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Christmas Eve
Micah 5:2-4 The time has finally arrived. We can celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ into the world. The church looks different. The Poinsettias are blazing amid the white flowers at the Altar. The purple ribbons have been put away and now we have red ribbons on our wreaths. There is a hushed silence as we realize that Sweet Baby Jesus has finally arrived in the manger. The only heat in that cave is the warmth from the bodies of the beasts, in whose feeding crib Jesus sleeps. Jesus comes from a safe place of 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit into a cold, cruel world. Mary and Joseph hold him close and rock him when he cries. They can’t stop staring at his sacred face. In the quietness of this late hour, our spirits are lifted to the highest heaven. We know that something incredible has happened, and we can’t quite get our minds around it. With Mary, we ponder all these things in our hearts. The sheer wonder of it is too much to take in. We can only stand there and gasp in awe. We know that Jesus has been born into the world, and we still our hearts to listen again to the story according to Luke’s Gospel. It is a blessed event like no other. Our Scripture says that God has taken on the human condition – and has done so as a helpless baby no less! God did not just pick some nice grown up guy and decide to make that person his adopted son, as the Roman Emperors used to do. No – God did the unexpected. God came into the world through the cooperation of a virgin, unmarried teenage girl who said Yes to God. What if Mary had not said Yes to God? And did you ever wonder how many virgins God asked before he found one who was willing to give birth to Jesus? These things take time, and in the fullness of time, God sent his son, born in the flesh, born of a Virgin. Thank God for Joseph who wouldn’t let Mary out of his sight when the time came for her to give birth. I hope that Joseph had training in midwifery, because that girl was in trouble down there in Bethlehem. She was far away from her mother and all the women who could help her. She had lost her community and her village. Had it not been for the kindness of the innkeeper who let them stay in his stable, Mary would have given birth out in a field or in the streets. At least she had a little privacy in the cave. As we read the Christmas story again this year, maybe we hope that this time we will get it – that we will hear something in that story we have never heard before. Maybe we will have a flash of insight that will bring some dazzling image to our minds. Maybe we will be blinded by the glory of the Lord that shone around the shepherds. As Isaiah predicted, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light . . .” That Light is Jesus Christ, whose light is from eternity and goes on into eternity. Nothing can diminish his light. In fact, that Light grows brighter as time rolls on. We hope that the light of this night will shine in our own lives long into the New Year. As we ponder anew the Christmas story, perhaps we will think about how that even though Jesus came to us in an unpretentious way, all heaven could not keep it quiet. And maybe, just maybe, we will feel compelled to bring others into the light of Christ. Maybe this time when we hear the words “Do not be afraid,” they will fill our hearts with confidence to be who we are and to leap with God into the future. It will take us the remainder of the Church Year to sort this out, and then we will start all over again. The Church Year starts out in a blaze of glory. It begins with the concept of divine light coming into the world and searching into the dark corners of our lives. The light is so bright that we cannot comprehend it and at the same time we cannot put it out. We can only gaze on this divine light by attending the services of liturgy. We can only gradually appreciate this event of the birth of Christ as we receive Holy Communion week after week. In this way we can allow him to be born in us and to live his life in and through us. Maybe in this coming year we will cycle deeper into the realization that Jesus is born. Maybe it will make a bigger difference in the way we see the world. Maybe we will begin to expect the unexpected from God, and be willing for God to invade our lives whenever he chooses, including this present moment. Mary and Joseph had their world turned upside down more than once because they were willing for God to invade their lives as he chose. Maybe they liked surprises. Are we willing for God to surprise us? As we come to this altar for Holy Communion, Jesus comes again into the world just as he promised. Through the Eucharistic celebration Jesus comes spiritually into our hearts and makes a difference in our lives. It’s a great mystery. The explosion of his light into the world has never been extinguished. Two thousand years later we still stand in awe and wonder. “O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.”
On the grounds of Honey Creek
The Rev. Linda McCloud, Pastor |
