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.
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 so. 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.
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 way back then, God was trying to teach us something important about how we are supposed to order our lives today? If 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 church worship service of Christianity. And it's God's way of teaching us what worship is, and how we're supposed to do it. So 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. 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 our distinctions, real and imagined. 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, we lay down all of our identities: political, cultural, economic, national, gender, race, social status--we lay them down at the manger. They are not unimportant, but they are less important than our unity as a family, and our common identity as God's children.
4. What did they bring to him? And what shall we bring to him? One of my favorite Christmas songs is the little drummer boy--who, being poor and having nothing else to give, plays his drum for baby Jesus. Of course, there's no drummer boy in the actual scripture story, but there are two types of offering that we can use as examples for our own gifts to God. In the Matthew version of the story, the magi famously bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh--all costly gifts with monetary value. There's been plenty of speculation through the years about what each of the gifts is supposed to symbolize. But I kind of suspect that regardless, Mary and Joseph eventually sold those nice expensive things so they could afford to feed baby Jesus--which was probably more important anyhow. Likewise, when we bring our financial contributions in worship, they both honor God, and they also happen to be very useful in keeping our doors open, our lights on, and feeding the families of our hardworking church staff members--who make worship possible for you and your family.
But the other type of offering--the one found in Luke--comes from both the shepherds and the angels, who sang (or spoke, depending on the translation) their praises to God, glorifying God, visibly and audibly demonstrating their joy and their excitement. We read in verse 19 that Mary "treasured" all these words and pondered them in her heart. That's why we say prayers together in worship. That's why I preach a sermon full of words. That's why we sing songs together praising God.
By the way, both kinds of gifts are important, but I realize sometimes you have to lean in one direction or the other. So if you're really self-conscious about singing in public, don't worry--we got you covered, just put a little bit more in the offering plate. And if you don't have much to put in the offering plate, don't worry--we got you covered, just sing a little louder! Either way, your gift is pleasing to God...but please do at least contribute one of those things, if not both!
So to review: 1. Jesus is at the center of of our worship. 2. Families strengthen our worship, and our worship strengthens the family. 3. Shepherds, Kings and everyone in between is called to worship, and we worship together. 4. We bring our treasures to worship, through our words, our songs, and our gifts.
That's what the first Christmas teaches us about worship, but perhaps surprisingly...science and academic research teaches us a few things about worship, too!
From an article a few weeks ago in the Guardian magazine: "the evidence base linking faith to better health has been decades in the making and now encompasses thousands of studies. Much of this research took the form of longitudinal research, which involves tracking the health of a population over years and even decades. They each found that measures of someone’s religious commitment, such as how often they attended church, were consistently associated with a range of [positive] outcomes."
The article notes that the studies are consistent across global populations, so independent of race or culture, and that the actual size of the benefits are surprisingly significant.
One study, from the University of Chicago School of Business, found that people whose religious affiliation was a major component of their self-identity lived between 5.6 and 10 years longer than those with no religious affiliation. For comparison's sake, reducing high blood pressure can add about five years to your life expectancy. Participating actively in church outdoes that. In fact, participating in church probably helps to lower your blood pressure, too unless you happen to be the pastor!
Another study from the University of Miami focused on prayer (something we do together in worship). The study found that "people who regularly prayed for others were twice as likely to survive to the end of the study, compared with those who more regularly prayed for [only] themselves."
Another recent study, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, concluded that "Frequent attendance at religious services was associated with significantly lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality among women. Religion and spirituality may be an under-appreciated resource that physicians could explore with their patients, as appropriate."
This is just a small sampling of many studies that are all pointing to the same thing. Worshiping God together (which is what almost all religious services in any major religion are designed to do) is part of what we are designed to do. The world of science can see this, even though they have a hard time explaining why.
Most of the studies also recognize what pastors have been saying for a long time, too -- worshiping God all by yourself out in nature, or the golf course, or alone at home in front of your television screen... isn't really worship, and doesn't confer the benefits of gathering together with other people on a regular basis to lift your voices and prayers to the heavens.
Also (while I'm on my soapbox) if you send your children to worship, but you don't come yourself--you will teach your children that church is for children, and when they are adults, they will abandon it. If you stop coming when your children grow up and move out, you will teach them that they should stop coming when their children grow up. But if you make it a point, a ritual--a sacrifice, even--to worship God in church every week, all of your life... then your children, even if they stray, will know and remember what was truly important to you, and eventually it will become truly important to them.
When Jesus came into the world, the people of heaven and earth gathered around him. They didn't wait, they didn't hesitate, they didn't make excuses. They just came. Hebrews 10:25 tells us, "Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."
Tonight is one of the most highly attended worship services at churches around the world. Everyone comes to church on Christmas Eve (and Easter Sunday). But the first Sunday in January is one of the least well attended Sundays of the year. Especially this year, since it falls on New Year's Day. But you know what else people do on New Year's day? They make New Year's resolutions. They think about habits they want to form in the year to come. How many of you try to start habits relating to your diet, your weight, your physical, financial, vocational and mental well-being at the beginning of the year?
Well, I have a simple suggestion for you instead: Follow the angels. Follow the star. Follow the wise men and the shepherds. Follow Mary and Joseph, and fall at the foot of the manger. Find yourself again, in the fellowship of all those who are still coming to the manger, to the table, to the cross. In the year to come, come to worship--not just once or twice, not just whenever you feel like it, but as often as you have the opportunity. We're open 52 Sundays a year...and a few Saturday nights, too!
