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| “In many people Christ lives the life of the Host. Our life is a sacramental life. This Host life is like the Advent life, like the life of the Child in the womb, the Child in the swaddling bands, the Christ in the tomb. It is a life of dependence upon creatures, of silence and secrecy, of hidden light. It is the life of a prisoner.” ― |
“Why Tonight?”
Luke 2.1-20
December 24, 2019
Why tonight?
The short answer:
the birth of a child.
Not just any
child, through this child all children are saved from the worst we have to
offer.
Tonight is about
the birth of the Christ child.
Our Advent anticipations are over. What we have been waiting for has finally arrived.
Christ arrives.
The Creator of the
Universe enters into the human story as one of us—just like one of us. The
goodness of creation is affirmed and incarnated.
Tonight, we
witness once again the miracle of life.
The story never
gets old.
An unwed teenage
girl, pregnant; the father, uncertain but told by an angel with great certainty
that what is is exactly what needs to be and to not be afraid.
In the story, it all happened so fast. Nine months in a few verses that end with Mary going into
labor traveling to Bethlehem because of a census.
It wasn’t the best
hotel, I don’t think. Luke doesn’t mention how many stars the ‘inn’ had on YELP,
but only that the child was “laid in a manger, because there was no place for
them in the inn.”
No place for the
child. No place for Mary and Joseph. No place.
So it goes in the
story that while there was no place in the inn, shepherds found their way to the
child. Notice where they were living? With their sheep, in the fields, the
wilderness.
It is the wilderness where the glory of the Lord seems to happen. With Moses. With Elijah. And now with these
shepherds, who were minding their business, literally, when an angel appeared to
them, telling them first to not be afraid because they were about to be on the
receiving end of the most joyful news in history.
Insert Linus from old Chuck Brown’s
Christmas:
“to you is born this day in the city of David
a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 2:12 This will be a sign for you: you
will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger."
Bands of cloth and lying in a manger. Have you wondered what this would be in today’s world? Such
a hypothetical question could be debated for hours, but no matter the
conclusion, a child was born—into a world full of darkness, reeking
of despair.
Notice the absence of animals?
Chances are they were there, but there is no mention of them. Perhaps they were
added later to further illuminate the absurdity of God’s love for us. Which is
why the angels start singing for the third time. The song sung to the shepherds
in their field was:
“Glory to God
in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
In that tune carries a liberating
note that we mustn’t overlook. The angel first came to Zechariah, next Mary,
next Joseph, all of whom had roles to play in the coming of Christ—but then,
shepherds. And these third shift folx weren’t even the ones who owned the sheep.
Why them? To put
it plainly: because God chooses them. IT has nothing to do with what they have
done. And it clearly can’t be who they are—unless “who they are” is nothing at
all, for this same Jesus whom they will rush to worship shall fill his own
feast hall with the poor and maimed and lame and blind, with those who travel
the highways and lurk in the hedges. The God of the Lord’s Glory and the God born
of flesh are of the same notion, right?
Which is why we are here tonight.
Tonight is about the
good tidings of great joy…for all people—that unto us a savior is born. All
the people includes all the people—even us. The shepherds represent everyone—including
us—they represent all the nameless, all the working folx, the great wheeling
population of the whole world.
Tonight, it is about
a child, yes. But it is more than that, too. It is about the way this child
unites the heavens and the earth with a vision of peace and goodwill for All
peoples.
Tonight is about
Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus. But tonight is also about the shepherds and
us. The shepherds—the people without names or position or repute or privilege—us.
The story is about God coming to a no-place, to a no-named people at an obscured time in human history. Tonight, we read a familiar story
to remind ourselves that we can be like the shepherds. They are us in this
story. Because in the ordinariness of life came an angel of God to declare to
some rather ordinary people, the most excellent news ever recorded in human history.
Tonight is about our
ordinary lives being interrupted by the extraordinary gift of a child. So we are
the ones frightened by the sudden burst of immediate divinity. Our stomachs
contract. Our hands fly up in front of our faces. We, probably like them, shepherds,
expect the Holy to show up at Church…but not in the ordinariness of our
lives. Yet it is in a manger where God shows up. Whenever we think we have God figured out, God surprises. Always.
Why tonight?
Because God continues to interrupt our lives with the impossible. Because
tonight, like the shepherds back then, needed a word of good news. Like the
shepherds keeping watch at night, we need a word during our own darkness
that the Light is born unto us today, tomorrow, and forever from here on out.
Tonight, we need to hear the familiar story and listen to the angel declare once more, “Your
Savior is born. Your Savior is here and very near. Nevermore shall you be
ignorant of God and God’s deep love for you because I will give you signs for
dinging that love. Look, the Divine is a baby, wrapped in plain baby clothing—lying
in the humblest of homes, a manger.”
Why tonight?
Because tonight, we need to hear how unto us a child is born, the Son of God,
The Human One, who will show us once more how not to live separated from the
Love of God. In this Child, we will come to dwell in the fullness of God. In this child will we find our True Self.
Tonight is about Life and Light. It is about God interrupting the ordinary and choosing us
to help bring about God’s reign. It is about the manger declaring that God is with us, that God chooses us, and that God is cradling us. We sing tonight, with the stars in the sky, and
the angels in heaven, “Glory to God in the highest of heavens and peace to the
people with whom God is pleased!”
Just like God
chose the shepherds.
The plain and
nameless—whose every name God knows by heart.
You.
And me.
All of us.
All of
the people.
Merry Christmas,
friends.
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