The reading
Luke 2:1-20
1 In those days a decree went out
from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2 This was the
first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3 All
went to their own towns to be registered. 4 Joseph also went from the town of
Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he
was descended from the house and family of David. 5 He went to be registered
with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6 While they
were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to
her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no place for them in the inn. 8 In that region there were
shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 Then
an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
them, and they were terrified. 10 But the angel said to them, "Do not be
afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11
to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the
Lord. 12 This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of
cloth and lying in a manger." 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a
multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14 "Glory to God
in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!"
15 When the angels had left them
and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go now to
Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made
known to us." 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and
the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had
been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what
the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered
them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for
all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The message
This is my 10th
Christmas here as the pastor of St Jacobus. There are only 3 Christmas stories in the Bible,
Matthew, that we heard yesterday, where Jesus fulfills the prophesies and he is
named with great power and glory. There is Luke that we just heard, where the
birth of Jesus starts with a census and often disregarded shepherds speak the
good news. Finally there is the prologue of John, usually read on Christmas
Day, which is not much of story. In John 1 Christmas is 8 words, the word made
flesh and dwelling among us. We have acted this out, playing sheep or stars as
children, then maybe a shepherd or angel and growing up to get the more coveted
roles like Mary or Joseph (who could actually say words). We have seen the images of this night on
cards, books and decorations, we have heard the story in beloved and familiar
carols. How do we find meaning in something so familiar?
Christmas according to Luke was
our reading 3 or 4 years ago on Christmas Eve.
At the end of the service that night, someone told me something, I never
heard before, or again, something most pastors never hear during an entire career
and few people have ever said. After worship someone came up to me and said “that
sermon could have been longer”. Now I do not mean a sarcastic yeah that could
have been longer which really means “wow, that was too long” but an authentic,
that was a good point, you could have expanded on it more. I would have just redone that same sermon and
made it longer but I didn’t have a manuscript for that one and more
importantly, our world has changed.
In Luke, Christmas starts with a
census, the most bureaucratic, uninteresting thing a government can do (well at
least in the top 2 or 3 of that list). It is the counting of people in a
community, zip code or city. For the Romans, it was necessary to figure out
expected taxes, how to divide administrative regions, how many people they
would need in government, the need for infrastructure, possibilities for profit
and of course to know how many soldiers they would need to dispatch to keep the
peace or put down a revolt. For Luke,
along with the genealogy, this detail about the census is included to show
Jesus is from the family line of King David and why they ended up in Bethlehem
(like the expected Messiah would be according to some of the prophets). I think there can be more to it.
About 2000 years later, my brother
and I worked for the US Census department, tasked with same job Augustus gave
to all governors of the Roman empire.
The work was simple enough, ring the door bells of people who failed to
return or fill out the Census properly and try to get them to fill it out.
There were short forms which took about 2 minutes to fill out. They basically
asked “who lives here”. Most people were
willing to do those. Then there was the
long form, which meant about 45 minutes to an hour of answering in depth questions
about income, family, education and everything else you could think of, Those took way more convincing for people to
bother with. We had some tools, There was the explanation of what the census
was for, it impacted schools, the number of teachers, road repairs, political
districts, hospitals, federal funding for programs. You could also use things
you saw to convince people to take the time and share a lot of personal stuff
with a total stranger on their front porch who had some sort of temporary government
id. If you heard a dog in the
background, you could say “It could make a dog park”, heard kids in the
background, you could say it impacted schools,
if they were wearing a veterns hat, you could mention it affected VA
services, (which were all true). Just knowing it was important or good, didn’t
really matter, you had to convince the person on the other side of the door,
someone who already dismissed it as a waste of time before.
Perhaps that’s the first lesson we can take
from this Christmas Census. You are asked to bring others good news of great
joy for all people, we are asked to do this in creative, new, bold, interesting
and authentic ways. This is done in how
we worship, how we pray, how we live, how we care for others, how we vote, how
we support our loved ones. This is done with faith, trusting that God will give
us the words. This is done with joy knowing that God saves and that God is with
us.
Beyond the call to share our
faith, the part about the census that really makes me think of Christmas is
that in a census everyone counts. People in illegal apartments counted, people
living together who were not married counted, gay couples counted, that woman who
has been squatting on your couch for 2 years counted, undocumented people
counted, the person in a wheelchair counted, the disabled teenager counted, atheists
counted, monks counted, priests counted, Rabbis counted, rich people counted, doctors
counted, the annoying neighbor you couldn’t stand counted, The homeless counted,
People in prison counted, people in hospitals or nursing homes counted. No
matter who you were, what you believed, how you lived or what you had, everyone
counted as 1. This is because everyone would take the trains and buses, everyone
would need access to healthcare, police support, school for their children.
Tonight, Christmas, we hear, we
sing, we celebrate, we encounter and we experience the word made flesh and
dwelling amongst us, a child whose names mean God saves and God is with us, a
birth that lets angels tells shepherd Do
not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the
people and to sing out Glory to God in the highest heaven and on earth peace.
All this starts with a census, a reminder that to God, everyone is known and
loved, that because of Jesus, everyone counts. Everyone and anyone is welcome
in the diverse and awesome kingdom of God, everyone, with God’s word, faith and
water, can joined to the promises of God.
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