In those days a decree went out from Emperor
Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first
registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to
their own towns to be registered. 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. He went to be registered with
Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were
there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 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.
In that region there were shepherds living in
the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord
stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were
terrified. 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: to you is born this day in the
city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for
you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host,
praising God and saying,
‘Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’
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.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.
The message
Words of welcome
This November, I spent 10 days in Italy. My mother and I
went to Rome, Florence and Venice. The
trip was a vacation and meant for sightseeing. We wanted to experience the
famous places, world renowned art and ancient sites. As third and fourth generation Italians, we
also wanted to see our homeland, the place where our grandparents and great
grandparents immigrated to the United States from during the early 1900s. It was not meant to be a spiritual or religious
pilgrimage but it is hard not to think about faith when you are immersed in a
place that has been a center of Christianity, for better and worse, for
billions of people over almost 2000 years.
My trip led me to think a lot about the anticipation, excitement and
shock of Christmas.
Seeing Italy itself was time of great excitement and
anticipation. I was a 15 or 20 minute
bus ride from the Roman Coliseum, a few train stops from the Vatican, a flight
of steps from entering the Sistine chapel and a line of 20 or 30 people away
from seeing Michelangelo's David. I found myself walking down a marble
staircase in a huge, ornate church, to the actual burial site of St Paul. I was often a few moments from actually seeing
and experiencing the places, paintings, sculptures, ruins, and churches that I had
always heard about, studied in art or history class or had only seen in prints
and photos. There was a constant sense of excitement, wonder and awe at
actually being there.
One of the most powerful experiences I had on my vacation
was when I saw some old graffiti in the burial area under St Sebastian’s
church. I saw a fish drawn outside the tomb of a Christian about 1800 years
ago. The fish was one of the popular, secret symbols of the persecuted early
Church. The letters in the Greek work for fish, Ichthus, spell out “Jesus
Christ, Son of God, Savior”. I knew
that early Christianity was illegal, that saints and martyrs were often killed
in cruel and painful ways, I knew there were stretches of history where people worshiped Jesus in secret under threat of death, but to see this small fish
drawn there, reminded me that these things really happened. There it was again,
that sense of excitement, wonder and awe.
Tonight is Christmas, an event that should be filled with
excitement, wonder and awe. It is bigger
than seeing famous places or paintings. It is bigger than opening the college
acceptance letter from the only school you really want to go to, asking the
love of your life to marry you and not being sure what he or she will say,
getting your first real job and feeling unqualified, or meeting your favorite artist, author
or musician, whose work, sound and words have deeply impacted you for years. What
happens tonight is bigger than all that. This is the moment of Jesus birth, the event
when God is born as one of us, the cosmic happening by which we are all saved,
the time when, as Paul wrote to the missionary Titus, the grace of God has
appeared, bringing salvation to all. To
hear, “ she gave birth to Jesus, her first born son and wrapped the lord in
bands of cloth , and laid him in a manger” should be more awe inspiring than
seeing really famous paintings. “Do not
be afraid, for see I am bringing you good news of great joy, for to you is born
this night a savior” should be more interesting then checking out an old city. Here is the true excitement, wonder and awe.
Christmas is certainly stepped in joyful memories, beloved
songs and cherished traditions but to be honest, Christmas is not exactly new
and exciting. We have heard the story
before, many times. We sing the same
songs, we set the tree up in the same place and put decorations in the same
spaces. At my Grandmother’s house, we would decorate for Christmas. There were
about 30 boxes of different figurines, toys, wreaths, ornaments and other
decorations to be carried up from the
basement and placed around the house.
Over time, everything started to end up in same exact spot each
year. We knew they fit, the hangers were
there already and it was a lot less complicated to keep it that way.
It can be very aggravating to figure out how to hang lights,
deal with broken ornaments and bulbs, find new ways to plug 24 different things into one or two outlets or work with tape that does not actually
stick although it says “sticks great to everything” right on the roll. It seems like you never really get things to
look the way you want either. We are getting lazy with our sacred and holy
night. We all pass those bumper stickers with nativities on them which say
“keep Christ in Christmas” but we often forget that is much easier said than
done. For me, keeping Christ in
Christmas is not the fight to be able to say “Merry Christmas” instead of
“happy holidays”, or advocating for more days off from public school. It means something much more
complicated and aggravating for us. To keep Christ in Christmas
means we have to stop being so damn comfortable with the poverty, inequality,
hatred, faithlessness, and violence all around us. We need to realize because Christ is born, we
can do something about it. We need to see one another as children of God, to
understand the Christ was born to save us all.
The people surrounding the first Christmas show us what the
excitement, wonder and awe of Christmas looks like. They waited with almost
unimaginable expectation, knew it mattered and they changed everything. They
spent over 1500 years carrying on traditions, sharing hope and waiting for this
night. During this time, desperate and
scared people were sustained by God's word, by the hopes, dreams, visions and promises of priests and prophets. For those of you here over the past few
months or following online, we are at the end of 4 months of Advent. In September, I changed the list of Sunday
readings we follow. We went from the
familiar 4 readings to only 1. Since then, our very long Advent has focused on
the Old Testament, the stories of God’s first communications with people and
God’s intervention in the religious, political, social and natural world. That first Christmas was the fulfillment of
hope for a long expected Messiah, who would restore people and God to the right
relationship.
That savior did come but they were not totally right in their hope. People expected a king, a general, a great priest, No one
could imagine this savior being born out in a barn, to a poor family. No could
imagine this savior was to suffer, die and rise again. Christmas is a shock, a moment of awe unlike
any other in human history, God is born
as one of us, to save each of us. Tonight, God is born excluded, in the unwelcoming,
cold, uncomfortable filth of a barn to show us that God is present in the
unwelcoming, sinful, cold, uncomfortable filth of our world. Christmas is a life disrupting event that
changed everything, that changed everything people thought they knew about God,
about sin and death, about life. Christmas
is a shocking revelation of how deep God’s love us for us, a shocking
revelation of how far God will go to save us. No matter how many times we hear it, Christmas
matters. We should be filled with anticipation,
excitement, wonder and awe
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