PROPERS: CHRISTMAS DAY I
TEXT: LUKE 2:1-14 (15-20)
PREACHED AT ST.
PAUL’S, MAGNOLIA SPRINGS, ON SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 24, 2017.
ONE SENTENCE: The Christmas story needs no elaboration; it is, for
Christians, the pivot point of our lives.
As I prepared to preach this
evening, I was mindful of two thoughts.
First, is the popular definition of
good preaching. It goes like this: “Good sermons have a good beginning and a
good ending. And those two parts should
be as close as possible.”
The other is from a parish Nora and
I used to attend. The Rector – not a
great preacher – stepped to the middle aisle, as he normally did, to preach his
sermon on Christmas Eve. The church was
packed. It was a ripe opportunity to share the Christian message.
The
sum total of his sermon that evening was, “It
is all true.” Then he sat down.
One can carry a definition too
far. Yet, I am aware that never, in my
30 years of ordained ministry, has anyone stood up at the end of a sermon and
shouted, “More! More!”
But I know this: There are many here, within the sound of my
voice, who do not attend worship services regularly. And it
is important for me to share why this night is so special.
The story we just read – from the
second chapter of Luke – is at its core euangelion. That is the Greek word for gospel, and from an old English word, godspell. It means good
news. It is good news, indeed.
All of us are somewhat familiar with
Luke’s account of the nativity. We hear
it each year at this time. In my own
family, as a child, I read this story to my siblings, my parents and my
grandparents. It helps frame this most festive of holidays. It provides the
narrative.
It is the primary account of Jesus’
birth. The gospels of Mark and John do
not have birth narratives. Matthew’s
reference to the birth is passing.
It
is Luke’s account which tells us of the historic context. Luke tells us of the
birth in a stable, due to there being no room at the inn. Luke tells us also of the manger for a
cradle, and of the angels’ appearance to the shepherds, and of their devotion
there, in the stable.
The Wise Men are not mentioned in
Luke. They come later – and in another gospel, Matthew.
This basic story – the story from
Luke – needs no elaboration. To do so
would be gilding the lily. But it does
deserve some emphasis.
And that emphasis is this: This
gospel tells us that at a certain point in history – in a particular time and
place, under a specific ruler – the creator of all that is moved in history and
took on human form.
We Christians call that the Incarnation. As John’s gospel says of
that epochal event, “And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory.” The God who created
the world, breathed life into human beings, spoke from a burning bush, and
parted the Red Sea became a tiny infant, resting in an animal’s feeding trough.
In our technological world, we are
hard-to-impress. But the Incarnation is
something of a different magnitude which transcends everything else we will
know in our lifetimes. I dare say that
nothing which happens within our lives will be commemorated in 2,000 years, nor
will it cause hearts to melt and lives to be transformed.
The birth of Jesus is a sign beyond
all others of the deep love of God for all his children.
That is the unvarnished message of
this night: That God loves you so much
that he was willing to fully enter into our lost and broken world in order that
we might know that love.
And that love is extended most
especially to the downtrodden, the broken, the grieving, the lonely, the
hungry, the thirsty, prisoners, and those who have committed egregious sins.
All of us. We are
the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand.
As Rabbis used to say in other
settings, “Everything else is
commentary.”
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