Good evening! Good evening and
welcome to this celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, tonight
we celebrate. We know celebration well, don’t we? We celebrate birthdays,
anniversaries, home-comings, various holidays throughout the year. Sometimes we
celebrate just for the heck of it. As the youngest of three sons, my older
brothers would often talk about “partying”. As a kid I always wondered, “what
are you celebrating?” I didn’t have to become too old to realize that people
need not a specific reason to celebrate, to have a party.
There’s a lot of celebration going
on this time of year – and I’m not just talking about the holiday season – I’m
talking about this specific year, December 2015, there is a whole lot of
celebration going on. On December 14 a new era began, as the Force, apparently has
Awakened. Star Wars gear from t-shirts to costumes to bed linen sets (which I’m
hoping for a king size set under the tree tomorrow) seem ubiquitous in stores across
the country. This is a big deal to a lot of people (I admit, me included). I
have not seen the new Star Wars movie so no spoilers will happen from this pulpit, and I bid you please don’t
tell me anything! But my question going into this film is, “The force awakens?”
When was the force asleep? Return of the
Jedi ends with the defeat of the Empire, including the death of Darth Vader
who just previously killed the evil emperor. And of course at the end of the
movie, who could forget the gleeful glow of the ghostly saints of Yoda, Obi Wan
and Anakin Skywalker smiling on at those at the Rebel’s celebration. It seems
to me the Empire must awaken – but
perhaps I need to see the movie. And I will.
So yes, tonight is a celebration.
But it’s a different kind of celebration, isn’t it? Yes, it’s different because
we are celebrating in a church where certain customs and behaviors are
expected. This certainly isn’t the kind of celebration where we buzz around
socializing with cocktails in hand. Yes, it’s different because we are
celebrating a holy event in human history (I think a Star Wars junkie would
most assuredly argue the same). A stark difference, however, in the kind of
celebration that we encounter tonight as compared to a more personal celebration,
like a birthday or New Years’ Eve, is that at least in my experience, a
birthday or holiday celebration is rarely prefaced with the question: “So, how
long do you think this thing will last?”
Our celebration this night is a
cosmic one. What I mean when I say this is that when a child, a human child,
one of the most vulnerable creatures on this planet, was born as an intentional
act of God, Creator of all that is, all of creation changes. The human
condition with it’s propensity to seek self-promotion through violence and
control was changed. Our propensity to seek darkness (or the “dark-side) as a
way of life was turned around. Love was born unto us anew this day. What more
incredible thing can we celebrate?
Have you ever seen those bumper
stickers on cars that say, “Keep Christ in Christmas”? Whenever I see or hear
short sound bites that presumably seeks to wrap up a whole idea that is most
likely a complex issue, I get very suspicious. But this little catch phrase,
“Keep Christ in Christmas” has some truth to it if dig a little bit. For me the
implications of such a short saying has so much more to do with the cosmic and
universal impact that Jesus was born into this world than simply making sure we
go to church on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day – although I highly recommend
doing so.
“Keeping Christ in Christmas” for
me, means making room for Jesus in our lives. Among the almost unbearable crazy
rush of a holiday that our western way of life has created, we hopefully will
come to realize that this chaotic rush and busy-ness of life runs counter to
what we – yes – celebrate this night; and indeed for the next twelve days.
Imagine a celebration that does not
include loud conversations, music, and crowded rooms, but rather the hush of a
cool evening. Mystics and spiritualists say that we meet God not in the noise
of life but in the silence. But there is some irony, however, to the quietness
of a Christmas Eve for which we yearn, since what we celebrate is the birth of
a child to a couple in challenging circumstances far from home. The outbuilding
in which Jesus was born did not smell of cinnamon brooms or roasting turkey. It
wasn’t decorated in lights and bows. It smelled quite frankly of animals and
hay. The manger, as we usually call it, was a stable where animals ate. It was
no place for a mother about to give birth. It was no place for a newborn,
certainly. Mary had every reason to say no to that angel. If she had some way
of seeing into the future to this cold, filthy stable where she would have to
give birth to her first-born, she certainly may have taken a pass. But she did
not.
Mary, our exemplar of faithfulness
and obedience to the divine call, said yes. Taken from scripture literally, she
said to the angel, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me
according to your word.” This was a profound act on the part of Mary. We forget
what an arduous journey this was for her. Or at least we tend to caricaturize
her as someone who pleasantly went through the motions of childbirth, as if
that’s ever true – remember there were no pain meds to take, no epidural, and
her midwife was a carpenter. But not only did Mary’s physical surroundings make
it near impossible to go through with this birth, the political climate of the
time, with Israel being
occupied by Rome Nazareth in Galilee , with
expecting family in tow. Under the most precarious of circumstances is our
Savior Christ born.
We celebrate Christmas this year in
the shadow of terrorism and the horrific loss of life that seems to happen
every month. Violence, darkness and death are nothing new to the human
experience as the Church remembers the slaughter of the Innocents on December
28, three days after Christmas Day. According to Matthew’s gospel, Herod, who
asked the Wise Men about the location of the child who was born, became infuriated
when the Magi tricked him by not telling him where the Holy Family could be
found. In response, the evil Herod ordered all male children under the age of
two to be killed, for fear of losing his throne. No one knows how many children
were killed, but the Church has always honored these children as martyrs.
It is into this dangerous world
that God enters as a human child – this is the radical grace of Christmas.
Lutheran pastor and author Nadia Bolz-Weber, who regards herself as a ****,
tattooed, ****, with the mouth of a truck driver, writes,
Yes, the radical grace of Christmas
is that God enters fully into our existence and reality when the Christ child
is born.
Christmas looks different this
year, it looks different every year, but the meaning and significance remains
the same. A child is born as a light in our darkness. It is no surprise that
Christmas comes at the darkest time of the year. The days are the shortest as
night falls earliest.
Tonight we celebrate what God has
done in humanity – and what God is doing in humanity. We celebrate a cosmic
shift in the history of human life where light pierces darkness, death is over
run by life, truth prevails and hope endures. God becomes human, lives and dies
as one of us, and raises us to himself that we too become God’s children
ourselves. Ponder this truth. Don’t try and figure it out. Let the light of
this Christ child glow on your doubt and reservations.
In the words of Cynthia Kittredge:
[Let us] be “filled with wonder on this Christmas day, let us welcome Jesus,
splendid guest. Let us be those who receive him. Rejoice that the word and
wisdom of God comes in human flesh like ours. Give thanks that our fragile
lives are holy and shine with the radiance of God’s glory. In communion with
saints and in company of friends, celebrate
the feast.”
Merry Christmas. (And may the force
be with you.)
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