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Christmas Eve
[caption id="attachment_308237" align="alignnone" width="1500"]
The Nativity depicted in the South Stall Woodwork of Saint Thomas Church[/caption]
Eternal God, who made this most holy night to shine with the brightness of thy one true light: bring us, who have known the revelation of that light on earth, to see the radiance of thy heavenly glory; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
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Christmas Eve
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Scripture citation(s): Luke 2:1-20
A Sermon by
Fr. Mead
on
Luke 2:1-20
✛
Mary, Joseph and Us
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In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
What is it that you make such an effort to see in the middle of the night? It can’t just be the aesthetics.
Let me begin the answer by wishing you all a glorious Easter. I say this, not because I think that’s the next time I’ll see you, but because Christmas is the celebration of the living Lord Jesus Christ. The Birthday Boy is not dead but risen, living, and reigning. Christians celebrate Jesus’ birth because of Jesus’ Resurrection.
Now let’s look at the Gospel tonight. Mary and Joseph left their home in Nazareth to go to Bethlehem because of Caesar Augustus’s tax census. Joseph was descended from the tribe of King David, and King David’s home was in Bethlehem. Many were dislocated this way to register for the tax in Bethlehem, so there was no room in the inn.
The great poet Virgil celebrated Augustus as the Savior and Peacemaker of the world, which in a worldly way he was. Roman armies, roads, aqueducts, technology and organization made for order and peace and Augustus ruled wisely. It was the fullness of time for the true Savior and Prince of Peace, the Son of God, to be born. But look at the humility in which Christ was born. A manger was the feeding trough for animals. The Baby would grow up to become the Food which gives life to the world. The name Bethlehem means “House of Bread.” Jesus the Bread of life comes to us tonight in the Eucharist.
Angels, who had announced Christ’s conception to his Virgin Mother and to her espoused husband Joseph, now announced his birth to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks outside Bethlehem. One thousand years before, the young King-to-be David was called from the same fields as he shepherded his father’s sheep. “Glory to God in the highest,” said the angels, “and on earth peace, good will toward men.” So the shepherds found Mary and Joseph and the Baby wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in the manger. The shepherds worshiped the Good Shepherd who would lay down his life for his sheep as the sacrificial Lamb of God.
Our Gospel ends with Jesus’s Mother Mary, keeping and pondering all these things in her heart. In Mary’s pondering we find the answer to the question posed at the start of this sermon. Aside from our Lord himself, Mary is the one person in this story who sees it to the end – to the cross, the tomb, and the resurrection. Mary was present when the Holy Spirit came down upon the disciples on the Day of Pentecost and empowered the Church to take the Good News of her Son to the world. This is the same Holy Spirit who overshadowed her at the time of Jesus’s conception. Mary is the first and the exemplary disciple.
You may recall that when Mary was first approached by the angel Gabriel with the news that she was to become Christ’s mother, she was troubled, because although espoused, she had not “known a man.” She was a pure virgin. The answer was that the Holy Ghost would come upon her and God’s power would overshadow her; the child conceived by sheer divine initiative would truly be God the Son. The same Holy Spirit enabled Mary to consent: “I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be to me according to thy word.” And so Christ was conceived; the Word was made flesh.
Mary and Joseph were troubled by what they had to do, and so often are we troubled by what we have to do: it often seems we are up against obstacles and impossibilities. Danger, sickness, infirmity, disappointment, loss are likely; death is absolute for all of us. As we make our way through the valley of the shadow of death, we encounter problems with our spouses, our children, our friends, our education, our jobs, our finances. Yet we are called to live, or as Jesus said, to walk, through these things. “How can this be? – I know not a man. How can this be? – I have no strength, no resources; I am all in.” Yet the Holy Spirit enables us to live, to trust, to love, to go forward, to walk, let circumstances happen as they will. And God is Providence. The future is his; he is already there. And so is Jesus, who has plumbed the depths himself, is risen from the dead, and is the same Lord yesterday, today and forever.
By believing, trusting and loving, the Holy Family went forward and fulfilled their purpose. They survived scandal, murder, privation and exile. They eventually got back home to Nazareth. God also has a purpose for our lives which gives them meaning and fulfillment, if we will believe and live.
We are here to celebrate Christ’s birthday, the beginning of the Gospel Story which weaves all our personal stories into itself and fills them with its Good News. Like those shepherds on the first Christmas, may you know the blessing of his Presence, make known the Good News of this Child, and praise God for his goodness and loving-kindness. Even more, like Mary, may you keep these things and ponder them in your heart to the end.
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen.
