Sermon for December 24th, 2022
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.
Christmas Eve
It was Christmas Eve, and the young couple had waited too long (like so many parents do) to assemble the special Christmas gift they had purchased online for their children. And what a surprise it would be--a three-story, wooden treehouse and playground set for the backyard. Still, the young husband and wife were determined to get it all put together before Christmas morning, so they worked late into the night, carefully following the instructions.
Sometime just after midnight, they realized that the treehouse did not, in fact, very much resemble a treehouse. But still they plodded on, hoping against hope that all would turn out right in the end. It was in the wee hours of the morning when they finally realized that there must have been a mix-up at the warehouse, and that what they had actually assembled was a large wooden sailboat.
A few days after this Christmas fiasco, the frustrated couple emailed the company to complain about the mistake, and the next day they received the following reply: "Dear Mr. and Mrs. so and so -- while we truly regret the inconvenience this mistake must have caused you and your children, we ask that you please put things in perspective, and rest assured that yours is only a minor inconvenience, when compared to that of the poor soul who is out on a lake somewhere trying very hard to sail your treehouse."
Tonight I want to talk to you about putting things into perspective--specifically, putting the Christmas story and all its implications into the larger perspective of your life, your health, your future, and the future of your children and grandchildren. No pressure, right?
We've all heard the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, many, many times. If you're here tonight, it's probably because that story, and all of our Christmas Eve church traditions, are important to you on some level. Perhaps you grew up with them, perhaps they became important to you later in life, or perhaps you're here because they are important to someone in your immediate family. Either way, I'm guessing you've all heard more than a few Christmas Eve sermons preached on this passage, the birth of Jesus Christ, the holy family, the shepherds and the angels, etc.
But if this story is only important to you one one day--really just one evening...one hour--out of the 365 days in a year... I'd like to suggest that you might be missing out on something really, really important.
Most pastors, theologians, and even reasonably educated church-goers would probably tell you that the Christmas story is important because that's the moment in history where God came into the world in human form, as a baby, who would grow up to be a great teacher, a messiah who gave his life to save us from our sins so that we might someday live eternally with God.
That's all great and good. I have no disagreement with that explanation. But I do think there's something more to the story. Why did it happen the way it did? Why the whole manger scene, familiar to us from nativity sets, complete with Mary, Joseph, cows, donkeys, camels, angels, shepherds, three kings, and a shining star? Is all that really necessary? Because if you take away all those things except perhaps Mary and baby Jesus, and you still have a child who would grow into a messiah, to save the world from its sins and reconcile us to God.
Was God just...showing off? I don't think that's likely, either. I mean, this is the God who created the universe, parted the red sea, sent fire raining from the heavens, and made the walls of Jericho come tumbling down. If God really wanted to show off, I think he could have used something more impressive than barnyard animals and shepherds.
So. If there's something more to the whole nativity scene, if God's not just showing off, then what? Is it possible that there's a hidden message in the Christmas story? Is it possible that all those years ago on the very first Christmas, even then, God was trying to teach us something important about how we are supposed to order our lives today? I think so. And what's more, I think all of today's medical science and the most up-to-date research points back to and supports that teaching. So what is it?
Thank you for asking. I can sum it up in one word: Worship. You know, that thing we do every Sunday morning, and sometimes (like right now) on Saturday night? The Christmas story in Luke is the first recorded instance of people, animals, and celestial beings gathering together to worship Jesus Christ, at the very first opportunity that presented itself. It was the very first Christian church worship service. And it's God's way of teaching us what worship is, and how we're supposed to do it. In a little while, I'm also going to talk about why it's so important. But first, what can we learn about worship from that first Christmas?
1. At the very center of every nativity scene is the baby in the manger. He is the focal point and principle subject of our adoration, our songs of praise, our contemplation and thoughtful self-examination. We are called to center our worship on nothing less than Jesus Christ.
2. Closest to Jesus in every nativity scene, are the figures of Mary and Joseph. Together, Mary, Joseph and Jesus form a triangle, reminding us of the holy trinity: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The holy family also reminds us of the importance of our own earthly families--everyone who's ever lived came from some kind of a family, and the family is God's design (and the evolutionary design) for the spread of humanity. Next to Jesus, family is at the heart of worship. Families strengthen our worship, and worship strengthens the family. Furthermore, for those whose families are gone, or far away, the church becomes an adoptive family. We are called to love each other, and to take care of each other like family.
3. Shepherds and Kings came to worship him. The shepherds are in our passage from Luke. The Kings, or wise men, or "magi" in the original Greek text, are found in the Christmas story in the gospel of Matthew. Both groups come to the manger, and it's a reminder that Christian worship cuts across all socio-economic, racial, cultural, political and class distinctions. The shepherds were local, rural, working-class types. If they had been around in 2020 in America, they probably would have voted for Donald Trump. But they heard the angels sing, and they came to the manger. The magi were foreigners, highly educated, clearly wealthy. They probably voted for Joe Biden. But since they were too smart to hear anything like angels singing, God had to send them something more familiar--a new star in the sky, an astronomical discovery... and they, too, came to the manger. When we come to worship, as hard as it may be for us, we lay down all of our identities: political, cultural, economic, national, gender, race, social status--we lay those things down at the manger. They are not unimportant, but they are less important than the one we have come to worship.
4. Angels and Animals came to worship him. Interestingly, and despite their appearance in every
