Christmas Eve Pastor Peg's Sermon on Luke 2  December 24, 2005

This past week Rabbi Julie Danan of Congregation Beth Israel said she hadn’t gotten her Christmas fix yet and wondered if she might pop over and see our Christmas tree.  I was delighted and we shared a cup of hot Wassail and good conversation and her twelve year old daughter hung a few decorations still waiting to be put on the tree.   

Her visit reminded me of years ago when my friend Rabbi Marx of Sha’arah Am, a Santa Monica Synagogue asked if he could attend Christmas Eve services.  I said, “Of course, we’d be honored to have you with us!”  But I was more than a little curious why he, a good Rabbi wanted to attend. His response stayed with me. “I’ve only heard the carols in the shopping mall.  I’d like to hear them in their proper placement.”  

How we look forward to this evening when Carols are sung in their most proper place.  And tonight is our night.  What was said to the shepherds watching their flock is now said to us: “A child is born, to you!”

Now children are born everyday – every hour – all over the world.  So the mere fact of a child being born isn’t what brought all this into being.  And it’s not even so much that this child is special, remarkable, even a child of God – for all children are special and remarkable and all children are children of God!

What is alarming in the angel’s proclamation is that this Child born to us is God’s very self!  Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminds us “the child in the manger is wholly God.”  The child isn’t just a part of God, but is wholly God and this Child who is wholly God is given for us.  And this is a lot to grasp when we’d be quite content to simply enjoy the carols, and the tree and each other.  But God shows up in a manger and the gift tag says, “To you!”

Now if you will imagine with me for a moment that a report goes out that someone here tonight was being given the gift of the largest lottery in history.  We would clamor to see whose name is written on that gift tag.  Is it someone in my family?  Hopefully it’d be someone who sees us all as family and wouldn’t dare leave any of us out. 

But such wish-dreams pale in the shadow of tonight’s news: “For to us a child is born!” Yesterday we might have said, “I’d rather have the lottery, thank you very much.” But not tonight!  This is Christmas Eve and we know it is a heavenly angel who speaks these words.  And heavenly angels don’t come down and say things unless they have something incredible to say.  

And this is better than any largest lottery in history!  The angel tells us we now have a deeper freedom from worries than the lottery will ever give, and with this freedom comes also joy and salvation and peace.  And not only peace among people, but peace in our hearts – even in hearts that have known sorrow and loss, brokenness and grief – as some of you I know have!  

Nothing compares to the gift of hearts at peace.  If the world were made up of hearts at peace, there would be no more poverty or greed or hunger or homelessness or crime or war.  There would be no strangers, only friends, and lotteries would be a thing of the past.  But the real wonder tonight, if we believe the angel’s word, is that we are not all in a panic.  

A child is born, to us!  Where are we going to put this little bundle of joy?  How will we alter our lives to cradle this child?  And if we’re not taking this news seriously, then why all the fanfare!  Why have we pulled out all the stops – and brought in the brass and the choirs and decked the halls and gathered the numbers!  It seems we take the angel’s news seriously! 

If we were going to bring a new child into our home, we would have to make some changes to welcome such a lively thing.  Now surely you will say, this story is of a child born long ago and not intended as a literal announcement.  But, theologically and spiritually there’s little difference. 

We’re celebrating that something is happening that will alter every next day, next month and next year of our lives.  A real baby would do that, for sure.  And, so will the God Child Jesus if we will let it be so! 

But preparing for this child’s coming isn’t as simple as a trip to Toys R Us.  It’s the shepherds who show us what to do.  The shepherds weren’t just given a gift out there in the dark night.  They were given instructions.  They were to find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. 

They were charged by a host of angels to leave their routine and to go find the babe in a manger. And the first miracle is that the shepherds followed the instructions.  They found a way past the extreme inconvenience it must have been to pack up and traipse down the hill in the dark toward a town that surely would not have welcomed their coming.  

First century shepherds weren’t clean people, especially the shepherds who had the late night shift.  The lowest of the shepherds were those who stayed out with the flock through the night.  And, who would have stayed with the sheep while they went to find this child?  With a message from a host of angels – they all would have wanted to see for themselves, but how risky – leaving their whole livelihood grazing unprotected on an open dark hill. 

We don’t know how, but the story tells that the shepherds found the babe lying in a manger and their lives were transformed by what they found.  And afterwards they returned – went back to their fields and their flocks – back to their daily lives, glorifying and praising God. 

“You will find a babe in a manger.”  This holy child came where the shepherds had to come to him – out of their way – past their inconveniences – outside of their expectations – setting aside their doubts and fears and comfort zones.  

And this holy child comes to us in this same way.  People expected a powerful king; and they were sent to find a vulnerable babe.  They longed for a deliverer to rescue them from their burdens; and they were sent to find one who took their burdens into his own kind heart.  They looked for something to make sense of their lives; and they were sent to find love that returned them to their ordinary lives with extraordinary joy.  

How these shepherds found the Bethlehem manger is a wonder.  They were not given a star as the magi were.  But they were given a sign.  “You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes in a manger.”  “You will find!”  It is a promise.  There is no doubt in the angel’s word. 

God wants to be sought.  And, even more, God wants to be found – and that we too may find this vulnerably loving God, God comes just as we need – swaddled in human form – wearing our smell and sharing our burdens. 

There are swaddled babes in New Orleans , in India and Pakistan , in Southeast Asia .  There are swaddled babes – vulnerable precious children of God all over the world – in Rwanda , in Ethiopia , in East LA.   They are in downtown Chico .  They are in our midst.  We are told to find the babe – to go to the babe who we will find swaddled in the world’s needs.  The babe is present for us in the needy, the downcast, the lowly of the world, and the lowliness of our own hearts.

Tonight we are called to come to this table to become bread that will be used to feed these swaddled ones.  We become Christ’s body – his bread of life for this broken world.  We cannot feed this hungry world on our own, but if we come – to this Bethlehem – for the word “Beth” after-all, means “house of” and “le’hem” means “bread.”  

If we come to this House of Bread we can return to our ordinary lives with extraordinary joy because we will have something to share with the vulnerable in our world – and then there will be peace – peace in the world and peace in our own hearts. 

Unto us a child is born.  And unto us is entrusted the joy of sharing in God’s reign on earth.  Come to the Table, making of your hands a manger, and of your heart, for Christ comes to be born in you – for the sake of the world. 

A Blessed Christmas to you all!

Amen.

+Pastor Peg Schultz-Akerson, to the glory of God
Faith Lutheran Church, Chico, California