Christmas
Eve Sermon
Luke 2:1-20 (NRSV):
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that
all the world should be registered. This was the first
registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor
of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered.
Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to
Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he
was descended from the house and family of David. He went
to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and
who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time
came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to
her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and
laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them
in the inn. In that region there were shepherds living
in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night.
Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory
of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.
But the angel said to them, "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 among those whom he favors!" When
the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds
said to one another, "Let us go now to Bethlehem and
see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has
made known to us." So they went with haste and found
Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When
they saw this, they made known what had been told them
about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what
the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words
and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and
seen, as it had been told them.
Christmas Eve at
last, a night on which memories are made. A night so full
of memories that it's hard to keep your head clear, so full
are they of nostalgia and expectation. There is magic and
wonder in the air, even for us who are well past magic and
wonder.
What is it about
Christmas that can fill our hearts again with wonder and
childlike expectation, we who are too old for such things,
and yet feel it nonetheless? It's not the buildup, really.
Not all the commercials on television promoting the salad
spinners and Nordic Tracks that start coming around just
after Labor Day. It's not the special offers for the Christmas
albums featuring a reggae Christmas, and a Celtic Christmas,
and a disco Christmas - all three CDs for just $19.95!
It's not all the
folks crowded into the malls so dense you can hardly walk
down the wide aisles without bumping into someone. And it's
definitely not the mad rush for parking places, the circling,
circling, circling of the lot only to get aced out by the
one car that pulls in ahead of you when the guy backing out
blocks your way in.
None of those things
evokes Christmas for us. It's more the traditional things
that do it. The houses festooned with lights. Santa's helpers
on the corner ringing their bells for the Salvation Army.
Carols sung in church. Putting up the tree and hanging the
ornaments, each one a memory in itself.
I suppose what evokes
Christmas most in our memories is the idea of going home,
going back to some special place in our mind and heart where
Christmas is centered. A place in our lives with dimensions
and walls furnished in a specific way and inhabited with
specific people. It's a place where we belong, which is to
say that it belongs to us, where we feel safe and good even
though things at any given time there may not really have
been all that good, and yet they were.
Wherever home is
on Christmas Eve, that place where we go in our heart, it
is no doubt a composite, a place of reunion and peace and
joy that is the fulfillment of a hope and expectation of
a lifetime to find the home again that lives inside of each
of us in spite of the disappointments and heartbreaks we
have known.
Tonight we know
precisely where that home is, don't we? Our home is in a
manger far away from here, where a long time ago a worried
father, a just and righteous man who wished to do the right
thing by his betrothed, made his way along with his expectant
wife, into the city of David which is called Bethlehem. There
in the lowliness of a stable amid the wondering eyes of some
sheep and perhaps a donkey, a child was born. The mother,
barely more than a child herself, wrapped him in swaddling
clothes, this boy, her firstborn, and laid him in a feeding
trough, nestling him in the hay. And as she lays him down
for the rest he will need to grow strong and brave, this
Jesus child, we rest as well. For there in that place which
is our spiritual home all the hopes and fears of all the
years are met in him tonight.
That is the place
where we long to go, to the heart of all our homes and the
center of all our hearts. That place where we may run with
shepherds and kneel with kings and lay down the burdens of
our lives with all the treasures we have brought him, with
no treasure being more valuable to him than simply the treasure
that we are, just the way we are; don't change a thing. For
he welcomes us "as it", and all the rest he makes
right - he makes whole - simply by our being there, by worshiping
him, by being so close to someone so good.
At last we know
why we have come tonight, because it wouldn't be Christmas
without being here. We needed to come home, to be with our
family, the people of God, poor broken lot that we are, to
be with Mother and Daddy, with our children and grandchildren,
with our brothers and sisters and our oddball uncles and
corny cousins, with the tax collectors and prostitutes, the
Pharisees and hypocrites, the scientifically skeptical and
the adamantly agnostic, the bored, and the baptized. God's
own.
This is that place
where we have longed to be. That place of reunion and peace
and joy, where the glow of human love meets the warmth of
heavenly compassion.
Come sit by the
fire and warm your hands. Have something to eat and take
a cup of cheer. What a sight for sore eyes you are. You've
been expected! Welcome home. And Merry Christmas.
The Rev. Esther
Hargis
December 24, 1998
© 1998, Esther
Hargis
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