Christmas

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: Christmas
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: December 24 & 25, 1998

TEXT: Luke 2: 1-20 - And the angel said to them (the shepherds), "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

ISSUE: In this beautiful and simple passage, Luke proclaims to his readers that the Savior of the world has come. It is Jesus the Christ. He comes in the flesh. He is not a spirit, a tablet of stone, an angel. He comes as one of us, to show us his love and reveal what we might become. He comes to the least, the shepherds thought to be little more than a band of thieves, and they in turn honor him. We are gathered here to do the same, to honor him, and rejoice in the hope that he brings.
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We are gathered here on this Christmas to honor the Lord Jesus Christ giving thanks for the fact that God has come among us in the flesh. Luke's poetic narrative expresses the fullness of God coming among his people in great simplicity. Having heard the story and reflecting on it for a few minutes, we then come to the altar rail to reach and to receive him into our lives. We come this evening in search of hope for the days and years ahead.
Luke's narrative is so profoundly beautiful. He speaks of hard times when the Roman Power manipulated and disrupted people's lives. He conveys this hardship by tell that Mary and Joseph must make a journey from their small hometown of Nazareth to Joseph's hometown of Bethlehem to participate in some census or tax payment arrangement. They are the victims of the powers of the world, and felt little control over their lives.
Nazareth was a small town of about a 100 inhabitants, and Bethlehem was not much bigger. When they arrive in Bethlehem Luke tells us there was no room in the "inn." Bethlehem did not have inns as we know them. A more literal translation would be guest room (or upper room as in the room used by Jesus for the Last Supper). Peasant homes were ususally one room dwellings. A few had an upper room or guest room. The more usual peasant dwelling had a living quarters at one end of the room, and a place at the other end to bed down the animals at night separated by a manger. Apparently the guest rooms were already taken by people who had more status or honor than Mary and Joseph. Thus Mary gives birth to the child Jesus in a room or place like all the other peasant women. The child will not have anything special, no unique crib or stately bed. He is born like all other peasant children, in a manger, probably with some of the local women attending Mary in her delivery. Jesus' birth is one says Luke that has no special honor attached to it. He is truly like all the rest of the peasants.
Now out in the fields around Bethlehem are a band of shepherds, Luke goes on to say. Shepherds and flocks were common to this area since the sheep were raised and made available for temple sacrifices in nearby Jerusalem. Shepherds had no honor in these days either. They did not stay at home at nights to care for their women and children. Their occupation was one without honor. What's more they trespassed with the sheep on other peoples' land and had a reputation for being thieves.
Out in the fields angels (God's messengers) appear to shepherds and tell this dishonorable band of thieves. They are fearful, terrorized. Yet the angels tell them they have nothing to fear, for today is born for them a savior who is Christ the Lord. It is something to and with whom they can relate. It is a babe born in the town of Bethlehem and wrapped up like all babies of this time in swaddling bands. Honored by the visitation of the angels, the shepherds go to Bethlehem to adore, worship, honor the child who has no honor as the world understood it.
So what is Luke saying? He is saying that the savior, God's salvation, God's love and forgiveness, is within our reach, within our understanding. God is in the simplicity of the teaching, healing, ministry of Jesus the Christ, who lives and dies for his people. God comes to the last, the least, the lost, to a motley bunch of shepherds and thieves. No one stands outside of the grace of God's free gift of love. Inspite of the Romans, the powers, the potentates, the systems of what the world deems as honorable, God in Jesus Christ comes to his save and redeem, to love and forgive his people. This savior is no high potentate, no stone tablets, no spirit, no angel. The savior is God with us in the flesh. Inspite of the world he comes in utter marvelous simplicity. He comes to a world with limited room and honor. He comes in utter simplicity and love. There is nothing to fear.
As we greet a new year, it is not looking at this point like a particularly good or easy one ahead of us. There are the problems in our government, which are likely to and may create considerable dissention and uncertainty. We face the realities and fears of terrorism. There will be something of a mad scramble to get the world's computers fixed before the millenium, the turn of the century. Each of us face various individual uncertainties and anxieties in our futures. Yet this is the night, the time of our being renewed in hope that whatever we face God in Christ Jesus is with us.
We gather here this evening to honor him with our hymns, with our songs, with our prayers, and with our reaching out at the altar to take his loving grace into our hearts. May we continue to be the bearers of the Goodnews of God in Christ as we live out our own humanity both embracing and and allowing ourselves to be embraced and touched by the Jesus Christ our Lord and his saving grace, who being like us and with us loves us and fully understands our humanity.