Christmas Eve 2005

This sermon was preached by the Revd Canon Daniel S. Weir at the 4 P.M. celebration of the Holy Eucharist on Christmas Eve 2005.

Did you notice it? Before Joseph and Mary arrived at the stable. Before the Baby Jesus was born. Before the shepherds and the sheep arrived. Even before the farm animals got there -the angel was there, watching over this place, this wonderful place where God would come into the world, born as a small, weak, defenseless baby. Before anything happened, before Christmas happened, the angel was there.

The angel was there because what was about to happen, what did happen at Bethlehem that first Christmas was God's doing and the angel was there as God's messenger, there to wait and watch and at the right moment, the perfect moment, to announce the child's birth. The angel was there as the angel had been in Nazareth nine months earlier to tell that scared young girl Mary that she was going to have a baby, and not just any old baby, but the baby who would "be called Son of God."

And after the baby was born and after the shepherds had come and gone and after that first angel and all the other angels had gone into heaven, God was there "wrapped...in bands of cloth, and laid...in a manger." After the shepherds and the angels had left, God was there, poor and weak and vulnerable. After the shepherds and the angels had left, God was there, incarnate in Jesus, fully human and yet still truly God, sharing fully, out of love for the world, our poor frail humanity.

This gospel proclamation, the proclamation that the world has been reconciled to God, who was in Christ fully present, fully involved in our humanity, this proclamation is the good news which we celebrate this Christmastide. This is the good news that is for us both "comfort and joy," the solid comfort and the profound joy that there is nothing in our lives, in the world with all of its pain and suffering, nothing which "will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord", because there is nothing at all which has not been embraced by God in Christ.

For some of us, and for many of our neighbors, Christmas is not an easy time. It is a time when the disappointments of our lives, the losses that we have suffered, the pain of sickness become even more acute in contrast to the mood of celebration all around us. Celebrating Christmas must be very difficult for those whose homes were destroyed by this year’s hurricanes. Celebrating Christmas must be very difficult for those who have been laid off in the latest wave of downsizing. Celebrating Christmas must be very difficult for those who homeless, those who are sick, those who are without a loved one who has died this past year.

In his Christmas message, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, wrote, “The question never quite goes away of why God made a world in which such tragedy is possible. But Christmas reminds us of the one thing we know for sure - and that is God's way of responding to suffering. He doesn't wave a magic wand, or descend briefly from the sky to clean things up. He arrives on earth as a human being who will change things simply by the completeness of his love.”

I believe that Archbishop Rowan is right - as much as we might like God to wave a magic wand and remove all suffering, that is not God’s way. Christmas will always be a sad time for some people. But what we can do is get it clear in our own minds and in our own lives that that kind of sadness is not something apart from Christmas, something for us to brush aside if we can, but is a reality which God came to deal with in Christ.

The grief of the widow or widower at the first Christmas after the death of a beloved spouse - God in Christ shares that grief. The disappointment of the laid off worker who can't afford presents for the children - God in Christ shares that disappointment. The pain of the person with AIDS or with cancer who spends this Christmas in a hospital bed - God in Christ shares that pain. The sorrow of the family whose home was destroyed by hurricane Katrina – God in Christ shares that sorrow. There is nothing that we experience as members of the human community that God in Christ does not share fully.

In a world that is still darkened by violence and hatred and war and injustice, a world that is in some ways no different from the world into which the Christ Child was born, in such a world we who have been claimed by God in Christ join the angels and the shepherds in proclaiming this holy birth. We join Mary and Joseph in welcoming into our lives the One whose love can transform those lives and the lives of all people everywhere. In this darkened world, we proclaim and share the light of Christ, the light that streams forth from the manger and the Cross. We proclaim that, contrary to all the world's notions of power, the true power at the heart of creation is the power of the manger and the Cross, the power of suffering love. We proclaim that nothing else is more powerful, and that nothing else endures, and that all earthly powers will fade and the "kingdom of the world [will] become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Messiah, and he will reign forever and ever." We proclaim the eternal and unchangeable power of God's love, a love which broke into human history at Bethlehem and which will break into our hearts if we will let it. We proclaim the power of that love to bring "down the powerful from their thrones, and [lift] up the lowly;...[to fill] the hungry with good things, and [send] the rich away empty," that is, the power of that love to establish justice and righteousness in all the world. We proclaim the power of that love to "wipe away the tears from all faces," to heal all the heart's wounds, to "turn [our] mourning into joy,...[to] comfort [us], and [to] give [us] gladness for sorrow." We proclaim the power of that love to "[make] all things new," for it is the same love that made all things in the beginning of creation. We proclaim the power of that love which "came down at Christmas, love all lovely, love divine," the love which was "born at Christmas...love incarnate, love divine," the power of that love which God wishes to be yours and mine.

O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell;

O come to us, abide with us, our Lord Emmanuel.