Sermon preached Christmas Eve 2020
Rev. Bernadette Hartsough
What does it mean that it is now Christmas? Our decorations are up, our food is prepared, our presents are wrapped. We watched church, and received communion?
Let me phrase this question another way. What would the world look like without Christmas? Think about it. No beautiful creche. No angel tree tops. No Christmas trees. No Advent wreaths. No exchange of presents in December. No holiday rush to buy presents. No family get togethers -no gingerbread. For all the stresses of this time of year, Christmas is a part of our culture. It is ingrained in us. Charities receive extra donations. Individuals and families in need receive extra help. Christmas, although very commercialized does a lot of good in the world.
Then there is Jesus. If we take out Christmas, we take out Jesus. What would the world look like without Jesus? There would be no story with angels, shepherds, wise men, and mangers. There would be no Emmanuel- no God with us. I imagine a lonely world where people would not know if God was hearing them. God would seem distant. People would lament and look for God. That is how the people in ancient Israel felt.
Many people today have taken Jesus out of Christmas. Christmas has evolved into a huge money-making holiday. People have idealized how to celebrate Christmas to have a “perfect” Christmas. Focusing on Christmas the holiday has left people searching. They do not even know what they are searching for, but they know that they are not finding it in parties, presents, and idealized Christmases. They are not finding it and the idea of an idealized Christmas that can never be filled by humans, is depressing. For so many people the search for a perfect Christmas continues.
To think about a world with no Jesus, we have to think about the reason that Jesus came to earth. Why did Jesus come? The theological answer is to save us from our sinfulness and to usher in the beginning of God’s reign.
But there are many ways that God could have saved us. After all this is God we are talking about; all powerful, omnipotent, creator of all. God could have chosen to intervene in a distant way. God could have let humans go about just wandering and crying out. Searching and crying with no answer to our endless cycle of sins. The good news is that God could not do that. God would not let us destroy ourselves. God could not conceive of a world where God was not part of creation. God came to answer the cries of the people. The cries that asked, “Where are you?” God answered in the form of Jesus.
God’s choice of how Jesus was born, tells us how to keep Christmas with Jesus in it.
First, God choose an unwed young woman to bear Jesus. Mary was from a working-class family. She was unwed when she became pregnant. Becoming pregnant and not being married was scandalous in first century Palestine. It brought shame on your family. For a woman it could mean that you were an outcast, and it could cost you your life. In Mary’s case, God gives her a husband, Joseph. Joseph obeys God and marries Mary. God could have chosen any woman to bear Jesus. God could have chosen someone from the family of the temple authorities or one of the ruling classes, but God choose Mary because of her low status. Mary had no expectation of moving up in social status. She had no expectation of being chosen by God. God choose Mary and Joseph because they were humble, and they would obey God.
Jesus was born in the middle of a trip, in some unknown cave or in a room in a house where animals were kept. We do not know the name of the place or exactly where it was located. It was an ordinary place where people housed and fed their animals. Jesus was born surrounded by animals not people. God came to unite to all creation. His human birth and the place of his birth was inconspicuous.
The Gospel of Luke tells us that the angels announced to the shepherds that the messiah had been born. Shepherds were considered lower class citizens with a dirty job. They spent most of their time outside caring for the sheep. They watched for danger. Although their job was not a respected profession, it was an essential job. Sheep and goats provided food, clothing, milk, and other items. The work of a shepherd provided human nourishment; food to feed a human body. I imagine the shepherds giving Mary and Joseph some food and watching for danger. The shepherds would herald the Good News around the countryside among the common people.
God came as Jesus, choosing to be born to a working-class couple, as an infant in an inconspicuous place surrounded by animals and then shepherds. The cries of the people that were searching for God had been answered.
Christmas WITH Jesus isn’t about fighting for the right to put mangers in town squares. Putting Jesus back in the season is more than just saying “Jesus is the reason for the season.” It is about a God that is with all people and all creation. It is about a god who knew what it was like to be a vulnerable baby and a servant to others. It is about a god who knew what it was like to be tortured, humiliated, and murdered.
Christmas WITH Jesus means taking on the characteristics of that baby- that god- who was born in a feeding trough for animals in an inconspicuous place. It means being awed by seeing God amongst the lowly people. It means giving Jesus your whole house for Christmas and not just one room. It means risking our reputations to be associated with sinners.
And finally, it is about feeling the love of a god who could not stay away from us. It is about sharing that love with others so that others can find that baby in the feeding trough in that inconspicuous place.
Merry Christmas!!