. At the first practice, a cynical team member asked, in the hearing of the whole team, "How long are you going to be here, one week or two?" The coach answered in the hearing of the whole team, "I am here for my whole career if the alumni will let me stay. I believe you can win and I am here to help you do it. Don't wonder about me. I am with you. I am going to be here. Are you?" At first, the team didn't believe him. But he acted like he meant it. He came to each workout and practice session with real enthusiasm. He told the team members, "There are two things I want you to do. Believe you can win and live like winners." The team members joked about the coach's platitudes in private. But he acted as if he meant for them to take it seriously.

The coach worked hard. He tried to make a friend of each team member. He worked with them individually, analyzing their needs and showing them what to do. Finally, the day came for the team to work on the obstacle course. The coach told the team members to watch as he ran the course to show them how it should be done. The coach had one of the team members hold the stop watch and keep his time. He ran the course perfectly and, to everyone's surprise, his time broke the league record. The coach said, "If I can do that, you can do it, too. I am a guy just like you." The team members were impressed - but they didn't believe it.

At the end of the season, they finished last again. They could not even finish the obstacle course. The alumni yelled for the dismissal of "that preachy coach," but there was no one else who would consider coming. The sports pages began to announce that the losingest team had another losing coach. To everyone's surprise, the coach was offered another job in spite of his losing season - but he didn't take it. He said to the team members, "I told you I am with you and I meant it. Now believe you can win and live like winners." Some of the team members began to take him seriously and to work harder. Bit by bit, the team's attitude changed. Finally the time came for the team to run the obstacle course in practice. The coach followed his tradition and ran it before them. Then he stood at the finish line and shouted, "Come on now; if I can do it, you can do it." And one by one, they did it. They began to believe that they could win and to live like winners. They won several preliminary competitions.

But the change had escaped the attention of the alumni and the administration. By then, they had made a joke of the preachy coach and his platitudes. One prominent big contributor to the athletic fund found another person whom he persuaded to apply for the position of coach. The coach was terminated just before the final track meet. The team members were shocked. They didn't quite know what to do. But when they came to the track meet, they saw their old coach in the stands. Every time a team member was about to compete, he heard the old coach shouting, "Come on. I believe in you. You can do it." Each team member did his best. And when the time came for the team to run the obstacle course, the old coach found a way to position himself just beyond the finish line so he could be heard yelling, "Come on now. You can do it." And they did. They won the meet. The team members made it their tradition to shout, "Believe you can win and live like a winner." They became a winning team.

The New Testament book of Hebrews tells a story that is similar to that in many ways but much more cosmic in its scope and much more important in its implications for us. The book of Hebrews is a hard book to read. It is full of mixed metaphors and references to ancient traditions that most of us don't remember or understand. Actually, you have to dig around in all of that to find the story line in the book. But when it finally emerges and you see it, it is exciting.

The story begins by assuming our human need. We want to live good and productive lives. We want to live in a good and right relationship with God and with life and with ourselves and with others. But it is hard to do that. Many things in life and within ourselves work against us. We find ourselves living lives of which we are not proud and with which we cannot be happy. We feel like we are parts of that losing team. We can't win. We feel the condemnation that always seems to rest on the losers. But God acted to reach out to us, to make known to us the things that God is always doing for our salvation.

It is important to remember that God is the primary actor in this story. God sent one who was an aspect of God's own being to lead us to life. The opening verses of Hebrews say, "... in these last days, [God] has spoken to us by a Son whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word" (Hebrews 1:2-3a). This one, who will be called "the pioneer" because he came to lead us into faith and life, is God with us. It is important to remember that.

But it is also important to remember that same one became one of us and one with us. He came to identify with us. Like the track coach in the parable, he came saying, "I am with you. I am committed to you. I am one of you." The text says that Jesus was not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. "Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things ..." (Hebrews 2:14).

Living as one of us, he experienced life as we experience it. The text says, "It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings." He even experienced temptation. Later, the book says he was in every respect tested as we are (Hebrews 4:15). He experienced uncertainty, anxiety, pain, loneliness, and all of the other things we experience. "Because he himself was tested by what he suffered, he is able to help those who are being tested" (Hebrews 2:18). Having identified with us and shared our life situation, Jesus was able to accomplish several important things for our salvation.

The text says he made "a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people" (Hebrews 2:17). Whenever we read about atonement in the Bible, we are reading about God forgiving our sins and not holding our guilt against us. This is a very important part of the saving work of God. It is one of the things that is represented by the suffering of Jesus. It tells us that we are accepted by God as we are. No, it does not say that our sins were okay. But it does say that God has set our past failures aside so that he can start with us where we are and lead us into a better life.

Hebrews also tells us that the pioneer lived the life that we are called to live and did it under our circumstances to show us that it can be done. Like the track coach in the parable, he ran the obstacle course that is set before us to show us how to do it and to show us that we can do it. He was "in every respect tested as we are, yet without sin." What kind of life is this that he lived to set an example for us? It was a life of faithfulness to the purpose of God. "Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses was 'faithful in all God's house' " (Hebrews 3:1-2). He lived a life of commitment to God's purpose for himself and for the whole creation. That is the kind of life we are called to live. That kind of life will take different shapes for different people, but it will always be a life of faith and of love. Jesus has shown us that we can live that kind of life under our circumstances no matter how difficult they are.

He has also shown us that we need not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the threat of death, either by the ultimate death that ends our lives or by the little deaths with which we are so often threatened by those who want to control us. He died rather than allow the threat of death to turn him aside from his commitment to God's purpose. He did that "... so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death" (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Can you see why it was necessary for the Son of God to become one of us and to live under our circumstances? It made it possible for him to suffer for our sins and to set us free from guilt. It made it possible for him to show us the life for which we were created and to demonstrate that we can actually live it under our human limitations and circumstances. And it made it possible for him to set us free from the fear that so often keeps us from living in obedience to God's higher purpose.

But then the story enters another phase. After the death and resurrection of Jesus, he returned to being with God and being an aspect of God's own being. He went where God is. The book of Hebrews uses traditional ancient imagery and talks about Jesus sitting at the right hand of God in heaven, making sacrifices for us in the heavenly temple, and representing us before God. That can translate into an image of the one who once was one of us now being an aspect of God who comes to meet us and to interact with us in all of our interactions with life.

Now we find ourselves reckoning with the great question that all of us ask and answer without knowing it every day when we walk out the door to meet life and to live it. We have to ask: How will life deal with me? Will it afflict me, or condemn me, or be indifferent toward me?

The book of Hebrews tells us that, even though many hurtful and cruel things may happen to us in life, the one who stands behind all of those experiences, the one who counts, is one who loves us enough to be committed to our salvation, one who understands what we are going through because he has been through it too, one who forgives our sins and accepts us as we are, one who expects much of us, and one who believes in us and is pulling for us - like the track coach sitting in the stands and shouting, "Come on, you can do it." That enables us to go to meet life with confidence and expectancy. The book says, "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore approach the throne of grace [let us approach every experience of our lives] with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:14-16).

Later the book actually comes close to the image of the parable of the track coach saying, "... let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God" (Hebrews 12:1a-2)

Now do you understand why Christmas was necessary? Do you understand some of what it means that God is God with us? Can you begin to catch a vision of what it can mean for you to live a life in which God is with us? Can you hear someone shouting from the stands, "Come on, you can make it!"?