Living the Story

Happy 5th day of Christmas! For those of you who asked...my Christmas Eve sermon.

I imagine that since you are here at this time of night on Christmas Eve when there have been so many other opportunities to be present at worship prior to this, your Christmas doesn’t feel quite right without worship and candles and getting out of church just about midnight. I know that mine doesn’t; in fact, I think that I am still missing that from last Christmas Eve when we chose safety and canceled this service! So what is it about Christmas that makes us want to be out and about at an hour when most of us are happily at home?

I think I’ve heard it over and over again this Christmas season; it’s “the magic” of Christmas for which the advertising agency tells that we are seeking. It is in our TV ads, TV specials, and our Christmas cards. The good news of the Christmas season according to the media is that there will be Christmas magic that will bring about the resolution to all of our problems.

One of my favorite Christmas myths, one that plays particularly upon the “magic” hour of midnight is the one that says that all of creation is truly made one. In that instant, when the clock strikes midnight, all the differences between heaven, earth, peoples and animals, is lifted. In that precious time between the chiming of the first bell of midnight and the last, animals and people can speak with one another and enemies become friends. At the end of the ringing, the world returns to the world we recognize, but it is hoped that this brief taste of the reign of God will be enough to encourage us to continue to live out the love of Christ all the rest of the year.

As I was drifting in and out of sleep this past week trying to get over my cold, I saw an interview with a Jesuit priest who has written a book saying that not only has there been a war on Christmas—we have lost the war. He quoted several recent polls taken in America that asked people what the most important thing was about Christmas. 48% of those who responded said that the most important thing about Christmas was family and being together; 37% said that the birth of Jesus was the most important thing. Apparently, while we have been busy looking for the “magic” of Christmas, we have missed the meaning in the birth of this child.

One of our wise children this Christmas asked why we kept talking about the birth of baby Jesus when everyone knew that he had already been born, lived a meaningful life, was crucified and raised from the dead. With all of that in his résumé, why did we spend so much time talking about his birth? That question has rattled around in my mind for the last couple of weeks as we have spent time preparing for the birth of a child a couple of thousands of years ago. Out of the mouths of children!

It is a theological question that we struggle with from time to time. Over the last 20 years or so, we have heard that someone is stealing the meaning of Christmas, but the church has been worried about this before. Christmas was not celebrated in the Early Christian Church until the Roman Empire was converted and named the Christmas celebration to help people move away from the Saturnalia, the ancient mid-winter celebration of the Roman gods. Christmas celebrations had become so boisterous, with so much attention on food and wine, that they were outlawed in England for 22 years during the mid-1600s; and the Puritans of Boston also did not allow for any practice of “The Christmas Spirit” during the early years. Historians say that it was the middle of the 1800s when this country began to practice Christmas in a way that we now say we long for—a quiet day that is family centered.

Yet even in this practice of Christmas, where do we find Jesus? Where do we find the mystery and awe that belong in this season for Christians, without the puritanical measures that would not allow for lights and happy songs? What is “the Spirit of Christmas” that we are told Scrooge—after his Christmas Eve scare and repentance—kept better than any man alive?

Mary’s song, the Magnificat that we have repeated each week during Advent, proclaims that her son will come to bring about a new world…a new creation that is even more wonderful than the first creation of Adam and Eve. This time, God’s reign will be made manifest in the way in which we live our lives. The poor will be lifted up…not walked over; there will be food to feed the hungry, and an equality will come about. This is the Christmas proclamation—Jesus the baby born this night so many years ago will grow up and show us how to live in God’s kingdom of justice and peace.

But we have missed the message. Over and over again, we miss it. Every year Christmas comes again and we celebrate the Prince of Peace while we wage war. We don’t understand why our celebrations seem to leave us feeling a little empty inside…even when we have the “perfect” Christmas planned.

In Charlie Brown's Christmas Special, that classic TV program of my childhood, Charlie Brown yells out in frustration: "Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?" "Sure," replies Linus. "I can tell you."

Linus then relates the story of the birth of Jesus as told in the Gospel of Luke that we read tonight. The birth of Mary's child is announced by an angel who tells shepherds living in the field:

'Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace...(Luke 2 NRSV).

What happened on the day Jesus was born? God broke through into the world again - but this time not with the force of the Big Bang or some other cosmic event - no, this time it was something even more powerful: the miracle of the birth of a child filled promise and hope. Both that miracle and the message that this child (born homeless and poor) brings (again and again) is what Christmas is about.

Do not be afraid," says the angel. Those born in the time of Jesus also knew about war and hunger and social divisions. Jesus offered a vision a time when all that would end...a time when "the wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together..." (Isaiah 11:6 NRSV)...a time when all humanity would live in divine harmony with all creation, as it was meant to be in the beginning.

I believe that even in the midst of war, deep global poverty and environmental chaos caused by humanity the message of the Prince of Peace is as relevant today as it was over 2,000 years ago. "War is over, if you want it," is the refrain to John Lennon's holiday song. The singer was right. So are poverty, hunger and division. We just have to accept the gift given to us by God on the first Christmas when Mary gave birth to the hope of the world and abide by Jesus' message of extravagant love and radical justice. We no longer have to be afraid. Our salvation has been here all along. There is cause to pick up a hymnal and sing "Joy to the World" after all.

Merry Christmas.